Strongman Training: Beneficial for all

Do you want to have physical and mental toughness? Anaerobic conditioning? Cardiovascular conditioning?
Muscular endurance, strength, and power? Do you want to melt fat and look great?
Well then you need look no further. Strongman style training can give you all of these things and more!
Now before you continue reading this article, I suggest you watch some strongman competitions on Youtube to get a better sense of what I mean. If you have watched these competitions before, then you know what I'm talking about.

Whether you're a man or women, an average person or an elite athlete, I believe that this type of training can be very beneficial. Strongman training builds what is called "functional" strength. Due to the awkwardness of many of the events, you will end up improvising in order to complete it and try to win. This means that the entire body will be worked, and you will work muscles that are nearly impossible to train with traditional weight training.

Think about how many times in sports that a play goes exactly how it was planned? Very rarely is the answer.The same goes for everyday life. Things are never done exactly the same every time. For example, you help a friend move furniture into his new house, and everything is a different weight, size, and has different balance points. This means you will need to be using your muscles in a different way each time, and you may have to walk up or down stairs. You will have to lift, pull, push, and drag many of these items as well. Strongman training is the exact same....except strongman has no furniture moving events.

When most people exercise in the gym, they have a routine with a certain number of sets, repetitions, rest time, weights, and specific exercises. The lifts that people perform are usually done in  the same way for every set, making sure to stick tightly to the exercise routine.

"I have to make sure to get 1min rest between my next set, perform 12 reps, and take 2mins rest in between my next exercise"

While this is very beneficial for proper progression and sticking to the scientific ranges for types of training  goals such as hypertrophy, strength, endurance and power, this is not how things work in sport. Can you imagine a fighter in a MMA match going full out with punches for 10 seconds, and then saying to his opponent " Can you just wait a few minutes? Cause I need to let my body recharge it's ATP-CP system in order to work in the explosive power range". It would be ridiculous wouldn't it ?

This is why strongman training is such a test of mental and physical toughness. You don't get time to rest because your lungs burn and your legs are sore. You need to work as hard as you can in order to win. So as much as I believe strongman training is beneficial for all, I don't think you should attempt it unless you know that you're ready physically and mentally. If you are one of the few that are brave enough to giver, then I applaud your drive.

The main problem with trying to train for these strongman events is that many of the equipment required is hard to obtain due it's awkwardness and specificity. There are sites you can order from, but the cost can add up quickly. So for many people it's all about improvisation. Things such as big tires are easy to obtain. Just call up a local tire company and they will gladly let you take away their old tires for free. It costs them money to get them disposed of professionally so really, you are doing them a favor. Other things like ropes and heavy chains are easy enough to find too. Just go to your local hardware store and I'm sure you can find a good selection. There are many other items that can be used in your strongman training such as sandbags, empty paint buckets, other people, big rocks, and of course barbells and dumbbells. It's all really about using your brain and being creative.

Now most likely you are wondering what an example of a strongman training program would look like. So I shall give you an idea.

1) Overhead rock toss- 5 tosses. 1 minute rest in between tosses. This is an explosive exercise so you're going to want to start with a rock that is light enough to explosively toss yet heavy enough to provide resistance.
2) Backwards partner pull- 2 sets of 50 yards. 1 minute rest between sets. Get your partner to lay on flat on his stomach and grasp one end of the rope tightly. You grab the other end and pull him as fast as you can for 50 yards.
3) Tire flip- 3 sets of 5 with 3mins rest in between sets. Pretty self explanatory exercise.
4) Farmers walk- 3 sets of 50 yards with 3mins rest in between sets. Use either heavy dumbbells or barbells.

Now this in no way is an in depth program that I meticulously designed. It is just here to provide you with a basic idea of what it would look like. That's not to say that you won't gain anything from it if you do it, because I'm sure your lungs and muscles would burn after performing it ! You may recall how I said having specific times, reps and sets isn't necessary with strongman training, well it still isn't but you do need a general guideline. If you want to work more endurance you can go further distances and take less rest. If you want to train for more power then you can do shorter distances and take a little more rest. It really is dependent on your specific goals.

So if you're wanting to switch up your routine, or just feel like pushing your limits, then give strongman training a try.