Hey everybody, Im a high school wrestler 16 years old and have no access to a gym. I have a few light dumbells, a bench, and a curl bar. What are some good excercices I could do to improve pulling and pushing strength? Also are there any good excercises to improve legs at home? Thanks
I never wrestled, but my two younger brothers wrestled (one still is actually). Hopefully this will be of help.
For pulling, do some dumbell rows. Put your right knee on the bench, the left foot on the floor beside it, your right hand on the bench (your back will be parallel to the floor), and use the left hand to raise the dumbell from the floor to your left armpit. Start the movement with your back. If you don’t understand that last sentence, it will be apparent when you do the exercise. Repeat with the right side.
To build your neck muscles, and add some more pulling strength, do dumbell shrugs. Stand up and let the dumbells hang at your sides. Let your arms hang limber, and pull it with your shoulders - literally shrug the weights. The dumbells will not move very far up. If you feel the burn around your neck, you know you’re doing it right.
Also, if you have access to a pullup bar, do those. Even better, a climbing rope if your high school gym has one.
For pushing, try dumbell bench presses. Also do this routine: do 21 pushups, 21 situps, then 18 of both, then 15 of both, etc. Go down by three each time, and switch from pushups to situps in as little time as possible. This is a good endurance and toughness builder for wrestling.
For legs, bodyweight squats would be pretty good, maybe hold the dumbells at your side to add some weight. Calf raises. Leg lifts - hang onto a pullup bar, and lift both of your legs forward at the same time - works your stomach and hip flexors.
Hopefully this helps you increase your strength. But never just go by my word, scour this website for info. Also, being a wrestler, diet is important and this site has a lot of dieting articles.
Two extremely effective simple exercises for home workouts are pull-ups and dips. You can make a pullup bar and dip station from 3/4" galvanized pipe and fittings from a home center. Pushups with hands very close together and slooow tempos can substitute for dips until you build the dip bar. Don’t overlook the pull-ups! - Nylo
Check out Matt Furey’s web site-www.mattfurey.com-. You will be glad you did.
power cleans
deadlifts
power clean + front squat
standing press
overhead squat
chins
etc…
plenty to do
hey nylo,
i was wondering if you could give the specifics of how to construct your own pullup station.
I don’t know a lot about wrestling (in terms of weight training), but I do all my workouts in my garage with dumbbells, an adjustable bench (with a “leg machine”) and a pull up and dip bar.
I would DEFINITELY recommend a pull up and dip bar. Possible exercises include pull ups, emphasizing back and/or biceps (search the T-mag archives for great info on various grips); dips for chest work (leaning as far forward as possible) and triceps (as upright as possible); and hanging leg extensions for ab work.
You should be able to find plenty of excercises for push/pull with dumbbells: one-arm rows, two-arm rows, and trap shrugs for back; presses and flies (flat,incline and decline) for chest; pullovers for the chest/back connection.
In terms of legs, squats, lunges, deadlifts, step ups, calf raises with dumbbells, and leg extentions and curls if you get a “leg machine” for your bench.
Hope it helps! Keep pushin’!
Definetly get a pull-up/dip station, or at the very least a pull up bar. There are so many varieties of pull-ups you can do (check T-mag). Also, seeing that you don’t have very much equipment, I suggest you grab one of your wrestling buddies and start pushing a car around. It’ll help with leg strength. If you can rig up a harness, you can pull it too!
One more thing…Do not ignore ab work! It is incrediably important for wrestling. Especially work on twisting motions (look in T-mag for a description of “full-contact twists.”
-Paul
Hi Jim. Here’s how I built my pullup bar. It is suspended from the ceiling joists in my garage. Two chains support each end of the bar. All the materials can be found at Home Depot. You will need the following. Pipe parts are sold by inside diameter, so the outside is actually bigger than 3/4". One 48" long, galvanized, precut, 3/4" size threaded nipple (has male threads on each end). Find one in the bin that is nice and straight, and free from burrs or irregularities in the galvanizing coating. Two 3/4" galvanized deck flanges. These look like a disc with 4 screw holes out near the edges and a 3/4" female pipe thread hole in the center. Ten feet of lightweight chain, load rated (see the package) for 100 pounds or better. Four S-hooks, for connecting the chain to the flanges. Four heavy duty lag screw hooks (minimum 1/4" diameter shank). Permanent (red color) thread sealant.
To begin the assembly, polish any imperfections off the bar with a green scotchbrite scrubber pad. Clean it with detergent. Apply some permanent thread sealer to the threads on each end and thread on the flanges on each end. Tighten them snug as you can and take care to line up the holes of the flanges with each other. This is so it will hang properly from the four chains. Locate the joists in the ceiling and install the four screw hooks in such as way as they are spaced 2 feet wider than the bar is long, and space the two hooks for each end about 18-24 inches apart. This way, all four chains are spreading apart as they go from the bar up to the ceiling. This will keep the bar from swinging while you are on it. Connect an S-hook to two adjacent holes in the deck flanges on each side. If you've aligned the flanges right, so far, you should have all four hooks facing up. Once the thread sealant cures, you won't be able to adjust the flanges! Cut the chain into four, equal-length pieces that will suspend the bar at the right height for you. Attach the chains to the flange hooks, hand the works on the screw hooks, and crimp the S-hooks closed with pliers after you have the lengths adjusted. Good luck - Nylo