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 #12

Obstacle Course

This one is fun and awful at the same time because if you put enough of these obstacles together, it’s a change of pace and it hurts a lot. I’ll list a bunch of them, and you can pick which ones to do according to what kind of space and equipment you may have. The course should be 10 to 20 obstacles long, and should take you from 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You can choose to have each person go through it from 1 to 3 times, and rest time should be at least a 1:1 ratio (if it takes 10 minutes to complete, you should have at least 10 minutes to rest). Some of the obstacles are very similar, so you’d probably only pick one of the similar ones as a part of your course. Have fun!

Rope Climbs

Pick a distance that is short enough so that you can climb up and down 2 or 3 times

Med-ball Throws

Have three med balls near a wall, one at a time you have to underhand throw the ball to hit the wall as high up as you can

Towel Push

Have a towel on one end of the gym floor, put both hands on the towel, and push it the length of the gym, or half way and back

Tuck Jumps or Squat Jumps

Just pick a number for how many you have to do at that station

Over-Unders

Have hurdles (or poles set up on 2 chairs or something to that effect) set up in a row, you have to step or jump over one then go under the next

Farmer Carry

Have 2 heavy dumbbells (50 to 70 pounds each), you simply carry one in each hand at your sides-down about 50 yards and back

Plate Carry

Have two plates ready-you have to hold one in each hand at the top of the plate- it’s a grip exercise

Cones

Make a zig-zag path to run

Set up a shuttle run where you have to run back and forth in a straight line and touch a cone on each end 3 to 5 times

Set up a circle shuttle run where one cone is in the middle of other cones in a circle, you touch the center cone, then an outside cone, then back to the center, then to the next one in the circle, etc.

Weight Shelf

Have a tall box and 4 to 5 different weights ranging from 20 to 70 pounds lying on the floor-you have to put each weight up on the box one at a time-then the next person will have to take each weight off of the box one at a time and put them back on the floor

Boxes

Have a row of boxes-each box is about 4 feet apart from the next one, and they should get higher as you go-you climb each box however you want, both feet have to touch the floor in between the boxes

Benches

If you have weight benches that you can move, or long spectator benches you can move, you just have a long row of them set up and you dive to the floor and weave on your belly between the legs of the bench

Curl-Press-Jump

Have a set of 20 pound dumbbells, do a curl, into a military press, bring them back down, and jump-do 10 of these

Crab Walk or Bear Crawl

You can just crab walk or bear crawl down 20-50 yards and back, or have cones set up so you have to weave as you crab walk or bear crawl

Box Push Ups or Step Ups

Set up two boxes (about a foot tall) a little wider than shoulder length apart-you either do 10 pushups with your hands on the boxes and your chest goes down as far down as you can, or you start with both hands on the ground and step one up onto the box then the next then step one down to the ground and then the next and do that 10 times

Jump Rope

Use a weighted jump rope if you have one and jump rope 10 times, make it 25 or so if it’s not weighted

Army Crawl Maze

If you have small mats that fold in half, you can set them up in inverted Vs so that you have to army crawl through them (it’s best to tape the edges down so you don’t knock them down as you go through-it’s also a good idea to have a towel to lay on so that you can stay flat and drag your legs through without tearing up the skin on your thigh)

Plate Carry Maze

Set up cones so you have to weave through them as you hold a plate to your chest, out in front of you with straight arms, or over your head

Tennis Ball Hunt

A good one to have at the end is to have a bucket of tennis balls at the top or bottom of a staircase or in another room-you have to run and get a tennis ball, and the timer stops when you put the tennis ball in his or her hand

**Get creative with this. Make up your own obstacles with whatever you have in your weight room, gym class supplies, or wrestling room. Also get creative with the supplies you have. If you don’t have cones, you can make Xs out of tape on the ground, for example. Also, almost any of the exercises from the functional series I’ve given you in workout #2 can be put in as an obstacle station. It’s a good idea to have a group of people when you do the obstacle course. When you’re not going through the obstacle course, you should be helping your teammates by cheering them on or telling them which station is next. If you have a big group, you can run 2 people through the course at a time. Have 2 timers, and start the second person when the first person gets half way through the course.