Our study provided evidence of pathogenic weight-management protocols that are widely adopted by youth boxers, and yet the present outcomes showed that RWL did not translate into competitive success in these elite Olympic-style boxers in Europe. Therefore, the authors suggest a mandatory educational program that should simultaneously target all the mentioned issues including both health- and performance-threatening consequences.

Urine specific gravity (U) is the most commonly reported biochemical marker used in research and applied settings to detect fluid deficits in athletes, including those participating in combat sports. Despite the popularity of its use, there has been a growing debate regarding the diagnostic accuracy and the applicability of U in characterizing whole-body fluid status and fluctuations. Moreover, recent investigations report universally high prevalence of hypohydration (∼90%) via U assessment in combat sport athletes, often in spite of stable body-mass. Given the widespread use in both research and practice, and its use in a regulatory sense as a 'hydration test' in combat sports as a means to detect dehydration at the time of weigh-in; understanding the limitations and applicability of U assessment is of paramount importance. Inconsistencies in findings of U readings, possibly as a consequence of diverse methodological research approaches and/or overlooked confounding factors, preclude a conclusive position stand within current combat sports research and practice. Thus the primary aim of this paper is to critically review the literature regarding U assessment of hydration status in combat sports research and practice. When taken on balance, the existing literature suggests: the use of laboratory derived benchmarks in applied settings, inconsistent sampling methodologies, the incomplete picture of how various confounding factors affect end-point readings, and the still poorly understood potential of renal adaptation to dehydration in combat athletes; make the utility of hydration assessment via U measurement quite problematic, particularly when diet and training is not controlled.

The aims of this paper were: a) to present weight reduction habits of adolescent wrestlers; b) to establish differences in mood states between weight groups; and c) to determine relations between weight loss and indicators of hydration with mood states. Adolescent wrestlers do resort to rapid weight loss (RWL) regimens in their training process and competition – 70.1% of the subjects reduced their body mass and the reduction regime usually lasted one week. Similar habits have been reported in other studies despite the well evidenced detrimental effects of RWL. Urine specific gravity (USG) values suggest that all the subjects were in the state of dehydration ranging from a mild to a high one. The groups of low weight (LW) and middle weight (MW) wrestlers reduced their body mass significantly more than others (BM; p<.05) and their sensation of fatigue was significantly higher (p<.05). The variables body mass reduction and %BM reduction were correlated with negative mood states, whereas the indicators of hydration in one of the groups (MW) established ambiguous relations with dehydration and positive mood states.

IT IS GENERALLY ACCEPTED THAT VOLUNTARY WEIGHT CUTTING BEFORE ENTERING A COMPETITION HAS BECOME A HABITUAL PRACTICE AMONG COMBAT SPORTS ATHLETES. APART FROM ANTIDOPING REGULATIONS BANNING THE USE OF DIURETICS, THE OLYMPIC GOVERNING BODY HAS NOT ESTABLISHED POLICIES AIMED TO MONITOR AGGRESSIVE WEIGHT CUTTING. IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT FOR COMBAT SPORTS ATHLETES TO REDUCE ADVERSE AND HEALTH-THREATENING SIDE EFFECTS EVOKED BY DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO ACHIEVING COMPETITION WEIGHT. THEREFORE, DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF RELIABLE AND ACCURATE HYDRATION ASSESSMENT TOOLS ARE WARRANTED. THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS ARTICLE IS TO REVIEW CURRENT RESEARCH FINDINGS OF MEASUREMENT CHARACTERISTICS CURRENTLY DEPLOYED IN COMBAT SPORTS RESEARCH.