In sumo, discipline and athleticism are much more important than sheer size! Most top sumo wrestlers train for hours, almost every day, year-round.

There are around 40 heya, mostly located in the Ryogoku neighborhood of Tokyo. They eat, sleep, and train under the supervision of a toshiyori, or stable master. Workouts span four to seven hours a day, six days a week, in preparation for matches that typically last less than 20 seconds. The rules of sumo are simple.

SUMO ROUTINE Before they start eating lunch (their first meal of the day), though, Pro Sumo wrestlers train intensely all morning. This includes plenty of stretching and calisthenics, as well as hundreds of “shiko” (leg lifts), warm-ups, as well as dozens of matches.

Sumo wrestlers eat two meals a day, having breakfast at around 11:00 am and dinner at about 6:00 pm. Practice ends at around 10:30 when the younger wrestlers have finished preparing the chanko, and the wrestlers then take a bath, with the higher-ranked ones going first.

A typical sumo wrestler eats a daily diet of 20,000 calories, which is pretty astounding when you consider that the recommended daily intake for a healthy, active male is 2,500. They eat 10 times what a normal male eats and all of it’s done in two massive 10,000-calorie meals.

between 60 and 65
Sumo wrestlers have a life expectancy between 60 and 65, more than 20 years shorter than the average Japanese male, as the diet and sport take a toll on the wrestler’s body.

He says according to the Takasago Sumo Stable, a sumo training facility in Japan, sumo wrestlers skip breakfast because doing so puts their body into starvation mode. Their body then holds tightly to fat. After skipping breakfast, sumo wrestlers eat a large lunch with a high-calorie beverage.

The Sumo Association prescribes the behavior of its wrestlers in some detail. For example, the association prohibits wrestlers from driving cars, although this is partly out of necessity as many wrestlers are too big to fit behind a steering wheel.

Yes, sumo wrestlers can get married. Only the top 10% of sumo wrestlers are likely to get married. Once they reach this level in their career, sumo wrestlers are afforded more freedom, such as a paid salary, a choice of where to live and even getting married. Low ranking sumo wrestlers live and train at their stables.

Physical requirements Some sumo organizations have minimum height and weight requirements for their competitors. In 1994, the Japanese Sumo Association required that all sumo wrestlers be a minimum 173 centimeters (5.7 feet) in height .

Sumo Wrestler Training The Stable. All professional sumo wrestlers began their careers as youngsters in a communal environment known as a stable. Leg Strengthening. Balance & Flexibility. Eating Habits.

The traditional sumo diet includes an abundance of chanko nabe, a meat and vegetable soup of which wrestlers consume about 10 bowls per day.