During my preseason (which usually lasts about eight weeks) My coach has me running 5 miles a day, along with a morning lift, which if you ask me is stupid as hell(the 5 miles a day part, i love lifting, which is why im so heavy, im pretty lean for a 260 pound guy, can see my lower abs, but im still a heavy bastard?), but He did not ask, and is not open for suggestions.
So , in the offseason, I typically dont run very much because It destroys my knees and ankles,( i make up for it by lifting and doing manual labor) But this offseason I will not get the cardio from being active for 8 hours a day plus lifting. And im not running 5 miles a day. My weight usually stays between 260-70. I am trying to keep my cardio up so i can lose some mass and cut down about 10-20 lbs, ive already changed my diet around, now i need some ides for cardio that would carry over to wrestling.
I mean im planning on running around 2 miles a day, post lifting to keep my ankles and knees used to it, and im planning on buying a bike and possibly riding it for an hour a day( just because i enjoy biking and being outside) I should probably add in a sprint day once or twice a week, and on the weekends i usually go on a nature trail and hike with my dogs for about 8 miles. How does this look for cardio, and do any of you have suggestions on which i could improve my offseason plan? my imagination with cardio is kind of limited lol.
Distance running for someone of your weight is ludicrous. No wonder your joints are killing you.
I would split your cardio into high intensity & low intensity. The high intensity should be sprints & prowler pushes, the low intensity should just be walking a few miles or walking less miles but wearing a weighted vest.
Do not underestimate walking for staying lean.
Thanks for the response bastard, Yeah I love to walk, now for the weighted walks, do you think wearing a vest during my 8 mile hikes on the weekends with the pups would be good? I have to do at least a little bit of running to keep the muscles conditioned to do it, and so i dont go from not running long distances at all to running 5 miles a day. I will definitely add prowler pushes into my program.
And during the preseason our coach has a few sessions where we do 50 x100 yard sprints. I am not going to do that in my offseason, he does this kind of shit to get kids to quit, but in the process it fucks up the athletes who have stuck with it for 4 years , it wears on ya im telling ya. But, what do you think would be a decent sprint workout to do once a week? and how about the prowler? just looking for some ideas so i can figure out what im gonna do
when I finished high school I was faster, stronger, and more explosive than all in my weight class. In college, we ran, we wrestled, we ran some more. I got to be a pretty good runner for 200+ pounds. My bench fell 50 lbs, I never power cleaned, but I could run…
I became a great runner and a shitty wrestler.
As much as it hurts to say this. Crossfit MAY have some good workouts for training. It makes you tired and on the whole, does it within a space that would be similar a wrestling match.
[quote]doimakeyourandi wrote:
Ive thought about transferring , but i just finished my fourth year, only have one more. And my credits dont transfer.[/quote]
I guess you could be in a position to reason with the coach.
Let him know you’ve done it his way for 4 years and the amount of success you’ve had, but feel you want to try another training method, lay it out, and get his sign off. It sounds reasonable if you’ve been a team player.
Unless of course he’s made you an all-American. In that case, I wouldn’t argue and I would get fresh pair of running shoes.
The PITT wrestling team used to do a lot of hill work (lots of hills there) that included sprints, bear crawls (forward and backward), figure 8s (turn the 8 sideways to get the visual), and some light wrestling work that mostly involved picking people up.
all great ideas. Thank you everyone. And my coach doesnt really listen to reason, he has everyone doing the same program regardless of any differences of opinion. not much i can do about it. there are a few hills around here i could do some conditioning work on, I already do complexes as part of my lifting, i planned on swimming once or twice a week as well as doing ssprints and riding my bike.
Barbell complexes, heavy sandbag work (and complexes), hill sprints and heavy tire flips.
Also, you may want to check out some of Zach Evan-Esh’s stuff. If I’m not mistaken, his background is in wrestling, and he still works with people on conditioning for that sport.
I’m sorry your coach hasn’t kept up to date on his training methods. Very unfortunate. Shameful, really. Unless, as someone else said, he has produced a bunch of All-Americans that way…
[quote]doimakeyourandi wrote:
During my preseason (which usually lasts about eight weeks) My coach has me running 5 miles a day, along with a morning lift, which if you ask me is stupid as hell(the 5 miles a day part, i love lifting, which is why im so heavy, im pretty lean for a 260 pound guy, can see my lower abs, but im still a heavy bastard?), but He did not ask, and is not open for suggestions.
So , in the offseason, I typically dont run very much because It destroys my knees and ankles,( i make up for it by lifting and doing manual labor) But this offseason I will not get the cardio from being active for 8 hours a day plus lifting. And im not running 5 miles a day. My weight usually stays between 260-70. I am trying to keep my cardio up so i can lose some mass and cut down about 10-20 lbs, ive already changed my diet around, now i need some ides for cardio that would carry over to wrestling.
I mean im planning on running around 2 miles a day, post lifting to keep my ankles and knees used to it, and im planning on buying a bike and possibly riding it for an hour a day( just because i enjoy biking and being outside) I should probably add in a sprint day once or twice a week, and on the weekends i usually go on a nature trail and hike with my dogs for about 8 miles. How does this look for cardio, and do any of you have suggestions on which i could improve my offseason plan? my imagination with cardio is kind of limited lol. [/quote]
rower. elliptical, stairmaster
[quote]doimakeyourandi wrote:
there are a few hills around here i could do some conditioning work on, I already do complexes as part of my lifting, i planned on swimming once or twice a week as well as doing ssprints and riding my bike.[/quote]
Don’t feel like you have to do everything, especially all at once. Figure out your priorities and specific goals for the offseason (like you said, dropping 10-20 pounds of fat. What’s the timeframe you’re working with?) and then design a plan that will get you there. If you throw in all sorts of cardio from the get-go, you’ll only be that much more limited if/when you need to make a change.
Check Tim Henriques’ “Cardio for Strength Athletes” for some great ideas: