I created this forum to be a forum for wrestlers to discuss the training techniques they use in the off-season.
I did some hypertrophy work early in the off-season to add back on some off the muscle I lost cutting during the season, then some 1-5 Wave and now I am using the Canadian Ascending-Descending complex. I think I will structure most of my workouts according to continuums from now on.
I’m currently doing a lot of O-lifts in conjunction with basic powerlifts and some crazy Davies exercises to give me weird position strength. It has carried over incredibly well.
Westside with the following modifications:
hybrid Oly lifts for speed pulls (1 arm snatches etc).
ME Upper Body Pulling days
More unilateral work
for extra workouts/gpp, utilizing wheel barrow, parallettes (gymnastic equipment, and sledgehammer
RE specific days, using OH squat or front squat, along with suspended chain pushups.
-Large use of parallettes (can almost straddle planche), and other gymnastic training elements. I find that putting my bodyweight in disadvantageous positions (leveraging to make it heavier) is a bit more “active” strength-wise than just lifting weights, nut you really need a good mix of both.
I actually train for MMA (yet to have a bout), but I try to wrestling tourneys on the side, along with submission grappling, and whatever striking events that I can get into in order to prep for something big.
I got into wrestling late (1st year of college) but DAMN do I love it. I started off with a guy who was into slow paced type jiujitsu, I really found my niche with wrestling. It just fit me a lot better and added a whole new dimension to my ground game.
http://images.t-nation.com/forum_images/./1/.1117960022160.Batista.jpg
I’m not a wrestler, but i’m very interesting how to build a body a wrestler have, such as explosive power, endurance, strength…etc.
my idol is the WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dave Batista.
anyone have his training program?
if yes, then can you send me through e-mail? thankyou very much.
I’m a pro wrestler, does that count? hehehehe (I’d suggest a yes on this one. That Jackass dude is kinda scary lookin…
) Also, I wrestled during middle and high school, and have helped coach younger kids.
Anyway, more than what type of training people are doing that interests me is how everyone constructs their yearly training cycles.
Almost all competitive wrestlers seem to begin dieting about a month out, at most. Then they starve, try to cut weight, are weak and extremely tired all season long. A few guys I’ve known over the years did it reverse. They’d cut for about 8 to 12 weeks like you would for a bodybuilding comp right BEFORE the wrestling season started, then go ass backwards and begin their bulk at the BEGINNING of the season.
Even extremes of like 3,000 calories at a time added back in at once never seemed to cause any weight gain due to the tons of added expenditure with practice (lots of running, then drills, then lots of wrestleoffs, then lots more running, etc) If it did add a few lbs, it was never enough to knock them out of their weight class, and were those guys beasts.
The longer the season goes, the longer most wrestlers are in severly dieted states, overtrained and undernourished. These guys were like horses because they had gotten into great condition and done their dieting before season and then just ate like kings, trained for size/strength and could wrestle all day. They also very very rarely got hurt, and seemed to have a much easier time mentally all season long maintaining school, sleep, training and wrestling.
Just wondered if anyone else had given this a shot…
[quote]KombatAthlete wrote:
I think I will structure most of my workouts according to continuums from now on.[/quote]
i guess may be for wrestlers, some of the strength qualities will be concern:
the first two have been talked in “continuum training”, but the last two i’m still think how to develop them…anyone can help?
On Prime Time CT once detailed a strength-endurance continuum, saying it was the optimal way to train the pulling muscles. This is what it was (each being done for 2-3 consecutive sets:
Heavy BB Rowing (3-5 reps)
Weighted Chin (6-8 reps)
Incline Chest Supported Row (8-12 reps)
Lat Pulldown (12-15 reps)
Pullover (preferable machine or cable, 15-20 reps)
Could you detail some of those Davies exercises? I am tryign to design an odd strength/strongman routine for myself to do over the summer.
True about wrestlers diets. So many could benefit from a diet education course or something, they don’t realize how much muscle they lose with ‘starvation’ diets.
I really like Waterbury walks, OH Squats, Saxon Side bends, and OH walks.
A lot of the ‘crazy davey’ exercises are just old school stuff that you don’t see often anymore.
[quote]KombatAthlete wrote:
True about wrestlers diets. So many could benefit from a diet education course or something, they don’t realize how much muscle they lose with ‘starvation’ diets. [/quote]
Yea when cutting weight I’d just go with V-Diet from now on… until it’s time to cut water or something.
I wrestle in high school… and for my training… I just wrestle all year long. I continue to lift year-round as well.
Mon- Legs
Tues- Chest
Wed- Wrestling practice (during offseason) or other cardio/calastenics(sp?)
Thurs- Back
Friday- Arms
I find that I mostly stick to core lifts, squats, deads, pressing exercises, ect. I have found though, that on leg day… I love to do Smith Rack Lunges. Use one foot as far out in front as possible, then keep the rear foot off the ground at all times. Use it as a burnout exercise. Many people say the smith rack is useless, i agree for the most part, but I’ve found that this exercise has helped me get off bottom alot. It helps build explosive strength… that coupled with heavy squats.
If anybody can help me with a great bulking diet, I’d really like the help. I’m trying to get up into the next weight class for next year thanx
-CJ
hell yeah i am all about the sledge hammer have to do that all the time my strength coach beleves that traing like the Soviets did when he wrestled them is a great idea
and i agree
now i am a big fan of body weight training any ideas on so types of body weight traing that i moght not be doing
[quote]Monster Wong wrote:
I’m not a wrestler, but i’m very interesting how to build a body a wrestler have, such as explosive power, endurance, strength…etc.
my idol is the WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dave Batista.
anyone have his training program?
if yes, then can you send me through e-mail? thankyou very much.
[/quote]
this is not a thread for “sports entertainment”, it is for the real sport.
how to build his body? start with about 2 grams of anabolics per week.
[quote]UB07 wrote:
this is not a thread for “sports entertainment”, it is for the real sport.
how to build his body? start with about 2 grams of anabolics per week.[/quote]
of course i know that, but how about the training program of him?
i’m not saying he not take any anabolics. but i think he still need to train his body. that’s what i’m asking.
[quote]Monster Wong wrote:
UB07 wrote:
this is not a thread for “sports entertainment”, it is for the real sport.
how to build his body? start with about 2 grams of anabolics per week.
of course i know that, but how about the training program of him?
i’m not saying he not take any anabolics. but i think he still need to train his body. that’s what i’m asking.[/quote]
The purpose of this thread was to discuss how real amateur wrestlers train their bodies, not how roided out actors lift. CJF, you shouldnt be using a muscle split if you are an athlete; there are better ways to rain.
getting back on topic, I’ve been reading some CT stuff and some other bits and bobs and am toying with a variation of a routine he originally suggested for a speed skater, (I think - I’ve read so much of his stuff it’s blurring into one now). It entails 2 days of training for power, (upper/lower split) and 2 days for strength-endurance. I think this second quality is hugely important to all grapplers, but I have had some major headaches trying to work out how best to train for it.
For the power days I was thinking along the lines of his second Continuum article, using an extended complex moving from isometric, through to concentric and onto more explosive movements, (I think ballistics and reactive work need only be used fairly sparingly). A variant of the CAD complexes would probably do the trick.
an example of what I thought:
Lower body
A1: back squat isometrics or eccentric work (choose one or the other for a whole 4 week cycle)
A2: box squat clusters @ 87-93%
A3: power clean @ 70-80%
A4: dynamic effort style box squat
(A5: jump squats @ bodyweight - only performed occassionally in cycle)
(A6: depth jumps - performed even less frequently)
For the strength endurance days I was going to base it on CT’s “Superman Sets” article, but again use an extended complex approach. An eg of one of these workouts may be:
Upper Body
A1: bench press 30%1rm 40secs/rest 40 secs
A2: barbell row 30%1rm 40 secs/rest 40 secs
B1: push press 20%1rm 60 secs/rest 60 secs
B2: high pull 20%1rm 60 secs/rest 60 secs.
Perform A1,A2,B1,B2, rest for 2-3 mins and repeat 3-5 times.
Then:
C: rope climb simulator, (better still - a rope climb if you have this facility) - 2 x 90 sec sets.
I tried this today and it hurt. I alternated between push and pull so as to keep my heart-rate somewhat raised throughout while giving extra time for the muscles to rest. Clearly you can’t tell a lot from a single workout, but I will persevere with this idea for a while, tweaking as necessary along the way.
In terms of progression, I thought I’d steal the CAD idea of waving the volume in 4 week cycles - peaking at the 3rd week then cutting back in the 4th to super-compensate.
Any comments/ideas greatly appreciated.
I’m using the CAD and feel it is great for hitting all the aspects of the strength-strength endurance continuuum. However, I think I messed up my back and will be backing off the deads for this week.
do you feel the CAD adequately addresses strength-endurance? I felt it looked on paper to be more geared towards strength-speed and speed-strength.
I have only read posts on it though so may not have all the details…
It does moderately due to the total volume of high intensity work performed for a single group of muscles in a workout. However, there are much better things for strenght-endurance, it is all for the strength-speed continuum, not really endurance.
I’ll tell you what, wrestling is one damn awesome sport. You’d never really be a fan unless you have done it before, or have a close friend/relative involved. I wrestled in highschool and got into BJJ after highschool because I missed wrestling. I’ve been to a few camps where some strength coaches told all of us a bunch of good lifts that the wrestlers from places like UPenn used. Things that I think are really good for wrestlers…
All of the basics
Heavy Squats, Deadlifts, Presses, Rows, Pullups.
Olympic Lifts - clean, snatch, high pulls, all variations.
Chinups and rope climbs are big too. Need the strong grip. I think budy carries are good too, talk about sport specific.
Strongman GPP
I like training with heavy sandbags - carrying them, lunges, clean and jerk etc etc.
I think tire flipping and dragging things really work well too.
Sprints, Hill sprints, stadiums, forget about that long distance running.
Throw in some bodyweight stuff sometimes too. I like handstands, handstand pushups, pullups, lunges or penetration steps.
Wrestling is awesome. Its one of those sports where almost any training done with good intensity will carry over for the sport.
-poper