Training For Wrestling With Insanity

When I was in high school I wrestled for four years and each year when wrestling started I dreaded the first 2-3 weeks of practice. The first weeks of practice were brutal. For the most part, everyone on the wrestling team was out of cardiovascular shape and needed to get into wrestling shape quickly. For those of you who don’t know, being in good wrestling shape means that you are probably in the best shape of your life. Each high school wrestling match usually last around 6 minutes. During that time each wrestler is constantly moving quickly and with purpose. It is not uncommon to burn between 600-1000 calories per match. Next to MMA, wrestling is one of the most physically demanding sports out there.

I now coach wrestling and I still don’t like that first few weeks of practice, for different reasons now of course. I don’t like it because I need to constantly push my wrestlers to get themselves into shape and cannot focus too much time on technique. Now one may argue that doing so is one of the roles of a wrestling coach and with this I would agree. But if there were a way to get the wrestlers into great cardio shape before the season began, then my role as a coach could focus on the technique and strategy of wrestling earlier in the season.

I have found a solution to this problem and plan on incorporating it into my wrestling teams pre-season and practices this year. A while ago I began and completed the P90X program that was created by Team Beachbody. I lost 25 pounds and felt that I was in the best shape since high school wrestling. My body fat dropped from 23% to 11% and I felt great. After P90X I wanted a new challenge and found one with Beachbody’s Insanity program.

Insanity is an EXTREMELY intense cardiovascular workout that is perfect for getting wrestlers into shape. It focuses on getting the body’s heart rate to around 160 and sustaining it for short periods of time. There is a short (30 second) recovery time for which the heart rate usually drops to around 140. This goes on for around 35 minutes! The best part is that the workouts are so challenging that you could incorporate them into your own practices after the season has started. You want to talk about getting the boys working for the first part of practice, this will do it and then some. Your wrestlers will sweat off at least 2 pounds during each Insanity workout. After which you can teach them technique and drill for the rest of practice and have no worries about their cardiovascular shape. I have no doubt that incorporating Insanity into your wrestling practices will get your wrestlers into better shape than their competition is.