A study from 2009 by Mirzaei, B, Curby, DG, Rahmani-Nia, F, and Moghadasi, M was created to see the physiological profile of elite Iranian junior wrestlers who competed in the sport. The idea of the study was to find out and analyse which workouts these wrestlers used to gain strength and conditioning when competing. Overall, 70 wrestlers were analysed and these were in the top 10 for Iranian junior wrestlers for their weight rankings.
The study judged their weight, flexibility, oxygen intake, leg power and strength. Unsurprisingly, these wrestlers were better than average people their age when it came to workouts, such as sit ups, squats and push ups. However, interestingly the wrestlers were significantly better at pull ups compared to others. Similarly, these wrestlers were weakest at squats, which is a bit surprising as this exercise is typically associated with wrestling and creating power in the legs.
For those wanting to apply this study to grappling and whether it’s BJJ or wrestling – the data indicates that pull ups are the biggest strength disparity in the wrestlers studied compared to other workout areas. With this said, although the research may not be perfect – it does at least show that it’s a solid route to increasing grappling power by focusing on pull ups. If these elite wrestlers are doing it in one of the best wrestling countries in the world, then surely it wouldn’t hurt to put this into your own workout, right?
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