Strongman/Strongwoman

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maranarasauce93
maranarasauce93 Posts: 293 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
So this is a topic I haven't really seen in this forum very often. But after playing around with strongman toys like logs, axle bar of death, yolk, etc I was thinking about trying a strongman competition between now and whenever the heck my next powerlifting meet is. I was wondering if anyone on these forums has done any of these before, their experience and how they go about training, especially when you are at a gym that doesn't have all of the things you may see at a comp. ex: Conan wheel, fingers, car deadlifts. The gym I train at now has mostly men's equipment. I mean I can clean and press 90lb log but not for volume and the stones go from 50 to 160 (need more in-between weight!) So how would you adapt in a situation like that??

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  • Chieflrg
    Chieflrg Posts: 9,097 Member
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    Have you searched out for a local strongman gym?
  • maranarasauce93
    maranarasauce93 Posts: 293 Member
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    Chieflrg wrote: »
    Have you searched out for a local strongman gym?

    One of the gyms that I go to is a strongman/powerlifting gym. They are fairly new and they have a list of equipment that they are planning to get. Ex: car deadlift. So maybe they will expand their inventory, but as of now, a lot of things there seem to be more for strongman vs strongwoman competitors. The other one I go to has some lighter strongman stuff but it is only used with one of the personal trainers there who is a competitor and I kind of don't have the income to pay for personal training at the moment.
  • julie_broadhead
    julie_broadhead Posts: 347 Member
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    https://breakingmuscle.com/fitness/the-6-main-types-of-strongman-events-and-how-to-train-for-them-in-the-gym

    You may find this helpful:-)
  • maranarasauce93
    maranarasauce93 Posts: 293 Member
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    Jtalaskamom wrote: »
    https://breakingmuscle.com/fitness/the-6-main-types-of-strongman-events-and-how-to-train-for-them-in-the-gym

    You may find this helpful:-)
    Thank you! The event I'm looking at doing has finger flips so I guess I can practice with tires. And maybe you the Conan wheel yolk carry like zercher?
  • sventheviking
    sventheviking Posts: 45 Member
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    I use the general strongman program from starting strongman its I think 10 bucks you get a 4 day a week template. I own a lot of the things and they are the male sizes I make my sister train on them to the best of her ability (my log empty is 130 and it murders me)

    My first contest I only practiced a couple of the events because it had this insane wheelbarrow loading contraption and a custom hussafel stone.

    For conans wheel if your gym has sandbags or kegs you can simply carry them in front of you amd if you have a yoke you can set it low amd carry it in a zercher fashion.

    Fingals fingers you can do tire flips and overhead carries(be careful and don't drop something on your head) this will get the pickup and the overhead stabilization needed for the fingers

    Car deadlift can get simulated by setting two barbells against the wall(use a towel in between) and place some heavy dumbbells on the end against the wall to mimick the lever of the car deadlift. You can youtube this as well.

    In general just get good at squats deadlifts and push pressing, carry heavy stuff in any way you can
  • sventheviking
    sventheviking Posts: 45 Member
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    What other events are there? Is there a novice division?
  • maranarasauce93
    maranarasauce93 Posts: 293 Member
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    sventheviking wrote: »
    What other events are there? Is there a novice division?

    There is a novice. Not sure if I'm doing that or the 132lb division. There's 60xs axle clean and press 60lbs for novice and 80lbs for 132lbs, fingals finger 5 flips 60x's, Conan wheel 200lbs novice and 250lbs for 132 weight class, 18inch deadlift for 60 reps (idk if it's axle or not) 225lbs novice/275lbs 132 class, and atlas stone 60x's over bar at 44inches: 100 novice/120 132lbs.
  • maranarasauce93
    maranarasauce93 Posts: 293 Member
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    @sventheviking I have been running wendler 5/3/1 pretty much forever now so I squat and deadlift often, and I am accustomed to strict military press so push press is always welcomed! The one thing that seems really daunting to me is atlas stones. I'm only around 4'9 so it seems slightly overwhelming to pick up a heavy stone and repeatedly try getting it over a 4ft high surface. Also I'm not super familiar with doing zercher squats; I know how to hold a bar in that position, but I haven't done carries like that before; I did do some practice raising and lowering a yoke like a zercher carry. I have over 2 months of prep if I decide to do this comp so I'll see how it goes!!
  • sventheviking
    sventheviking Posts: 45 Member
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    maranarasauce93 wrote: »
    @sventheviking I have been running wendler 5/3/1 pretty much forever now so I squat and deadlift often, and I am accustomed to strict military press so push press is always welcomed! The one thing that seems really daunting to me is atlas stones. I'm only around 4'9 so it seems slightly overwhelming to pick up a heavy stone and repeatedly try getting it over a 4ft high surface. Also I'm not super familiar with doing zercher squats; I know how to hold a bar in that position, but I haven't done carries like that before; I did do some practice raising and lowering a yoke like a zercher carry. I have over 2 months of prep if I decide to do this comp so I'll see how it goes!!

    Best thing I did was join the starting strongman forum super helpful community and keeping a lifting journal can really help maintain accountability.

    Atlas stones as a shorter athlete just means you can't be lazy you have explode your way up and basically catapult the stone off your chest.
    Being shorter you have the advantage that your range of motion on 18in deadlift is gonna be so short you could likely win the event. Also you should have an advantage on the axle having short arms so shorter distance to press to

    I say sign up it's an amazing experience and every other athlete there will likely be incredibly friendly and fun.
  • Fittreelol
    Fittreelol Posts: 2,535 Member
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    I compete in PL, but a lot of my friends compete in Strongman. I go to a PL/Strongman gym that has all the toys, and also hosts 2 strongman shows a year. Around here (Eastern PA/MD) at least it's very common to have "Strongman Saturdays" where people pay a drop in fee and do implement training- not just at my gym, but at most strongman gyms I've seen. Most show venues seem to offer this, so it's something to look into when you make a final decision on a comp. We've had people come from pretty far away to train, and sometimes people just come once so they at least know what the implement will feel like. Two of my gym besties are under 5' and they do atlas stones fine...well one complains endlessly about the boob smooshing, but she can still do it.
  • Leigh14
    Leigh14 Posts: 871 Member
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    I'm a Strongman competitor; I just did a forum search for Strongman to see if there were others out there, lol. How are you doing? Have you found a solution?

    My gym has quite a bit of equipment for competition. Our members just put funds together at Christmas and bought our trainer a Beast Metals hussafel. We are working on a competition right now that involves stone loading, but have no platforms to load to. We've been loading the stone over a bar, but on Sunday a bunch of us are having breakfast, driving to another Strongman gym a few hours away, training with their stone platforms, maybe deadlifting a car (because ... #strongman), eating more (again, because #strongman) and heading home.

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