wrestling=cardio killer

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gtsbjj12**

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hey everyone,

I went to wrestling class for the 3rd time and wrestled live (pure wrestling, no bjj) for my first time. my god, it is an absolute cardio killer. I have very good cardio for running and bjj (went 5x6 minute rounds shortly before) but wrestling is a whole different animal. any tips on specific cardio training for wrestling? also, wrestling is amazing and I want to learn how to wrestle very badly. How many days is adequate per week to train wrestling so that I'll gain a good base?
 
It really is different. It is not only cardio, but muscle endurance. I don't know that you can get the conditioning for it other than by doing it. Sprints and circuit endurance lifting are probably the closest I could ever get. But these days, something like crossfit or P90x would be good. But yeah, you just have to be in really damn good shape, and not just cardio, muscle endurance.

You are probably using muscles you are not used to using too, so you are tiring out more quickly. I really don't think it is that much different, cardio-wise, than full speed bjj. Just that wrestlers tend to go full speed pretty much all the time.
 
gtsbjj12 said:
hey everyone,

I went to wrestling class for the 3rd time and wrestled live (pure wrestling, no bjj) for my first time. my god, it is an absolute cardio killer. I have very good cardio for running and bjj (went 5x6 minute rounds shortly before) but wrestling is a whole different animal. any tips on specific cardio training for wrestling? also, wrestling is amazing and I want to learn how to wrestle very badly. How many days is adequate per week to train wrestling so that I'll gain a good base?
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I think it takes a long time to become a "good" wrestler. Most guys start young so depending on how old you are you will be behind the power curve for a while. Wrestling will teach you good body movement and body control. As far as workouts go I would suggest full body circuits with bodyweight movements, Kettle Bells, Barbell, and crossfit/Gym Jones style workouts. I think Power Endurance rather than Endurance training is the key to your "cardio" for combat sports. It's harder to "rest" and slow the pace when wrestling than when rolling BJJ. Have fun wrestling is my first love now that I'm a little older (and lazy) I like BJJ better. Good luck have fun with it.:icon_chee
 
you get in wrestling shape by wrestling- running and lifting is nice, but you really need 2 wrestle
 
From my experience wrestling is much more explosive then BJJ. Which might be where you're having problems. In BJJ there is a lot of stalemates. Not that this is bad or anything but it just happens. Plus, rounds tend to be longer so people pace themselves. Wrestling is much more fast-paced so you're BJJ conditioning won't help your wrestling and vise-versa. Basically just wrestle as much as you can but take breaks when your body tells you to. Eventually your conditioning will get better just like it did in your BJJ.
 
brandon0627 said:
I think it takes a long time to become a "good" wrestler. Most guys start young so depending on how old you are you will be behind the power curve for a while. Wrestling will teach you good body movement and body control. As far as workouts go I would suggest full body circuits with bodyweight movements, Kettle Bells, Barbell, and crossfit/Gym Jones style workouts. I think Power Endurance rather than Endurance training is the key to your "cardio" for combat sports. It's harder to "rest" and slow the pace when wrestling than when rolling BJJ. Have fun wrestling is my first love now that I'm a little older (and lazy) I like BJJ better. Good luck have fun with it.:icon_chee
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I'm 19, so I hope I won't be extremely far behind the curve. thanks a lot for the advice. I was looking into kettlebells but wasn't sure on how effective they were. do they actually help you gain strength and size?
 
I don't think it takes very long to get proficent in wrestling. HS wrestling season is only about 3 months long. The majority of your HS wrestlers hit the "good" mark by time they are juniors. That is like 6 months of training... about a 1 year or a year and half of equivalent bjj time for most of us 2-3x per week guys.

I would say it takes about the same amount of time as bjj, progress wise.
 
You won't put on a lot of size doing KB workouts, but your strength to weight ratio will significantly increase. Strength to weight ratio is very important for competing because, obviously, you should be fighting guys your own weight. I have never worried about gaining more "size". I've always had to worry about watching what I ate because of my body type (5' 9" 185 and I fight BJJ tournys around 170). Google Gym Jones and Crossfit for workouts and training tips. There is a lot of info on the web and youtube has examples of most of the exercises in the workouts. Good luck with your training.
 
brandon0627 said:
You won't put on a lot of size doing KB workouts, but your strength to weight ratio will significantly increase. Strength to weight ratio is very important for competing because, obviously, you should be fighting guys your own weight. I have never worried about gaining more "size". I've always had to worry about watching what I ate because of my body type (5' 9" 185 and I fight BJJ tournys around 170). Google Gym Jones and Crossfit for workouts and training tips. There is a lot of info on the web and youtube has examples of most of the exercises in the workouts. Good luck with your training.
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Do you use KBs a lot? Sorry to hijack the thread a little bit here but I was wondering about how long a intermediate to advanced KB workout should be?
 
Nothing prepares you for wrestling better than wrestling. A typical HS or college wrestling practice will last 3 hours or 4 hours every day except match day.


High Intensity Interval Training, endurance training , circuit training all help, but 3-4 hours of wrestling every single day is what really get there. Wrestle with heavier guys to work on strength and stamina, wrestle lighter guys to work on speed and endurance, wrestle your own weight to combine all of them.


Wrestled for 10 years, through college and a little after. The best advice I got from a coach was " Wrestling is a 12 month sport, you compete formally for 4 months, then you compete individually, learn moves, lift weights, go to clinics, go to camp for the other 8. If you're not doing that expect to get very familiar with ceiling in the gym"

It will take quite a while to build up the strength and endurance to even begin to apply moves well, and then a lot longer to develop good "mat sense" so that you never get out of balance, sprawl second nature, hit moves in combos, spin effortlessly, learn to how to throw and how to get thrown and bounce back, etc...

Greatest sport out there and a great base for competing in MMA.
 
FollowYourBliss said:
Do you use KBs a lot? Sorry to hijack the thread a little bit here but I was wondering about how long a intermediate to advanced KB workout should be?
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I warm up with KB almost everyday with a 12 way KB complex before I workout unless it's and endurance day. Most of my actual KB workouts last about 25-30 min and I'm in above average "shape" because of my job. The longest KB workouts that I do are breathing ladders with stepups, one arm snatch, or KB swing and they can last up to an hour. Theres a lot of good workouts floating around on the web. Check Gym Jones (I'm a huge fan of his training philosophy) or Crossfit (I'm not as big of a fan, but I know a lot of people who are in great "shape" that are). Hope this helps. Good luck with your training.
 
armtriangle said:
I don't think it takes very long to get proficent in wrestling. HS wrestling season is only about 3 months long. The majority of your HS wrestlers hit the "good" mark by time they are juniors. That is like 6 months of training... about a 1 year or a year and half of equivalent bjj time for most of us 2-3x per week guys.

I would say it takes about the same amount of time as bjj, progress wise.
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I don't know about where your from but around me the good wrestlers tend to wrestle year round. As soon as the HS seasons is over you got MAWA's, Free and Greco.

I wrestled 2-4 days a week during the spring and summer and tried to get 30-50 matches in the off season.

The offseason is where you really improve, learn new techniques and try them out. During the HS season it's about peaking at the right time and tightening up your attacks and defense.
 
armtriangle said:
I don't think it takes very long to get proficent in wrestling. HS wrestling season is only about 3 months long. The majority of your HS wrestlers hit the "good" mark by time they are juniors. That is like 6 months of training... about a 1 year or a year and half of equivalent bjj time for most of us 2-3x per week guys.

I would say it takes about the same amount of time as bjj, progress wise.
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that's great then. I feel as if once I get dedicated to something, I spend all my time thinking about it and trying to advance as quickly as possible by training as frequently as I can. I go about 6 days a week to bjj, but wrestling is only offered 3 of those days. hopefully I can make some leaps in my wrestling if I train hard and consistently.
 
My first experience with wrestling was a No-Gi takedown class at an MMA gym while I was in Svannah, GA on business. (always look for a local place to roll when on the road) I didn't really see the place until I had gotten home from dinner and had to peel rubber to get there in time.

Unfortunately for me that dinner had been a huge meal at a great Indian place, so I was packed to the eyeballs with cream sauces, curry, rice, etc etc. Needless to say it wasn't too long before I had to sit out every other session to avoid repainting their mat with recycled Lamb Vindaloo.... I remember it being a great mix of awesomeness and seemingly life-threatening queasiness.
 
skey91 said:
I don't know about where your from but around me the good wrestlers tend to wrestle year round. As soon as the HS seasons is over you got MAWA's, Free and Greco.

I wrestled 2-4 days a week during the spring and summer and tried to get 30-50 matches in the off season.

The offseason is where you really improve, learn new techniques and try them out. During the HS season it's about peaking at the right time and tightening up your attacks and defense.
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He speaks the truth. You learn and improve in the off season. Wrestling is a 12 month sport.
 
skey91 said:
I don't know about where your from but around me the good wrestlers tend to wrestle year round. As soon as the HS seasons is over you got MAWA's, Free and Greco.

I wrestled 2-4 days a week during the spring and summer and tried to get 30-50 matches in the off season.
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Yeah, some do. I guess it depends on your definition of "proficient." If you want to be able to consistely beat other decent wrestlers, you have to do more.

I wrestled in Indiana in HS and Illinois in college for a bit (though not very well). At least half of the HS wrestlers were at least 2 sport athletes... I was a 3 sport athlete. So it definitely was not year round for me. I think most HS juniors (at good wrestling HS's) are what other people think of as "good wrestlers"- they move like wrestlers usually, they can ragdoll all of their friends, etc.

But, if you mean "good" as in State champion (although there were 5 State champs on my HS wrestling team and only 2 of them were FS wrestlers or year-rounders) or competitive collegiate wrestlers- yeah, usually more is involved.

But really I was just saying, I think it takes about the same amount of mat time as bjj to make progress. Sometimes it goes faster with wrestlers because you have more proficient sparring partners. In BJJ it is harder to find a group of good bjj players... there are godo wrestlers everywhere.
 
armtriangle said:
I don't think it takes very long to get proficent in wrestling. HS wrestling season is only about 3 months long. The majority of your HS wrestlers hit the "good" mark by time they are juniors. That is like 6 months of training... about a 1 year or a year and half of equivalent bjj time for most of us 2-3x per week guys.

I would say it takes about the same amount of time as bjj, progress wise.
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I just spit my drink out onto the table. This is the most inaccurate statement I have ever read on Sherdog possibly. It takes years to get good at wrestling, just b/c the HS season is only 3 months doesn't mean shit. Most wrestlers wrestle year round. The guys that just wrestle during the season usually suck or are average at best. Any good wrestler either wrestles in a club during the offeaseason, plus seminars/camps. Your comparison is way off man. Crazy.
 
gtsbjj12 said:
I'm 19, so I hope I won't be extremely far behind the curve. thanks a lot for the advice. I was looking into kettlebells but wasn't sure on how effective they were. do they actually help you gain strength and size?
Click to expand...

kettlebells rock.
 
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