What Your Wrestling Workout Needs [ARTICLE]

What Your Wrestling Workout Needs

Originally Published on STACK.com
Article by: Douglas Scott

Between weigh-ins and weight classes, wrestling requires athletes to be extremely disciplined and "in tune" with their bodies. However, many wrestlers struggle with designing productive wrestling workout routines.

Many productive workout combinations exist for aspiring wrestlers, and tailoring one for your individual needs is not complicated if you follow some basic guidelines.

Wrestling Workout Guidelines

Full-Body Strength

To excel, wrestling requires a high level of muscular fitness. Be sure to include exercises for the neck, hips, legs, chest, shoulders, upper back, midsection and grip/arms.

Specific Conditioning

Wrestling is an extremely demanding sport, so high levels of aerobic and anaerobic fitness are required for success. Although "live wrestling" is the best way to condition yourself, make sure to perform a variety of both steady state and interval workouts.

Progressive Overload

"Working up a sweat" is not enough. Regardless of the workout, as a high level athlete striving for success, you should always try to lift more weight or perform more repetitions every time you hit the gym. In conditioning workouts, increase the distance covered in a given time or reduce rest intervals between sprints.

Recovery

Wrestlers are accustomed to strenuous practices, grueling conditioning workouts and intense strength training sessions. Be cautious though. It's important to allow for recovery. The key point is this: if your goal is to become stronger and more physically fit, you must allow for recovery. Regardless of your level of dedication, your body does not become stronger while you are training. That happens in the days between training sessions when your muscles repair themselves. Too much activity can hinder the process.

Sample Wrestling Workout

This sample workout represents a week of off-season training for a competitive wrestler. If you are consistent with your training and always strive for improvement, you will be ready for the season and your opponents will have their hands full.