The “What it Takes” Series

By Katie Downing

What it takes to excel in wrestling is a love of work, the will to expect more of oneself, and the drive to seek out new ways to push oneself above and beyond the workload that only gets a wrestler through the day.  This series is designed for wrestlers who desire a little extra training to reach that next level.  Some of these workouts are meant to be supplements to practices or team lifts.  They can be done by a group of wrestlers during the season.  Some of these stand on their own as workouts, and are meant to be almost the equal of team practices.  Wrestlers can use these as a way to keep up their training over the summer when practice schedules are relaxed, or when they are traveling.  All of these workouts are designed to require little or no equipment.

Workout #3

Short Functional Series

While the long functional series is aerobic, the short functional series is anaerobic.  These short, high intensity workouts are meant to be added to a lift or a wrestling practice as conditioning.  Once you get the idea of the series, it’s easy to replace exercises within a workout to change it up a bit, or to add or subtract the number of series you do in a row according to how much of a workout you need.  I’ll give you three examples:

A) With 15-30 pound dumb bells:

            -let arms hang with dumb bells at your sides, lunge right foot forward then left

            -let arms hang with dumbbells in between legs, lunge right then left

            -let arms hang with dumb bells at your sides, lunge right foot backward then left

            -curl dumb bells up to your shoulders, military press dumb bells straight up, bring arms back down to your sides, then jump

            *Repeat this series 5 times in a row, take a break, then do 5 more this series will be medium-fast: push yourself, but keep good form

B) For 6 minutes, alternate between pull-ups and squat-push-press

            -do 10 pull-ups, have a partner spot you as needed

            -hold 15-30 pound dumb bells at your shoulders (you choose if you want to have your palms facing forward, or in toward your head), squat down until your knees make a 90 degree angle, then in a single motion, stand up and press the dumb bells straight up.  This isn’t a military press; it’s a push press.  That means that you don’t stop after your squat to isolate your shoulder muscles to press the dumb bells.  You use the momentum of the end of your squat to push press the dumb bells.  Also, you do not stop in between each squat push press.  As you bring the dumb bells back to your shoulders, you drop right into the next squat.  Do 10 in a row, and go right back to pull-ups.

C)  On a basketball court (or an equivalent distance)

            -lunge forward with right foot then left

            -lunge forward at a 45 degree angle to the right, then to the left

            -lunge backward with right foot then left

            *the lunges all 3 ways is one set-do 3 sets of lunges

            -sprint the length of the basketball court down and back 5 times (if you have 2 mats in your wrestling room, go down and back 6 or 7 times)

            *Repeat the 3 sets of lunges and sprints 3 or 4 times total