Wrestling Strength Workouts

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Wrestling Strength Workouts- Say No To High Intensity

Monday, May 10th, 2010 at 1:37 pm

No I don’t mean say no to getting fired up during your wrestling strength workouts before you attempt a heavy lift. Getting focused and excited at an opportunity to set a record is what it’s all about.

What I meant by the title of this post was that you should avoid the bodybuilding technique known as H.I.T. (High Intensity Training) in your wrestling strength workouts.

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The scientific definition of intensity is simply the percentage of your max. The greater the percentage of your max the lift you’re performing is, the greater the intensity.

Generally speaking, H.I.T. proponents suggest performing one set of usually about 10 reps to failure on a machine.

While this has been shown to be effective at putting on significant amounts of muscle (although a lot of the bodybuilders who use this regularly also take ridiculous amounts of steroids to the point where pretty much anything they do will put on muscle), it is not an effective way for athletes, especially wrestlers to exclusively train in their wrestling strength workouts.

Do I throw some all out sets on machines in every now and again during the wrestling strength workouts I put my clients through?

Yes, it’s a great way to change up their workout and build mental toughness. However, your training should not be limited to H.I.T. To give you a better idea of what H.I.T. is, here’s a quick video of some bodybuilders performing a workout.

Wrestling Strength Workouts- H.I.T. Video

Does something like this get me fired up and ready to train? Hell yea!

But I’m not here to introduce some pre-training videos, I’m here to tell you why H.I.T. shouldn’t be the focus of your wrestling strength workouts and the best way for me to do so is to introduce the man himself- Louie Simmons.

Here are some excerpts from a Louie Simmons article entitled “HIT…or Miss?” Louie is regarded by many, including myself, to be the top powerlifting coach in the country (maybe the world) and one of the top overall strength coaches in the country and world. Anyway, check out what he has to say on H.I.T. and think of how it applies to your wrestling strength workouts.

H.I.T. proponents use a lot of machines. This is truly a mistake. No stability can be developed. Most machines work on the peak contraction theory. Let’s look at the pec machine. If you load a pec machine to the max, starting the movement requires a max effort, which is very difficult and dangerous. Yet at the finish, where the most weight can be lifted because of accommodating resistance, machines show their downfall.

Louie Simmons

More importantly, let’s consider the strength curve. Take the case of two 700-pound deadlifters. One may blast the weight off the floor to near lockout and then fight the last 3 to 4 inches. The second may have difficulty starting the bar off the floor, pick up speed, and lockout easily. What does this illustrate? In the real world of strength these two lifters have quite different strength curves. If these same two lifters were to use a machine, only one would receive any benefit from that machine, because the machine has a predetermined strength curve. That’s a 50% chance the machine won’t work for you. Also, a machine will not build stability. The only good thing about a facility full of machines is that the instructor could be a moron and it won’t make any difference.

H.I.T. proponents also think that if you exercise slowly, you won’t become slow. Have they heard of exercise specificity? A sprinter must practice sprinting to be successful. A long-distance runner must learn to conserve himself to run a long distance; if a marathon runner was to start sprinting from the beginning, he or she would run out of gas long before the end of the race. If you work slowly, you will become slow, and you will be watching the fast kids play while you develop splinters in your butt. Remember that external force is directly responsible for speed. A boxer may appear very fast with 8-ounce boxing gloves, but hand him a pair of 100-pound dumbbells and he can hardly move his hands at all.

Obviously, this is a somewhat scientific excerpt, but nonetheless the ideas are very valuable when considering wrestling strength workouts and their implementation into an overall performance training program.