A friend posted a live video on wrestling conditioning that took me back to my high school coach, David Kling. Coach Kling was the head wrestling coach at Keystone Oaks High School (Pittsburgh, PA) from 1973 to 2003 and retired as the fourth-winningest coach in WPIAL history, compiling a record of 381-152-2. Sadly, Coach passed away in December 2012.
Our high school practices were highly structured. Coach Kling even published an article in 1983 in Athletic Journal about these workouts. (I came across the article quite by accident when working on a paper for my Master’s degree in 1985.) There was a reason we were one of the best conditioned wrestling teams in the WPIAL at the time.
One of the components of the practice was the “Russian Conditioning Program”. This was about 15 minutes of what today might be labeled as “HIIT”. We did all crazy combinations of push-ups, hand-walks, squats, lunges, and other movements using sandbags. It is perhaps this conditioning that ultimately turned me on to the Bulgarian bag. It was certainly effective.
This was not the only conditioning we did. We also ran a lot of steps in the school, did “partner carries” down the hallway near the gym, lifted weights, and, among other creative conditioning drills, ran the pool deck (my personal favorite—think: steps meet track meet sauna!). We worked our tails off.
These memories prompted me to Google “Russian conditioning” and I came across the following:
Apparently, CrossFit and HIIT aren’t as new as your trainer will tell you.
I am inspired watching this and remembering back to those workouts where my t-shirt would be drenched and losing 9-lb of water between 3 and 5 PM was a regular occurrence. I am appreciating the evenings when my son comes home from wrestling practice with a story about how Coach Keeney worked him. I am inspired to ramp up my Bulgarian bag training!
Be your best today; be better tomorrow!
Carpe momento!