Fitness
Endurance Training for Wrestling
By Carlomagno Canta, CSCS; Photography by Bahaghari MFI
Wrestlers put too much emphasis on endurance and the reason is if you lose your "air," your chance of getting mangled by your opponent increases. Then why is it that you find yourself huffing and puffing event if you could finish a marathon? That only means one thing. Aerobic endurance means nothing on the mat.
Aerobic Endurance's Place
No, I haven't lost my sanity yet. And you read it correctly; AEROBIC ENDURANCE MEANS NOTHING ON THE MAT. Have you seen a marathoner up close? How do they look like? Not to take away anything from marathoners because running marathons is really tough. Aerobic training has made their body soft, light and lacking muscle mass, strength and power. That is a direct adaptation to aerobic training. Aerobic training has made their body that way so as to cope with the constant pounding on the pavement.
So what is the problem with that? Other than looking like a glutton punished in Purgatorio in Dante's Divine Comedy (La Divina Comedia for you literature lovers), that body is not designed for strength and power. Attributes that are of prime importance in wrestling.
Analysis of Wrestling
Wrestling is an anaerobic sport. It has two rounds, three minutes each. If you watched a wrestling match live, you will see that there will be a burst of action, then the pace slows suddenly, then draws to a halt for a while, then its pretty random. There is no constant exertion of effort and surely you won't be utilizing the aerobic system.
The answer: Anaerobic Endurance Training
Anaerobic means without air. Don't mind and don't be misled by the fancy term. It doesn't mean that you will wrestle without breathing but what it really means is that you don't utilize oxygen to fuel your activity. So how do you train endurance anaerobically? Try these routines for improving anaerobic endurance:
Body Weight Circuits:
Situp Pullup
Position yourself under a pull up bar.
Lie down.
Do an explosive situp to stand up then jump.
Grab the bar then do a pullup.
Repeat.
Try doing this for 30 seconds to two minutes.
Jogging Bear Crawls
Jog for 20 seconds.
Crawl for 20 seconds.
Repeat up to 2-6 minutes.
Ali Shuffle Mountain Climbers
While standing, shuffle your feet back and forth for 30 seconds.
Then crouch to push up position, drive one knee up to chest level and out stretch the other, alternatively for 30 seconds. Try doing this four times.
» Fitness archive
Men's Health Philippines - November 2005 Issue
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