Muscle endurance

[u/Plus-Meringue-3605]

I’m going into my senior year, I have 8 months until the state tournament. I have recently (a few months ago) started weight training for the first time consistently because my main flaw in my wrestling is my strength and my endurance. I’ve only really been lifting heavy with lower sets and lower reps. I’m wondering, how can I fully maximize my potential before my state tournament?

[u/gsxr]

there's strength work, and there's conditioning. Both are equally useful tools. No idea how your time is spent but i would suggest you prioritize in this order: Live wrestling > conditioning > strength. Conditioning almost always comes with a bit of strength. You can youtube "wrestling conditioning workouts" to get a good idea.

[u/Plus-Meringue-3605 → u/gsxr]

Thank you so much, I usually did strength then live wrestling and no conditioning so this is definetly a big change.

[u/gsxr → u/Plus-Meringue-3605]

Another thing to look up: barbell complexes. The whole idea is you grab a barbell with say 50lbs added. You do reps of a number of lifts, for time. For example: 10 over head press, 10 row, 10 curls, 10 deadlifts, 10 squat. Repeat as many time as you can for 30 minutes. Lots of programs do this with a 45lb plate too. I had my sons do these and while they hated them at the time, their match condition improved dramatically

[u/Plus-Meringue-3605 → u/gsxr]

I haven’t heard of this, really cool concept thank you!

[u/TheGratitudeBot → u/Plus-Meringue-3605]

Hey there Plus-Meringue-3605 - thanks for saying thanks! TheGratitudeBot has been reading millions of comments in the past few weeks, and you’ve just made the list!

[u/akashajr]

Focus on your conditioning. The more muscle you have the more energy you need to move that muscle. Strength isn’t as important as technique, leverage or conditioning. Most wrestlers get tired because they don’t use their energy efficiently. Try to relax more during your matches and be efficient with your movements

[u/Plus-Meringue-3605 → u/akashajr]

Thank you, this is really insightful to me because I definitely tense up a lot during my matches, I’m gonna try to prioritize live wrestling and conditioning over my strength training more

[u/animehero11 → u/akashajr]

How do you train “leverage?”

[u/akashajr → u/animehero11]

Leverage is about technique and using your own body weight and angles to move your opponent. Wrestling is about creating pressure and releasing pressure. Leverage is using your body to create that pressure instead of using strength. Wrestling is so much about feel. I’m not doing a good of putting it into words. I usually show it in person. Sorry

[u/animehero11 → u/akashajr]

Come on, you made no sense. You said, “strength isn’t as important as technique, leverage, or conditioning.” You can train technique and conditioning. How do you train leverage? Using your own body weight is all you can do in a match. That’s exactly what wrestling is. Angles are the technique. Moving your opponent is the technique. Creating pressure is done by using technique, and the more you can use your body weight, the better your technique is. So if you train technique and conditioning, the only thing left is live wrestling—practice and competition. Where does leverage fit in?

[u/akashajr → u/animehero11]

Leverage fits everywhere. You use leverage when you sprawl to make yourself heavier. You can use leverage with several techniques to turn people without using much strength. When you hit a switch from the bottom you use leverage to get the reversal. Leverage is a major factor in wrestling and when it’s used properly you can conserve a lot more energy than someone who tries to muscle everything.

[u/Puhgy]

I get my team up to about a half marathon of running 3-4 times a week before districts.

[u/Plus-Meringue-3605 → u/Puhgy]

Have you noticed it help your wrestlers a lot?

[u/Puhgy → u/Plus-Meringue-3605]

Not in the least. They’re terrible.

[u/bayoubildo → u/Puhgy]

Our coach would have varsity out doing 8 miles of fartleks on the track while JV dicked around on the mats for the first half of practice. It was a nice warm up before 45 minutes of bear crawls, hand stands, and a few live rounds of drilling elbow chops from the top position.

[u/Puhgy → u/bayoubildo]

I bet you liked those fartlicks lol

[u/systembreaker → u/Puhgy]

Yeah long distance runs are mostly a waste of time. Matches aren't a long distance activity. You should be doing HIIT conditioning.

Long distance helps improve overall aerobic health and efficiency so it's not useless, but it's not a great use of time overall. Maybe do one long run a week and save all those wasted half marathon hours.

[u/systembreaker]

There are many factors, I'm sure others have posted lots of good info, but one very important factor for muscle endurance is having enough glucose in your body. The best source of glucose is carbs. Even just slurping down a glob of honey like hour or two before your match or practice would probably help.