If you want to get a strength advantage over your competition and don’t have a lot of fancy equipment, don’t worry. Here are 3 tried-and-true “one-off” strength training exercises that can help you get stronger for the mat – FAST!
1. Lower Squats: Lower squats are amazing for building hip and glute strength. In layman’s terms, that would be working your ass off. Ok, have a quick laugh and then get to work. These are a perfect addition to your wrestling strength training routine. This is what you do. Using an Olympic bar, perform a regular full-depth squat. This means that you lower yourself until the top of your thighs are parallel to the ground. Instead of standing up straight, you rise only halfway. You pause in the midway position, lower down to below parallel, and repeat. I would shed them about once or twice a month, to keep the muscles “confused.” This forces the muscles to respond by becoming stronger. In fact, you may want to perform a regular barbell or machine squat during your first workout. In the next workout, you can perform a barbell or trapeze deadlift. The third workout could be a lower squat. Simply perform each exercise at 100% intensity (with a spotter at all times) and look to improve strength in successive workouts.
2. Negative Solo Chin-ups: This one is fantastic for building the kind of upper-body strength you need to hit the mat very quickly. Because? Because performing negative repetitions incorporates many more muscle fibers than the positive part of the repetition. In other words, you are 40% stronger lowering a weight than raising it. To apply this to pull-ups, do the following: Grasp a pull-up bar with a close, supinated grip. (Using this grip is much more effective than a wide grip for building the latissimus dorsi muscle. The “lats” work the biceps when you’re performing a one- or two-legged takedown.) Standing on a high bench or chair, jump up so your chin is on the bar and hold for 2 seconds. Slowly lower under control until you reach a hanging position where the lat muscles are stretched. This reduction should take 8-10 seconds. Jump back to the starting position and come back down in 8-10 seconds. Repeat until it is impossible to lower with control. You may need to wear additional weight around your waist if using body weight alone becomes too easy. Keep an arch in your mid-back area when performing to force your back muscles to work more than your biceps.
3. Negative Only Dips: Just as the last exercise hits your back muscles and biceps hard, this one hits the antagonistic (opposite) muscles to them. This one will build your chest, shoulders, and triceps quickly. To perform it, lock your arms and lean on top of a dip bar. Keep your chin tucked into your chest to put more work on your chest muscles and less emphasis on your triceps. Lower until chest is fully stretched. This will take 8-10 seconds. Repeat. When you can’t get down for at least 6 seconds, the set is over. At this point, take a much needed breather and have a drink.
Negative only training is very demanding on the body. You would do this for no more than 3 weeks at a time, about 4 times a year, to help get over a sticking point in your training. These 3 exercises can be performed by any fighter. If a fighter is young and has not reached physical maturity, he squats with only body weight. For the older and more mature fighters, go all out. If he’s not huffing and can’t wait to get out of the gym, he didn’t work hard enough.
Discover the power of negative training and watch your performance improve almost overnight.