I am a High school wrestling coach and have been giving my wrestlers the same weight training program for the past two seasons. I wanted to see if anyone on here had a good wrestling specific strength training program, ideally someone who wrestled at the college level or beyond. My athletes are fairly committed and would be willing to put in up to 2 hours per day up to 6 times per week if necessary. Most of my wrestlers have only been seriously strength training for just over a year as the previous coach never took the time to teach them. Any help would be much appreciated by myself and my students. Thanks!

what programming do you use now?

I basically just drew up a very basic workout plan hitting all of the major muscle groups. Almost all of my kids were new to weightlifting then but I am looking to get them into a more specialized program now. Emphasis in the previous program was placed on medicine ball core training, plyometrics and mostly free weights (Bench, Squats, Deadlifts, Cleans, Military presses etc). Body weight bearing activities (pushups, pullups, weighted dips) etc were a big part as well. Used a 5 day push/pull split for about an hour and a half of work each day. I am looking to get a more structured plan so that these kids can gain as much functional wrestling strength as possible.

SS imo

How much are these kids squatting/DL'ing/benching now?

i would imagine power, ie oly lifts would translate well to wrastling. as would strength.

seems you should do ss.

I want to say Rip has said somewhere that barbell curls are a good exercise to include for a wrestler. Not sure, I hope someone can back this up.

ya i can think of situations where the bicep is virtually isolated when wrestling. in takedown attemps and while trying to control from the top.

oh, also, grip strength is proly very worthwhile and underrated.

farmer's walks + weighted block holds + pinch grip + gripper work. Oh yeah, and the heavy DL's from SS.

i agree i bet strong man stuff would be great for wrestling training.

sledgehammer to tire... farmers walks, sled push, sled pull. you can also do pushups with bands/chains, also i see you use med balls but as core training, i think you can do better core training like turkish get ups and use med balls for med ball slams which should help wrestlers a bunch

Squats, DL's, Bench, O-lifts make up the core of most of the college wrestling teams I have been around and of the teams whom I still have friends on.

Heavy rows, barbell curls, and high pulls/clean pulls are also very useful. Form seems to be of secondary importance on these lifts.

I may run the HS lifting program for my former HS this summer and if I do plan on running a program similar to the WFAC program which is basically what I'm doing right now. Even the strongest HS wrestlers are relatively weak and could gain a lot from linear progression. Many would probably be much better wrestlers if they were stronger and at a weight class or two higher as long as they are able to maintain speed along with strength gains.

Having your wrestlers do some of the metcons found on Crossfit Football to go along with whatever main lifting program you decide on would be beneficial.

Thanks for all of your helpful responses gonna look everything over and get these guys going.

In the offseason I'd definitely focus on building overall strength. SS is probably for you, though I can see arguments for CF Wichita Falls with GPP-centric workouts rather than "metcons" (sledgehammer work, sled pushing/pulling, tire flips, etc).

Heavy curls, lots of chin-ups, developing grip strength, all very important.

I'd transition from building maximal strength to developing quicker force production about 2 months prior to starting heavy skill work (i.e. pointless running and weight cutting alongside your grappling training). So that would be high pulls and stuff.

So basically I agree with everything Jaysick wrote since he was a wrestler and is the strongest (relatively) person in the forum. Good thing I wasted 5 minutes.

You got more specific about the GPP stuff. Sleds would be great practice for simulating the drive necessary to finish takedowns although I'm not sure how you could simulate the power output while "turning the corner."

Also, I forgot to mention lots of chinups and pullups. My lil bro and I used to do these religiously when we walked into the basement.

Definitely not a waste of 5min.

http://www.youtube.com/user/calebwilliams

seen a lot of wrestling training stuff on his channel before

I think the most important thing when it comes to strength training is cycling workouts. If athletes just do regular bench and regular squats the whole summer they will plateau. They should bench on 3 separate workouts and then switch to floor press, or inclined bench, or close grip for the next 3 times and just keep cycling them through.

Muscle confusion right?

Anyone else feel like overtraining may be a major concern for these kids?

Obv. Even if they can recover from it... Is it a good use of their time?

It may be preferable to have them do some skill work for a bit, hit the weights on other days, return them another 3-4 hours a week to blast some teenage skank.

paging jaysick

My business partner was All-American (runner up national champ his senior year) D-3 wrestler. They would do weight training in a.m.'s during school year and clean & jerks a couple days/week before practice later in the day. They like turning the heat up to 85-90 before hitting the mats.

towel pullups & ropeclimbs would be good for the grip and think I've seen many a wrestler hit these.

Wrestlers are also pretty badass....not sure if 2 hrs/day 6x/week is the best use of their time but it seems pretty common. Added onto not eating or drinking 1-2 days before weighins maybe not the best. I would think most college level wrestlers (and athletes in general) should and likely do handle 2 hrs/day. Maybe not HS, but wouldn't be surprised about some top level programs.

As others have said continuing to focus on the main lifts (squat, DL, oly) to get them stronger should help a ton. Have you seen improvent over the 2 years in their performance on the mat?

My answer was given above and hasn't change .

This thread is old and got mystery bumped today. I actually dislocated my pinky wrestling yesterday .

Not sure if the rope climbs were mentioned before but they are obviously great.

A bunch of the kids from my HS have basically been doing SS with a few changes this summer with some pretty decent results.