10 "Strength Training" Commandments For Wrestlers!

In part one of this series I discussed some tips to keep your strength and muscle, or even gain some during the wrestling season. In part two of this series I will give you ten sure-fire tips for improving your "wrestling strength" and therefore your wrestling performances. These tips apply to both in-season and off-season training.

1. Train the "Posterior Chain"

Ultimate Strength

The posterior chain muscles are comprised of the glutes, hamstrings, and lower back. This extremely powerful area of the body is a key section to overall wrestling performances. By improving strength in this area you will notice a marked improvement in speed and power in the neutral and bottom positions. Some exercises that you might want to consider in order to work the posterior chain are good-mornings, stiff-leg deadlifts, deadlifts, barbell squats (bar low on shoulders). My two favorites are the reverse hyperextension and the Russian glute-ham-gastroc machine. They are the ultimate in working the posterior chain muscles.

10 "Strength Training" Commandments For Wrestlers!

2. Strength Train SLOW, Wrestle FAST

You want to be fast and strong on the wrestling mat. Don't think that you should throw weights around when you strength train though. When wrestlers try to move a barbell quickly in their workouts, they are using momentum to help move the weight. You should minimize momentum, and maximize the amount of muscle that gets worked by slowing down. How fast (or slow) should you move a weight when strength training? When you are raising a weight (or contracting the muscle) try to do it in 2 seconds. When you lower the weight, do it twice as slowly. You should take about 4 seconds to lower a weight.

3. Brief Workouts

Your workouts should never exceed 35 minutes in duration. If they do, YOU"RE NOT WORKING HARD ENOUGH! By completing your workout in no more than 35 minutes or so, your body's hormone levels are optimal. Your ability to recuperate from the workouts, and therefore develop more strength, is increased. Avoid long, drawn-out strength training workouts. They will eventually cut into your body's ability to recuperate, and lead to over-training.

4. 12 Exercises Or Less

When I develop sport-specific strength training routines for my athletes, I always adhere to this. This number of exercises will allow you to hit the "wrestling muscles" with just enough, but not too much. Any more will almost guarantee that you will send your body into an overtraining syndrome.

5. 2 Sets Or Less

Read this one carefully, and try to really absorb the content. You should do no more than two work sets (the sets that count. These don't include a warm-up set) for any given exercise. If you are working hard enough, this is plenty. You do a warm-up set for an exercise, then move to your top weight. After you complete that top weight, reduce the total weight on the bar or machine by 20% and repeat. If you are really training intensely, you can do just one work set per exercise. This is the ideal. If you can hammer a muscle with one perfect set of an exercise, there will be no need for another set. I advocate a second set with a 20% weight reduction because many people don't quite hammer that muscle with one set.

6. Fail In The Gym To Dominate On The Mat

Other than your warm-up set for each strength training exercise, you should train your sets to "momentary muscular failure." This is the point where you can no longer complete another repetition with perfect form. By training to momentary muscular failure, you are forcing the muscles to adapt, and therefore get stronger. Let me clarify training to "failure." Training to failure is not "almost taxing the muscle." It is the point where you cannot push or pull another repetition no matter what. Is it safe to train this way? Absolutely! The first few repetitions of a set are actually more dangerous. When an athlete is not using good form, and slower speed, it is usually during these first few repetitions that an athlete gets hurt.

7. Use Machines And Free Weights

There is a common misconception amongst athletes and coaches that you must use free weights when strength training. Free weights are great! So are machines! Your muscles don't know the difference. The intensity is the most important thing when trying to improve your strength for wrestling. The tool that you use to get there is not. I like certain exercises for certain muscles. It also depends on injuries that a wrestler might already have. You can work "around" and injury and still give the body a thorough strength workout. If you have access to Hammer Strength machines, I highly recommend that you include them in your wrestling strength workout.

8. Use A Thick Bar

If you don't have access to a thick bar, get one. This is usually a hollow metal tube that you put free weights on the end of. A thick bar forces you to hold on tightly when performing exercises. It develops fantastic forearm and hand strength. It should be part of every serious strength training program for wrestlers. You can do curls, reverse curls, rows, and presses with it.

9. Keep Up The Protein

Whether you are trying to cut weight or go up a weight class, you need regular feedings of protein. Protein helps to repair and rebuild muscle tissue. It is vital to keep up protein feedings if you are trying to cut weight... unless of course you don't mind losing muscle and getting weaker. Try to get at least 5 protein feedings per day. The difference lies in the carbohydrate intake. If you need to cut weight, you should begin slowly dropping carbs, but never completely. You can't wrestle if you have no energy. Carbohydrates are you body's preferred source of energy. Contact me at steve@sports-strength.com if you're interested in a personalized meal plan for wrestling.

10. The Trap Bar

The trap bar is another incredible piece of equipment when trying to gain wrestling strength. The trap bar is a hexagonally shaped bar. It allows you to perform deadlifts with maximal stimulation of almost every muscle vital to improved wrestling performance. If you've never seen one, do a search on the web. This is an exercise that all of my wrestling clients use. It will make your entire body stronger. If I were limited to only one exercise in order to increase the strength in my wrestlers, this would be the exercise that I'd choose.

10 "Strength Training" Commandments For Wrestlers!

Steve Preston is a nationally-recognized strength and conditioning coach for wrestlers. To get your free copy of his '63 Strength, Conditioning and Nutrition Tips for Wrestlers'e-book go to:

http://www.wrestlingperformance.com/ebook.html

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Top Ten Strengths of Workplace Re-Entry Women

Women returning to the workforce often sell themselves short, partly because of society's view that if you're not in the paid workforce you are "doing nothing".

The other part of this equation is because after a few years of dealing mainly with children and duties around the home, many women find own self esteem and self confidence is low as to what they have to offer in the world of work.

Strength Tips

But as any savvy employer knows, a woman returning to the workplace brings with her extremely valuable skills and qualities.

Top Ten Strengths of Workplace Re-Entry Women

Here's a top ten list of the gifts, the blessings, the strengths that Workplace Reentry Women bring with them to the workplace ..... whether they know it or not!

1. Multi-tasking:

Any woman running a home and family has to be able to at least 16 different things at one time!

Next time you see young mother in the grocery, with a couple of small children take the time to observe how many tasks she in undertaking at one time. This is skill and half and immensely valuable out in the world.

And that's all before she gets to the checkout, where neither child wants to wait, and then getting everything and everyone back out to the car.

2. Problem Solver, Handling Emergencies, Troubleshooting:

Small problems seem like big problems to small people! Mum has to handle endless 'emergencies' and some real ones too, not to mention problems such as how to get the peanut and jelly sandwich out of the VCR (or even worse, the DVD player!)

This is just the tip of the iceberg of what an at home mum has to deal with.

3. Manager, Initiative, Self Directed:

She manages the family, the house, the meals, and everything else around the home. She has no instructions, no training, and no expert to turn to (unless her own mum)

4. Organized, Inventory Control:

Where is it? How much do we need? Keeping track of everything and anything is her job too. How do we get Jason to softball and Janet to ballet at opposite sides of town at the same time?

5. Creative, Innovative, Lifelong Learner:

Finding ways where no ways have been found before (to mess up the Star Trek saying atrociously!) This needs to be done, how are we going to do it? If there's something you don't know that you need to know - you learn it, you create it, you invent it.

6. Money Management, Budgeting:

Whether rich or 'financially challenged', money still has to be managed and budgets still have to be maintained. Whether it's just the weekly grocery bill or when to buy a designer outfit, budgeting is always part and parcel of the job.

7. Reliability , Stable, Sense Of Responsibility:

Kids trust implicitly, and are totally reliant on mum to be there when she says she will, and take care of what they need taken care of. Even the most unreliable of women become much more responsible when she has a family to take care of.

8. Event Organization:

Ah, those parties. Birthday parties, Christmas parties, picnics, even holidays - mum is in charge of organization, making it fun and getting everything ready and put together.

9. Mediator, Interpersonal Skills:

Kids fight! Mum has to calm the waters, reinstate order, arrange compromises, and do it all with a very unsophisticated audience who just want what they want.

10. Coach, Mentor, Teacher:

Mothers teach by instructing, helping and also by modeling the behavior the want. Mothers can teach people who don't want to learn it, and get it established as a habit. Now that's a skill!

Children learn more from their parents than from school - albeit different things most of the time. Never underestimate a mother's role as a teacher.

So there you have the top ten skills. All are directly transferable into the workplace. There are many more. But this is just taste of the wonderful gifts a workplace reentry woman brings with her when she goes back to work.

Don't feel you have nothing to offer - instead celebrate your wonderful gifts and abilities and share them with the world.

Top Ten Strengths of Workplace Re-Entry Women

Fiona MacKay invites you to visit http://www.potentiality.biz to sign up for membership. Receive gifts of an e-book, Fiona's 5 most sought after articles, access to the popular Signature Analysis Quiz, plus receive the ezine full of how-to information on handwriting analysis, personal development tips, and special members only offers. Set up your free membership account today at http://www.potentiality.biz

© Copyright - Fiona MacKay

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Tips on How to Memorize Things Quickly - The Ultimate Efficiency

Do you have a short space of time in which to learn a lot of information? Maybe you are preparing for an exam. Or, are you trying to get the most out of your time so it can be spent in more fun areas. Try following these simple tips on how to memorize things quickly.

Break It Down

Ultimate Strength

Break down the concepts so much that you can teach them to a ten year old child. If this is not possible then at least break down those tasks that look like mountains at the moment into small actionable bite-sized chunks that you can start working on as soon as possible.

Tips on How to Memorize Things Quickly - The Ultimate Efficiency

Relax

If you are cramming a lot of information into your brain in a short space of time, try and get relaxed first. Meditate or if you are not into that then just listen to the breath entering and leaving your body. You need to be as relaxed as you can whilst taking information in as a disorganised mind will lead to disorganised memories.

Concentrate

If you only have a limited amount of time in which to remember these things then you must concentrate as much as possible on whatever the task is that you are now doing. If you do not concentrate, your memories will be fuzzy.

Plan It Out

Especially if you only have a short time, you should make a plan. This will allow you to make sure that everything important gets done. It also shows you when you are getting off track and are doing something counterproductive. Do not forget to schedule breaks because your brain is like a muscle and needs rest as well as strain so that it can eventually become stronger.

Pareto

Use Paretos' principle. This principle states that 80% of your results come from 20% of your actions and vice versa. Therefore you must concentrate all your efforts on the 20% and try and pass on or eliminate the rest.

Tips on How to Memorize Things Quickly - The Ultimate Efficiency

Hold On! Did you know that 81% of people are not using their memory to their full strength? A lot of them not even half.

Can you afford to live that far below your potential?

Click here to Learn Tips On How To Memorize Things Quickly

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3 Important Tips to Build Muscle Faster - Get Lean and Ripped

Let's face it... building muscle is not the easiest thing to accomplish even despite regular hard workout schedules and trying every type of workout and supplement. 

I struggled for years to gain any significant muscle mass, but over the years in my personal training business and with my own experimentation have found some important things that have helped make significant muscle gains possible even for hardgainers.

Strength Tips

So, I'm going to give 3 important tips here so you can start building lean muscle mass faster and easier.

3 Important Tips to Build Muscle Faster - Get Lean and Ripped

1. Make sure that 95% of the exercises you perform regularly in the gym are big multi-joint compound exercises.  It doesn't matter if your goal is fat loss or building muscle... big multi-joint exercises should comprise 95% of the exercises you do in your workouts if you want to get lean, ripped, and powerful.

It's easiest to think of it in terms of the major movement patterns such as these (focus 95% of your workouts on these):

upper body horizontal press (bench press, pushups, dips), upper body horizontal rows (1-arm dumbbell rows, seated cable rows, bent over barbell rows), upper body vertical pull (lat pulldowns, pullups, chinups), upper body vertical press (overhead dumbbell and barbell presses, barbell or kettlebell clean & presses) lower body squatting movements (front squats, back squats, overhead squats, bodyweight squats, etc) lower body deadlifting movements (regular deadlifts, sumo deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts) lower body single leg movements (lunges, step-ups, jump lunges, etc) abdominal and core exercises (these are important, but still are 2nd priority after all of the major upper body and lower body multi-joint movements... your abs and core will be worked from most major multi-joint exercises anyway)

The other 5% of your exercises can focus on single joint exercises (isolation exercises) such as bicep curls, tricep presses, calf presses, shoulder shrugs, shoulder lateral raises, pec flyes, etc, etc.  However, these exercises are only accessory exercises to do after the main focus has been the multi-joint drills.

2.  Train hard and intensely 3-4 days/week for 45-60 minutes per weight training workout.  Keep your workouts to no longer than 60 minutes as training too much beyond this point can trigger excess catabolism.  You want to stay anabolic, but you still need to train your body hard and intensely enough to trigger muscle growth.

Try a super-set style of workout program to maximize the intensity that you can train.  My favorite combinations are opposing upper and lower body movement patterns that don't interfere with each other, such as squats coupled with pullups as a superset, or bench press coupled with deadlifts as a superset.

Don't underestimate the effectiveness of these types of upper/lower body supersets done with heavy weights and a high intensity.  The first time in my life that I experienced significant muscle mass gains were when I started doing these types of workout combos regularly (although still mixing up my training variables).

These are mainstays of almost any effective workout program -- caloric intake can simply be adjusted whether your goal is fat burning or gaining muscle mass.

3.  Eat clean with quality whole foods... REAL foods instead of highly processed over-hyped supplement powders and bars. 

The quality of protein (and additional nutrition from vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants) are best assimilated by the body from real whole food such as eggs, meats, dairy (preferably raw), fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, etc. instead of from processed protein powders, chemical-laden bars, and meal replacements.

Forget about the hyped up workouts in the muscle mags that only work for pro bodybuilders or people on steroids. Forget about the over-hyped supplement "stacks" that pay the bills for almost every muscle mag... Instead, make these tips in this article part of your lifestyle, and you'll see muscle gains and a leaner, ripped body like you've never seen before!

3 Important Tips to Build Muscle Faster - Get Lean and Ripped

If you want to get a lean chiseled body, check out these tips to Get Ripped Abs the right way.

Enjoy, and good luck!

Mike Geary
Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist
Author - The Truth about Six Pack Abs

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Martial Arts Strength Training

According to various sources on the internet, a 1996 article in Iron Man Magazine revealed Bruce Lee's workout. In addition to his cardio and karate workouts, Lee lifted weights three times a week and performed the following routine:

clean and presses 2 x 8

Strength Tips

squats 2 x 12

Martial Arts Strength Training

barbell pullovers 2 x 8

bench presses 2 x 6

good mornings 2 x 8

barbell curls 2 x 8

Unfortunately, he injured his back doing good mornings, which nearly ruined his career. Otherwise, his weight training was successful in that it is credited with helping him add 30 pounds of solid muscle to his relatively small frame.

Although Lee is the most famous martial artist ever, it may be that the strongest was a man named Masutatsu Oyama. Therefore, it will be interesting to contrast Lee's workout with Oyama's.

The Karate Bull-Fighter

Oyama was one of the first to bring Karate to America and founder of the Kyokushin style of Karate. His 1958 classic "What is Karate?" was one of the first books on the subject written in English, and designed to make the subject accessible to westerners.

Oyama initially became famous with stunts such as bull-fighting Karate-style. Unlike Mexican bull-fighters, he would actually wrestle the bull to the ground and break off one of its horns. (He wasn't too popular with animal rights activists in Tokyo.)

Oyama's Strength Training

According to Oyama's 1958 book, strength and speed are more important than skill for Karate, and speed more important than strength. Also, he said it was very important to practice jumping.

Here are some recommendations he gives in "What is Karate?" (He doesn't give an exact workout.)

Running - 4km per day

Rope-skipping - 20 minutes per day

Dumbell arm exercise (shoulder press?) - 200 times

Dips - 100 times

Push ups (with hands in fist) - 300 times

Inclined push ups - 100 times

Jumping side kick over 4 foot vaulting horse

Inclined dumbell bench press

Exercises requiring a partner:

Hitting bag with upper elbow and side of elbow - 200 times each

Practicing jumping kick with bag

Exercises for neck (with partner)

Leg exercise (squat with partner on back)

Back and Abdomen exercises with partner

Elsewhere in the book, Oyama said that he would bench press 175 pounds 500 times a day.

Then there are karate-specific exercises such as straw striking and exercises that are specific to board and stone breaking abilities. All this was in addition to practicing forms, sparring, etc.

Comparing Lee and Oyama

Now, what strikes me as the essential difference between Lee's and Oyama's workout styles is volume. Lee's weight training routine is relatively brief, and he avoided lifting on days of heavy martial arts training.

While Lee might do an exercise for 2 sets of 8 reps (which is fairly typical), Oyama would do it for hundreds of reps. Clearly, Oyama's is a more time-consuming approach that would require a lot of dedication.

If you look at pictures of these men, they have quite different builds. For Lee, his training goal was apparently to add bulk. Before the weight training, he weighed only 135 pounds, and he added 30 pounds of solid muscle.

Oyama, on the other hand, was obviously a stockier fellow, and talks in his book about losing weight during periods of intense training. Judging from pictures of him with other people, I would say that he was probably slightly taller than Lee (who was 5' 8"). Although Oyama was of average height, he doesn't look like a small guy when standing next to American professional wrestlers, boxers, and strongmen.

Possible Conclusions

The point is not to compare them as saying one was better than the other. I do wonder what affect their training style had on the way they looked and how much was just genetic.

At any rate, if Oyama struggled to keep his weight down, it sounds like high volume training helped him to achieve that. Lee, on the other hand, seems to have been naturally lean and wanted the weight training to bulk up (probably to look better on camera). Too much volume might be counter-productive to that goal.

So, maybe the lesson in this is that if you want to lose weight while simultaneously getting stronger, it might be worth considering an old-fashioned high volume workout routine, assuming you can make that kind of dedication. On the other hand, if your goal is to look like Bruce Lee... well, all I can say is "good luck"!

Martial Arts Strength Training

The author, Greg Bonney, is a professional software developer who has been webmaster of several personal and professional web sites. He currently maintains the Strength Training Wiki

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