In part one of this series, I discussed some tips for maintaining your strength and muscle, or even gaining some during wrestling season. In the second part of this series, I’ll give you ten surefire tips to improve your “wrestling strength” and therefore your wrestling performance. These tips apply to both in-season and off-season training.
1. Train the “Posterior Chain”
The posterior chain muscles are made up of the glutes, hamstrings, and lower back. This extremely powerful area of the body is a key section for overall wrestling performance. By improving strength in this area, you will notice a marked improvement in speed and power in the neutral and bottom positions. Some exercises you may want to consider to work the posterior chain are good mornings, stiff legged deadlifts, deadlifts, barbell squats (low bar on the shoulders). My two favorites are the reverse hyperextension and the Russian glute-ham-gastroc machine. They are the last to work the muscles of the posterior chain.
2. Strength Train SLOW, fight FAST
You want to be fast and strong on the wrestling mat. However, don’t think you should be pulling weights when strength training. When wrestlers attempt to move a bar quickly in their workouts, they are using momentum to help move the weight. You need to minimize momentum and maximize the amount of muscle being worked when slowing down. How fast (or slow) should you move a weight when strength training? When you are lifting a weight (or contracting the muscle) try to do it in 2 seconds. When you lower the weight, do it twice as slow. It should take about 4 seconds to lower a weight.
3. Short workouts
Your workouts should never exceed 35 minutes in length. If they do, YOU ARE NOT WORKING HARD ENOUGH! By completing your workout in no more than 35 minutes, your body’s hormone levels are optimal. Your ability to recover from workouts and therefore build more strength is increased. Long, prolonged strength training sessions. Over time, they will reduce your body’s ability to recover and lead to overtraining.
4. 12 less gold exercises
When I develop sport-specific strength training routines for my athletes, I always adhere to this. This number of exercises will allow you to work your “fighting muscles” just enough, but not too much. Anything else is almost guaranteed to send your body into overtraining syndrome.
5. 2 less gold games
Please read it carefully and try to really absorb the content. You should not do more than two working sets (the sets that count. These do not include a warm-up set) for any given exercise. If you’re working hard enough, this is enough. You do a warm-up set for an exercise, then move up to your maximum weight. After reaching that maximum weight, reduce the total weight on the bar or machine by 20% and repeat. If you’re really training intensely, you can only do one working set per exercise. This is the ideal. If you can hammer a muscle with a perfect set of an exercise, there will be no need for another set. I advocate a second set with a 20% weight reduction because many people fail to work that muscle with one set.
6. Failure in the gym to dominate on the mat
In addition to your warm-up set for each strength training exercise, you should train your sets to “momentary muscular failure.” This is the point at which you can no longer complete another repetition with perfect form. By training to momentary muscle failure, you are forcing the muscles to adapt and therefore get stronger. Let me clarify training to “failure”. Training to failure is not “nearly exhausting muscle.” It’s the point where you can’t push or pull another rep no matter what. Is it safe to train this way? Absolutely! The first few reps of a set are actually more dangerous. When an athlete is not using good form and slower speed, it is usually during these first few repetitions that the athlete gets hurt.
7. Use machines and free weights
There is a common misconception among athletes and trainers that you should use free weights when strength training. Free weights are great! That’s how machines are! Your muscles don’t know the difference. Intensity is the most important thing when it comes to improving your strength for wrestling. The tool you use to get there is not. I like certain exercises for certain muscles. It also depends on what injuries a fighter may already have. You can work “around” injuries and still give the body a full strength workout. If you have access to Hammer Strength machines, I highly recommend including them in your wrestling strength training.
8. Use a thick bar
If you don’t have access to a thick bar, get one. This is usually a hollow metal tube with free weights attached to the end. A thick bar forces you to hold on tight when performing exercises. Build fantastic forearm and hand strength. It should be part of any serious wrestling strength training program. You can do curls, reverse curls, rows, and presses with it.
9. Keep the protein
Whether you’re trying to lose weight or move up a notch, you need a regular diet of protein. Protein helps repair and rebuild muscle tissue. It’s vital to stick to your protein diet if you’re trying to lose weight…unless, of course, you don’t mind losing muscle and getting weak. Try to get at least 5 protein feedings per day. The difference lies in the carbohydrate intake. If you need to reduce weight, you should start to drop carbs slowly, but never completely. You can’t fight if you don’t have energy. Carbohydrates are your body’s preferred source of energy. Contact me at [email protected] if you are interested in a custom wrestling meal plan.
10. The Trap Bar
The trap bar is another amazing piece of equipment when it comes to building strength in wrestling. The trap bar is a hexagonal shaped bar. Allows you to perform deadlifts with maximum stimulation of nearly all vital muscles for improved wrestling performance. If you’ve never seen one, do a web search. This is a drill that all of my wrestling clients use. It will make your whole body stronger. If I limited myself to just one exercise to build strength for my wrestlers, this would be the exercise I would choose.