When an athlete trains for a sport, they need to take into consideration these four attributes: strength, explosiveness, speed, and endurance. Everything the athlete does in training, whether lifting weights, performing plyometrics, or pedaling on a stationary bike needs to serve these four attributes/categories in some regard.

The training session, day to day, week to week, exercise to exercise, needs to be set up in a manner that improves the athlete’s physical fitness and capabilities in the areas of strength, explosiveness, speed, and endurance.

Wrestlers' strength training is done through this exact lens.

In this blog, we will cover how to set up a week of training to best impact a wrestler's sports performance training around acquiring more strength, explosiveness, speed, and endurance.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Wrestling Training Split

Day To Day Strength Training Breakdown

The Bottom Line

Wrestling Training Split

To best serve the attributes of strength, explosiveness, speed, and endurance, we want to set up a week of training in the following manner:

• Day 1: Lower Body Power
• Day 2: AM Long Endurance | PM Upper Body Power
• Day 3: AM High Intensity Interval Endurance | PM Athlete Day
• Day 4: Speed Day
• Day 5: Rest
• Day 6: AM Long Endurance Training | PM Full Body Impulse Day
• Day 7: Rest

The training split, which is derived for off-season training, is important because it serves all four attributes of strength, explosiveness, speed, and endurance. It gives proper doses of each attribute and is centered around the ability for wrestling athletes to recover and concurrently train each category of strength, explosiveness, speed, and endurance as is needed for the sport.

Day To Day Strength Training Breakdown

Each day is biased toward one attribute more than the other. However, each attribute is being worked on in some capacity. Whether that is building strength through lifting weights, explosiveness through sprinting or performing plyometrics, or increasing speed and endurance through running interval sprints up a hill, the day to day works like an intricate quilt, threaded with the component parts to provide the whole.

Let’s break down each day and session into its individual parts.

Day 1: Lower Body Power

The Lower Body Power day for wrestling revolves around feeding the attributes of strength and explosiveness. Strength is the primary attribute and explosiveness is secondary on this training day.

The exercise selection for the day is shaped in this way:

• 1A. Technical Coordination Exercise
• 2A. Absolute Strength Exercise
• 2B. Plyometric Exercise
• 3A. Accessory Movement
• 3B. Accessory Movement
• 4A. Dynamic Trunk Control Work

Technical coordination exercises are weightlifting movements like the snatch, clean, and jerk. The movements are explosive and fast. Wrestlers' intention in performing technical coordination movements needs to be around moving heavy weight fast. The clean and its derivatives, like a two box clean, are great exercises to utilize on this day.

Absolute strength exercises are powerlifting movements like the squat and the bench press. Being this is a lower body power day, the squat is going to be the exercise of choice. Wrestlers can perform back squats, front squats, and variations of those movements.

The plyometric exercise is paired with the absolute strength exercise to help develop explosiveness in conjunction with the strength being gained from the squat. Box jumps are an effective movement in this case for contrast training (the pairing of absolute strength movements with plyometric exercises).

Accessory movements close out the session. The accessory movements need to target lower body musculature: quads, hamstrings, calves, tibialis, and glutes. The goal is to get blood flow around joints like the ankles, knees, and hips to help get in front of potential injuries wrestlers experience.

The final exercise is an accessory movement for wrestlers, but an accessory movement that specifically targets the trunk region of the athlete. Dynamic trunk control is pivotal to athletic performance for wrestlers.

Day 2: AM Long Endurance PM Upper Body Power

Guess it is a good time to note this is a pretty advanced program for wrestlers, being there are double sessions throughout the training week.

The morning session focuses on endurance training. It is done at a Zone 2 type of pace. The intention is to build mitochondrial volume and increase the blood volume within the body. This is the shorter long endurance training session of the two. Wrestlers will want to perform around 60 minutes of cardio during this session. The work can be done on a stationary bike, rower, ski, or as a long slow run.

The upper body power day follows a similar fashion as the lower body power day.

• 1A. Technical Coordination Exercise
• 2A. Absolute Strength Exercise Push
• 2B. Absolute Strength Exercise Pull
• 3A. Accessory Movement
• 3B. Accessory Movement
• 3C. Accessory Movement

Being this is an upper body day, the technical coordination movement needs to be a jerk or derivative of the jerk–power jerk, push press, behind the neck jerk, or squat jerk.

On this day there are two absolute strength movements, one pushing and on pulling. The push movement will be the bench press or a derivative of the bench press. The pull movement, which is incredibly important for wrestlers, will be a pull up or variation of the pull up–neutral grip pull up, curl up grip pull up, or rope climb. Ideally the pull up variation is weighted to really build that absolute strength.

The session concludes with accessory movements that target the back, biceps, triceps, or forearms. The goal is to put all three of the exercises back to back to back to help contribute to localized muscle endurance around muscles wrestlers will have fatigue during the course of a match.

Day 3: AM High Intensity Interval Endurance PM Athlete Day

Again, the morning starts off the day with endurance training. Except this time the intensity is turned up. The big goal is to get the heart rate thumping at or around 90% of the max heart rate, recovery, and do it again, all in an effort to improve the wrestler’s VO2 max capacity.

Intervals can be done as sprints, on a rower, on a ski erg, or on a stationary bike. Various rest times between efforts should be used. Ultimately, as a wrestler, the athlete wants to be able to perform either 3 rounds of 2 minute efforts with :30 second rests between and maintain the high level of energy output, or 2 rounds of 3 minute efforts with :30 second rests between rounds and maintain the high level of energy output, mimicking matches. The intervals should be both longer than and shorter than actual matches, with greater rounds, in the realm of 5+ repeats, of going hard during the interval work.

The afternoon session is an athlete day that revolves around plyometrics and building explosiveness.

An athlete day looks like this:

• 1A. Neural Wake Up Movement
• 2A: Bilateral Jump
• 2B. Unilateral Jump
• 3A. Jump Series
• 4A. Reflexive Strength Movement

The neural wake up movement is to get the synapses firing. Walking on a PVC pipe in bare feet is great here. It is also an area where a technical coordination movement can be used, like a power clean or power snatch.

The bilateral jump is a plyometric movement done on two feet. Stair jumps, box jumps, tuck jumps, successive bounds, and hurdle hops are all killer movements here.

The unilateral jump is a plyometric movement done on a single leg. Training unilateral strength is important for wrestlers, particularly because they engage in an open skilled sport that includes scrambles, flurries, and an opponent that demands reaction, counters, and enforcing the will. Movements like single leg pogo jumps, single leg tuck jumps, mini hurdle hops, single leg stair jumps are all great here.

Jump series combine implements, directional patterns, and the use of unilateral and bilateral movements. For instance, wrestlers can benefit from starting in a kneeling position, do a single leg hurdle hop over successive mini hurdles, then do a lateral jump, land on two feet, bound, and finish with a hurdle hop or box jump. It helps to be creative with jump series movements, combining directional changes and implements like boxes and hurdles (of all sizes).

The final movement on athlete day for wrestlers, the reflexive strength movement, is meant to train athletic movements under load. The idea is the exercises being performed make on the mat movements instinctual. Exercises like a dumbbell single leg RDL snatch to hip lock is a prime example of a great reflective strength movement.

Day 4: Speed Day

Training speed involves developing acceleration, top end speed, and change of direction, typically in a locomotive fashion.

Wrestlers don’t have running type speed in the sport. The development of top end speed is low on the priority ladder. However, training top end speed does help improve acceleration, which plays a big part in change of direction (COD).

Since wrestlers don’t sprint, speed takes on characteristics around quick, explosive movements. Movements that create angles and help with changing direction and changing levels.

A speed day looks like this:

• 1A: Technical Coordination Movement
• 2A: Speed Primer
• 3A: Speed Patterning
• 4A: Category (top end speed, acceleration, change of direction) Focused Drill
• 5A: Sprint

The technical coordination movement needs to be light and fast. The snatch movement is great in this slot.

The speed primer needs to be a sub-maximal, relative to speed, movement, but one that gets the body moving fast and prepared to move fast. Pushing a sled over 10 yards sprinting is great for wrestlers. The sprint is short enough to develop acceleration and the load disables the body’s ability to reach max speed.

The speed patterning movement is technique development around speed mechanics. For instance, wrestlers could benefit from specific footwork drills here. The idea is to train the speed component of the drill. At the same time, the drill can be less sport specific and revolve around more general speed dill patterning.

The next movement, the category focused drill, is built around the component being focused on. So wrestlers will want to focus on acceleration or change of direction. For instance, with change of direction, wrestlers can run sets of 20 yard shuttles or the L cone drill. Both are great for speed development, agility enhancement, and have a solid carryover to the mat, especially those lateral level changes in the 20 yard shuttle.

The final exercise is sprinting. The distance and manner of sprinting can vary. For wrestlers, a 20 yard/meter sprint up a hill is excellent exercise to perform. One thing to remember is that sprints are maximal effort movement. Go fast!

Day 5: Rest

Straight forward as can be: don’t lift, don’t jump, don’t run. Do walk around. Do move. But don’t overdo anything. If anything, sit in a sauna for a bit

Day 6: AM Long Endurance Training PM Full Body Impulse

Coming off the rest day, the body should be ready to go for the final double session of the training week.

The morning starts with a long endurance session. Again, this session is a zone 2 style conditioning session. The intensity needs to be moderated appropriately. This long endurance session is longer than the other. It should last in the neighborhood of 60 to 100 minutes in length. Again, wrestlers row, bike, ski, or run. They can even combine all the elements.

The afternoon/evening session is the final lifting session and is a full body lift. Full body means both the lower body and upper body will be trained.

A full body impulse session looks like this:

• 1A. Technical Coordination Movement
• 2B. Lower Body Absolute Strength Movement
• 3A. Upper Body Absolute Strength Movement
• 4A. Upper Body Accessory Movement
• 5A. Upper Body Accessory Movement
• 6A. Dynamic Trunk Control Development

Because the full body is being trained, the session has more exercises.

The technical coordination movement ideally encompasses both lower and upper body. A great exercise in this regard is a clean and jerk.

The lower body absolute strength movement can vary. A great one here is the single leg squat to develop that unilateral strength, improve balance, and really help develop that shot from the neutral position. If an athlete has a weak pull and needs hamstring development, this is an area where deadlifts or Zercher RDLs work well, especially for wrestlers.

The session then switches to the upper body movements. The focus during this part of the session is hypertrophy–get bigger muscles. That means high rep sets, which also contributes to localized muscle endurance.

For the upper body absolute strength movement, a bench press variation is great here. Something like a fat bar close grip incline bench press works well, or double bounce neutral grip dumbbell bench press. Make sure the reps are high.

Then comes accessory movements. As wrestlers, the accessory movements benefit from focusing on pulling exercises: lat pull downs, dumbbell rows, horizontal rows, bicep curls, and a host of others. Select accessory movements that develop grip strength as well: forearm rollers and Zottman curls come to mind.

Conclude the session with dynamic trunk control work. Ideally, this exercise should be something more rotationally based.

The Bottom Line

Organizing an effective strength training session for wrestlers takes planning and preparation. It demands understanding a system that will best help wrestlers achieve their training goals to impact their sports performance positively.

An effective strength training session for wrestlers is one that is organized in a manner to ensure that the attributes of strength, explosiveness, speed, and endurance are being developed congruently. Not all need to be developed on the same day, in the same way, or through the same manners, but all do need to be addressed and taken care of.

So if you’re a wrestling athlete or wrestling coach looking to have a solid organized strength training session that takes into account strength, explosiveness, speed and endurance with training, head over to peakstrength.app and download Peak Strength to reap the benefits of an organized training session.

Later.