Hi, I’m Dickie (the author of this blog). Here I am with my good buddy, Kyle Dake. While he doesn't have a nice coat like me, he is pretty good at wrestling. Here's what he said about my training system:
Before I began lifting using Dickie's system my wrestling skills were getting slightly better. I've now been lifting under his guidance for more than 5 months and I have begun to dominating ALL of my competition. At first I had little faith in Dickie and his program, but now I would run into a wall if he told me I would get stronger! I know it sounds insane, but I would. The bottom line is Dickie is an expert and knows what he is talking about. If you want to defeat those kids whom you've always lost to and reach a level you never thought possible, I suggest you start lifting using Dickie's system immediately.
-Kyle Dake, 4X NCAA Division 1 National Champion
4 Comments. Leave new
Dickie, I have run the program you made for my son Marky three times and would like to send you the spreadsheet with the weights he used for the last eight weeks. Can you send me your email so I can attach the spreadsheet along with a few questions I have. We have eight more weeks until his season starts, so I was looking to purchase another program.
Thank you,
Mark Samuel
Hey Mark, you’ll get an email in response to me commenting. You can just respond to that email and we’ll go from there. Talk to you soon.
Hey, Dickie, would happen to have any posts about what you should do for warm ups and cool downs?
As far as posts go, I don’t have too many, however, I hope I can at least give you some insight on both warm ups and cool downs.
As far as warm ups go, the one thing I wouldn’t do is stretch. Here’s a post I wrote on a “mini” research project I did regarding stretching (and other warm-up modalities) on shot speed- https://www.wrestler-power.com/effects-stretching-shot-performance/ As you probably have heard, the person who scores the first takedown most often wins the match. So going out and not being ready to go right off the bat is something you want to avoid at all costs. As far as what to do and how long to do it, that’s all going to be up to personal preference. I can’t remember the specific/optimal body temperature to reach to be considered “warmed up”, but, if I remember correctly, it’s a couple degrees warmer. So, let’s say 100-100.5. I’d imagine you probably don’t carry around a thermometer to matches. But, if you’re interested in being as precise as possible, what you could do is do a warm-up around your house and periodically take your temperature. Keep notes on the the exercises or whatever you to do move around as well as the time. That may give you somewhat of an idea as to what you need to do to get your body to the optimal temperature. Does that help/make sense?
As far cool downs go, do you mean after a match before another or after practice?
If it’s after a match, the first thing you’ll want to do is sit down and chill out. However, I wouldn’t do that for more than 5 minutes (just enough to catch your breath and relax). After that, my first choice would be to find a stationary bike and ride for 15-20 minutes. If you don’t have one around, just walk around, jump in place, or do a light jump rope for 15-20 minutes. I know it seems a bit counter-intuitive (doing warm-up type exercises during a period of “cooling” down), however, Kyle mentioned to me that within the last year he and a number of other wrestlers at the OTC took part in a study that look at various markers in the blood (including blood lactate) associated with a stressful environment within the body (like one you’d be in after a match). Because international wrestling now has 30-minute breaks, the researchers used a number of different protocols to identify the ideal way to spend the 30-minutes in between each match to maximize recovery. If I remember correctly, I believe Kyle said that the ideal protocol was 5-minutes on your own resting, 20-minutes light intensity on the bike, then 5-minutes on your own to warm-up. So, I’d say it’s safe to suggest that following a similar protocol, even if you don’t have a stationary bike, is probably the best way to cool down after a match. If your match times in between are longer, I’d say perform the first 2 steps to “flush” out the metabolic waste products in your blood, then go back to resting until you think it’s time to warm-up for your next match. Does this help/make sense?
Thanks for the question man. I hope this helps, but let me know if I wasn’t super clear on anything and I’ll get back to you.