So I take it, glenn, that you would be against things like lighter-load barbell complexes for muscle endurance and conditioning?
No, I am not against them (barbell complexes), but I think they should make up a small part of the conditioning work. In my original post I listed barbell complexes as one of 12 sample conditioning workouts, and in reality, I think thats roughly about how much they should be used, about 1/10th of the time. They are GREAT conditioning tools, but have a big weakness... when doing barbell complexes, you tend to mimic the positions you are in when you go heavy with the barbell. This, I think, is their great weakness.
When you grapple, you are in 100 strange positions, exerting force from odd positions and in odd directions, and at odd speeds ranging from as fast as you can move unloaded to holding an isometric contraction as long and hard as you can.
There are a lot of reasons why barbells and in particular major barbell exercises like squats and bench presses are the best tool when you want to gain 20lbs of muscle mass or increase base strength. But they do not in any way mimic the way the body works when wrestling or fighting.
When moving from basic strength work to strength/conditioning that is specifically for grappling, you want to mimic as much as possible the demands of the sport. This means variety of positions and movement speeds. Shoveling sand or dirt, shouldering odd objects, one arm KB lifts, pushing a prowler, the farmers walk with awkward implements, loading logs or other odd objects... if you put all these things together, they are much more "specific" to grappling than weights.
I remember when I wrestled competitively. I spent 9 years at it, then about a year doing MMA/Judo. I also coached wrestling for a couple of years, but thats another story. Anyway, do you know the ONLY year that I didnt absolutely DIE the first week of practice? It wasnt the year that I had ran my ass off. The 5:19 mile and 11:38 two mile that I was fairly proud of didnt seem to help at all. It wasnt the year that me and my friend Barry Park spent the couple of months before practice doing circut training. It wasnt when I went back to wrestling after a stint in powerlifting and started practice with a 500+ pound bench press and a 700 + deadlift. None of that, while it all certainly had to help somewhat, prepared me to get on the mat for 5-6 minutes with a tough opponent.
What did prepare me was the year when I spent about 3 months cutting wood with my dad and stopped when wrestling season started. Dad ran the chainsaw, and I loaded the trailer. The small stuff you pick up with one hand and throw in the trailer. The medium stuff you get an armload of and walk to the trailer and dump. Some of the really big logs you roll to the trailer, then struggle to barely deadlift and roll over the side. The really really big logs, those you can pick up, you get a sledge hammer and split right there in the woods, then take the pieces to the trailer. 2-3 hours of that right after school, at a fast pace to keep up with Dad who worked fast when cutting, and also to get a "workout" which I felt that I needed because having to do it meant I didnt have time to run which I had always done to prepare for the season, then to home and supper then to the YMCA to squat and bench press and stuff, then bed. Now THAT prepared me for the first week of wrestling practice. That is the ONLY time that I can remember when that first week on the mat didnt phase me much.
This experience helped me a ton when I coached wrestling. The coaching experience led me to believe that it is not specifically loading logs of various sizes into a trailer that is an excellent conditioning tool for grappling, but movements with a huge variety of positions and with speeds ranging from isometric to explosive, in other words tons of variation of every variable that can be varied, lol.
When I gave the 12 examples in my earlier post for wrestling specific strength and conditioning workouts, I simply thought of 12 things each of which was unique in the position and movement and speed, etc. Get really good at going balls out with 5 or 10 different workouts like that, and you will have the best "base" that I can think of for wrestling. Much better than if you do all your work with a barbell in your hand. Use heavier weights and less sessions when you are concentrating on getting stronger, and lighter weights and more continuous movement and more sessions when you are getting ready for a fight, and you have, in my opinion, a fairly good system for both improving in a long-term fashion (getting stronger over time) and being in great shape when you have to get on the mat with someone in front of an audience.
Just my .02 cents worth
