Over the long Labor Day weekend, I did what I do almost every other weekend- put together a wrestling workout program for a client(s) that I’m training over the Internet.

But before I get in to this post, I want to remind you to be sure to sign up for your free email updates which contain a free Cornell Wrestling Workout Program, wrestling specific exercises, and tons of useful tips to help you win more by Clicking Here.

However, this time I had something my wife, Laura, mentioned to me while I was showing her some Jiu-Jitsu techniques the other day. She said something along the lines of, “You’re a better learner than you are a teacher.”

What she meant was that I oftentimes learn how to do things very easily and it becomes almost instantly natural to me. As a result I’m unable to effectively communicate exactly what’s going on (in this case with the Jiu-Jitsu) and why it is you want to do it.

Needless to say, it made me stop and think about other places in my life where this may occur. And of course, the first thing that came to mind was when I write up a wrestling workout program.

A well thought out, results-driven wrestling workout program is needed to achieve goals like winning a NCAA title.

So today I’m going to write up probably one of the longest posts I’ve ever worked on and take you step-by-step through the process I went through in designing a program for a wrestler who happens to be one of my long time clients who just recently moved to college.

The first thing I do when designing a wrestling workout program is look at a number of things I’ll use when putting it together. I usually send a series of questions, but in this case I didn’t have to because I knew the answers to most. Regardless, the questions are below.

Wrestling Workout Program Questionnaire

1. What does your current wrestling workout program look like (exercises, sets, reps, etc.)?
…So I don’t have the person doing the same type of workouts and exercises they’ve already been using.

2. Do you have any past injuries that may prevent you from doing certain movements?
…So I know what exercises to include and exclude. For instance, I once wrote a wrestling workout program for a college wrestler with fused ankles. This obviously changed things up in terms of what he was able to do from a lower body standpoint.

3. Any likes/dislikes in regards to certain exercises?
…I don’t want to put together a program full of exercises they’re not going to want to do.

4. How many days per week do you want to lift (I usually recommend 3, especially if you’re not looking to gain weight)?
…Pretty self explanatory here. Just want to be sure I’m working with their schedule so following through on the workouts won’t be an issue.

5. What are the goals/focuses of the program?
…This clues me in on types of exercises to use based on if they want power and speed over strength, strength over size, to move up a weight class, etc.

6. Equipment you have access to?
…So I know exactly what I’m working with when designing the wrestling workout program.

7. Anything else you want to add?
…Just a general question for them to add anything that may be helpful in the designing process that they may not have mentioned in the other questions.

Anyway, once those questions have been answered I can get a good idea of how I want to structure the wrestling training program and I get going from there. Once this process starts it’s always individually specific, so from this point on I’ll be referring to the experience I had this past weekend while designing the wrestling workout program for the long time client who I used to train at my gym and is now in college.

How To Design A Wrestling Workout Program

Alright, from here on out I’ll be referring to the program I’ve included below. Because I knew what he had been doing and all that, the only things that really factored in to the program design were the following- equipment, what his other wrestling workouts were going to be, days he wanted to lift, and goals.

From email exchanges I learned he had access to pretty standard gym equipment. He didn’t have access to all of the stuff he did at my gym, but still had more than enough to get in an effective wrestling workout. He also told me that the team had running workouts scheduled on Tuesdays and Thursdays. These were to be followed by high rep upper body circuits in the weight room.

So we decided a Monday, Wednesday, Friday wrestling workout program built around the above info with the goal of maintaining strength and increasing power while he got his weight down for certifications would be appropriate.

Now that I had all the info, I could get started. I decided to make Day 1 a heavy upper day. This would get the strength work for his upper body out of the way for the week before he had to do the high rep conditioning work. Doing this fresh on a Monday would help him to maintain, and maybe even increase his strength over the next month.

Exercise Selection For Wrestling Workout Programs

The core bench movement for his wrestling workout program was a choice between a Pin Press or Floor Press working up to a max triple. He’s successfully built his bench with the Floor Press before so that’s always a good choice, but I’m going to be experimenting with low Pin Presses to see how much they help the benches of the wrestlers I work with that have low end bench weaknesses (they struggle with the bar near their chest but once they get it past a certain point can always finish the rep).

The core chinup movement was the standard weighted chinup working up to a max triple. From what I gathered he doesn’t currently have access to a lot of the different handles he did at my gym, so he’ll be doing lots of standard weighted chinups, pullups, and alternate grip chinups in the workout program for now.

The accessory movements after are there to help build the core lifts and improve his wrestling performance. The Pause DB Bench will be a good supplement to attack his low end weakness. The Cable Row, or any row variation, is a must in any wrestling workout program because the majority of the pulling you do in wrestling is horizontal.

The additional 3 exercises will help him strengthen his secondary movers in the core lifts (ie BB Curls will strengthen the biceps which aid in the chinup).

As you can see by Day 1, everything has a purpose and is all tied in to building the 2 core lifts which are used to measure the overall effectiveness of his wrestling training program.

Anyway, that’s a lot for one day. So here’s the program to refer to and stay tuned for explanations on Days 2 and 3 in the very near future. You can also download the program if you’d like.

Wrestling Workout Program

Day 1

Superset 1- Pin or Floor Press (5×3) and Weighted Chinup (5×3)

Superset 2- Pause DB Bench (3×6) and Cable Row (3×8)

Triset 1- BB Curl (3×8) and BB Overhead Press (3×8) and DB Shrug (3×10)

Day 2

Superset 1- Hang Clean (5×2) and Standing Ab Wheel (5×8)

Superset 2- BB Free Squat (5×3) and DB Side Bend (5×10)

Superset 3- Back Extension (3×12) and Decline Situp (3×12)

Day 3

Superset 1- DB Push Press (5×3) and Hanging Leg Raise (5×8)

Superset 2- Pin Pull (5×3) and Weighted Russian Twist (5×12)

Superset 3- DB Rack Lunge (3×6) and Ball Leg Curl (3×12)

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…And be sure to check out the next post in this series where I detail Day 2 of this program- Wrestling Workout Program.