Wrestling dates back as far as 15,000 years, showing up historically in cave drawings in France.
Although this sport has been around for many years, its popularity seems to be increasing rapidly among fitness enthusiasts and competitors alike. With a rock-solid core to incredible cardio health, it’s no doubt that wrestlers are some of the fittest athletes in the world.
Wrestling boasts incredible advantages for your body and mind. Luckily, with increased accessibility, you don’t have to be an Olympic level athlete to reap the benefits of wrestling.
Curious what you could gain from taking up wrestling as your preferred sport? Follow along to learn the health benefits of wrestling and why you should book a class today.
1. Mental Benefits of Wrestling
Wrestlers don’t just have strong bodies, they have strong minds too.
The sport requires athletes to be incredibly focused. This enables them to react quickly and perform calculated movements. With an emphasis on presence, many wrestlers find themselves developing a sharper mind.
Not only will your cognitive function be on high alert, but your mental health will be soaring. Wrestlers experience an increase in their self-resilience, self-discipline, and confidence when they dedicate themselves to training and adopt a wrestling lifestyle.
Wrestling encourages a healthy mindset and teaches athletes the value of sportsmanship. The importance of wrestling’s supporting environment encourages respect for fellow athletes. Even after an unsuccessful match, wrestlers stay humble, confident, and dedicated to self-improvement.
If you find yourself struggling with your self-confidence, or unsteady in your mental health, wrestling is a great option for a rush of feel-good hormones and mind-strengthening practices.
2. Full-Body Workout
Lifting weights and running on the treadmill are great ways to improve your physical fitness, but your lifting sessions are only targeting 1 or 2 muscle groups at a time.
Wrestling allows you to embrace a full-body workout and incorporate every muscle group in any given session. Rather than pumping out legs and chest on repeat, you can experience a well-rounded workout with every class.
Because your body is moving, pushing, and pulling in so many directions, you’ll discover muscles you didn’t even know you had. Wrestling calls for a fully involved body and ensures you won’t experience any pesky muscle imbalances due to an inadequate training schedule.
3. Cardio
If you aren’t a fan of those 5-mile runs or endless sessions on the stair climber, you’ll love incorporating wrestling for your cardio.
This workout not only works all angles of your muscles, but it also gets your heart rate soaring. You can say goodbye to boring step sessions and hello to a fun, high-intensity alternative.
You’ll likely even find you’re able to push yourself further due to a focused mind distracting from fatigue. As they say, the mind gives out before the body, so keeping your mind involved is a great way to push past your cardio limits.
4. Increased Strength and Endurance
Like any determined athlete, you want to see progress with your workouts. Wrestling is the perfect sport to see these improvements.
Improve your strength through intense sessions and notice a change in the power and speed of your movements. On top of a stronger body, you’ll also notice your cardiovascular endurance increase as you train.
The short, fast bursts are a great tool for increasing lung capacity and encouraging a healthy heart. While you’re working out, your heart works hard to pump blood and oxygen to your muscles. Because wrestling incorporates so many muscle groups, you’ll start to build a stronger heart to keep up.
With improved cardiovascular health, you won’t notice yourself feeling out of breath when you run a flight of stairs, and your workouts will become easier and more efficient.
Not only can this benefit your wrestling sessions, but any workout you take on. Whether you are looking to keep up with your loved ones or take your fitness to a new level, you’ll love the benefits of wrestling for both your strength and endurance.
5. Increased Calorie Burn
One of the most important aspects of fat loss is a caloric deficit. This means the amount of calories you consume is lower than the amount you burn. Since you still need enough nutrients to power your body, there comes a point where you’ll need to up your calorie burn to keep up with weight-loss results.
Fortunately, wrestling offers an incredibly high burn rate. Wrestlers can burn as much as 400 calories in a 6-minute match.
Beyond the match, your metabolic rate will be supercharged and you’ll find your body burning off calories long past your workout. This is mostly due to the high-intensity bursts and strength movements you perform.
6. Routine
Wrestling encourages a healthy routine and training schedule for athletes to perform at their best. Not only do they have training sessions and classes to make, but their sport encourages adequate sleep and dedicated rituals.
If you function best with a stable routine, you’ll love the practices wrestlers put into place to achieve their goals. With support from coaches and teammates, you’ll find yourself skipping fewer workouts and sticking to your schedule.
Having a healthy routine is great for your mind, body, and soul. You’ll find yourself achieving rest easier, waking with vigor, and getting excited for the day ahead.
7. Wrestler’s Lifestyle
Most wrestlers find themselves taking their training beyond the ring with cardio and weight lifting sessions added in. Due to a clear goal, those late-night drinks become less tempting. Instead, athletes find themselves reaching for body-nourishing foods and ample water to support their sport.
Because you’ll be burning so many calories, you’ll need to adopt a nutrient-rich diet with enough energy to power through tough workouts. Your body will thrive with the implementation of proper nutrition and supplementation.
Changes in your diet and lifestyle make the wrestling benefits undeniable for a healthy, happy body.
Experience the Benefits of Wrestling
From a healthier mind to a properly nourished body, there’s no denying that the benefits of wrestling go far beyond a regular fitness class. With a supportive environment and amazing cardiovascular health, you’ll find yourself falling in love with fitness all over again.
Ready to experience the wrestling health benefits for yourself? Schedule a class today and find out if wrestling is the right sport for your fitness goals.