Have you ever wondered why wrestlers, despite their similar weight and physique, are so different from bodybuilders? What is their secret: training, genetics, or lifestyle?
We'll try to figure out what makes wrestlers so tough, strong, and functional—often even more so than their much larger-than-life bodybuilders. And we'll uncover some unobvious patterns that may change the way you think about health, strength, and training.
Aesthetics vs. functionality
What is the difference between a 90 kg bodybuilder and a wrestler of the same weight and build? The difference is in the work with which they created the body. There is such a thing as functional and non-functional work.
Bodybuilders prefer to work with simulators and free weights, their trump card is a high volume of work performed, a large number of exercises. Finding an application for their skills in real life is difficult. They are good only at those exercises that they perform every day – this is important to understand. Their neurons are trained to do the exercises they are used to: bicep curls, extensions, etc. If you take a pumped-up guy and ask him to do a quick pass to the legs or a throw, it will be quite clumsy despite his strength. Why? Because they are trained to perform the usual exercises automatically.
Wrestlers, on the other hand, can perform exercises from the gym “crookedly”, but the wrestling elements are filigree. They rarely perform exercises for the biceps or rear deltoids, their priority is heavy basic exercises that increase the strength of large muscle groups: deadlifts, squats, pull-ups, kettlebells. Yes, the bodies do not look as refined and aesthetic as those of bodybuilders – there are not enough small nuances, pumping small muscle groups, but massive and athletic. The advantage of such training is that you do not waste time on small muscle groups, but pump what grows best and gives the most strength: legs, back, arms, pectorals. Wrestlers do not think about pumping the rear deltoids or brachialis, they perform the base and quickly gain total mass.
Work pace
You probably know that some people are better at long-distance running, while others, on the contrary, get tired quickly from long distances, but perform well at short distances of 60-100 m. This depends on the ratio of fast (power) and slow (endurance) muscle fibers.
Marathoners have slow muscle fibers – this is noticeable in their lean body. Athletes who run speed distances of 60-100 m are radically different: larger, fitter and quite muscular. Why? For muscle growth, you don't need long work, but fast, explosive, but short. If you want to pump up your legs, you don't need to slowly squat for an hour, you need to do 4-5 sets of heavy squats to the maximum, lasting 20 seconds.
Read also: How in ancient times men pumped up simply without additives and were bigger than they are now.
Wrestling is a speed-strength sport, and wrestlers train in exactly that vein. Explosive push-ups, weighted squats, jerky pull-ups, kettlebell work — all of this is speed-strength work, ideal for muscle growth. Short, but fast and powerful exertion, then a pause.
To understand what it is: hang on the horizontal bar with straight arms and on a signal, make one, but very fast and sharp lift, then hang again relaxed and perform another sharp explosive lift, as if someone had stung you. And so on in a circle.
A wrestling match looks similar: athletes look for their opponent's weak spots and wait for the right moment like predators to execute a successful leg pass or power grab. For most of the match, they are tense at 40-80% and only at certain moments do they use all 100% of their speed and strength.
Genetics and survivor's bias
The Survivor's Fallacy: When a man is pushed to shore by a dolphin from the heart of the ocean and helps him survive, he tells everyone about it. But when another man is pushed away from shore by a dolphin, he never tells anyone about it. This is called the “Survivor's Fallacy” phenomenon – we draw conclusions based on the data we see, what we are shown.
What kind of athletes and wrestlers do we see? Massive and big. Is it because there are no other wrestlers? Of course there are, it's just that genetics pushes some to Olympus, giving them strength and speed, and some down, not giving results — we only see the former.
Wrestling training schemes are quite interesting and effective, although they can be traumatic for people of age due to the combination of explosive nature and difficult basic exercises. We should not forget about genetics: we see those with good genetics, and we do not see those with bad ones, since they do not come into our field of vision on TV or in the Internet space. Just as we see a dozen successful businessmen and do not see thousands of those who did not succeed.
But remember that genetics is a dual prankster. All great people had disadvantages and even pathologies: someone had a short memory but a creative mind, someone ran like a turtle but could do it all day long – find your advantages and develop them.
Sources
Джерело: ukr.media
