http://youtu.be/4j8F4bi5QQ8 Sprawling With a work time of 2 minutes and a rest of 3 minutes for 8 reps. It's a sport specific exercise and work's every muscle but I fear slightly that it's asking a bit much. What do you think is it two hard an exercise to keep up for all that time or is it the perfect exercise and I'm just being a wimp who's VO2 max needs serious improvement.
Work time : 16 min Rest time : 24 min Doesn't sound that difficult at all once you start getting really good at sprawling. It's the 'getting good' part that will probably take a couple of weeks though. I think the 3 min. of rest is too much time to be doing nothing if you're trying to increase your VO2 max. Maybe skip rope for at least 2min of the 3 min rest? This also doesn't seem like an exercise to go fast with, but as you get better the "smoothness" you develop makes you look fast. I hope you at least like sprawling : P
The only thing I can relate to with this is doing burpees with a pushup and jump. Like anything they are hard until you've done thousands of them over a period of time and then the movement becomes almost natural. You're probably just not used to doing so many repetitions in that way. Once you've done it for a few weeks you'll probably be fine. Personally I wouldn't focus on intensity but on technique for a week, then start to increase the intensity (count how many you do when focusing on technique, then try to do 10-20 more per round every week). Honestly I haven't had any training in wrestling specific workouts. I've done wrestling and I know how to sprawl and how exhausting it can be, but like anything repetition makes things easier. I don't think it is something to work on your VO2 max though as you're working on a skill, unless you add something in during the break.
VO2 max work is hard as hell, it is meant to suck, what you can do is put a HR monitor on, do a round of sprawls and see how high your HR goes, then do a round of hard bag wirk and a round of 2 min sprints and see which gets your HR the highest I would personally start at the amateur level and work your way up, ie 3 x 3min with 3 min rest, add a round each week until you hit your goal of 8 rounds, then decrease the rest time to 2 mins, if you start of with the most amount of round and least rest possible, where is the room for improvement? best to start of with the least amount of reps and time necessary to make improvements in your conditioning and then go from there And for true VO2 work you will need the rest between rounds otherwise you wont be able to work hard enough tto get your HR to where it needs to be to see improvements
do you know where your VO2 max is at the moment and how it compares to the standards of grappling athletes your age? there some data on VO2 max data on collegiate wrestlers. http://www.brianmac.co.uk/vo2max.htm
great ideas, as usual icefield. doing lots of sprawl makes my delt/rotor tighten like hell mind, could be technique issue on my part but may be something to consider for your stretching/SMR/recovery work.
My dodgy shoulder doesn't like me doing sprawls and my bad back tightens up really badly if I do lots of them - another thing to think about if you have any injury issues/worries.
