The Wrestling Superstar's Training Journal

[Wrestling God]

Ok everyone, after being a lurker on this site for a LONG time I've decided to start my own training log...

My main goal is to win the Nationals in Greco, and a top 3 finish in Freestyle. Despite many attempts to try and cut weight and get down to the 84kg category, I compete at 96kg (211lbs).

Actually despite what my signature says, I'm a little underweight and need to gain 5/6lbs of muscle mass before the Nationals on the 26th March. So although it isn't really a program designed for athletes, I'm using Max-OT to try and pack on some quality muscle.

Basically, my routine goes like this:

Monday

AM
Run 1 mile for time
Warm-up
Heavy weight
training – 30 mins
Cool-down
Technique study and shadow wrestling

PM
Warm-up
Wrestling practice, cooperative technique (120 mins)
Throws with dummy
Cool-down
Massage & stretching

Tuesday

AM
Run 1 mile for time
Warm-up
Heavy weight
training – 30 mins
Cool-down
Technique study and shadow wrestling

PM
Warm-up
Plyometrics (medicine ball work) – 20 mins
Core balance work (balance drills) – 20 mins
Cool-down
Massage & stretching

Wednesday

AM
Run 1 mile for time
Warm-up
Heavy weight
training – 30 mins
Cool-down
Technique study and shadow wrestling

PM
Warm-up
Wrestling practice, cooperative technique (120 mins)
Throws with dummy
Cool-down
Massage & stretching

Thursday

AM
Sprint work on track
Warm-up
Heavy weight
training – 30 mins
Cool-down
Technique study and shadow wrestling

PM
Warm-up
Wrestling practice, cooperative technique (120 mins)
Throws with dummy
Cool-down
Massage & stretching

Friday

AM
Run 1 mile for time
Warm-up
Heavy weight
training – 30 mins
Cool-down
Technique study and shadow wrestling

PM
Warm-up
Wrestling practice, cooperative technique (120 mins)
Throws with dummy
Cool-down
Massage & stretching

Saturday

AM
Run 1 mile for time
Warm-up
Core strength endurance work (elastic strand) – 20 mins
Cool-down

PM
REST
Massage & stretching

Sunday

AM
Warm-up
Plyometrics (medicine ball work) – 20 mins
Core balance work (balance drills) – 20 mins
Cool-down
Technique study and shadow wrestling

PM
Warm-up
Cross training – bicycle, football, basketball, etc…
Cool-down
Massage & stretching

What do you all think so far? I'll be posting specific details about my training every day and look forward to any help, comments or suggestions!

By the way, attached is a picture from the 2003 World Championships.

Well that's about all for now. Check back soon!

[Wrestling God]

Despite being sick as hell with an annoying cold, I still lifted. It sucked because I was weak and dizzy. Anyhoo, today's weight room work looked like this:

Tuesday – arms and abs

Straight bar curls 2x4
Alt dumbbell curls 2x4
Straight bar cable curls 1x6

Lying tricep presses 2x4
Tricep cable press downs 2x6
Dumbell kick backs 1x6

Weighted side bends 2x20
Weighted crunches 2x10

I was also supposed to run and wrestle today but that will wait until I feel less ill. It's not cool to throw up on the wrestling mat.. :-D

[IronBender800]

You need some rest days in there man.

I used to wrestle and im still a huge fan of it. How were you in hs?

[Wrestling God]

Actually I started wrestling in Europe and currently live in Europe. Over here they don't have wrestling in HS, pretty much all private clubs. I was Junior National Freestyle Champ and Junior Vice National Greco Champ. Prior to that nothing of major importance

I'm still debating if I should try and drop down to 184 lbs (84kg). It would be nice to compete at a lighter class, but I'm not sure if I can lose 20lbs without sacrificing muscle mass and reducing training quality/workload....

Anyway it's great to hear from another wrestler. What's your background in the sport?

[IronBender800]

Actually I started wrestling in Europe and currently live in Europe. Over here they don't have wrestling in HS, pretty much all private clubs. I was Junior National Freestyle Champ and Junior Vice National Greco Champ. Prior to that nothing of major importance

I'm still debating if I should try and drop down to 184 lbs (84kg). It would be nice to compete at a lighter class, but I'm not sure if I can lose 20lbs without sacrificing muscle mass and reducing training quality/workload....

Anyway it's great to hear from another wrestler. What's your background in the sport?

That would be up to you. Gradually work you way down if you want but i would just wrestle where you fall naturally.

Im nothing special wrestled 2 1/2 years in hs and did some freestyle on the side.

[ford4life]

whats your name? what country are you from in europe? im a huge international fan... i like it so much more than american hs wrestling... id like to see you at worlds in the next couple of years.

[Wrestling God]

whats your name? what country are you from in europe? im a huge international fan... i like it so much more than american hs wrestling... id like to see you at worlds in the next couple of years.

I currently live in France and wrestle in the French Nationals. I represented Great Britain in the 2003 Greco Roman World Championships but tore my ACL in my opening fight and was forced to withdraw from the competition

I have a long term personal goal of becoming a Greco Roman Olympian in 2008. Follow my training journal and see if I make it

I like regular hs and college wrestling and enjoy watching it/following it whenever I get the chance.

Talking about international wrestling, there was/is a big debate about dropping Greco from the 2008 Olympics...I really hope that doesn't happen. It seems crazy to me that one of the original sports would be dropped to allow something like chess to become an Olympic sport.

Anyway thanks for your comments! It's really nice to see some other wrestling enthusiasts here

BTW, PM me if you want any more info.

[Wrestling God]

Today I went for a 1 mile cross country run before breakfast. Ran pretty slow as my cold hasn't cleared up yet.

My weight room work looked like this...

Wednesday – shoulders and traps

Straight bar military press 3x4
Dumbbell press 2x4
Dumbbell side laterals 2x6

Barbell shrugs 2x4
Upright rows 2x4

Compared to the type/amount of lifting I'd previously been doing, this was a breeze and only took about 25 mins.

I went to the wrestling room today with the intention of just watching so I left my workout gear behind. However when I got there the urge to wrestle was just too strong so I just ended up wrestling in shirt and jeans!

Also did some flexibility work in the evening.

Anyway I feel like my cold is getting better so I think I should be able to start next week at full intensity.

[ford4life]

dropping greco? i know they (ioc) wanted to drop the number of weights, while FILA wanted to add more for womens... interesting... i guess well just have to see

[Wrestling God]

I completely forgot that I was supposed to do track work this morning! So around 4pm I ended up running cross country for a mile but it went so badly. Basically a good song came on my mp3 player so I sprinted pretty much full out for about 400yds before my muscles had a chance to warm up properly. So after I slowed down I got a painful stitch in my side that forced me to really slow done for the rest of my run. So that sucked.

I really think that I have got to get my run in before breakfast otherwise it screws up the whole day.

On the other hand, my weight training went very well! Today was back day so I did the following:

Thursday – back

Cable pull downs 3x4
Bent over barbell rows 2x4
Bent over dumbbell rows 2x4
Good mornings 2x4

It only took 25 minutes to complete so it was pretty easy to keep the intensity levels nice and high.

I'm almost out of protein, I ordered some cheap ass whey the other day via mail order...I sure hope it gets here soon.

I'm going to try and lower calorie intake to lean up a little. I know that in theory it's not possible to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time, but from what I researched on this board quite a few people have managed to do it so let's see what happens... Anyone have any comments/suggestions on this?

No wrestling practice tonight, just an administrative staff meeting. It's a 70 mile round trip from my house to the wrestling room so there's no way in hell that I'm going to bother going unless I know for sure that I can wrestle. Gas prices are so high here.

It's 8:30pm as I type this. I'll probably do some streching and maybe use my Compex EMS to loosen up stiff muscles.

[sword chucks]

Good lifting bro.. looks like a huge amount of work, you'll hvae to eat a lot

It would probably help to track your progress if you write down how much you lifted in your workout log each session though.

Good luck with this

[Wrestling God]

My morning run went real good today. Sometimes unless I'm running for time I like to shadow wrestle while I run...even though it freaks out anyone who happens to see me!

In the weight room today was chest day so I did the following:

Friday – chest and abs

Flat barbell bench press 3x4
Incline dumbbell bench press 3x4
Incline flyes 2x6

Weighted side bends 2x20
Weighted crunches 2x10

Again this went great and only took 25 minutes.

Wrestling practice also went pretty good, although I only had one little-ish dude to wrestle with (probably around 180lbs). We worked on par terre offense and defense and wrestled a couple of greco matches. The guy was ok enough to give me a fair workout until he dropped to the ground exhaused! Aside from him there were only a few girls to wrestle with which was fun for a few minutes until they got tired also. So I finished with some work with the throwing dummy. I need to find more people who like INTENSITY in the wrestling room...

Anyway I'm going to start logging everything I eat. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I'm vegetarian!

Breakfast: Protein shake (50/50 carb/protein mix). Approx 40g of protein. Fruit yoghurt.

Mid morning: Protein shake. (95% protein). Approx 40g of protein. Had some grapes.

Lunch: Protein shake. (95% protein). Approx 40g of protein. Mixed salad, no dressing. Wholemeal roll.

Mid afternoon: Protein shake. (95% protein). Approx 40g of protein. Peanut butter sandwich.

Dinner: Ok this is real bad...12" cheese pizza

Lots of water throughout the day. And also all my protein shakes are with semi skimmed milk so I expect the total protein content is probably around 210g. Not sure how great my diet is but being vegetarian I don't have all that many options if I want to get enough protein. What do you guys think?

I have to get up early tomorrow to go do the grocery shopping so that means no morning run. I will try and run before lunch.

[Wrestling God]

Well today I didn't have any time for training I coached football all afternoon and was stuck all morning at the stupid supermarket. I tried to keep an eye on my diet though:

Breakfast: Chocolate Puffs cereal

Mid morning: Whey protein shake

Lunch: Whey protein shake. Yoghurt. Mixed salad with low fat dressing

Mid afternoon: Reduced fat potato chips

Dinner: Pasta with tomato sauce.

Well I guess it wasn't that great... Will try and make up for lost training tomorrow.

I feel stiff in my chest, shoulders and arms from yesterday's workout. Actually it's a nice feeling

[IronBender800]

Haha nice workouts dude! Your last days diet looked a lot like mine. Id like to wrestle greco ive always been an upper body guy anyways. Keep up the good work man!

[Wrestling God]

It's 1am in the morning as I write this, I just got back from watching the Falcons vs Eagles game.

Today I did Plyometrics and balance training.

Plyometric work

Medicine ball chest pass (against wall) (warmup)
Clap push up: 2 x 10
Explosive lifting (bench press, snatch, squat): 3 x 6 for each (40% of 1RM)

Core balance work

Flamingo with eyes open for 30 seconds (alternate legs)
Flamingo with eyes closed for 30 seconds
Squats on balance beam for 25 reps
Staggered stance level change on balance beam for 15 reps
Balance board – front and back for 30 reps
Balance board – rotational for 30 reps
Balance board – side to side for 30 reps

Breakfast: Whey protein shake, banana

Mid morning: Whey protein shake

Lunch: Whey protein shake, homemade vegetable soup

Mid afternoon: Hi protein pasta

Dinner: Hi protein pasta

Actually I made the hi protein pasta myself fooling around in the kitchen. I took 50g of wholemeal flour, 50g of whey protein and added an egg. Then mixed it up and threw it in the pasta machine. Despite using vanilla flavored whey protein it didn't taste too bad!

Tomorrow I have a lot of stuff to do so I'll make sure to make my training a priority.

[IronBender800]

Sounds good dude! So you were actually at the eagles game?

They kicked ass im gonna go out on a limb and say they win the super bowl.

[Wrestling God]

Sounds good dude! So you were actually at the eagles game?

They kicked ass im gonna go out on a limb and say they win the super bowl.

Nope sadly I wasn't at the game, just watched it at a bar. I'm living in Europe at the moment and there is a big time difference....I'm going to be watching the Super bowl at like 4am

I also think that the Eagles are looking good and have a good chance of winning

[Wrestling God]

Today I went for a 1 mile cross country run before breakfast and lifted early afternoon. Today was leg day and my routine went like this:

Monday – legs

Squats 3x4
Leg extensions 2x4
Leg curls 2x4
Standing calf raise 2x6

It went good and only took 25 mins in the weight room.

Wrestling practice wasn't all that great. I drove 3hrs only to get to the wrestling room and find I had no one big and/or good to practice with. I don't know where I can find some experienced heavy guys around here to train with The scary thing is that no one can seem to see how not being able to train with international caliber athletes will negatively affect my performance in international competition! Maybe I'll try and arrange a trip to Russia next month to get some tough training in before the Nationals...

My diet for today went like this:

Breakfast: Whey protein shake, banana

Lunch: Whey protein shake, mixed salad, wholemeal roll

Mid afternoon: Wholemeal roll with peanut butter (pre-wrestling meal)

Dinner: Whey protein shake, yoghurt

I cannot believe that I'm still gaining weight and getting bigger/stronger while eating as little as that! I hope it lasts!

Oh yeah, forgot to mention, I managed to add 20lbs to my max squat

[Wrestling God]

Went for usual 1 mile cross country run before breakfast.

I was so busy today I didn't have time to lift But I could probably use a rest day anyway so what the hell.

I weighed myself today - 214lbs. I'm going to reduce the amount of food I eat starting tomorrow.

Today's eating went like this:

Breakfast: Banana, Whey Protein shake, yoghurt, 2 slices wholemeal bread and peanut butter.

Lunch: Pinto beans and white rice, Whey protein shake.

Mid afternoon: 2 apples

Dinner: Pita bread stuffed with lettuce, packet of instant noodles.

It was so cold here today. I coached football earlier this evening and I'm still shaking from the cold! I'm going to use this as my excuse for eating badly! :-D

Tomorrow I'm going to start doing slow 3 mile runs to help burn some excess fat.

[DONJUANPIMPIN]

Good luck with your training

[IronBender800]

Nice training dude! Arent there any school teams with good guys you can work with? Heres an idea........we used to do this at our practices....get with about 4 guys around your weight and do a thing called horses...each guy takes a number 1-4 and you go through the horse like 1 will start neutral wrestling each of the other 3 guys in neutral for like 1-2 mins each go then he goes to bottom same process then top. Since theres nobody who can work with you one on one just have a bunch of diff guys wrestle you while your tired.

[ford4life]

Nice training dude! Arent there any school teams with good guys you can work with? Heres an idea........we used to do this at our practices....get with about 4 guys around your weight and do a thing called horses...each guy takes a number 1-4 and you go through the horse like 1 will start neutral wrestling each of the other 3 guys in neutral for like 1-2 mins each go then he goes to bottom same process then top. Since theres nobody who can work with you one on one just have a bunch of diff guys wrestle you while your tired.

yeah we do that too at my school and my freestyle club.. we call it sharkbait in philly though. Its great, as it simulates a guy wrestling an entire match with fresh opponents every minute, making it much harder. Obviously, for international styles you should do alot more neutral than par tarre for this drill

[Wrestling God]

Nice training dude! Arent there any school teams with good guys you can work with? Heres an idea........we used to do this at our practices....get with about 4 guys around your weight and do a thing called horses...each guy takes a number 1-4 and you go through the horse like 1 will start neutral wrestling each of the other 3 guys in neutral for like 1-2 mins each go then he goes to bottom same process then top. Since theres nobody who can work with you one on one just have a bunch of diff guys wrestle you while your tired.

It's weird but schools here don't have wrestling teams. Judo is real big here so I'm going to see if I find some good judo guys. It'll be better than nothing I guess, but honestly I find that an elite judo player is no match for even a moderately skilled wrestler. So many judo guys get mad when a wrestler comes into the dojo, puts on a white belt and then starts beating the crap out of everyone. Any of you guys ever fight against Judo guys?

[Wrestling God]

yeah we do that too at my school and my freestyle club.. we call it sharkbait in philly though. Its great, as it simulates a guy wrestling an entire match with fresh opponents every minute, making it much harder. Obviously, for international styles you should do alot more neutral than par tarre for this drill

This is a great idea and something I love doing when I can find enough opponents. It's great because it forces you to change style every time you swap opponents.

On a side note, next time I'm at practice I will try and take some pictures to make my training journal more interesting!

[Wrestling God]

Firstly, thanks so much everyone for your comments. It's really nice and is great for motivation.

Well, today was one of 'those' days....

I had so many places to go to today and my car (a 1991 Dodge Shadow) decides to get a major electrical fault. Basically every time I press on the brake pedal, ALL the lights (including dash) and the musical door chimes come on. It was like I was driving a damn musical christmas tree! It was too dangerous for me to drive (not having any brake lights) so that stopped me from going to wrestling practice.

Also so many other annoying things happened - lost credit card, cat pissed in house, etc... oh well you can probably tell I had a fun day! *sarcastic*

Anyhoo, here's what training I did today:

Wednesday – shoulders and traps

Straight bar military press 3x4
Dumbbell press 2x4
Dumbbell side laterals 2x6

Barbell shrugs 2x4
Upright rows 2x4

Added about 6lbs to military press compared to last week. On all of my sets I manage to complete the 4th rep but there is absolutely no way I could do a 5th. Suprisingly enough considering the rest of my day the weight room work went pretty good.

I also used the Compex EMS to loosen up a little bit so I'm ready for tomorrow. And I did some stretching which felt good.

Nutritionally, my day went like this:

Breakfast: Small bowl of chocolate frosted flakes, 2 slices of toast with peanut butter, fruit juice

Mid morning: Protein shake

Lunch: Cheese sandwich, yoghurt

Mid afternoon: Apple

Dinner: Pasta with homemade vegetable sauce

Tomorrow I will be training upper and lower back in the weight room, running on the track and (if I get my car fixed) going to wrestling practice. Like usual I'll also do technical wrestling study/shadow wrestling.

[ford4life]

i acutally want to learn judo, just for the foot skills. if you have ever seen steve mocco wrestle, who finished 2nd at the us nationals last year at 120 FS is all about the foot sweep. he won the national prep school championship 4X, and was the frist freshman heavyweight to do so. I think theres a dojo down the street from me, so i might practice there this summer.

[sword chucks]

Nice workouts bro..

[IronBender800]

Nice workout man!

From what i understand if your good at judo it doesnt mean you will be good at wrestling. I believe wrestling is a very effective martial art and combined with striking you can be a fighting force to be reckoned with. Wrestling=AWESOME Combine wrestling with ju jit su then your set grappling wise.

[Wrestling God]

i acutally want to learn judo, just for the foot skills. if you have ever seen steve mocco wrestle, who finished 2nd at the us nationals last year at 120 FS is all about the foot sweep. he won the national prep school championship 4X, and was the frist freshman heavyweight to do so. I think theres a dojo down the street from me, so i might practice there this summer.

I know all about Mocco's sweep, I think he actually got it from his sister who is supposedly a nationally ranked Judo champ! Actually I personally think Mocco may have Olympic potential for 2008.

[Wrestling God]

Nice workout man!

From what i understand if your good at judo it doesnt mean you will be good at wrestling. I believe wrestling is a very effective martial art and combined with striking you can be a fighting force to be reckoned with. Wrestling=AWESOME Combine wrestling with ju jit su then your set grappling wise.

I think you are right...wrestling is a truly effective fighting style. Did you see the Rulon Gardner vs Yoshida fight? (Pride). I was confident that Rulon (he's an Olympic Gold Greco medalist, World Greco Champion) would win but I didn't realize it would be SO easy for him. I have a link for the trailer of the fight somewhere, let me know if you want me to post it.

About 2 weeks ago I went to train with some ju jit su guys. All they did was tie up with me and then just drop down to their butts and try for an arm bar. It was funny because they all thought that my gut wrench was a special kind of submission move that they had never seem before!!

To be fair though I think that good ju jitstu guys are very tough on the ground and can easily make you tap if you're not careful.

But I think that wrestling is MUCH more physical than either ju jit su or judo and has a lot more hard brutal contact. Well anyway that's just my 2c...