I need a workout that will get me ready for the season in about a month. I'm in High School and and school gets out at three, how much time should i spend, wrestling, vs. weight training, and running. I want to stay the same weight maybe even lose weight and gain strength. Any advice for a program that will leave me enough time for my homework...:-)

I have passed the question on to our strength and conditioning coach Ricky

Mike

You say you have a month before the season starts. Does that mean before your first competition or before practice starts. If you are referring to competition starting then there is not much you should do strength wise. I mean you could lift all you want and gain some strength but I would recommend working on injury prone areas of the body concering wrestling, like the knees, shoulders, lower back, and ankles. I would do a lot of balance training involving those areas mentioned above. From the first week to the fourth week progress from easy to hard, two legs to one leg and so forth. Balance training doesn't just mean standing on one foot and trying to stay up but can involve weights as well. For instance, you could do a one arm/one leg (opposite) row. To accomplish this exercise grab a dumbell that isn't too heavy and bend at the hips so that your upper body is parallel to the ground, allow the weight to hang (almost touching the ground), the opposite leg should be parallel to the ground right along with the upper body. In this position row the weight by pulling it to your chest and keeping your balance. This is just one of the exercises you can do along with one arm DB Bench Presses with the opposite leg up in the air, etc. Any movement that you can do that will involve the core(abs, obliques, lower back, glutes) would be a great addition to any program at any time.
What you could focus your four weeks on is the running you do. Stay away from long slow runs and force yourself to run high intensity sprints with little rest. I would start off with a 1 to 3 run to rest ratio meaning that if you run for 30 seconds rest for 90 seconds. Start out this way and make the runs anywhere from 30 seconds all the way up to 400's and 800's but be sure that you are always on a clock. You want to be force to run all out every time. As you get into the third and fourth week you can drop the rest times.

Overall,
I would run on non-lifting days and lift on non-running days.
Take Sundays off.
Follow this only if you have already been lifting and running during the summer, if not then lift twice run twice.

Sets and Reps.
If you are just starting to lift then I would do sets of 2-3 and reps of 10 the first week and then drop to reps between 5-10 but as I mentioned before stay on a clock. Having a clock will allow you to keep your heart rate up and therefore get stronger but not bigger. I would keep the clock on 1:30 to 1:00 and from there every week drop it about 10 to 15 seconds.
If you have been lifting for awile then up the sets to about 3-5.
I would recommend 8 to 10 exercises but pair them up together so it seems as though you are only doing 4 to 5 exercises. Example: do one exercise then another and then rest.
Keep your lifting to upper body pushing and pulling, lower body, and total body.
Upper Body Pushing - Standing Shoulder Press
Upper Body Pulling - Upright Rows
Lower Body - Squatting
Total Body - DB Squat Jumps

You don't need and don't have time for curls, and tricep exericises(unless they are dips). You work them out while pressing and pulling. Stick to the major body parts and the core.
You can bench if you want but I would stick to weighted pushup variations and overhead lifting since most of your wrestling involves being on your feet or atleast being upright.
If you want anymore ideas or if you have any questions feel free to e-mail me at rfrausto@mail.unomaha.edu
Ricky C. Frausto, Jr., CSCS