Wrestling exercises every muscle in your body. It's a common joke in wrestling to be sore in muscles you never knew you had. However, the power for most wrestling moves comes from the core: your abdomen, lower back and hips. Thus, exercises that can improve the strength and flexibility in your hips can help improve your wrestling performance.
High-knee Running
Running or skipping while bringing your knees up to waist level or higher shifts the load of the running exercise. Although it continues to place demands on your calves and thighs, that extra lift at the top of the leg's arc engages the hip flexors and abdominal muscles --- muscles vital to hip strength.
Neck Bridge
A neck bridge emphasizes the muscles in your neck, but you have to thrust with your hips to make it work. This builds not just strength, but flexibility and range of motion in your hips. You do a neck bridge by lying on the ground with your feet flat on the floor, knees bent. Arch your back upward until you are touching the ground with your head and feet only. To increase the impact on your hips with this exercise, focus on thrusting upward explosively and to the maximum height you can manage.
Bouncing Bridge
This variant on the neck bridge practices a vital wrestling skill while simultaneously working the muscles in your hips. Lie on your back with a partner lying across your chest as if attempting to pin you. Execute an explosive neck bridge while pushing up as hard as possible with your hips, throwing your partner a few inches into the air. The goal is to lift him high enough that you can flip over onto your stomach while he is airborne.
Good Morning Exercise
Good morning exercises aren't unique to wrestling, but the hip and lower back workout they provide can build your hip attributes as well as any specific wrestling move. Stand upright with your spine and neck aligned. While you keep your spine and neck straight, bend at the hips until your upper body is parallel to the ground. As you begin to get better at this exercise, you can begin increasing the load by holding weights across the back of your shoulders.
Lunges
Lunges work the muscles in your hips, hamstrings and rear end while also stretching your groin and hips to improve flexibility and range of motion. Wrestlers can improve their hips by doing lunges in isolation --- or they can focus on the exercise aspect of takedown drills that include a lunge in the technique. Ankle picks and low single-leg takedowns are two examples of wrestling moves that incorporate a lunge.
References
- "Capoeira Conditioning"; Gerard Taylor; 2004
- "Training for Warriors: The Ultimate Mixed Martial Arts Workout"; Martin Rooney; 2008
- "Coaching Wrestling Successfully"; Dan Gable; 1999
- "The Art of Expressing the Human Body"; Bruce Lee; 1998
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