We’ve all wrestled that guy, the one with the huge arms, back, and pecs. As you are warming up across the mat from him,
you do one of two things; You either look away to try not to psyche yourself out, or you puff yourself up to feel a little better about yourself. However you may be surprised, when you’re finally shaking his hands, that his forearms are actually bigger than his legs… Strategy?
SHOOT! SHOOT!
This unfortunately happens more than expected, and especially at the high school level. Actually most high school wrestlers don't seem to understand the importance of leg strength...
In an article, the NSCA states that:
“Adding strength training to a wrestling training program will further increase muscle strength, power, and stamina if integrated in an appropriate manner. Unfortunately, many high school athletes do not learn about the importance of nutrition and strength training until the final years of their high school career, or if they compete for a collegiate team or higher (e.g., Olympic level).” - Click to Tweet!
We, the team at Stand Up, in addition to the film, at www.reelnationmedia.com/standup, want to help wrestlers #DefyDefeat as much as possible, so we want to share this video which is a great place to start for any wrestler looking to improve leg strength.
Hands down, one of the best exercises a wrestler should hit to increase leg strength is the barbell squat. This video will show you a beast squat workout that works for wrestlers. Lamont Stanley is a bodybuilder I personally worked with, and for good reason. He is very good at explaining his workouts, and why he does what he does. Go ahead and watch the video to see what I’m talking about.
In the video, Lamont goes over:
how to properly squat and move up in weights
stretches to improve mobility and blood flow during squatting
extra squatting equipment
If you’re not convinced yet that you should train your legs for wrestling, here are the biggest benefits:
Leg strength will improve stability and strength around the knee, which will be good when preventing injuries.
Leg training will help you stay on your feet as it works your balance and stability. This is huge when it comes to scrambling.
You will take away some stress on your lower back, and improve your shot.
Leg training will help gain the power to burst through your opponent with your shot and take him off the mat.
My Take Away
When I was a wrestler during my senior year, I had little to no confidence in my shot for a few reasons: my lower back hurt for a big guy like me to get so low, I’d usually get stuck under my opponent in the middle of the shot, and lifting was a little harder for me. It wasn’t years later until I started amateur bodybuilding that I realized all those problems could have been simply solved by leg strength training.
Want to find more about leg training? Please let us know in the comments.
You can learn more about strength training at Lamont’s YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJkoPKbivx_S491ge_jWaIw?spfreload=5
And of course, you can get some more awesome wrestling inspiration by watching Stand Up on VHX at https://reelnationmedia.vhx.tv/products/stand-up.
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