The Top 20 Strength Exercises For Wrestlers!

1.  Barbell Squats

2.  Trap Bar Deadlifts

3.  Reverse Hyperextensions

4.  Glute-Ham-Gastroc Machine

5.  Reverse Close Grip Chinups

6.  Seated Rows With a Thick Bar

7.  T-Bar Rows

8.  Weighted Dips

9.  Bench Press (free weight or Hammer Strength)- medium grip

10.  Smith Machine Bench Press off Floor

11.  Standing Thick Bar Shoulder Press

12.  Dumbbell Lateral Raises

13.  Shrugs with Dumbbells

14.  Reverse Curl with Thick Bar

15.  Pushdowns with Thick Bar

16.  Seated Calf Raise

17.  Raise-ups (for abs)

18.  Dumbbell Hammer Curls

19.  4 Way Neck Machine

20.  Lying Leg Curl/Romanian Deadlift superset

... and NO, Powercleans DON'T make the list!! 

* You should never perform more than 12 exercises in a workout.  If you can do more, you're not working hard enough. 

** Perform a full body routine if you are wrestling more than 2 times per week.

*** Each exercise should be progressive, meaning that you should always strive to add weight or reps with each workout. 

why no powercleans, just wondering

... and NO, Powercleans DON'T make the list!! 

Wow, that's surprising.  Every workout plan I've read about for wrestlers says power cleans are one of the best exercises.  Where did you find this list at kdsmith?

why no powercleans, just wondering

Answer straight from the source,

steve wrote:

Hi Keith

Ok, here's my take on powercleans... They are great for building your traps, they are ok for building the anterior deltoid.  They are ok for building mid-back strength.  They suck as far as getting the hips, hamstrings, quads, and glutes.  Why?  Because your weak link is always going to be your shoulders (which have to clean the weight from a hang arm position to the top). 

This means that powercleans are not a very good lower body/posterior chain exercise.

Some coaches believe they build power. Power isn't built for the wrestling mat by lifting fast weights.  You will build better power on the mat if you build each of these muscle areas separately, and simply practice wrestling moves to perfection. 

A stronger muscle is a faster muscle.  But training a muscle with speed limits the amount of muscle fibers that you can incorporate into your workout.

Does that help?

Steve

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Kdsmith can you please explain fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscles. Like the difference between them, how to work them and which is better for wrestling.

Kdsmith can you please explain fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscles. Like the difference between them, how to work them and which is better for wrestling.

Every muscle is comprised of muscle fibers. These muscle fibers are a mixture of red fibers (slow twitch) and white fibers (fast twitch). People that are mesomorphic (naturally muscular) are high in white fibers.

Long distance runners have a high component of red fibers. Those that have a lot of white muscle fiber tend to need lower repetitions when strength training.

Those that have a lot of red muscle fibers tend to need higher repetitions when strength training. Unless you were to perform a muscle biopsy (OUCH.. that would be painful), you have to guesstimate a "range" of repetitions that work best for the body.

Take the barbell curl for the upper body and leg extension for the lower body. They are each isolation exercises that will tax your muscles in isolation. The curls isolate the biceps muscles, and the leg extensions isolate the quadriceps group on the front of the thighs.

We generally use a lower body strength exercise as well as an upper body strength exercise because many people have different mixes of red and white fibers in the their upper and lower bodies.

Find out your one repetition maximum on both the leg extension and barbell curl. Do this separately. Then rest 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, reduce the weight to 80% of the maximum. This set is to be performed as many times as possible to momentary muscular failure. Add 1 to this number, and subtract 1 from this number.

This will be your range of repetitions to shoot for. You try to choose a weight that allows you to reach momentary muscular failure within this range. Most people fall into a similar range, and there aren't too many people at the extremes.

If you don't want to do all of this you can use the following guideline: