I have been lifting for almost 8 years now and am closing in on 50 years old. I have been reading about different training methods since my 16 year old son has finally decided to listen to me and start serious training for high school wrestling. He has been wrestling for 3 years now and has done pretty well, but wants to move up to the next level. He wrestles 96-103lbs and his normal weight is around 110-112. He is about 5’6" and has not really start to physically mature, little body hair, etc. I have started him on basic core lifts, such as bench press, squats, deadlifts, t-bar and cable rows, good mornings, hyperextentions, pullups, dips, russian twists, cable “wood chopping”, ab work, lunges, standing calfs, and some tri- and bi- work. We are starting to do some basic neck and wrist/forearm work. I created some grip blocks and wrist roller and have an Ivanko gripper. I want to move up to some sled work, wheelbarrow pushes, and carrying routines with sandbags. We lift 4 days/week, with chest/back one day, legs, neck/grip next, and shoulders/tri’s/bi’s the third. We start over with chest/back, etc. On two days we work abs and obliques and do cardio. He has made gains in all his lifts and is starting to look better too. (At 5’6" and 112lbs if he turns sideways he kind of disappears!!) He wants to keep his weight down, although I have told him he will wrestle better at a higher weight when he builds muscle and gets stronger. But hey, he’s a 16 year old who knows everything!!! Please advise if I am doing things right, or if I should change what I am doing. If anybody has hands on experience with strength training for young wrestlers I would love to hear from you. Mitch from Long Island
Mitch, I would think that Coach Davies’ workouts would be best for your son. This way, he can build functional strength and incredible speed and power. This will help him immensely with wrestling. And at 5’6" I would think that he needs to gain weight and wrestle at a higher weight class. So check into Coach Davies workouts under the Renegade post. In fact, if you do a search under “Coach Davies” you will find the first week’s workouts that he posted for us. The current Renegade post has the second and third week’s workouts.
Instead of divinding your son's workouts into body parts (chest day, leg day, back day, etc.), try using the Coach's plan. He also trains us on a four-day a week schedule. We start each workout with a rope warm-up and active rest breaks of bodyweight exercises. On Monday/Thursday, we are doing Olympic lifts, legs and back as well as functional training. On Tuesday/Friday, we are doing upper body work (chest, tris, shoulders). All workouts include GPP and medicine ball (ab) work as well.
I’ve recently split the training up (it is brutal if all done in one session!), so that has helped me out tremendously. You could incorporate many of his ideas into your training for your son. He will make awesome gains. This is only my third week of using Coach Davies’ program, and I can already tell that I’m getting stronger, leaner and faster. I feel pretty good (the first two weeks had me completely exhausted, but I have adapted well so far). Good luck!
Hey Mitch
For some good information just run an author search on Coach Davies and read through that. He’s posted some really good info for young athletes.
Remember that your son is an athlete not a bodybuilder so he needs to get his body working in harmony, not isolation. Any routine that calls for chest one day, back the next, arms the next etc. is a bodypart dominant workout and won’t do a whole lot for athleticism. The human body knows movements, not bodyparts. For this reason I suggest you divide your workout up into specific movements. for example
day 1. lower body pushing dominant (squat, lunge etc )
day 2. upper body pushing dominant
day 3. lower body pulling dominant (clean, snatch, deadlift)
day 4. upper body pulling dominant. (horizontal and vertical rowing + biceps)
As a former wrestler who moved up rapidly through the weight classes in high school, I speak from personal experience (whatever that’s worth) when I say that your son will be much better off getting bigger and stronger than trying to stay at 112. At the high school level it’s still fairly easy to win solely on the basis of physical domination, so if he trains like a bastard and gets really strong and well-conditioned he should be able to blow anyone off the mat (I whupped up on a lot more people at 180 than at 130). Plus, trying to keep his weight down at such a young age could have some serious, detrimental long-term effects on his health. If nothing else, you can plant in his head the idea that girls will like him a lot more if he’s bigger! You mentioned that he’s not really that developed -I imagine that as he begins developing he’ll put on a good deal of weight regardless of what he wants to do with weight classes.
When I do a wrestling clinic I always tackle the weight training and nutrition issues cause High school kids don’t always see the big picture. High school wrestlers tend to worry about there weight way too much instead of worrying about learning the sport of wrestling. I’ve seen some wrestlers lose out on some precious wrestling time in order to worry about the weight they have to loose. Tell your son to eat right and get the most out of his wrestling practice and wherever his weight falls that is where he should wrestle. As far as weight training goes Kelly and Nate had some great ideas. I personally followed alot of Charles Polinquin advice and threw in some plyometrics to increase speed and agility.
does spencer nadolsky still come here?
I am very appreciative that my name has been mentioned as being an option. However, I did wish to the advice of “John” the wrestling coach. I do hope if he has the time, he will offer more of his experience and technical advice. It would be great, if we could all come-up with a working model for you son. In faith, Coach Davies
Coach Davies I wish I would have had the opportunity to incorporate some of your training techniques into my workouts when I was still competing. To give our little wrestler A guide, here’s a typical training schedule of mine for a day. Keep in mind that I have or had the time in a day to incorporate this type of workout schedule where as a high school student may not. 6 or 7am wrestling technique session followed by either buddy carries or wheel barrels up the stadium steps. At Noon was my weight workout. 3:30 was the team practice. 9 or 10pm I did some sort of conditioning and or plyometric type drills. Most important was I ate after every workout so I would recover and prepare for the next workout. I would eat MRP’s when I had to run to class otherwise it was either tuna or chicken and some type of carb. I hope this can be of some help to you.
I want to thank everybody who reponded to my posting. After reviewing all of Coach Davies postings and articles I think his methodology of trainingseems to be the way to go. Since my son is only 16, I think it may have to be lowered a notch or two in intensity. In addition, since school, wrestling club, and wrestling team practice will be starting over the next couple of months, a modified program may have to be developed. I will gladly take up Coach Davies on his offer to develop a program for my son. Due to all the aforementioned scheduling conflicts, the program needs to be developed around a 4 day schedule. We will be able to work out Tuesday and Thursday evenings, for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, and Saturday and Sunday mornings, for 2 hours. I have discussed Coach Davies workout philosophy with my son and showed him the articles from Testosterone, and he can’t wait to get started!!! And neither can I!!! I will be waiting patiently for Coach Davies and the rest of the group for your responses. Thanks in advance, Mitch
I am a 17 year old wrestler. While I don’t always stick to training for strength and wrestling, I think I have a decent grasp on what may work. I definetly have your son do bridge work, wrestling isn’t all about strength and endurance. You have to take into account that flexibility is important. Without it, injury is bound to happen and one chicken wing could tear up your shoulder and tricep. I definetly stick with the sleds and dragging too.
Mitch - It will be a pleasure to help. One of first step’s in developing a athletes training program is prioritizing his sport’s technical work. Hopefully John, will be aware of this posting and will be able to offer his expertise. If you could give the total training time he has available. We can probably split the available time 50/50 between technical work and conditioning, unless you prefer otherwise. I look forward to helping. If there are any other wrestlers reading, please post and state and questions or concerns. I look forward to helping. In faith, Coach Davies
Coach Davies, my son’s technical training has already been allocated outside of the 4 days I previously mentioned. Starting in September he has wrestling club on Monday and Wednesday evenings. Starting in November he starts high school team wrestling which runs every afternoon after school and Saturday mornings. We plan on using Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and Saturday and Sunday afternoons for your conditioning program. We belong to a local Powerhouse gym and have access to all their standard free weight equipment. I also have a wheelbarrow and am planning on building a sled for your pulling and dragging exercises. If there is anything else you need from me in order to prepare your program please let me know and I will get back to you ASAP. If you let me know your e-mail address I can send information directly to you. I can also give you mine if there is anything you may want to send to me that can’t be handled via this forum. Mitch from Long Island.
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If there are any other wrestlers out there who wish to participate please post. Lets try to keep this on the forum so others can possibly benefit as well. I will review the prior posts and unless John or another wrestling coach can offer directives I will put something together. In fiath, Coach Davies
as most of you know … i am a state champ from michigan at 215 pounds in highschool… nest year ill probably win it at hwt… and I was also an all american… my brother wrestlers at michigan state and is one of the top in the nation. He is actuially the strongest wrestler in his weightclass in the nation at 149 pounds. Anyways in the offseason i do a somewhat west side trainging for football to get my bench up. Obviously this doesnt have much to do with wrestling i just like an over all balance of my body. My brother’s strength coach made his team do leg presses to failure. There were specail things id do right before my state meet to get in shape… if youre familiar with the action of pumeling then you could imagine what it would be to do the action of pumeling with dumbells in your hands. I did a circuit of 6 minutes each ( match length) including that pumeling thing, push ups, dumbell rows, leg press and a couple others i dont remember… hope that helps a little… im the more ideal big guy wrestler… im the leanest heavyweight in the state but im still a big guy so im not as agile as the littler ones
Coach Davies: Have you had any progress in developing a wrestling conditioning program for my son? I know that you are very busy with your football conditioning programs, and all the forums you are involved in. Just patiently waiting…Mitch from Long Island
I would like to participate in your wrestling program. I am 5’8 162 pounds and will wrestling the 160 pound wieght class next year. I have an olympic bar, squat rack, wheelbarrow, sandbags and I will build a sled if you tell me how.
Thanks for your time.