Your alarm clock goes off. It says 4am. You know you have to get up because you planned a workout at 5am before you have to start the rest of your day. But your bed feels too good, your still sore from yesterday’s workout, and the thought of leaving the comfort of your bed and pushing through that pain seems like a lot. Missing one workout couldn’t hurt that much, right?

Walk inside the circle. Straps up. Foot to the line. What are your intentions? What is your attitude? How is your energy? Ninety percent of wrestling is mental, meaning a majority of your potential for victory is decided before the first whistle is ever even blown. In a six to seven minute grueling high-intensity match, how should your mindset be?

Wrestling, unlike a lot of sports, is unique in its similarity to life in terms of having to compete and train individually with nothing to stand behind but your own grit and will power. Because of this, wrestling provides many life lessons through the sport that can parallel directly with how to live a successful life.

Eating strategically is super important for performance both in competition and in training, from lifting to conditioning and even recovery. But when it comes to wrestling practice, the game is changed completely. It’s estimated that you can burn upwards to 1000 Calories in a single wrestling practice, and depending on the pace and intensity this number can be even higher. As you are using every major muscle group and constantly moving out of different energy systems from power to strength to endurance with large heart rate fluctuations, its crucial to prepare and properly supply each of your energy systems with the right types of food in order to perform your best. But what kinds of food should you be eating, and at what times should you be eating them?

In today’s world, what it means to be called competitive and a fighter is heavily influenced by what we see on TV and social media from UFC fighters, boxers, professional athletes, and anyone else at the top level of their sport. Trash talk is abundant, the disrespect is high, and when the fight comes the fans are most of the time disappointed with the lack of action and grit. So if all the words and remarks don’t equal to a person having fight when it counts, what does? What does it mean to have a true fight mentality?

The main benefits of ice bath recovery include a decrease in inflammation, greater reduction of metabolic waste, improved delivery of oxygen and nutrients, heightened immune system, and reduced pain. All of these benefits effectively occur from the same biological mechanism.

Sitting in the sauna has many benefits in terms of biochemical regulation and recovery, and those that have been most researched and supported are its benefits for muscle recovery and toxin release.

You’re down by 1, the score is 10-11. The match has been a grinder, back-and-forth, high-paced scoring. There’s 1 minute on the clock and you need to get this takedown to win the match. The whole crowd is yelling, the sound is deafening. You can’t hear your coach and your body feels like jelly. The energy from the crowd is making your heart rate skyrocket as you lose all sense of thought and begin to act on urge and instinct to just go-go-go. After 5 failed shot attempts, the clock runs out and it’s over. Your opponent gets his hand raised and you go back to your corner exhausted and defeated.

If you’ve ever been in a situation like this, and most of us have at least once, you know exactly how it feels. Sometimes we succeed and sometimes we don’t. But what’s the important lesson here, and how do we give ourselves a better chance at winning in a high-pressure situation like this? By maintaining our ability to CHOOSE under pressure and during fatigue.