Lifting Workouts For Wrestlers

Wrestling is a sport that requires a great amount of both, mental and physical discipline. A wrestler is an athlete, who needs to have a combination of agility, strength and flexibility. Wrestlers also need to have loads of stamina and must keep an eye on their weight. Any good lifting workouts should contain various exercises for building upper and lower body strength and muscle endurance. Only working to increase muscle won't really help on the mat, and what is really needed is, how to condition the body to be able to last throughout all that muscle strain during a match. Weightlifting workouts for wrestlers, should concentrate primarily on training muscles to withstand fatigue for as long as possible. A good amount of flexibility and agility training also helps to increase a wrestler's competency in the ring. Another important thing for any wrestler or athlete to remember is, to avoid over training and minimizing all possible risks of injury. This can be prevented by adopting a properly planned out workout schedule.

The Periodization Approach to Workouts

As in any other sport, a proper workout model and plan can help in obtaining better results and preventing injury. The periodization approach to weight training ensures that there is no excessive strain on the body and thus, minimizing risk of injury. It involves breaking up of the training period into different sections, each with a specific goal in mind. In the case of athletes, it is a yearly model that is followed. It helps the athlete's performance to peak around the time of the competitive season. It consists of the following phases:

• The Preparatory Phase: This involves a basic strength training for a short time, at the beginning, which is then followed by a lengthier phase of high strength training routines. This is then followed by endurance training, where the strength built up is used for improving endurance and agility.
• The Competitive Phase: This is during competition season and the wrestler's body goes through a lot of strain. During this phase, the body needs to be conditioned and the muscle and strength gained during earlier training needs to be maintained.
• The Recovery Phase: This is the phase of rest, after the competitive season is over, which can be up to a few weeks long. Light training or cardio can be done during this period, to keep in shape.

Lifting Workout Exercises
Given here is a 4 day exercise plan to follow every week. Remember to mix up the reps and sets every week to help overcome a plateau. The table below contains information on the exercises to be done over the week. The number of sets and reps to do are as follows:

• For the first week, you could do 4 sets of 6-8 reps. This will help build muscle.
• On the second week, you could try 3-4 sets of 12-15 reps, for giving definition and endurance to your muscles.
• For the third week, do 5 sets of 1-3 reps, for a power workout.

You could alternate the workout, thus to help constant development of muscle and strength. Cardio exercises on the first two days are also suggested to help increase flexibility and agility.

Day of the week	Body Part	Exercises
Day One	Lower Body	Lunges, Leg curls, Leg extensions, Squats, Calf raises
Day Two	Upper Body	Push-ups, Dips, Muscle curls, Pec Deck, Bench Press, Lat Pulldowns.
Day Three	Plyometrics for the Whole Body	Skipping, Jumps, Twists, Clap push-ups, Crunches
Fourth Day	Any one body part per week	Exercises corresponding to the respective body part and some cardio.

An important part of the workout should be nutrition. Remember to keep a close watch on your diet. To lose weight, include more proteins and gradually decrease the amount of carbohydrates that you consume. A lower body workout is very important to a wrestler and needs to be trained to the optimum. While doing these lifting workouts for wrestlers, train slowly and always maintain good form. Avoid over-training to be safe from injury. Adequate rest is also important and should not be neglected. Keep working out and you are sure to be a winner on the mat.