Wrestling Workouts for kids?

Discussion in 'Health and Fitness' started by Combat Sports, Dec 10, 2013.

  1. Combat Sports

    Combat Sports Formerly What Works Banned

    I looked around trying to find a good forum for this, this was the best I could come up with.

    Both of my children, one a boy who is six, and the other a girl who is eight joined the wrestling club recently. They both have interest in competitive grappling and I was lucky that a youth club opened up in my small town. They both are also playing Soccer and have been since the fall, going directly to indoor soccer and will probably be doing it until the spring. They both run 20 minutes on an indoor track twice a week, in addition to other practice they do. (the running was directed by a youth track coach friend of mine who reccomended it because my daughter was having trouble adjusting to the far larger field that indoor soccer is played on.)

    My son seems to have his mother's genetics. Short, a metabolism that would digest diamonds, and very little body fat.

    My daughter on the other hand, seems to of gotten mine. She is tall, has slim arms and legs but is developing a paunch on her belly and chest. I am hoping she can stay ahead of this because it was something that got way out of control for me when I got to my early twenties and I was never able to remove the weight.

    Both are extremely eager. I want to make this clear, I am not a "piano parent" (parent who forces their kid to take piano even if they hate it) I only put them in activities they ask for. And only push them reasonably enough to be good at what they do. If they ever told me they were done we would find something else to do. But helping them with their sports has been a great family bonding experience.

    So, both of them want to do well in wrestling. And then move on to Judo/BJJ later on.

    I started some basic exercises with them.

    In sit ups:

    My daughter did about as well as I expected. She does 30 of them. Which I thought was reasonable.

    My son on the other hand, literally without complaint did ONE HUNDRED and thirty of them. My daughter and I sat there astounded as he just going up, and going up, and going up, etc. I was starting to think that I was going to need to find something else for him. Because it ended up taking a really long time. The next day he was not sore at all. I was literally floored and did not understand how this was possible.

    In push ups:
    Neither of my kids could do push ups. They would go through the various incorrect ways of doing them and I finally realized we might need to do some light weight training before they could even do them. Genetically I had problems with push ups my entire life even when I was more fit.

    Would getting them some youth sized weights and letting them work with those be the right idea?

    Are there are any other recommendations for strength exercises you would recommend?
     
    Last edited: Dec 10, 2013
  2. KaliKuntaw

    KaliKuntaw Valued Member

    Burpees, planks, jumping jacks, jump rope.
    Kids like the active dynamic stuff more than the stationary stuff in my experience.
     
  3. holyheadjch

    holyheadjch Valued Member

    If they plan on moving into judo/bjj later, why wait? Why not just enrol them in a judo or bjj class today? Or better yet, do all three. An hour long class in each per week would have them grow up as very good grapplers and they could specialise when they decide which they prefer.

    They're too young to be doing serious exercise (and sit ups are not a good exercise period) and weight lifting at that age is a horrible idea. If they are going to class every week, they will develop the strength as and when they need it. You don't need to be doing extra strength training with them and unless you are qualified to manage such training, you risk injuring them. So stop it.
     
  4. Moi

    Moi Warriors live forever x

    I'd leave the weights and just do bodyweight exercises like you've being doing.
    The numbers will get silly and then introduce pull-ups etc:
    Crunches though not sit ups
     
  5. Combat Sports

    Combat Sports Formerly What Works Banned

    That is absolutely my goal. The two things preventing it at this very moment is money, and time. I will be paying off my house very soon though so this will be a lot easier. For now they are in the wrestling club and have two one hour practices a week, and the rest of the week other then their couple of days off are devoted to indoor soccer. We will be scaling that back a bit, they just both wanted to improve their skills to catch up to other kids as they both just started.

    The weight lifting if they did it would only be so that they could start with something LESS then their body weight because neither of them can do even a single push up. Once they got to the point that they could do push ups I would see no reason to continue it.
     
  6. Combat Sports

    Combat Sports Formerly What Works Banned

    The problem with the body weight exercises is that neither of them currently can lift their own body weight in a push up. I wasn't thinking of giving them anything exceeding their body weight, but to slowly increase it until they could finally actually perform a normal push up. Because currently, neither of them can do even one.

    I will switch to crunches.
     
  7. Wildlings

    Wildlings Baguette Jouster

    Drop the traditional bodyweight stuff and find them a park with a nice monkey bar or trees to climb.
    That's just as useful, perhaps even better.


    And crunches and pushups are boring. Climbing stuff is so much more fun.
     
  8. Van Zandt

    Van Zandt Mr. High Kick

  9. Combat Sports

    Combat Sports Formerly What Works Banned

  10. holyheadjch

    holyheadjch Valued Member

    I'd suggest getting them to do press ups from their knees with good form - [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7AjeizzlUA"]How to Do a Bent Knee Push-Up | Arm Workout - YouTube[/ame]

    If they can't even do one of them, elevate their arms until they can. I really (really) don't see the point in having them do any kind of weight lifting. Too much can go wrong, even with light weights.
     
  11. holyheadjch

    holyheadjch Valued Member

    Better yet, switch to stability exercises like planks. Basically google beginner Pilates and have them do that stuff.
     

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