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Exercises

Wrestling warm up: a 12-minute routine for practice and matches

Published October 24, 2026

A good wrestling warm up takes about 12 minutes: 3 minutes of jump rope, 3 minutes of crawling and hip work on the mat (bear crawls, gorilla walks, cossack squats), 2 minutes waking up the neck-and-shoulder area and trunk (band pull-aparts, shoulder taps, Copenhagen planks), then 3 to 4 minutes of wrestling-speed primers: sprawls, frog jumps and skater hops that get faster each round. Finish within a few minutes of your first live go so you stay warm.

  1. Jump Rope Calves, Quads
  2. Bear Crawl Abs, Shoulders
  3. Gorilla Walk Glutes, Quads, Shoulders
  4. Cossack Squat Quads, Adductors
  5. Band Pull-Apart Shoulders, Upper Back
  6. Copenhagen Plank Adductors, Abs
  7. Half Burpee Quads, Abs, Shoulders
  8. Frog Jump Quads, Glutes, Calves
  9. Skater Hop Glutes, Quads, Abductors

Raise: 3 minutes of rope

Wrestlers already know the rope, and it does the job in less space than laps around the room. Keep it easy for the first minute and finish with 30 seconds of quicker turns.

Raise, light rope skipping

Jump Rope

Calves, Quads

Three minutes of rope warms your calves and ankles for the constant up-on-the-toes stance, and it fits in the corner of any mat room.

How to do it

  1. Hold a handle in each hand with the rope resting behind your heels.
  2. Turn the rope from your wrists, not your shoulders, and hop just high enough for it to pass under you.
  3. Land softly on the balls of your feet and keep a steady, easy rhythm.

Cues

  • Small hops
  • Wrists turn the rope
  • Quiet landings

Common mistakes

  • Jumping high and landing flat-footed: an inch of clearance is plenty.

Swap for: Skipping in Place, Jumping Jack, Rebounder Jumps

Build a session with Jump Rope

Mat mobility: crawl, squat low, open the hips

Wrestling lives low: level changes, shots, sprawls, and fighting from the knees. These three move your hips, knees and shoulders through those positions before anyone pulls on you.

Shoulder, core and hip prep, crawling

Bear Crawl

Abs, Shoulders

Crawling forward and back the width of the mat loads the shoulders and trunk the way hand fighting and par terre work do.

How to do it

  1. Start on hands and toes with knees bent and just off the floor.
  2. Move one hand and the opposite foot forward together, then the other pair.
  3. Keep the hips low and your back flat as you crawl forward and backward.

Cues

  • Knees hover low
  • Opposite hand and foot
  • Flat back

Common mistakes

  • Hips riding high: keep them at shoulder height.

Swap for: Gorilla Walk, Walkout, Plank Shoulder Tap

Build a session with Bear Crawl

Hip and shoulder prep, deep squat travel

Gorilla Walk

Glutes, Quads, Shoulders

Moving in a deep squat with your weight passing over your hands rehearses the low stance you shoot from.

How to do it

  1. Squat down with feet wide and place both palms down between your feet.
  2. Shift your weight onto your hands and hop or step your feet forward past them.
  3. Move the hands forward again and repeat, staying low the whole time.

Cues

  • Stay low
  • Weight onto the hands
  • Wide feet

Common mistakes

  • Standing up between reps: keep the squat the whole distance.

Swap for: Bear Crawl, Frog Jump, Cossack Squat

Build a session with Gorilla Walk

Hip and groin mobility, side-to-side squat

Cossack Squat

Quads, Adductors

Sitting deep over one leg at a time opens the groin and hips for wide sprawls and penetration steps.

How to do it

  1. Take a wide stance with toes turned slightly out.
  2. Shift your weight into one leg and sit down over it while the other leg stays straight with toes up.
  3. Push back through the middle and sink to the other side.

Cues

  • Heel of the bent leg down
  • Chest up
  • Go only as deep as you control

Common mistakes

  • Bouncing at the bottom: pause for a breath instead.

Swap for: Dumbbell Lateral Lunge, Bodyweight Squat, Standing Side Leg Raise

Build a session with Cossack Squat

Activation: upper back, trunk and inner thighs

Before the first tie-up, wake up the muscles that keep your posture when someone is pulling your head down, and the inner thighs that clamp in rides and scrambles.

Activation, upper back

Band Pull-Apart

Shoulders, Upper Back

Fifteen easy pull-aparts get the upper back switched on before collar ties start pulling you forward.

How to do it

  1. Hold a light band at shoulder height with straight arms and hands shoulder width apart.
  2. Pull the band apart until it touches your chest, squeezing your shoulder blades together.
  3. Return slowly.

Cues

  • Arms straight
  • Squeeze between the shoulder blades
  • Slow return

Common mistakes

  • Shrugging up toward the ears: keep the shoulders low.

Swap for: Band Face Pull, Band Rear Delt Fly, Plank IYTW

Build a session with Band Pull-Apart

Activation, trunk and shoulders

Plank Shoulder Tap

Abs

Holding a plank while one hand leaves the floor is the same anti-rotation job as posting on the mat in a scramble.

How to do it

  1. Hold a straight-arm plank with feet a little wider than hips.
  2. Lift one hand and tap the opposite shoulder.
  3. Replace it and tap with the other hand, keeping your hips from rocking.

Cues

  • Hips stay still
  • Feet wide for balance
  • Slow taps

Common mistakes

  • Rocking side to side: widen the feet and slow down.

Swap for: Plank, Push-Up Plus, Bear Crawl

Build a session with Plank Shoulder Tap

Activation, inner thighs

Copenhagen Plank

Adductors, Abs

Short side holds with the top leg on a bench wake up the inner thighs you squeeze with on legs and in rides.

How to do it

  1. On your side, set your top leg resting on a bench at knee or ankle height.
  2. Push down through the top leg and lift your hips into a side plank.
  3. Hold, lower, and switch sides.

Cues

  • Top leg presses down
  • Hips in line
  • Short holds

Common mistakes

  • Letting the hips sag: shorten the hold or put the knee on the bench.

Swap for: Side Plank, Band Hip Adduction, Cossack Squat

Build a session with Copenhagen Plank

Wrestling primers: sprawls, jumps and bounds

End with fast, short efforts that look like wrestling: drop and sprawl, jump forward, push off sideways. Do 2 or 3 rounds and make each round a little quicker than the last.

Sport primer, sprawl and recover

Half Burpee

Quads, Abs, Shoulders

Snapping the feet in and out from a plank is the sprawl's hip action, and it raises your pulse fast.

How to do it

  1. Start in a high plank, palms below your shoulders.
  2. Hop both feet in until they land just behind your hands.
  3. Hop them straight back out to the plank and repeat.

Cues

  • Hands stay planted
  • Land softly on the balls of your feet
  • Hips level in the plank

Common mistakes

  • Letting the hips sag when the feet land back: brace before each hop.
  • Landing flat-footed and heavy.

Swap for: Burpee, Mountain Climber, Bear Crawl

Build a session with Half Burpee

Sport primer, jump from a deep squat

Frog Jump

Quads, Glutes, Calves

Jumping out of a deep squat is the explosive end of a level change and wakes up your legs for shots.

How to do it

  1. Stand with feet wider than your hips and squat until your hands come near the floor.
  2. Jump straight up, driving your arms.
  3. Land softly back in the low squat with your hands reaching toward the floor, pause, and repeat.

Cues

  • Land low
  • Arms drive the jump
  • Pause before the next

Common mistakes

  • Landing on straight legs: sink back into the squat.

Swap for: Jump Squat, Gorilla Walk, Box Jump

Build a session with Frog Jump

Sport primer, lateral bounds

Skater Hop

Glutes, Quads, Abductors

Side-to-side bounds prepare your hips and knees for the lateral angles you take on a shot or a snap-down.

How to do it

  1. Stand on one leg with a slight bend at the knee and hip.
  2. Push off sideways and land on the opposite foot, letting the trailing leg swing behind.
  3. Stick each landing for a moment, then bound back.

Cues

  • Stick the landing
  • Push sideways, not up
  • Soft knee

Common mistakes

  • Landing stiff-legged: bend the knee to absorb.

Swap for: Lateral Box Jump, Dumbbell Lateral Lunge, Single-Leg Jump

Build a session with Skater Hop

First lift on gym days

On lifting days, the warm-up ends with light ramp-up sets of your first lift so the first working set is not a shock.

Main lift, barbell squat with ramp-up sets

Front Squat

Quads, Glutes, Adductors

The front squat builds the legs for shooting and finishing while keeping your torso upright, and its ramp-up sets finish your warm-up.

How to do it

  1. Set the bar on the front of your shoulders with elbows high.
  2. Sit straight down, keeping your elbows up and chest tall.
  3. Drive up through the middle of your feet.

Cues

  • Elbows high
  • Sit straight down
  • Brace before each rep

Common mistakes

  • Elbows dropping out of the bottom: lighter weight, higher elbows.

Swap for: Goblet Squat, Barbell Back Squat, Dumbbell Front Squat

Build a session with Front Squat

Put them together: example sessions

Each session below picks from the exercises above for one situation, with the sets, reps, rest and RIR filled in. Open one in the session builder to change a pick, price it from a recent set, and add it to RIRLift.

Session 1

Before practice

Open in the session builder
  • Workouts5× a week
  • Working sets85 a week
  • Per workout~20 min
  • EquipmentJump Rope, Resistance Bands

You have a full practice ahead and about 12 minutes before drilling starts.

Practice will push you hard, so the warm-up only needs to get you ready, not tired. Every block sits at 3 to 5 reps in reserve with short rests. The primers come last so your hardest efforts happen closest to the first drill.

Practice warm-up
ExerciseSets × repsRIRRest
Jump RopeSeconds. Easy, last 30 s quicker. 3 × 60 5 0 s
Bear CrawlSeconds. Forward then backward. 2 × 20–30 4 15 s
Gorilla WalkSteps. 2 × 6–8 4 15 s
Cossack SquatPer side. 2 × 5–6 4 15 s
Band Pull-Apart 1 × 15 4 15 s
Plank Shoulder TapPer side. 1 × 10–12 4 15 s
Half BurpeeSprawl speed. 2 × 6 3 20 s
Frog Jump 2 × 4–5 3 30 s
Skater HopPer side. 2 × 4–6 3 30 s
How to run it
Run the blocks top to bottom with no more rest than it takes to move to the next one. Do the primers as 2 rounds of all three, then go straight into stance-and-motion drilling.
How to progress
Keep the time the same all season. As you get fitter, do the primers a little faster, not longer.
Open in the session builder

Session 2

Match or tournament day

Open in the session builder
  • Workouts1× a week
  • Working sets11 a week
  • Per workout~15 min
  • EquipmentJump Rope, Resistance Bands

You are waiting in the bullpen and need to be ready to wrestle in about 15 minutes, maybe more than once a day.

Between matches you sit cooling down, so this version is shorter and sharper: a quick raise, the hips and inner thighs, then more sprawls and a few fast bounds. Nothing goes near tiring; stop every block with plenty left.

Match warm-up
ExerciseSets × repsRIRRest
Jump RopeSeconds. 2 × 60 5 0 s
Cossack SquatPer side. 2 × 5 4 15 s
Copenhagen PlankSeconds per side. 1 × 10–15 4 15 s
Band Pull-Apart 1 × 15 4 15 s
Half BurpeeFast sprawls. 3 × 5 3 20 s
Skater HopPer side. 2 × 4 3 30 s
How to run it
Start about 15 minutes before you expect to be called. If the bracket runs late, repeat the rope and the sprawls every 10 minutes while you wait.
How to progress
Use the same sequence every match so it becomes routine. Adjust only the waiting time, not the content.
Open in the session builder

Session 3

Before a lifting session

Open in the session builder
  • Workouts2× a week
  • Working sets24 a week
  • Per workout~25 min
  • EquipmentJump Rope, Barbells

You lift for wrestling two or three times a week, often after practice or on off days.

Lifting next to practice works best at 1 to 3 reps in reserve so you still have something left for the mat. The warm-up here is shorter on primers and ends with ramp-up sets on the front squat, climbing to your first working set.

Lift warm-up and front squat
ExerciseSets × repsRIRRest
Jump RopeSeconds. 2 × 60 5 0 s
Gorilla WalkSteps. 2 × 6 4 15 s
Cossack SquatPer side. 2 × 5 4 15 s
Plank Shoulder TapPer side. 1 × 10 4 15 s
Frog Jump 2 × 3 3 30 s
Front Squat3 warm-up sets firstWorking sets after ramp-up. 3 × 4–6 2 2:30 min
How to run it
Do the warm-up blocks, then the front squat warm-up sets: empty bar, then about 50 and 75 percent of your working weight, then your working sets.
How to progress
When every working set reaches the top of the rep range at 2 reps in reserve, add 5 pounds next session.
Open in the session builder

Make it fit you

Questions

How long should a wrestling warm up be?

About 10 to 15 minutes. The 12-minute version on this page covers the rope, mat mobility, activation and primers. On match day, finish within a few minutes of being called.

What are good wrestling warm up exercises?

Jump rope, bear crawls, gorilla walks, cossack squats, band pull-aparts, shoulder taps, Copenhagen planks, sprawls, frog jumps and skater hops. Together they move every position you wrestle in.

How do you warm up before a wrestling match?

Start 15 minutes before you are called: 2 minutes of rope, hip and inner-thigh work, then three rounds of fast sprawls and a few lateral bounds. Repeat the rope and sprawls if you wait longer than 10 minutes.

Should wrestlers stretch before practice?

Use moving drills before practice and keep long held stretches for afterward, when you want to relax.

How to increase stamina in wrestling?

Hard practice and live goes build most of it. The warm-up's job is the opposite: get you ready without using up energy you need for the room.