My first Strongman comp

[Stubborn]

Its coming up soon! I think I'll do well. I am training for the Mens Open but may be put into Novice being as I have never placed or competed before. Farmers walk should be easy.....car DL is my event.....never touched an atlas stone but I use field stones that are very akward. I will go back to BBing for a while after the comp.

Wish me luck!

[The Squadfather]

farmers was my worst event when i did a couple of comps, when i first tried it we used a pair of 225 pound tanks/cylinders and i picked them up and got 3 steps with them, hahahahaha, eventually worked up to 120 feet with a turn halfway.

[benchmstr]

farmers was my worst event when i did a couple of comps, when i first tried it we used a pair of 225 pound tanks/cylinders and i picked them up and got 3 steps with them, hahahahaha, eventually worked up to 120 feet with a turn halfway.

i used to be good at the farmers walk,but now every time a do back or any heavy pulling for that matter my hands bleed.i dont even have alot of felling in my palms anymore because of the amount of scar tissue.

bench

[Stubborn]

Yeah, I have small hands too but for some reason i can grip farmers at 250 no problem? My real worry is that I am overtrained, especially in my back. Been slightly sore ever since doing a couple 545 stiff legs on the platform. I will recoup all I can this week and hopefully kick some ass!

Glad to hear other getbiggers have done strongman too!

[benchmstr]

Yeah, I have small hands too but for some reason i can grip farmers at 250 no problem? My real worry is that I am overtrained, especially in my back. Been slightly sore ever since doing a couple 545 stiff legs on the platform. I will recoup all I can this week and hopefully kick some ass!

Glad to hear other getbiggers have done strongman too!

trust me i dont have small hands,and i also have the same problem with my back these days.

bench

[Stubborn]

Had a blast! I was the only one to place all five stones. The only one to hang onto the farmers walks. And I got 23 reps on a 400+lbs deadlift! I cant wait to get some more!!!

[The Squadfather]

Had a blast! I was the only one to place all five stones. The only one to hang onto the farmers walks. And I got 23 reps on a 400+lbs deadlift! I cant wait to get some more!!!

damn dude that's quite a good showing, lifting all five stones and getting that many reps on deads is awesome especially for your first comp.

[Stubborn]

Thanks man! I surprised myself. Doing another in 2 months, should be a lot better!

[benchmstr]

Thanks man! I surprised myself. Doing another in 2 months, should be a lot better!

congratulations bro,give them hell in two months.

bench

[Stubborn]

Thanks, bench! Feelin' a lil sore today, haha! Back to the gym tomorrow.

[Hedgehog]

Yeah, I have small hands too but for some reason i can grip farmers at 250 no problem? My real worry is that I am overtrained, especially in my back. Been slightly sore ever since doing a couple 545 stiff legs on the platform. I will recoup all I can this week and hopefully kick some ass!

Glad to hear other getbiggers have done strongman too!

IMO, if you're doing strongman training in the summer, do deadlifts once every other week.

Focus on the event training instead, and do perhaps 2 or 3 gym workouts in a two week period, with the rest being strongman training entirely.

JMO.

Congrats on the great results BTW.

-Hedge

[Stubborn]

I am using a plan that was made by Travis Ortmayer and Odd Haugen. Its a 3 day Westside type split. Tuesday = max upper/dyn lower; Thursday = max lower/dyn upper; Sunday = events (2-3 depending on how you feel and what needs work). Its pretty intense but I am going to keep with it and increase my cardio/flexibility/recovery exercises and see how it works out. I only DL every two weeks anyway. I got my best BBing/strength gains when my cardio was better and I used to do manual labor all day. I think its what Im missing, cardio. I will be doing 3-4 days of "cardio" a week, including light tire flips, light farmers, walking, and truck pulls. This will also help as Im looking to shed 10-15 lbs of fat. If I lost 20lbs I could go into lightweight and wreck it, but I'll stay with the big boys.

Thanks for the input Hedge. I may try it later on.

LIFT

[Hedgehog]

I am using a plan that was made by Travis Ortmayer and Odd Haugen. Its a 3 day Westside type split. Tuesday = max upper/dyn lower; Thursday = max lower/dyn upper; Sunday = events (2-3 depending on how you feel and what needs work). Its pretty intense but I am going to keep with it and increase my cardio/flexibility/recovery exercises and see how it works out. I only DL every two weeks anyway. I got my best BBing/strength gains when my cardio was better and I used to do manual labor all day. I think its what Im missing, cardio. I will be doing 3-4 days of "cardio" a week, including light tire flips, light farmers, walking, and truck pulls. This will also help as Im looking to shed 10-15 lbs of fat. If I lost 20lbs I could go into lightweight and wreck it, but I'll stay with the big boys.

Thanks for the input Hedge. I may try it later on.

LIFT

Seems like a very good layout. I think a lot of strongmen trains too many days a week.

That layout seems realistic.

-Hedge

[The Squadfather]

Seems like a very good layout. I think a lot of strongmen trains too many days a week.

That layout seems realistic.

-Hedge

for the couple of meets i did we would train the events only once a week on Saturday mornings and we made consistent improvements like that, we would meet in our gym's back parking lot at around 8:30am and usually train until 11:00am or so doing 5-6 events, then we would just do our regular gym training during the week.

[Overload]

for the couple of meets i did we would train the events only once a week on Saturday mornings and we made consistent improvements like that, we would meet in our gym's back parking lot at around 8:30am and usually train until 11:00am or so doing 5-6 events, then we would just do our regular gym training during the week.

This is what we did in the past training for strongman. every saturday we met at my friends scrapyard and did various events for a few hours. during the weekdays were olympic and powerlifting style workouts.

[The Squadfather]

This is what we did in the past training for strongman. every saturday we met at my friends scrapyard and did various events for a few hours. during the weekdays were olympic and powerlifting style workouts.

shit i was only 27 at the time and it still absolutely killed me for the rest of that day and Sunday as well.

[Stubborn]

Sounds like everyone is on the same track basically. If you have good power/speed you can make it through a comp but whether you win or not depends on your implement training. Anyone got a log they wanna sell?

[benchmstr]

Sounds like everyone is on the same track basically. If you have good power/speed you can make it through a comp but whether you win or not depends on your implement training. Anyone got a log they wanna sell?

http://newyorkbarbells.com/0420.html

the big one is the same one i have,and you can always add more weight

bench

[Overload]

shit i was only 27 at the time and it still absolutely killed me for the rest of that day and Sunday as well.

i was around 25 when i started and it wore me out the same, i would get home, eat and then go to sleep with the sun still up. i don't see how the WSM guys train like that all week long. that shit was brutal, specially down here in the Texas heat during the summer. i made my biggest strength gains the 3 years i trained strongman every weekend.

[The Squadfather]

i was around 25 when i started and it wore me out the same, i would get home, eat and then go to sleep with the sun still up. i don't see how the WSM guys train like that all week long. that shit was brutal, specially down here in the Texas heat during the summer. i made my biggest strength gains the 3 years i trained strongman every weekend.

yeah we trained all through June, July and August for a meet in September in the heat of St. Louis, it gets fuccking hot and humid up here in summertime, that shit was crazy, i would stop at McDonalds before we started in the morning and get 3-4 Sausage and Egg mcmuffins and 3-4 hash browns and some OJ just to get through it, i normally didn't eat like that but i needed it to survive that shit, i don't know how i didn't puke, i came close a few times on the sled pull.

[Stubborn]

You guys were hittin it hard every weekend, huh? I keep it to 2-3 events just so I dont overtrain. Im learning my limits slowly but surely but trying to push my limits further every training day.

Thanks for the link, bench! I may get one soon but shipping is the killer!

[benchmstr]

You guys were hittin it hard every weekend, huh? I keep it to 2-3 events just so I dont overtrain. Im learning my limits slowly but surely but trying to push my limits further every training day.

Thanks for the link, bench! I may get one soon but shipping is the killer!

keep checking,every once in awhile they give you free freight.thats when i purchased mine

bench

[rccs]

IMO, if you're doing strongman training in the summer, do deadlifts once every other week.

Focus on the event training instead, and do perhaps 2 or 3 gym workouts in a two week period, with the rest being strongman training entirely.

JMO.

Congrats on the great results BTW.

-Hedge

What do you think of Pudzi's training? He spends more time at the gym than actually doing the exercises of a SM event...

[Hedgehog]

What do you think of Pudzi's training? He spends more time at the gym than actually doing the exercises of a SM event...

Can't argue the results, but I think he would be even better with more event training?

Problem with most strongman training IMO, is that it's max effort most of the time. Very few events do you train lighter in.

I think it would be very wise to write something like a 4 week layout, with only one or two gym days and two event days.

Eg Log lift

Week 1 Light workout. 3's with the Moderate weight

Week 2 Max Reps with moderate weight

Week 3 Light workout. 3's with the Moderate weight

Week 4 Heavy singles, max effort lift

You could do this on one of the event days, and do one or two other events during the event workout.

A lot of my friends who train strongman don't have any set protocol. Even though they got so many events, they still only, at best, take the next week and the past weeks workouts into account.

Strongman competitors could learn a lot from how decathletes writes their training systems IMO.

-Hedge

[Stubborn]

Hedge, the event training pattern you describe is logical and I have used it. Particularly with the stones and OHP. It gave me great results! I loaded all 5 stones at my comp yet only trained with up to 280lbs (field stone). Most strognmen go by feeling which is one of our down falls. If your back is sore on event day, stay away from stones, cleans, and deads. But what if your back is always sore? I think reworking Westside even further than I have is in the near future. When I used westside just the way you are supposed to, I got my bench up over 400lbs fast! And all my other lifts were improving every week. Now that I am on a 3 day schedule it is a little more difficult to decide what should be done and when. Yeah, Mon=Max Upper, Wed=Max Lower, Sat=Event Day, but there is not one day to work only on speed. You can do it on event day, I do, but then you feel as if you have wasted it. This day is what you train for! Not to mention that you want to see what you can do before your next competition which may be in only 5-6 weeks. It is hard to limit yourself to only 3-4 comps a year, I've only done one and I already feel it.