Russian wrestlers question

[boiledpeanuts]

Does anyone know which exercises Russian wrestler do in their training?

Do they lift weights?

 

[GCSD Fighter]

Kettlebells mainly. Girevoy.

 

[wenispinkle]

according to pavels book naked warrior, russians use lots of high tension bodyweight stuff and kettlebells, but i think its kind of unrealistic to say that all russians train that way, just like all americans dont train the same.

www.dragondoor.com

 

[AdeptOmega]

kettlebells were used before, there was shortage of decent equipment.

dunno about wrestling but here min requirements for candidates in sambo national teams, so you will have a general idea

Weight category: 63, 70, 80, 93, 93+ kg

Strenghth
1. pull ups: 28, 26, 25, 24, 18 reps
2. Cleans: 90, 100, 115, 125, 130 kg
3. Squats with bodyweight barbell OR partner on your shoulders(same weight category)!: 40, 40, 40, 40, 35 reps
4. Dunno how u call it, olympic movement, barbell press standing above your head: body weight + 30 kg

Speed.
1. Running 30m 4.3, 4.2, 4.1, 4.1. 4.2 sec
2. Running 30m (3 interwals 10m each back and forward): 7.3, 7.3, 7.1, 7.1, 7.3 sec
3. Long jump from standing 276+-6 cm for all weight categories

Endurance.
1. Running 3km (min): 11.0, 11.0, 11.0, 11.15, 11.30
2. have no idea how to translate so skip it : 50, 50, 50, 47, 45
3. Pulling youself on the 5m rope, 3 times without rest
4. Sparring for 15 min with partener change: have to get 5 points or more.

once again those just min norms to qualify, i knew some people who were running 10km every time before training just for warm up easily.

 

[boiledpeanuts]

thank you omega that's very very interesting!

 

[boiledpeanuts]

ttt for the training

 

[OpethDrums]

those min requirements dont seem too bad

 

[joe broadway]

are you trying to be a russian wrestler poster boy or what?

 

[grapplers gym**]

During my interviews with former soviet wrestlers they all mentioned tons of rope climbing, running hills, playing soccer and basketball for conditioning, and the use of resistant tubing (AB Bands). Very little was done with weights most of their strength and conditioning came from grappling, kettlebells, and ropes...

Mike
www.grapplersgym.com
www.grapplersnutrition.com - The grapplers Guide to Sports Nutrition

 

[boiledpeanuts]

thanks for your informations!

 

[period]

kettlebells were used before, there was shortage of decent equipment.

dunno about wrestling but here min requirements for candidates in sambo national teams, so you will have a general idea

Weight category: 63, 70, 80, 93, 93+ kg

Strenghth
1. pull ups: 28, 26, 25, 24, 18 reps
2. Cleans: 90, 100, 115, 125, 130 kg
3. Squats with bodyweight barbell OR partner on your shoulders(same weight category)!: 40, 40, 40, 40, 35 reps
4. Dunno how u call it, olympic movement, barbell press standing above your head: body weight + 30 kg

Speed.
1. Running 30m 4.3, 4.2, 4.1, 4.1. 4.2 sec
2. Running 30m (3 interwals 10m each back and forward): 7.3, 7.3, 7.1, 7.1, 7.3 sec
3. Long jump from standing 276+-6 cm for all weight categories

Endurance.
1. Running 3km (min): 11.0, 11.0, 11.0, 11.15, 11.30
2. have no idea how to translate so skip it : 50, 50, 50, 47, 45
3. Pulling youself on the 5m rope, 3 times without rest
4. Sparring for 15 min with partener change: have to get 5 points or more.

once again those just min norms to qualify, i knew some people who were running 10km every time befores training just for warm up easily.

I had to dig out this old thread because I consider this post one of the hidden gems of this forum. I think those numbers and exercises make a lot of sense for any grappling sport - more so than the single rep squat, bench and deadlift numbers you see advocated a lot. Plus, someone who is able to do 40 reps with bodyweight on the bar will usually be able to do double bodyweight at least once (while the reverse is not neccessarily the case).
I wonder what the untranslated exercise is - my guess would be bridge spins.
Someone who can fullfill all listed requirements should be a pretty well-rounded athlete for any combat sport, they demonstrate a sufficient - but not unreachable - level of strength, strength endurance, speed and aerobic endurance. For the weight numbers, bear in mind that most people at this levexl would be cutting 4-8 kg of weight for competition, some even 12 or more.

There was also an old blog post by Kenneth Jay (who coached Mark Madsen at the time) listing the strength standards of the Russian Greco team for the 74 kg class. These included a double bodyweight squat and see-saw presses (2x24 kg KB for 30+30 reps each arm, 2x32 kg KB for 20+20). The see-saw press was likely chosen to check shoulder strength-endurance for pummeling. 74 kg was my weight class for a long time, and I worked up to those numbers some years ago. Currently, I can still get the required numbers with double 24s even though I didn't lift at all for some years in between (and my off-season weight dropped from 84-88 kg to 80 flat), but I still need a few months to work back up to the numbers with the 32s.

 

[Baby Hanma]

kettlebells were used before, there was shortage of decent equipment.

dunno about wrestling but here min requirements for candidates in sambo national teams, so you will have a general idea

Weight category: 63, 70, 80, 93, 93+ kg

Strenghth
1. pull ups: 28, 26, 25, 24, 18 reps
2. Cleans: 90, 100, 115, 125, 130 kg
3. Squats with bodyweight barbell OR partner on your shoulders(same weight category)!: 40, 40, 40, 40, 35 reps
4. Dunno how u call it, olympic movement, barbell press standing above your head: body weight + 30 kg

Speed.
1. Running 30m 4.3, 4.2, 4.1, 4.1. 4.2 sec
2. Running 30m (3 interwals 10m each back and forward): 7.3, 7.3, 7.1, 7.1, 7.3 sec
3. Long jump from standing 276+-6 cm for all weight categories

Endurance.
1. Running 3km (min): 11.0, 11.0, 11.0, 11.15, 11.30
2. have no idea how to translate so skip it : 50, 50, 50, 47, 45
3. Pulling youself on the 5m rope, 3 times without rest
4. Sparring for 15 min with partener change: have to get 5 points or more.

once again those just min norms to qualify, i knew some people who were running 10km every time before training just for warm up easily.

Hey interesting. Can I have your source please? Who wrote this?

Thanks.

 

[period]

Hey interesting. Can I have your source please? Who wrote this?

Thanks.

I doubt he's still around. The post hints he may be a SAMBist, at least knew people who either were on the Russian national team or aiming to get there. And had access to either an official handbook of the federation (I am sure such a thing exists), possibly a bulletin (at least in Germany, some federations had monthly or quarter-yearly newspapers) or an internal set of standards for coaches.

 

[zapataxiv]

I doubt he's still around. The post hints he may be a SAMBist, at least knew people who either were on the Russian national team or aiming to get there. And had access to either an official handbook of the federation (I am sure such a thing exists), possibly a bulletin (at least in Germany, some federations had monthly or quarter-yearly newspapers) or an internal set of standards for coaches.

do you think he was talking about the jerk for his point in number 4?

 

[period]

do you think he was talking about the jerk for his point in number 4?

Pretty sure. The standing press hasn't been part of any grappling team's strength standards at least since the 1970ies (only the see-saw press has been kept by some). Plus the Russian Sambo team used to have a standard for the double kettlebell jerk back in the the 1950ies or so. I'm not sure I can find that one again, but it was for reps with double 32s: the lightweights had to be able to do at least 10 reps, the heavyweights around 20 I think. In the respective weight categories, that would be about equal to a single jerk with BW + 30 kg in most cases.

 

[Cole train]

I actually looked up russian sambo federations standards and none include lifting weights which was what i expected, all bodyweight stuff and running from what i understand, qualifications to enter master of sport stage




Gonna see if wrestling has similar

Edit same federal tests, no weight lifting, might just be national teams own thing what was mentioned by 2005 account or bullshit

 

[period]

I actually looked up russian sambo federations standards and none include lifting weights which was what i expected, all bodyweight stuff and running from what i understand, qualifications to enter master of sport stage




Gonna see if wrestling has similar

Edit same federal tests, no weight lifting, might just be national teams own thing what was mentioned by 2005 account or bullshit

Thanks for sharing your research. As far as I know, master of sport is a title that has nothing to do with a spot on the national team, it just marks a certain proficiency. Although, according to Iaskevich (Russian Judo, Ippon masterclass series), higher ranks among the masters of sports were given (only?) to European champions (2nd class) and World or Olympic champions (3rd class). Iaskevich also mentioned that the national Judo team members had to be able to climb a 5 m rope five times in a row without using the legs and without a break.
Looking at these standards, it seems to me that the ones mentioned above are close enough in both tests mentioned (the 3x10 m sprint for example is quite specific) to make a connection between the two plausible. The wrestling standards mentioned by Kenneth Jay were supposedly internal papers that a coach he was on a friendly basis with had, so it is possible they existed in one form or another. I know that the East German wrestlers published their team standards (Gain, Hartmann, Tünnemann: Ringen, East-Berlin 1980), and one of the authors was later responsible for the conditioning of the unified team, and published those as well in 2009, with some numbers such as the bench press significantly increased (can't remember where at the moment, would have to dig through my box of assorted print-outs). And the East Germans based most of their sports methodology on the Russian literature, so I wouldn't be surprised if the original numbers of the Russian team popped up somewhere.
In the end, the thing with these standards apparently was the same everywhere: if you were reliably winning all your international matches, nobody would care whether or not you made the standards. On the other hand, they might have been used as an argument whether or not you were allowed to compete internationally in the first place. In Russia (as well as Japan), even the national champ isn't guaranteed a spot on the national team. According to my coach, it's often a question of connections; that may be the case to some degree, but often the argument seems to be for the guy with more "international experience" (as in: previous titles) to get the spot.

 

[franquito]

I had to dig out this old thread because I consider this post one of the hidden gems of this forum. I think those numbers and exercises make a lot of sense for any grappling sport - more so than the single rep squat, bench and deadlift numbers you see advocated a lot. Plus, someone who is able to do 40 reps with bodyweight on the bar will usually be able to do double bodyweight at least once (while the reverse is not neccessarily the case).
I wonder what the untranslated exercise is - my guess would be bridge spins.
Someone who can fullfill all listed requirements should be a pretty well-rounded athlete for any combat sport, they demonstrate a sufficient - but not unreachable - level of strength, strength endurance, speed and aerobic endurance. For the weight numbers, bear in mind that most people at this levexl would be cutting 4-8 kg of weight for competition, some even 12 or more.

There was also an old blog post by Kenneth Jay (who coached Mark Madsen at the time) listing the strength standards of the Russian Greco team for the 74 kg class. These included a double bodyweight squat and see-saw presses (2x24 kg KB for 30+30 reps each arm, 2x32 kg KB for 20+20). The see-saw press was likely chosen to check shoulder strength-endurance for pummeling. 74 kg was my weight class for a long time, and I worked up to those numbers some years ago. Currently, I can still get the required numbers with double 24s even though I didn't lift at all for some years in between (and my off-season weight dropped from 84-88 kg to 80 flat), but I still need a few months to work back up to the numbers with the 32s.

Thanks for the bump. Very interesting, even if not fully accurate as Cole Train seems to indicate.
I am curious what #2 in Endurance might be.

The feats seem like a very good goal for natural athletes to aim for in terms of all-around fitness.
I am surprised that combat sports athletes would have the time, the energy, and most of all, the recovery time, to train for this on top of sports-specific technique.
Of course, if not natural, that would make things a bit easier.

 

[period]

Thanks for the bump. Very interesting, even if not fully accurate as Cole Train seems to indicate.
I am curious what #2 in Endurance might be.

The feats seem like a very good goal for natural athletes to aim for in terms of all-around fitness.
I am surprised that combat sports athletes would have the time, the energy, and most of all, the recovery time, to train for this on top of sports-specific technique.
Of course, if not natural, that would make things a bit easier.

My guess would be bridge spins in two minutes; that would be a borrowed from wrestling, some Russian schools place a high emphasis on them.

Personally, I think that the exercises listed go together with combat training very well; most fighters still run daily or almost daily, so while the running may require a bit of extra training effort, it's not going to be super hard on them, plus running can be quite low impact if you're used to it. Pull-ups, partner squats, rope climbs and bridge spins are frequently done at the end of mat training (the former two also may be done during morning training) so they require no extra warm-up and allow for the maximum recovery time to the next mat training session (it's no fun to wrestle if your legs are shot).
That mostly leaves the clean and jerk. This one I cannot tell you about, because I never trained in a club where either was a part of team training. I know of a couple of wrestling teams who did "cleans", but they were usually cheat curls for reps rather than proper cleans. People sometimes get impressive numbers with those, though - there was a testing battery of the US Greco team on youtube maybe ten years back, where they also did max numbers of reps in both squats and "cleans" with 110% of the weight class limit on the bar; one guy got 42 "cleans" with that weight. So if I had to make the numbers, I think I would stick to higher rep stuff as well, because I know that is easier for me personally to recover from - the things that take the most out of my recovery are heavy squats, deadlifts and bench presses, so to me it makes perfect sense leaving them out. I would do one or two sets of 10-20 at the end of either morning training or mat training, and occasionally go heavier on the weekend. I am pretty confident that along with everything else, that would give me the required numbers. Maybe I'll try that, see if it turns out as expected

I think the thing to remember is that with or without juice, fighters build up training volume over the years, the Russian fighters especially so. The way they train on the mat also reflects that. And whoever cannot recover from what is considered "normal" usually doesn't make it very far.