I thought to offer up a couple of free, effective workout routines here for anyone who would like to experience a different kind of training kick.

I have designed these workouts to help support my grappling game, because as a wrestler, you need a lot of core control in addition to being able to body control in general.

I am not a big believer in training with machines.  They have their place, but overall, if you want to build yourself a strong body, you better learn to do push free weights and do as much as possible standing up.  You want strong tendons in addition to strong muscles.

SHADOW WARFARE

Power Circuit – Perform all exercises back-to-back, no rest pauses in between exercises, and only take your break after the 5-moves have been completed.  Rest period is 2-5 minutes between circuits x 3 circuits in total.  Do a warm-up prior to performing this circuit, such as 3 sets of 30-seconds of battle ropes; or 5-minutes on the crosstrainer, where you raise the resistance every minute by two notches every minute, while keeping the speed steady at the same pace throughout the warm-up.

Thor’s Hammer – Take a single battle rope (thick ropes used for Cross-Training) and attach one end to an upper pulley.  Take hold the rope with both hands, one on top of the other.  Stand back, so that your desired amount of weight plates release off the weight rack, suspended just a bit from the remaining plates in the apparatus.  “Sit” back shiko dachi -style, but not with your knees so far to the side as in Karate, and bend from the waist.  Pull the rope alternately past each thigh, twist from the waist while doing so, and keep your arms as straight as possible.  Note: every time you pull toward your left thigh, your right fist needs to be on top of your left fist holding the rope, and visa versa.  Keep tension in your torso throughout the movement, and do not shift your feet.  Once you have taken a stance, struggle to stay in place: this is the key to core strength and core control in this exercise, and the more more weight that you have, the harder it gets! 10-15 reps per side, 4 working sets.

Roman Chair Flyes – Roman chairs are typically used for back extensions, but I’ve taken and incorporated one hell of an effective upper back and shoulder exercise with this one.  Take a pair of not too heavy dumbbells and place them at the foot of the roman chair.  Set yourself into the Roman chair, as you would normally to do back extensions, face down.  Take hold of the dumbbells and activate the muscle support in your upper back and shoulders.  Every time you sweep down toward the foot of the apparatus, the dumbbells are held at a 90-degree angle, against your chest: as you come up, open your arms like wings, fists pointing forward, pinkies leading the charge, flaring up to the sides.  Pose for a moment at the end of each repetition.  Your arms should be at about a 90-degree angle during the upswing portion of the movement also, so that your shoulder joints work as the hinges here.  Squeeze your butt together at the top of the movement and make sure to pose on each rep!  10-15 reps, 4 working sets.

Stir the Cauldron – Take a single 20kg straight bar and place one end against whatever 90-degree corner that you can find at the gym, be it a corner of the wall or a piece of framework on whatever apparatus like a squat rack, per se.  Load the other end of the bar with plates and then pick the loaded end up and hold it with both hands against your chest, one fist on top of the other.  Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart or just a bit wider and tighten your torso before engaging with the movement.  Push the bar, arms straight, off of your chest, so that the weighted end of the bar is directly in front of you.  Swing from side to side, twisting from the waist and pivoting only on the balls and soles of your feet.  Your arms will be slightly bent as you swing the bar and especially when you touch your thigh on either side.  Otherwise, you do not move your feet or their positioning at all during the exercise.  Bring the bar to about your mid-thigh, and try to perform the exercise as exposively as possible: literally rip the weight off of your thigh when you make contact and keep the bar in motion.  10-15 reps per side, 4 working sets.

Phoenix Rising – This is basically a nonstop, fluid movement, starting from supination grip shoulder-width deadlift into a barbell curl into an overhead press and back down again to the floor.  In the lockout above the head in the overhead press, you need to get underneath the bar, not have the bar’s center of gravity in front of your torso.  You can pause very briefly at the top and at the bottom of the movement, but no pausing at any point during the full range of motion.  6-12 reps x 4 working sets.

Chains of Atlantis – A brutal side-deltoid exercise that is harder than it sounds: take an equal pair of power chains (the kind that are loaded to a benchlifting bar on occasion) and grip them so that the large chain links within the palms of your hands are held mirror image-like (in other words, the way the chain feels in one hand should be how the chain feels in the other hand).  Grip the chains in the middle of their length, so that an equal amount of chain hangs on each side of your fist.  Get a good starting posture and bend forward slightly from the waist, fists facing one another in front of your lower abdomen.  Perform deltoid flyes, as you would normally.  However, you will notice immediately, that the swaying of the chains make this exercise difficult, and you will really have to focus and have a lot of control.  Your deltoids will scream after a few reps.  8-12 reps, 4 working sets.

Perform a cool-down at the end of this circuit, either 5-minutes of crosstrainer at low resistance or treadmill at jogging pace; or 5-minutes on the rowing machine.  If nothing else is available, a stationary fitness bike will do, also.