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Why Are Sumo Wrestlers Fat?
Dressed in a historical loincloth and wearing his hair in a topknot, a sumo wrestler’s goal is to force his opponent beyond the ring or knock him off his feet.
Sumo wrestling may seem funny or strange to a Western audience, but it’s a long-standing tradition of Japanese culture. Unlike your typical western wrestlers, sumo wrestlers are fat, but why is that?
Sumo wrestlers are fat so that they don’t get easily pushed out from the ring by their opponents. Because a sumo wrestler’s goal is essentially to be immoveable to his opponent, being fat is to his advantage. The more mass a sumo wrestler has, the more force required to move him.
Sumo wrestlers are fat because they rely on their weight to make it harder for their opponents to push them off the ring. Although not always visible, a sumo wrestler’s body also has many muscles to help them fight in the ring.
Sumo wrestlers have a high percentage of subcutaneous fat, the fat just beneath the skin, rather than the more dangerous fat found around the internal organs. Muscle gives a sumo wrestler the strength to push his opponent, and the subcutaneous fat makes him difficult to be pushed in turn.
Underneath all that fat, sumo wrestlers are typically very strong. Their training regimen starts as early as 5 a.m. every day and lasts up to six hours, including squats, stomps, splits, and sparring matches.
The most grueling part of the workout is the butsukari, where one wrestler throws himself at another in a body slam until he collapses from exhaustion.
A sumo wrestler’s hours-long exercise routine, combined with his high caloric intake, means he gains both fat and muscle.
https://oneshotmma.com/why-are-sumo-wrestlers-fat/