Even if you don't care to compete, training as a strongman is a great way to force new physical development and makes training fun again. The sheer amount of variety is sure to cause new growth and help bust through strength plateaus. There are two aspects of strongman training that are often neglected in regular strength training.
Grip Training
With all the talk of "functional training", whatever that means, nothing is more functional than having a strong grip. In the real world, whether you can lift something or not always boils down to your grip. Dad or Farmers Strength is really just grip strength. Men who have spent time doing hard manual labour always out perform gym rats in real world tests of strength simply because their grip is superior.
Not only will fat bar and other grip training build your strength, it will dramatically improve your arm size. Your hands, forearms and biceps will all thicken up due to the increased tension that is required to control the awkward implement.
I remember losing a friendly wrestling match to a friend of mine who is an Oil Roughneck up in north Alberta. Once the guy got his hands on me I was done in about 30 seconds! This blew me away as I am a 225lbs strength athlete. But I was no competition for a guy that spent the last 12 years breaking pipe in the outdoors. Case in point, did you know that legendary strongman
Bill Kazmaier
was an Oil Roughneck and a Lumberjack in his youth?
Time Under Tension
Time under tension is often cited as one of the most important factors in causing hypertrophy, but really trains for it? Most people lift a heavy weight for low reps, or a light weight for a prescribed number of reps, but few athletes train with weight for time. By simply switching things up and going for a predetermined length of time, you will force yourself to bang out more reps, and thereby grow.
Another method used in strongman training that ends up being a time under tension focused drill is carries. Whenever you carry a heavy weight for distance, you are supporting it while moving and it becomes a challenging time under tension drill. Carrying drills such as farmers walks, stone carries, or yoke walks, really build the core, back, hips and depending on the drill, the grip. They are a missing element to 99% of people's training. With carrying drills you forget about reps and just for distance, often pushing yourself further than you thought possible with the help of some friendly competition.
Start carrying heavy weights and you will become stronger, bigger and tougher.
Here is a sample strongman workout. This is the exact workout we did at the Bells of Steel Training Facility today.
- Mobility Work
- Warm-up
- Fat Bar
/Axle Deadlift
- started with 150lbs and added 50lbs per set until I missed a lift (max effort failure)
- Crucifix Hold
- Hand Over Hand Rope Pull
- using a prowler
loaded with weight
- pulled the prowler about 40', then dragged it back to the starting spot
Fat Bar Deadlift
Crucifix Hold
Hand Over Hand Rope Pull
This video shows a great way to do this in your gym. But if you can, get outside and pull something towards you instead. Use the thickest rope you can find to really blast your arms and grip.
For semi-private or personal training contact:
Nathan Donahue
Calgary, Alberta
Nathan@kettlebellplanet.com
www.kettlebellplanet.com