I posted this late in another thread but I didn’t get any input so I thought it would be better to make a new thread just in case.
Right now I do two total body per week, typically something like…
squat
bench
bent over row
abs
I usually go heavy on the leg movement in one of the weeks workouts, then heavy on the upper body movements in the other weeks workout
I’ll do that twice a week, for 3 or 4 weeks and then after a 3 week load and 1 week deload change the exercises and repeat ie
deadlift
dips
chin ups
diff abs
But for off season, if I add a 3rd full body session (because the volume and intensity of my cardio and wrestling will be way down) how should I cycle the exercises?
should I continue as I have been doing, keeping the same 3 excercises for 4-5 week waves then completely change or should I do something more like this…
Monday
Bench Heavy 1-5
Shrug reps 8+
Deadlift reps 5
abs light
Wednesday
Rows heavy 3-5
Romanian deadlift 5-8
incline bench reps 8+
abs heavy
Friday
Squat heavy 1-5
chins reps 8+
dips reps 8+
abs light
then after 4-5 week wave change up the exercises again and change the focus of which exercises I go heavier on, or is that too much variation?
My main question is, should I keep the 4 exercises the same for all 3 workouts in the week for a few weeks (old plan) or should I change up the exercises throughout the week (new plan)?
I would keep the exercises the same at least for your four week cycle. This should minimize the soreness and also allow you to gain familiarity with the exercise. Which I personally think is important for force production as you don’t have to think as much about form and can put more emphasis on bar speed instead.
I would keep a regular set of Staple exercises and rotate them during the week.
say,
squats
deadlifts or Rdl’s
Cleans/jerks
bench
rows
chins
eg
mon; squats - bench - rows
wed; dead - cleans - chins
fri; Repeat from monday
How many yrs experience in weights do you have?
What is your current strength level now?
Maybe you might need more exercises for wrestling?
Are you needed to keep to a specific body weight?
How much cardio do you do to keep lean?
I have been lifting weights for 9 years, but it has always been simply a supplement to my sport specific training (primarily kayaking in high school, high school wrestling secondary, since being in university only wrestling). I have never been solely a weightlifter.
Current 1rms…squats 375lbs, deadlift 455lbs, bench 285lbs, bent over row 235 for 5
right now I walk around between 200 and 210, I compete at 198 for university tournaments and lately 185 for club tournaments but next year I want to compete at 212, which will mean ideally I’ll get my bodyweight over 220 while maintaing my current bf% (about 10%). So to answer your question ideally I will gain weight but its not a necessity I move up a class. Right now I do one interval swim session and one interval run session on top of my wrestling (the interval workouts usually double bout volume (10-20 minutes)), after the season I will keep those 2 sessions but tone down the intensity and probably wrestle alot less.
sounds good man.
Not much knowledge on my front about wrestling, but i imagine 3min rounds or so! So, also a factor is musclur endurance? Some generall bodybuilding reps and recoverys could help out here. ie, up your reps to around 8-15reps, 30-45sec between sets, throw in some super sets, bench chins then 30sec rest repeat. Keep the weight heavy, you many need to drop it like 10%, but, after a couple of months, if you can do a 10rep pb in bench and decient chins in super set style, you know your improving. the pump will be fantastic. The pump will hellp stretch out the muscle fibers to new levels, allowing for more growth. I would up your exercises in volume and number of exercises. YOur already pretty strong, so, if you can get pretty darn close to them strength levels with more sets, limited recovery and feeling the burn, your gunna grow!! Just eat protein, keep the carbs up, keep out the saturated fat and keep the simple carbs low, but complex carbs high.
If you can learn to burn the crap out of your leg training, pump them legs up, that will boost you like nothing.
boldwarrior and jstu, thanks for the advice.
I am mostly thinking in terms of an offseason routine, to gain as much maximal strength as I can and to regain muscle mass I lost during the season from all the wrestling, cardio and dieting. So in the offseason I won’t worry about muscular endurance in the weightroom. Especially after this year as I feel muscular endurance has been my strong point and maximal strength something I have lost too much of.