Alright, we’re back to the original series. In this post I’ll start to detail the exercises in Day 3 of the program.
The original post in the series covers some of the in season programming principles I like to follow. Read it here- Wrestling Training- In-Season Power Development.
Day 3:
a. Box Squat Horizontal Jump (4×4)
a. MB Slam (4×5)
a. SL Jump to Bench (4×4)
b. DB Jerk (4×4)
b. Hanging Leg Raise (4×10)
c. Dr. Mike DB Bench (4×8)
c. Pause DB Row (4×10)
c. DB Step Up (4×8)
I’ll first post some videos of exercises that I’ve already written about. Below each video I’ll put a link to the blog post that details the exercise in case you have any questions after watching the video.
DB Jerk:
Hanging Leg Raise:
Alright, let’s get into the first of 3 new exercises introduced in this program. In this post I’ll cover the Dr. Mike DB Bench.
Dr. Mike DB Bench
To get things started, I’d first like to show a video on the Dr. Mike DB Bench.
I’m sure you’ve heard me mention Dr. Mike before. For those who have never heard of him, let me give you a brief background.
Dr. Mike is currently in his 3rd year of residency at a local hospital. And while I think that’s cool, it’s his past profession that has had the greatest impact on my training. Dr. Mike was a Chiropractor for over 15 years before deciding to go to med school.
Before meeting Dr. Mike, I didn’t really buy into what Chiropractors do. However, he’s since fixed a number of problems I’ve had and I’m now a BIG time believer. I highly recommend it to wrestlers at all levels.
I even wrote a post about how he helped me. Click here to read it.
In addition to being a practicing DC, Dr. Mike was also a competitive powerlifter. As a result, he trained with some very high level lifters back in the 80s. In fact, he once trained with a discus thrower who was on the Olympic team at the time.
This discus thrower showed Dr. Mike a variation of the DB Overhead Press that he swore by for building super strong shoulders (see pic below).
One day, Dr. Mike taught this style of pressing to me. Since then I have named any alternate arm press variation “Dr. Mike Presses.”
Alright, let’s get into some of the benefits of this style of DB press.
First, the Dr. Mike DB Bench requires the lifter to press with one arm at a time. As a result, this is a great way to identify where imbalances in your upper body may exist.
The other big benefit is that it builds great low end strength because you start each press from a dead stop.
With little to no stretch reflex involved, you build unbelievable starting strength. This type of strength is crucial in helping you overcome stalemate situations.
The bottom line is, the Dr. Mike DB Bench makes a great addition in your training program. So make sure to keep your upper body in balance and build some great low end strength by incorporating these.
Check out the next post in the series- Paused DB Row.