Varying Off-Season Conditioning to Minimize In-Season Injuries |
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| The majority of wrestlers typically not only wrestle but condition and strength train year round. One issue this can lead to is overuse injuries. Wrestlers are very unique athletes–part wrestler, part distance runner, part gymnast, part powerlifter, etc. With this in mind, a good off-season conditioning program can include core training, balance training, plyometric training, Olympic lifts and metabolic training that would typically translate to other sports. |
| Early into my time as a strength and conditioning coach for Reed High School, I tailored the off-season program to mimic in-season activities, or only single-plane movements such as; bench, deadlift, squat and power clean, and I relearned a valuable lesson…. The best way to get in wrestling shape, is to wrestle. And, if the wrestlers are completely taxed prior to even getting on the mat, it hinders their performance and puts them at risk of overuse injury. |
| So, keeping that in mind, my focus began to shift to what could be done to minimize injury while still maximizing performance. So, from then on, our in-season conditioning steered more towards wrestling centric movements, but any resistance training or Olympic loads, were reduced to 50% 1 rep max or less, with more of a distance-running based metabolic program with minimal ground contacts for plyometric exercises. While using the off-season program to develop stabilization of the core, endurance, hypertrophy (muscle growth), strength, power (force divided by time), from spring to fall and de-load prior to season start–typically 3 weeks from season start in order to help muscular recovery. |
| Taking this approach allowed me to keep the team workouts uniformed and retainable, but I was also able to develop muscle and power in different planes of motion. Developing knee stability by straightening the hamstring, calf and quadriceps groups in all 3 planes of motion, lateral plate jump (frontal plane,lateral) ,plate jump with twist (transverse plane, trunk), depth jump to vertical jump (sagittal plane). The same concept was applied to concussion reduction where we would use a combination of barbell shrugs, 3 part dumbbell shrugs and neck rotations with no external resistance to help develop trap strength, but also neck mobility (which can help their bridge). |
| Active warm-ups have several physiological benefits such as soft tissue elasticity, synovial fluid release in the joints, ATP(energy) turnover, blood circulation and many more. Using a combination of movement prep (fire hydrants, scapular retractions, pvc front to backs), dynamic warm ups, static stretches (hold for 30 seconds each stretch) and self myofascial release (foam rolling, lacrosse ball, theragun) can greatly benefit athletes that wrestle year-round and participate in off-season conditioning programs. These same flexibility modalities can be made more wrestling centric as the season nears, and can they easily be incorporated as part of the team’s in-season wrestling plan, without interfering with any coaches set program, and/or, practice time limitations. |
| Using Ladder Agility Drills (2 foot middle,Icky Shuffle,Ali Shuffle) can help wrestling learn to to establish proper neuro patterns and footwork speed.Plyometrics (Explosive movements) can assist in explosive leg power and explosive leg power can be measured with the vertical jump test which can later benefit their shots from neutral.Banded exercises at a higher rep volume can assist mobility of the shoulder,hip,knee joints.Olympic Lifts can benefit power and overall strength of the Lower pelvic hip complex (explosive hips) through triple extension.Resistance training with an eccentric (negative) repetition focus can help train the muscular system to stabilize.Balance training can help to prevent lower extremity (ankle,knee) injuries by progressively training the joints to handle impact. |
| Ankle sprains are very common in athletics (1 every 17 participants each year) with a reinjury rate of approx 47-73%.Knee injuries account for 50% and concussions (1.6-1.8 millions sport related concussions in the US each year).While it is impossible in our sport to prevent all injuries,a good off season program can minimize injury risk and also can help the athlete return to competition faster.I was always taught an athlete’s best ability is availability and I believe this approach can also keep wrestlers at all levels engaged and gives the strength coach the flexibility to scale the program to kids of all levels while still running a uniformed program that will progress all of them.
Chris Gorden |
