Grip and BW stuff for Wrestling

[Diligent]

Wow, I didn't know we could have a lil' training log over here...this is pretty cool....

I wrestle collegiate, freestyle and Greco-Roman styles in the Dallas/Ft.Worth area, and am also starting out with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I am 20 yrs old, 5'9", and about 155lbs...so I'll probably be in the 149lb weight class this year. I am a junior in college and am majoring in Spanish.

I will be doing some bw exercises to failure for each set, like handstand pushups, dips, pullups and pushups. Maybe some lunges or military press in there every once in a while....

I'll also be doing some grip stuff. I have a #2 captains of crush gripper and am VERY close to closing it...like less than 1/4 of an inch, so hopefully I'll be closing that soon. Then I'll order the number 3 one. I also have a 'Super-Gripper' that has springs for resistance, and that is also real cool, too. I will also be training pinch grip, doing the Rolling Thunder!, and levering (my favorite).

Hopefully some of you can give me some good tips and advice on how to get more freakish hand/forearm strength. BTW, I absolutely cannot do bending nails and stuff like that... it is way too hard on my joints...there is no way I can do that with wrestling...if I wasn't wrestling, then I'd bend, but no can do on the bending....

Wish me well in my training.

 

[Diligent]

Thursday

Today I had wrestling practice for an hour and a half, which was killer...I almost didn't go to the gym afterwards...

1 x 7 hand stand pushups + 1 x 14 wide grip pullups
1 x 5 hand stand pushups + 1 x 9 wide grip pullups
1 x 4 hand stand pushups + 1 x 8 wide grip pullups

1 x 20 dips
1 x 15 dips
1 x 14 dips

6 sets of front neck bridges for 30-40 seconds each. I spread them out in my workout, rather than doing them all at once.

Rolling Thunder!!! (2.5 inch handle)
10 seconds w/ 90lbs (right and left hand)
10 seconds w/ 100lbs (right hand) 8 seconds w/ 100lbs (left hand)
5 seconds w/ 110lbs (right hand) couldn't even pick it up with my left hand...
1 second w/ 115lbs (right hand) again, couldn't budge it with left hand...

All of my reps on bw exercises were pretty bad, but I had just come from an intense wrestling practice. And wow, that Rolling Thunder is awesome! I love it. But I feel like a girly man... Next week hopefully I'll be able to move up.

 

[Duncon76]

You need to get a Rope for Rope climbing and also a Sandbag for your training. Let me know if you need help in terms of getting this stuff..

 

[Diligent]

You need to get a Rope for Rope climbing and also a Sandbag for your training. Let me know if you need help in terms of getting this stuff..

Yeah, man, if I had a rope, I would totally do that... I just have no idea where I would tie it to...any ideas?

OK, also, I've seen people on here talking about sandbags and what not...what is that for???

 

[Duncon76]

Rope http://www.functionalhandstrength.com/rope_climbing.html

Sandbag. Sand never stays in one place. It moves around, much harder to lift and move around. Its as hard as lifting another human being around. Anything you can do with DB or BB, you can do with Sandbags..But the sand is much harder.

Other grip Stuff. Do thick DB or BB work. www.ironmind.com has thick DB or BB. If you cannot afford them, wrap a towell around the DB or BB to make it thicker. Towell chinups too. Let towell hang, then grab onto for pullups, plus just wrapping the towell around the bar itself making it thicker is brutal. Make sure to use chalk on your hands.

Save up some money and at least get some either
Kettebells www.dragondoor.com
Clubbells www.clubbell.tv

Either one of these are awesome for total body strength and conditioning and your grip..

A great conditioning routine is Tony Cecchines Lucky 13 DVd. http://catchwrestle.com/products_page.htm

The more you have in your toolbox the better you will be. Since someone else is already doing them..))

 

[Diligent]

Rope http://www.functionalhandstrength.com/rope_climbing.html

Sandbag. Sand never stays in one place. It moves around, much harder to lift and move around. Its as hard as lifting another human being around. Anything you can do with DB or BB, you can do with Sandbags..But the sand is much harder.

Other grip Stuff. Do thick DB or BB work. www.ironmind.com has thick DB or BB. If you cannot afford them, wrap a towell around the DB or BB to make it thicker. Towell chinups too. Let towell hang, then grab onto for pullups, plus just wrapping the towell around the bar itself making it thicker is brutal. Make sure to use chalk on your hands.

Save up some money and at least get some either
Kettebells www.dragondoor.com
Clubbells www.clubbell.tv

Either one of these are awesome for total body strength and conditioning and your grip..

A great conditioning routine is Tony Cecchines Lucky 13 DVd. http://catchwrestle.com/products_page.htm

The more you have in your toolbox the better you will be. Since someone else is already doing them..))

Cool, man. Thanks for those links. I still don't know about if I can find a place high enough to hang the rope...but I will DEFINITELY try those towel pullup...those sound like a real good idea.

Yeah, man, thickbar stuff is awesome, but I don't really lift weights that much, so using thickbar DB and BB won't really apply for me, but that's why I bought that Rolling Thunder that has a 2.5 inch thick handle, so I just use that for thickbar stuff for my grip. It's pretty killer.

About those clubbells...I do levering, which really helps my wrist strength...are clubbells similar to levering?

Thanks for all of the advice, bro.

 

[Duncon76]

yes and no

read..

http://www.clubbell.tv/index2.html

 

[Diligent]

Yesterday, I did some levering.

I'll do 4 different directions on the levering.

With my right hand, I did 3 sets with 10.5lbs.
With my left hand, I did 3 sets with 9.25lbs.

I can get the bar parallel on ALL BUT ONE direction. I still can't get the bar parallel with 10.5 when I am doing it to where the weight is right over my face, and same with my left hand with the 9.25 weight.... All of the other directions that I am doing, I could probably actually go up in weight...

Today, I'll do some work with the #2 Captains of Crush gripper. My forearms are still pretty sore from that Rolling Thunder...

 

[Diligent]

Today, I did some #2 attempts after doing 45 minutes of light cardio.

BAD crushing day...that's all I have to say. Today must have been an off day... I am a bit dissappointed...

 

[Diligent]

T'was a good day.

I made 2 PR's on the Rolling Thunder. Today I was able to pull 120lbs (I could only hold it up for a second) with my right hand. That was a 5lb PR.

Also, I was able to pull 110 with my left hand, which is a 10lb PR!

I also did some pinch grip:

5 sets of pinch grip (on each hand) with 2 25lb plates. I was surprised I was still able to do these after the RT workout.... I think that next week I am going to try and move up to 55lbs...

 

[Diligent]

I had wrestling practice from 6-8. It went real well, and I am learning a lot. Then afterwards, I went to the jim.

1 x 8 hand stand pushups + 1 x 10 wide grip pullups
1 x 6 hand stand pushups + 1 x 10 wide grip pullups
1 x 6 hand stand pushups + 1 x 10 wide grip pullups

1 x 25 dips
1 x 15 dips
1 x 16 dips

5 sets of front neck bridges for 30-40 seconds each.

I did the best I've ever done on on the handstand pushups...atleast, that is, after wrestling practice. My elbows were killing me...had some major inflammation, so I just taped 'em up with some mat tape and that was better...that's why I just did 3 sets of 10 on pullups...
good workout.

 

[Diligent]

Wow. I won't be wrestling any more...

and honestly, I'm not dissappointed...I am actually pretty happy about it...I feel relieved...free....

See, I go to UTA and have been trying to get a wrestling team started, but since I'm the only one spearheading this, I have basically no help. There is a lot to do to get the club started and a lot of obstacles with money, mats, coaches, and space to practice. And since I am starting the team and since basically other wrestlers at UTA aren't that willing to help out, I'd probably have to be team president.

There is so much going on with funding from the university, fundraisers, advertising, coordinating with other teams' schedules, the charter, the const., the sponsers, the team registration (both online and offline) for the NCWA, the individual registration (that I'd have to keep up with, both online and offline), team singlets, travel arrangements, and actually finding a friggin' coach...these are just things I can think of right now off the top of my head. Actually, to be a club at UTA, you don't have to have a coach, but to compete in the NCWA, you have to have a team with a coach...and I WANT to compete. Finding a coach that we can actually pay is slim to none, man...there is like .001% chance...there is no way we can get money for that....

So in order for me to compete in the NCWA, I have to be on a designated team, with a coach, and all the other stuff. I thought that I would be able to enter into open tourneys without being on a team, but that is not the case...so now, I basically have no chance of competing in wrestling.... Sure, I can still wrestle...for 'fun', but I basically can't compete.

So I decided that that's the end of wrestling. I really like it, but going to practices all the time, getting bruised, cut, and soooo very sore all the time, practicing soooo hard and occupying so much of my mind with wrestling ALLLLLL... ...so that I cannot even compete, to me, is not worth it. If I could compete, I would, and I would practice just as hard as I have been, but I don't want to wrestle just for fun...I want to friggin compete...I wanted to win, but now I don't even have the chance to, so....

I really wish UTA had team already there...if they did, I'd be there, but due to the circumstances, I am not going to spend so much of my precious time with something that I can't compete in. I mean, I am spending a lot of time and effort with this stuff...and for what? Sooo, that's it for wrestling. I'll miss it, no doubt...

...but it all comes down to a matter of what my priorities are. Wrestling, is not my biggest priority. The Lord comes first in my life...heck, He IS my life. Then school comes next...THEN sports/exercise/etc.. Wrestling has been taking up a lot of my time, and has been eating it's way into my time that I need and have/should have for the Lord and school. Going to the practices, and on top of that, doing all of that stuff for starting an official team...it's not worth it. It is just not worth it. The Lord Jesus Christ comes first in my life...not wrestling. And that is final.

Like I said, I feel free. As a Christian, I walk by the Spirit, and I live by the Spirit. If I am doing something that is in conflict with the will of the Father, I have NO peace...only turmoil...and I feel the Lord has touched my heart on this matter of all of the time, effort, and dedication I am putting into wrestling...and I didn't have much peace in me when I was doing all this stuff for wrestling. But it was like, yesterday, I KNEW I just needed to drop the wrestling stuff. There was no doubt about it. I had thought about it before...but yesterday, the Lord touched my heart, and I knew what I had to do. And when I didn't go to wrestling practice yesterday, and dropped all of my plans to build the team up from nothing...I had the peace. The peace and the joy of the Lord Jesus Christ. I actually couldn't stop smiling for a while about the whole thing. I just feel as if the Lord has just freed me from this ball and chain. This morning, I took a good, long while to think about my decision again, and I just couldn't stop smiling and laughing.... I feel great, and I know this is of the Lord.... All of the time, the effort, the dedication, and sacrifice that I was putting into wrestling...I am now going to put all of that and more, ON TOP of what I am already doing, into just enjoying the Lord more in His word, meeting with the saints more, and just over-all growing more in Him. Today is a big day, man. Big day. The Lord is just gaining me more and more. Hallelujah!

 

[Diligent]

Since I don't wrestle anymore, this will actually give me more chances to train grip more and to train my RT more...so watch out!!!

 

[Diligent]

I usually do this Thursday night, but I had 2 big tests today and needed to cram yesterday.

Rolling Thunder workout
Pinch grip workout (2 25lb plates - 3 sets of 10 second holds each hand)

Handstand pushups
1 x 8
1 x 4 (almost 5...almost)
1 x 4 (felt weaker this week for some reason)
superset w/
Pullups (overhand normal-width grip)
1 x 13
1 x 10
1 x 9

Dips
1 x 25
1 x 20
-------

Front Neck Bridges (5 30 second intervals spaced out in work out)

Light Weight Complexes (30lb dumbbells)
3 sets of bentover rows + hammer curls + push press + tate press + situps (no stopping during each set)

complexes rule, 'nuff said

 

[jamboo]

hey Diligent, this is probably a stupid question, but what is "Rolling Thunder"? also, what is "levering"?

this is a really cool workout plan you have here...I train judo, and I want to get deathgrips too. When I lift weights, I don't use straps, so after deadlifts, bent over rows, cable rows, and pull ups, my hands and forearms are brutalized.

do you ever do static hangs from the bar? they're good to finish off whatever gripping strength you have left!

but enough cluttering your log...keep it up man

 

[Diligent]

hey Diligent, this is probably a stupid question, but what is "Rolling Thunder"? also, what is "levering"?

this is a really cool workout plan you have here...I train judo, and I want to get deathgrips too. When I lift weights, I don't use straps, so after deadlifts, bent over rows, cable rows, and pull ups, my hands and forearms are brutalized.

do you ever do static hangs from the bar? they're good to finish off whatever gripping strength you have left!

but enough cluttering your log...keep it up man

Hey, what's up, jamboo?

The Rolling Thunder is, in my opinion, the best forearm workout you can get for functional grip training in regards to grappling.... Here's a link to what it is:

http://www6.mailordercentral.com/ironmind/prodinfo.asp?number=1246

It has a 2.5 inch thick handle, so rather than hanging onto some skinny dumbbell handles, it's like your practicing hanging on to someone's ankle or something...and I gotta tell you...after doing the rolling thunder...clamping down onto someone's wrist is like nothing, man, haha. (If you want to buy the rolling thunder thick deadlift handle, you also have to buy the olympic plate loading pin and caribiner (it's not too much more) so you can have something to load plates onto and attach the thick handle to...).

http://www6.mailordercentral.com/ironmind/prodinfo.asp?number=1314-C

Go to this link here to see what it looks like (the guy doing it is huge and he makes the rt look smaller than what it is...): (scroll down to see the picture)

http://www.sherdog.net/forums/showthread.php?t=63875&page=57&pp=20

It has really helped me in wrestling, and it is a great forearm workout.

Also, about the levering...levering, again, in my opinion, is absolutely great for building wrist strength to be able to control others. The only way I can explain it, is... ok, get a 10lb plate...not much, right??? Ok, now put the 10lb plate on the end of a 3 foot bar. Now, grab the other end of the bar (the one opposite from the end with the 10lbs), and try to get the bar to where it is parallel to the ground...very hard. Try balancing the bar in different directions to get it to where it is parallel to the gound. It is extremely tough and will strengthen your wrists and tendons like no other, dude. (you can also do this with sledge hammers, since the weight is at the end of the shaft) Here is a good site that explains it...and this guy is the real deal on grip...he closed the #3 Captains of Crush gripper, which is a HUGE grip strength feat. (BTW, some of the levering exercises he does on there...he is holding the sledge hammer at mid-shaft...but to make it harder of course, you can slide your hand down further away from the weight)

http://www.geocities.com/ltgodfrey/lever.html

Also, that's funny you mentioned static hangs. I actually do those after every time I do the Rolling Thunder and pinch grip, and I agree, it's a great to finish your grip day... feel the burn!!! I guess I should post that, too. And don't worry about 'cluttering up my log', I don't care. I hope some of what I said helped...if you have any other questions of whatever, feel free to post in my log. WAR judo!

 

[Diligent]

GRIP AND WRIST STUFF

#2 ATTEMPTS
Yesterday I did some attempts on the #2 Captains of Crush gripper. I really think that my Rolling Thunder training is taking away from my crushing ability...my forearms are sore all of the time from that RT....

LEVERING
I also did some levering and finally did 10.5lbs in ALL 4 directions, so I'll be moving up to either 11lbs or 11.5lbs.

3 sets of 10.5lbs w/ right arm in all 4 directions
3 sets of 9.25lbs w/ left arm in 3 of the 4 directions

 

[emin]

http://images.acmehardware.com/200x200/4458295.jpg

 

[Diligent]

http://images.acmehardware.com/200x200/4458295.jpg

...thank you?...

 

[Duncon76]

Ever do Ladders for your bodyweight stuff??

sets of 1,2.3,4,5,..etc, go up until somewhat tired, then start back at 1 and go until almost tired..or you could start at 5 or higher, or whatever number and work back down again. Dam, you could do hunddreds of reps this way..

ALso Using a Deck of cards too. Name an exercise for a spade and the rest of them and whatever number comes up for that card/exercise ..do that number of reps..lots of fun.