Thoughts on Strongman Training

[AlexF]

Hello again everyone,

Does anyone here have experience in competing or training others to compete in strongman? I've gotten to a point in my progress where this is what I've decided to do, but the way forward isn't as clear to me as the way to achieving starting strength was (thanks be to Mark).

There is a routine put forth in practical programming in the advanced section for strongman athletes, but my sense is that the program was included to make a point and not necessarily a template to be followed as such.

Anyways, for those of you in the know... how would you begin to make the transition from doing only gym lifts to incorporating strongman events? Also, I should add that I'd like to know how you would do it given ideal circumstances... but I would also like specific advice about how you would do it in my own situation. That is - I belong to a gym that has organized strongman training that I attend every Saturday. Usually there will be some sort of pressing, stone loading, and a medley that involves tire flipping, farmers walks and sled drags (and other similar variations).

Sorry for the long post! And thanks in advance for any insight the forum members have.


Alex

[william jackson]

im not a strongman but ive given this site a good look over and it would be my first stop for strongman questions
http://www.marunde-muscle.com/

if your gym does strongman programming, why wouldnt you ask them?

[ZKP]

First get all your lifts up. I would say squat over 400, dead over 500, Press well over 200, and bench around 300. Presses will take priority over bench(log press is an event), but the bench will be required for overall upper body strength. These numbers of basic strength will be necessary to be competitive in the events, but if you're not there yet, by all means, still practice the events however you can and enjoy them! Attend the Saturday medley at your gym and do an event a day as a supplement on top of that. No matter where your lifts are definitely go to the sat meeting. You'll meet lots of great people who will be more than happy to give some direction. Plus get some hammers, grippers, a thick bar, and a big tire. you'll get good at strongman stuff by doing strongman stuff. Good luck!

[Regin Smidur]

http://www.juliehavelka.com/bookpage1.html - Never read it but it looks promising. FYI I was looking at a novice strongman event and the press medley still had a 240 pound log.

[TravisRussellDC]

I trained and competed in Strongman for about 8-9 years. What worked best for me was 3 days a week in the gym with event training on the weekends. My gym training was based around the basic barbell lifts while the events we alternated every week. I was very fortunate to be paired with a great group of guys who had some of the best equipment in the world, and a huge warehouse with space to do 70 foot straight line runs with the implements.

The biggest piece of advice I can give you is to take is slow with the events. There's a huge difference between moving heavy weight and moving WITH heavy weight. Pretty much every new guy who trained with us for the first time and thought he was a badass because he had a big bench/squat/deadlift, etc. got hurt the first day. And we rarely saw them come back.

If you've got any specific questions, let me know. I'll be more than happy to help.

[Dave M]

I trained and competed in Strongman for about 8-9 years. What worked best for me was 3 days a week in the gym with event training on the weekends. My gym training was based around the basic barbell lifts while the events we alternated every week. I was very fortunate to be paired with a great group of guys who had some of the best equipment in the world, and a huge warehouse with space to do 70 foot straight line runs with the implements.

The biggest piece of advice I can give you is to take is slow with the events. There's a huge difference between moving heavy weight and moving WITH heavy weight. Pretty much every new guy who trained with us for the first time and thought he was a badass because he had a big bench/squat/deadlift, etc. got hurt the first day. And we rarely saw them come back.

If you've got any specific questions, let me know. I'll be more than happy to help.

Thanks for Chiming in Travis. I do not have strongman experience but had been thinking something similar: to approach it like Rip says people should treat olympic lifting training: Train with the barbell lifts to get brutally strong, then do separate skill work to apply that strength to something besides barbell training. Besides that day or two of skill work a week I'd think the only things that would be essential to add to a barbell program right away would be grip work and bicep work (if your barbell plan didn't have any). Then tailor the program as you go along and figure out your strength and weaknesses.

[AlexF]

Thanks for the advice Travis... when you were training 3x a week plus events, what did your gym days look like? I'm involved with a group right now that does event training on the weekends and most of the ways I've thought of structuring my program would involve spreading the events out over the week, but obviously that option is out for right now.

Right now I'm doing 2 gym days a week using a bastardized 5/3/1 protocol... I think I may have become weaker, but I've only just begun. Also, maybe I should add in a third gym day as you suggest... I was thinking of having a squat day, deadlift day, an upper body day, then events day. Sorry if that was a little convulted, basically I just want to know what your training looked like.

Thanks!

[TravisRussellDC]

What I typically did was to conduct my gym training on a 4 day split and a 3 day week. So, it wasn't like I squatted every Monday or did upper body every Wednesday. The rotation would cause the days to alternate and complete a full cycle around a month's time. Because the majority of the events hit the major/core muscles such as the back and legs, I could still make gains with less frequency on squats and deads in the gym.

A split for me would usually involve Squats, Front Squats and Stiff Legs on one day, Presses, Dips and chest work on another day. Deadlifts, Stiff Legs, Shrugs on another day. And Pullups, Cleans and arm work for the ladies on the last day. This would change quitea bit as I always viewed my gym training as supplemental to my event days. The gym was to be hit heavy and quickly so I could save my body for the brutality of the event days.

As far as grip work, I started out training grip in the gym in addition to heavy farmers' carries and hercules holds on the weekends. I found that my grip fatigued very quickly and I didn't make the gains I wanted to see until I stopped doing any ancillary grip work in the gym. I kept my grip work during the event days, focusing on the carries and holds, while at the gym I simply stopped using straps for pretty much everything save the heaviest of shrugs. That got my grip up to the point where I could do farmers' carries with 300 in each hand for over 100 feet at a body weight of 240.