Gaining Strength Without Gaining Weight: My Wrestling Method

In freestyle wrestling, strength is everything—but so is weight. When every gram counts on the scale, you have to find balance: how can you get stronger without gaining mass?

During my years of training, that question kept coming up. I was training hard, five times a week, two hours each evening after classes. But at the national level, many of my opponents came from Eastern Europe or the Caucasus—especially Chechnya. Their training looked completely different.

Never to failure

While we often pushed until total exhaustion—ending sessions unable to do another rep—they never went to failure. They trained all afternoon, alternating cardio, technique, and strength, but always below their limit.

At first, I thought they weren’t working hard enough. But after talking to them, I realized they were after something else: consistency over exhaustion.

The discovery: Brieux Le Dantec’s method

Later, I found a program by Brieux Le Dantec, a well-known calisthenics athlete. His idea was simple but powerful: multiple submaximal sets, spaced throughout the day.

I tried it with push-ups. My max was 50 before my form collapsed. So I started doing sets of 25 push-ups, every one or two hours. Nothing extreme, but consistent.

The result? In just a few days, my max went from 50 to over 70 push-ups. No burnout, no soreness—just smart repetition.

Adapting it to wrestling

Of course, push-ups alone won’t win matches. I had to adapt it to wrestling: explosive movements, endurance, and mobility—without extra body weight. I integrated this approach directly into my preparation, alternating more with cardio and functional exercises, without ever using machines.

This method helped me build strength without gaining weight, and it even became my strongest asset. While many French wrestlers relied heavily on volume or weight training, this smarter, more balanced approach gave me a real edge physically and technically.