One of the keys for a wrestlers success begins in the weight room. Studies have shown that athletes who participate in a strength training program are faster, quicker, and more explosive, and they have fewer injuries. Knowing the specifics of what should go into a wrestling workout to maximize potential on the mat is the first step to achieving your strength training goals. The first part of this wrestling workout article will go into some of the major components that must be considered when you are putting together a strength training focused program. Then I will detail the three different types of wrestling workouts I use depending upon what the wrestler I'm working with and I decide will be the best avenue for him. Finally, this article will finish with a number of different wrestling workouts that I've used with some of the top wrestlers in the country including three D1 National Champions (D1 Champs and All-Americans I've worked with cannot be mentioned until graduation due to NCAA compliance regulations).

Wrestling Workout Design Step 1:

Step 1 in designing your wrestling workout is to know your goals. Think about some of your past losses. Believe me, I know it's not a fun thing, but really think back. Did you lose because you were slower? Did you lose because you were weaker? Did you lose because you weren't explosive enough? Did you lose because you ran out of gas? These are all questions you need to ask yourself when designing a wrestling workout. If you're not winning because you're getting outmuscled then you're going to need a much different wrestling workout than if you're simply not in good enough shape. A great way to assess yourself is to think about your ultimate goal. In order to achieve your ultimate goal you're going to need to be as close to perfect as possible. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the best, you'll need your strength, power, and conditioning to all be 10s in order to win. Now, knowing where you need to be, rate yourself with where you are now. Whichever is the lowest number should be the number one focus of your wrestling workout. Training all of the necessary components is important, but learning how to balance all of the components of a wrestling workout so that you can progress throughout the year is what's going to help get you to your goals quicker.

Wrestling Workout Design Step 2:

Step 2 in designing your wrestling workout plan is to know how to train. For instance, when developing a conditioning focused wrestling workout think to yourself when the last time you were involved in a match against a quality opponent where you've cruised at the same pace much like you would during a 3-5 mile jog? Never! As you already know, there are times during a match when you're fighting all out for a position or takedown and then there are times when you're able to catch your breath like when you're going back to the center to reset. To condition as functionally as possible for this type of action want to train in intervals. My personal favorite for wrestlers is the Airdyne bike. I have my wrestlers sprint for anywhere between 10 and 20 seconds and jog for anywhere between 10 and 40 seconds. Start with a higher rest to work ratio, say 5:1-3:1 and work down to a 2:1-1:1 over the course of training for a competition.

Just as you would for the conditioning aspect of your wrestling workout, you'll need to make some considerations for the strength/power portion of the plan. While I do some conditioning with my wrestlers, it's completely done by their request. Most of the conditioning is done in practice, but every now and again a few of my wrestlers will have me put them through some conditioning for a few weeks before a major competition just to give them that last little boost. Because of this, I have really become most experienced with strength and power development for wrestlers. Even the research specifically regarding wrestling workouts suggests that strength training plans should focus on maximal strength and power development because the conditioning aspect is sufficiently covered in practice.

When I first started to design strength and power wrestling workouts I simply looked to the strongest and most powerful athletes on the planet- Olympic lifters, Powerlifters, and Strongmen. Without getting into a big analysis over who's the strongest, I figured I would just take parts of all three types of training and mesh it into a wrestling workout, that way my wrestlers could get the best of all three types of training; which leads us to the next step.

Wrestling Workout Design Step 3:

Step 3 in designing your wrestling workout is to select your exercises. Within Step 3 there are three sub-steps.

Wrestling Workout Sub-Step 1- Select your core exercises. These are the exercises you want to build during your strength training. There should be a variety and each one should be used to measure a certain quality. For example, I have my wrestlers Box Squat to measure lower body strength. I also have them perform Weighted Chinups to indicated upper body pulling strength. The Log Clean has been a favorite of mine to measure power. Wrestling Workout Sub-Step 2- Select your derivatives. The derivatives should mimic, but be slightly different from your core exercise. For example, I use a High Box Squat (usually 2" higher than parallel) and a Reverse Band Box Squat as two derivatives for my wrestlers. This step needs constant reevaluation. What I mean by that is, if your derivatives are going up, but your core lift is not, then switch them for something new because they are not having a positive carryover to the lift that you've determined to be most important. Wrestling Workout Sub-Step 3- Select your accessories. Accessories are the exercises that will help target weak points as well as strengthen specific areas of your body. Common accessories I use to build the Box Squat include various weighted abdominal movements, split squats, lunges, power squats, glute ham raises, reverse hypers, back extensions, and core and lower body focused exercises. Again, constant assessment is needed to determine which accessories are paying off in making you a stronger wrestler and which are not paying dividends.

Wrestling Workout Design Step 4:

Step 4 in designing your wrestling workout is to put together your plan. Below are a number of wrestling specific workouts that I've used with some of my wrestlers.

Wrestling Workout 1- Standard Commercial Gym

This wrestling workout is for those of you that don't have access to a lot of the specialized equipment I use to train my wrestlers. Obviously having some or all of the specialized equipment will help, but the fact of the matter is that most of you reading this do not have access to things like Strongman Logs, Tires, Sandbags, Bands, Chains, and other specialty bars. As a result, I tend to favor making programs that the average wrestler can actually do rather than release programs filled with tons of equipment that most wrestlers do not have access to. In a nutshell though, the fact of the matter is whether you have the specialized equipment or not, if you train hard and smart you can still make great gains even in a standard gym with soft rock playing in the background.

Day 1 Workout:

Superset - Straight Bar Box Squat (5x5) and Dumbbell Side Bend (4x10)
Superset - Trap Bar Deadlift (4x5) and Weighted Decline Situp (4x8)
Superset - Dumbbell Lunge (4x6ea) and Straight Bar Good Morning (4x8)
Superset - Hanging Leg Raise (3x15) and Back Extension (3x15)

Day 2 Workout:

Superset - Floor Press (5x5) and Weighted Chinup (5x5)
Superset - Alternate Dumbbell Incline Press (4x6ea) and Chest Supported Row (4x8)
Superset - Single Arm Dumbbell Overhead Press (3x10) and Cable Face Pull (3x15)
Superset - Dumbbell Hammer Curl (3x8) and Lying Dumbbell Extension (3x10)

Day 3 Workout:

Superset - Lunge Jump (5x4ea) and Cable Lift (4x8)
Superset - Single Arm Dumbbell Snatch (4x3) and Ab Wheel (4x10)
Superset - Dips (4x max reps) and Towel Chinups (4x max reps)
Superset - Dumbbell RDL (3x10) and Pulldown Abs (3x12)

Wrestling Workout 2 - "Hardcore" Gym

Day 1 Workout:

Superset - Safety Squat Bar Box Squat (5x5) and Kettlebell Windmill (4x8)
Superset - Deadlift w/ Chains (4x5) and Weighted Glute Ham Raise Situp (4x8)
Superset - Split Squat (4x6ea) and Glute Ham Raise (4x8)
Superset - Band Twist (3x10) and Band Resisted Back Extension (3x10)

Day 2 Workout:

Superset - Reverse Band Bench Press (5x5) and Reverse Band Weighted Neutral Grip Chinup (5x5)
Superset - Dumbbell Bench Press (4x6) and Fat Grip Cable Row (4x8)
Superset - Log Press (3x8) and Band Pullapart (3x12)
Superset - Rope Cable Curl (3x8) and Lying Chain Extension (3x10)

Day 3 Workout:

Superset - Keg Toss (5x4) and Sledge Hammer Tire Strike (5x6ea)
Superset - Log Clean (4x3) and Standing Ab Wheel (4x6)
Superset - Blast Strap Pushups (4x max reps) and Battling Ropes (4x20)
Superset - Sandbag Clean and Press (3x8) and Stone Trainer Lift (3x8)

For more wrestling workouts, wrestler-specific strength training exercises, and top weight training training mistakes made by wrestlers visit my blog below and sign up for my free newsletter.

Dickie White is the co-founder of Shamrock Strength and Conditioning, one of the nation's top systems for training champion wrestlers. Dickie is a 2006 graduate of the Ithaca College Clinical Exercise Science program and holds a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) through the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA). For more information on how you can improve your performance on the mat through his strength training system please visit his blog and sign up for his free newsletter at http://www.wrestler-power.com

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If there's one word that's gotten all the attention in the fitness/strength and conditioning industry over the last few years, it's "core." Different trainers and coaches have different definitions of it; I use the term to encompass the muscles of your waist (ab muscles and low back/spinal erectors). This new term that, in my opinion, is just an all encompassing word for abs and low back, has led to "miraculous" workout discoveries in new ways to functionally train your body. I used quotes around miraculous because most recent research is suggesting that new age functional core training methods (like putting athletes on unstable surfaces forcing them to balance and stabilize while performing an exercise) are not any more effective at activating and firing the abs/low back than simply putting them under a heavy squat, deadlift, barbell overhead press, or other exercise where the athlete has to stabilize their core to maximize efficiency and safety of the exercise. In fact, a 2009 study performed by Jeffrey Willardson at Eastern Illinois University and published in the International Journal Sports Physiology Performance concluded that during whole body, intense weight training, one must stabilize the core muscles to perform the exercises and the capacity for maximal core muscle activation actually decreases when people exercise on unstable surfaces! This is just the opposite of what these "functional core trainers" have been telling you!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So what's a wrestler to do? When looking for new training methods and principles, I like to stick to a phrase one of my best professors always reiterated to me- don't reinvent the wheel. If you want a super strong, bulletproof core, just look to see what people with what you want are doing. Without getting into a big debate on who has a stronger core let's just assume that Professional Strongmen and Powerlifters have the strongest cores in the world. Both athletes put hundreds, if not 1000+ pounds on their backs regularly and either walk with it (various walking events in Strongman including the Yoke and Farmer's Walk) or squat it (car squat for Strongman, competition squat for Powerlifter). Not to mention the stress on their cores during deadlifts, Atlas Stone Lifts, etc. Needless to say, Strongmen and Powerlifters undoubtedly have the strongest cores on the planet.

Because I've had the pleasure of knowing and training with some Professional Strongmen and Powerlifters, I've been able to pick their brains over time. Not only has their knowledge and input helped me improve my competition lifts (to the tune of 500+ pounds added to my 3 lift total in just over 3 years), but it has greatly improved the training and performance of the wrestlers I train. So what's the big secret for an unbreakable core? Heavy duty exercises for 6-15 reps. Think about it- if your goal was to strengthen your biceps, would you go to the gym and do 4 sets of 50 curls? No, you'd pick up a heavy weight and lift it for lower reps. Your abs are no different than the other muscles in your body, so don't train them any differently. Pick a few exercises each time you go to the gym, train them hard, and move on just like you would with any other muscle group or workout. Here are some of my favorite core exercises for wrestling.

Wrestling Workout Core Exercise 1- Ab Wheel

Setup: Kneel on the ground or on a pad and grab the handles on the ab wheel.

Execution: Move the ab wheel away from your body as you lower your hips and shoulders simultaneously toward the ground keeping your core parallel to the ground throughout. Although you should shoot to be fully extended at the bottom (your body from your knees to your hands just hovering over the ground), go as low as you can while maintaining this position before returning to the start by squeezing your abs to pull yourself back up.

Wrestling Workout Core Exercise 2- Pulldown Abs

Setup: Attach a pulldown ab strap or rope to the top pulley of a cable machine or anchor a band on the top bar of a power rack. Position yourself accordingly with whatever device you're using (arms through the straps, or grap the rope or band with your head in between).

Execution: Pull straight down by contracting your abs. Avoid driving your hips back in order to pull the weight down. This will take stress off your abs and the exercise will lose its effectiveness. If, for whatever reason, your gym doesn't have a tricep rope, a towel will work just as well.

Wrestling Workout Core Exercise 3- Suitcase Deadlift

Setup: Load a Hammer Curl bar with your desired starting weight and stand next to it so that it to either side of you (whichever side you want to start with). Squat down and grab the middle of the handle. Arch your back and drive your chest up.

Execution: Begin the exercise by performing a deadlift. Continue to drive up until you are fully standing upright. When you've reached the top of the exercise, return to the starting position, reset your arch and repeat for reps. Make sure to keep your chest tall and back flat throughout the movement and also be sure to take the time to pause in between each rep so you can reset your back arch. We use a hammer curl barbell at my gym because it's shorter and therefore cuts down on the potential for the having balance issues you may have with a standard seven foot bar. If you do not have access to one, an EZ curl bar works ok, or you can just use a dumbbell if need be.

Wrestling Workout Exercise 4- Kettlebell Windmill

Setup: Position a Kettlebell overhead by cleaning and then pressing it so that your arm is locked out and the Kettlebell is directly over your shoulder. Rotate both of your feet so that your toes are pointing away from the Kettlebell (ie if it is in your right hand, point your toes to the left).

Execution: Begin to lower your upper body to the ground by driving your hip in the opposite direction of where your toes are pointing while simultaneously sliding your free hand down the inside of your lead leg. Keep your legs straight as you continue to lower yourself under control until you can touch the ground. Obviously, if you are not flexible enough to touch the ground, don't force yourself to do so which will cause a break in your form. As your flexibility improves work toward lowering your hand so that it is flat on the floor before returning to the start. To maximize your flexibility, it is recommended by most Kettlebell experts to focus on driving your hip as far back as possible. Also, be sure to look up at the Kettlebell throughout this exercise. It may sound like a silly rule to follow, but believe me, this trick helps you to stabilize it overhead and greatly reduces your risk of injury.

Wrestling Workout Exercise 5- Cable Ball Lift

Setup: Position a single handle attachment in the lowest position on a Functional Trainer or an adjustable cable column. Stand alongside the machine while holding a stability ball. Grab the handle with the hand opposite the handle (so if the handle is on your left side grab it with your right hand).

Execution: Begin in a quarter squat position. Squat up while simultaneously rotating back and away from the machine until you are fully extended. Lower the weight back to the starting position and repeat for reps. Maintain a flat back throughout this exercise by focusing on keeping your core tight throughout.

For more wrestling workouts, wrestler-specific strength training exercises, and top weight training training mistakes made by wrestlers visit my blog below and sign up for my free newsletter.

Dickie White is the co-founder of Shamrock Strength and Conditioning, one of the nation's top systems for training champion wrestlers. Dickie is a 2006 graduate of the Ithaca College Clinical Exercise Science program and holds a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) through the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA). For more information on how you can improve your performance on the mat through his strength training system please visit his blog and sign up for his free newsletter at http://www.wrestler-power.com

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Tags: Training, Workout, Wrestling