While the sport certainly has changed dramatically since its early days, wrestling has been around for a very long time. In fact, it’s actually largely known as one of the oldest sports in the history of mankind, with its earliest origins tracing back to ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman times.

Today, wrestling is quite different to the way it was back then. Although it’s still all about exhibiting physical strength, contemporary wrestling seems to come with a bit more of a show too.

Here are a few more facts about wrestling that you didn’t know.

Wrestling is an Olympic Sport

Now, this, in itself, may be something that you already knew. However, did you know that wrestling was actually one of the original Olympic sports? Indeed, in addition to that, wrestling matches have been part of every modern Olympic Games since 1896.

In ancient Greece, the Greeks developed a specific kind of wrestling that was known as “pale”. It involved two opponents grappling until one of them was thrown to the ground – after being thrown to the ground three times, the match was won. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Wrestling May Be Scripted, But the Physicality is Real

Wrestling is largely known as being completely scripted these days, and this isn’t wrong. Normally, the outcomes of the matches are predetermined and certain moves and arcs in the fight are written beforehand.

However, that doesn’t mean that the participants aren’t really fighting. In fact, while they may know how the match is going to end and they are aware of what to expect, they’re absolutely still wrestling authentically. That is, the physical side of modern wrestling matches is absolutely real, and it takes immense strength and fitness to be able to pull it off – not just skilful acting.

Wrestling is the National Sport in Many Countries

Like the online slots NZ offers, wrestling has been around for a long time. But for many countries, it’s more of a niche kind of interest. However, that’s definitely not true for everybody. In fact, wrestling is so popular in several countries around the world, that it’s actually their national sport. A few of these include Japan, Jamaica and Iran.

Wrestling Can Be Really Good For Your Strength and Fitness

There’s no doubt about it – wrestling is incredibly physically demanding, and, thus, has the potential to provide several benefits for strength and fitness. Firstly, unsurprisingly, it provides a full-body workout.

Wrestling allows you to engage just about every single muscle in the body – ranging from your legs and arms to your core and back. Due to the range of moves you need to be able to execute, wrestlers need to be incredibly strong in all these areas.

In addition, the sport also requires immense cardiovascular fitness. Since it’s a high-intensity, anaerobic exercise, wrestling has the potential to benefit your cardiovascular health significantly in the long run, much in the same way as a HIIT workout (high intensity interval training).

Finally, and this may be surprising, wrestlers need to be flexible in order to execute their moves – this is great for overall health and fitness.