Wrestlers and Thanksgiving Eating: a few tips!

It's Thanksgiving day today, and my wife Michelle and I will be getting together with family to enjoy good company and great food!

I'm sure many wrestlers all over the world tend to stress about Thanksgiving because they are concerned about all of the eating and then having to make weight soon after...

Here are my thoughts...

Eat all you want to on Thanksgiving!

That's right... don't skimp. I want you to eat until you're content even if you are going to drop down a weight class. Hey, your Gramma would be upset if you didn't have a piece of her homemade Pumpkin Pie... so don't disappoint her.

Eat up because you will stuff the muscle cells full of glycogen and get a Leptin load in your body. This means your muscles will be ready for whatever you throw at them... the day after Thanksgiving!

The day after Thanksgiving is the best day to strength train. You will feel a monster pump like you've never felt before. Of course, you can't do this all the time or you'll never make weight. Just do it today!

Now, if you are concerned about your weight, make sure tomorrow's workout is a strength training workout... not cardio or jogging.

Jogging or cardio won't do much to use up the muscle glycogen and kick-start your weight-cutting process. Strength training, on the other hand will do exactly that. If you hit the gym tomorrow, be sure to do a full body 'flushing' workout. That means you will choose one or two exercises for each bodypart and do one set of 20-25 reps on each set to failure. This will necessitate lighter weights because of the high reps.

Here's a sample flushing program to do:

Squats or Leg Press - 1x20-25
Leg Curls or Stiff Leg Deadlift - 1x20-25
Bent Rows - 1x20-25
Chinups - 2xmax reps
Bench Press - 1x20-25
Standing Shoulder Press - 1x20-25
Barbell Curl - 1x20-25
Pushups - 1x max reps
Crunches - 1x max reps

That's it... and it works great. You'll get a huge pump and feel great. Plus, your body will have no choice but to use the food that was stored from Thanksgiving dinner. You'll jump-start your body to make weight, without the guilt.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!!

Video Clip from the 6 Minute Conditioning for Wrestlers! DVD

Check out this clip of your 'Monday' workout from the '6 Minute Conditioning for Wrestlers! DVD...

How To Pack On Muscle Like Brock Lesnar

If you saw the UFC bout last night between Brock Lesnar and Randy Coutoure, you witnessed the awesome wrestling skills and sheer power of Brock.

Granted, Randy is 45 years old... but I'm not sure it would matter how young or old anyone is who steps into the cage with Brock.  He is the epitomy of unstoppable power and strength.

If you ever saw pics or video of Brock's high school matches, you know that although he was a muscular and strong looking kid, he didn't have nearly the muscle mass that he does now.

So... how do you go about packing on functional muscle mass for wrestling?

If you're in high school, you need to train as a 'hard gainer.'  That means your strength and mass workouts should be abbreviated, and your total training time should be no more than 2 hours per week!

Here's a sample 'hard gainer' mass program for wrestlers:

Day 1

Trap Bar Deadlift - 1x20 with rest pause (8-10 reps to failure... rest 15 seconds... as many reps as possible... 15 more seconds of rest... as many reps as possible... etc.. until you reach 20)

Shoulder Width Grip Incline Barbell Press - 2x5

Reverse Grip Chinups - 2x6

Plank- 2x as long as possible

Day 2

Barbell Squat - 1x20 with rest pause (see above)

Standing Barbell Shoulder Press - 2x5

Reverse Grip Barbell Row - 2x6

Twisting Crunches - 2x as many as possible

* Take 2-3 days between workouts

This type of training is guaranteed to pack on 'Brock Lesnar' type strength and mass to any wrestler... but you must consume enough calories from protein, carbohydrates and fats.  

To figure out how many calories you should eat to pack on muscle, simply take your bodyweight and add a zero.  Now double it!  That's how many calories you'll need as a high school wrestler if you have trouble packing on muscle.  

Example:  Your bodyweight is 150.  If you add a zero you get 1500.  If you double it you get 3000 calories daily.

Brock Lesnar follows a very intense training regimen... with a lot of bodybuilding-type training.  When you are in your upper 20's you can pack on mass with his type of program.  But if your body is still growing you need abbreviated mass and strength training to be successful.

3 Training Tips to Get Into Wrestling Condition Fast!

Here are 3 training tips that will get you into total condition this season...

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1.  Use a 2 Exercise Combination     If you are training for wrestling and are using only your body weight then you need 2 types of exercises.  You should use a multi-joint, compound exercise.  These are body weight exercises (or with weights) that require your body to move from more than one joint - neck, shoulders, elbows, knees, hips.  Some examples of body weight, compound exercises are:

• Burpees
• 8 Count Bodybuilders
• Jumping Squats
• Lunge Variations (with Horizontal Retractions, Vertical Retractions and Twists)
• Mountain Climbers

You should also perform static contraction exercises.  These are exercises that force your muscles to contract, without movement.  Essentially, you hold a position for a required amount of time, or to failure... whichever comes first.  Here's a program that shows you how to do these exercises.

2.  Time Is On Your Side     No one would argue that wrestlers need to have a lot of intensity in their training.  Intensity comes in different forms when we're talking about proper training for wrestlers in order to meet their strength and conditioning goals. 

One of the least-used, yet most important intensity methods is the use of 'time.'  You can increase intensity simply by doing the same amount of work in less time.  

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You can also time your sets... but I don't like this method.  It requires that you perform a set for a certain amount of time, and your goal is to do as many repetitions as possible during this time.  This results in performing the exercise too fast... resulting in half-assed form and poor results.

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One of the best methods is to perform only a few repetitions in each set... let's say no more than 5.  You then start your stopwatch and let it go for 6 minutes... the same amount of total time in a wrestling match.  You then perform 5 repetitions of a compound  exercise, followed immediately by a static contraction exercise for a predetermined amount of time... let's say 20 seconds.

After a few minutes you will be struggling to get 5 repetitions to due to the number of sets depleting your muscles stored glycogen, along with the lactic-acid buildup.  

This is a great way to get strong for wrestling...

3.  Use Bodyweight Plyometrics     While you are getting yourself strong for the season, you can simultaneously increase your speed and power by selecting the correct exercises in your training plan.

I'm a big fan of bodyweight-only plyometrics in the training plan of all wrestlers!

Exercises such as Jumping Squats, Plyometric Pushups, Burpee Squats are all good examples of what you might want to include in your wrestling-specific training regimen.  They produce a good carry-over of power and performance on the wrestling mat when done correctly.

What do wrestling conditioning and Mac computers have in common?

Last week as I was trying to upload a file to my computer it went blank...

IT CRASHED!

I was pissed too... I knew that the computer was getting older. I knew that it was slow compared to the new computers out there. I also knew that I was just buying time before I would need to get with the times and cough up the cash for a new one!

So my wife Michelle and I went to a few local store to check out computers. I couldn't believe how things have changed in just 3 years. Computers that are literally half as much as what we paid for our computer 3 years ago had twice as much memory... along with so many more gadgets and gizmos...

We then began to look at the Mac computers... Let me tell ya', within 5 minutes I looked at my wife and said,"I'm convinced... let's buy this Mac right now!"

This Mac computer is the Rolls Royce of computers.

It has more power!

It is faster!

It is more durable!

It is almost immune from viruses!

The funny thing was when I thought about how similiar this Mac computer is to my new '6 Minute Conditioning' program for wrestlers...

My '6 Minute Conditioning' program for wrestlers helps you because :

• It gets you stronger
• It gets you faster
• It gets you more conditioned
• It prevents injuries
• It is simple to use
• Anyone can use it
• It is 'state of the art' in its effectiveness

By taking the time to learn more about the needs of wrestlers, I was able to create a program similiar to Mac that helps the consumer do all the things they need to do without anything complicated.

Sometimes it pays to get with the times. By having a computer that allows me to do so much more with Multimedia, I'll be able to give my members at Wrestling Performance even more one on one coaching as well as provide more killer video to get them in top condition...

When you use the 6 Minute Conditioning program for wrestlers you will be state of the art. You will get natural hormone-release from the training program... which in turn will get you stronger, faster and better conditioned fast... in 2 weeks.

Steve