Undefeated Andy Aldridge

Andy Aldridge is a middle school wrestler at Stonewall middle school. Andy is undefeated (16-0) 7th grader that has been training at Mike’s Olympic Gym for 1 year. For his body weight, Andy has become more physical than many other middle school wrestlers. Winning from being more physical is describing the many forms of strength that need to be trained to increase performance. Training for Absolute Strength, Speed , Short term Endurance, and Aerobic Strength are all trained differently, to individual exercise tolerance. A wrestler who can squat more for 1 rep in comparison to others for his body weight has more Absolute strength. A wrestler who can lift the same weight but faster than his peers in the concentric range of motion has more Speed strength. Every time he shoots for a takedown it is a power movement. The Power is being displayed from a combination of strength with speed.

Think of a wrestler who has spent time learning correct weight training to activate more of the muscle fibers in his 135lb body than his competitor for instance. This is called increase synchronization of the muscle fibers and is being displayed when he can learn to lift more weight with good form in a 1 rep maxim effort (absolute strength). The speed component of power is being displayed from a combination of genetics, max effort, and not running out of ATP-PC fuel source. Fast twitch vs. slow twitch muscle fiber is determined by genetics. Not much we can do to change that but two out of three is not bad. Max effort comes from focus to accelerate bar from bottom to top. Since the weight on bar is fixed when lifting, maintaining an optimum bar speed is critical.

It is important to not lift with more reps than 1 -6 for percentages between 70% – 90% of 1 rep max . If you keep bar speed from declining from whatever zone of intensity between (70% -90%) you are working on power training (strength & speed). Doing more reps in a set would cause ATP-PC stores that are stored in muscle for the display of power to deplete.

Think how long it takes in seconds to dunk a basketball, sprint 10yd-40yd, shoot for a takedown. It makes no sense for an athlete to be in-season sport while also working on circuit style weight training to muscle failure when his success comes from multiple movements done with display of strength in shortest amount of time. Wrestlers need an optimum level of Aerobic Strength (55ml/kg/min/) measured by Peak VO2 max to be able to repeat high intensity power movements. The more matches a wrestler competes in with the lowest Peak VO2 this contributes to a fatigue Index. Three 2 min rounds for five to six matches at a tournament requires a level of Aerobic Strength that a lot of wrestlers have not prepared for by practicing with traditions.

All sports use the Aerobic and Anaerobic systems; using must not be confused with developing. The time you spend on matt drilling for skill or competing cannot equal the oxygen cost of running 2 min intervals at Peak VO2 for same time period. The higher the competition the more important being stronger in the many forms of strength is an advantage. Making time for strength training and specifically training the energy systems that provides the overload wrestlers need in Intensity, Duration, and Frequency are necessary for that form of strength to improve. THis doesn’t make sense; make it shorter.

There are 24 wrestlers in Andy’s class today at the middle school state championships that all have the opportunity to win. What they have to work on to be more competitive is about to be tested. Andy has spent the time on instruction, matt time, and improving the many forms of strength to allow that opportunity to now become a reality . congratulations to Andy for winning the Middle School State Championships!

Below is a picture of Andy working out and his father Keith, giving him some guidance while training at Mike’s Olympic Gym, Included is a short statement sent by Keith.

“I just wanted to tell you how Andy and I feel about Mike’s Gym. Not only have we seen great results in Andy’s development, but Mike takes special interest in each individual. He is critical on the exercises being done correctly and will freely share his knowledge with you as to why it is so important to do them that way. Mike has made Andy and I feel like he is part of our family. We feel like we get more than our money’s worth and feel blessed to have been led to him by another happy member. Thank you, Keith and Andy.”

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