In a time when people are obsessed with instant results and social media gratification understanding the importance of the basics has never been so important. Strongman is a grueling sport at the professional level. Ask any worlds (WSM, SCL, ARNOLDS) level competitor who has been competing for a number of years and all with have numerous stories of debilitating injuries and physical struggles from either their own experience or that of their comrades. Not everyone wants to make it to the top and nor will they. However, when starting strongman training everyone should be adhering to some basic principles. To me it doesn’t matter if you want to do strongman competitions or not, having a solid strength foundation to build upon is critical for two main reasons;
Muscles Move Weight & They Look Good
- Event training is a lot more fun if you are strong enough to actually do the events correctly. Struggling and grinding out every single rep or attempt of anything you ever do is very physically and mentally draining. Traditionally strongman competitors where simply strong men. They built massive muscular frames from working hard in the gym. Nowadays more emphasis is placed on specificity which is important, provided you have built a strong enough base to justify it! If you can’t squat double bodyweight, bench 1.5 times bodyweight and deadlift 2.5 times bodyweight (if you weigh over 120kg these numbers changes a bit…) your sole focus should be getting stronger.
Derek Poundstone built one of the most impressive physiques seen in the sport. Here you can see him working hard in the gym, a concept seemingly forgotten by some.
Correct Technique Is Crucial
2. It is so much safer for yourself and those who you train with. So many silly injuries occur in the gym because people are either A) trying to do things they are not physically yet ready to or B) poor coaching/coaches allowing them to do things they are not physically ready to do. If your a beginner then learning the best and safest technique for you specifically is always the best option.
Just like in other strength sports such as Powerlifting and weightlifting there are different techniques that suit different leverages and individual mechanics. Therefore safety and movement quality should be of the highest priority when teaching new trainees. Otherwise they might end up with an unnecessary serious injury. I say unnecessary because it’s important to acknowledge that each exercise carries a certain amount of risk. However exposing trainees to unnecessary risks especially in training is both unacceptable and irresponsible.
At Iron Revolution every member or client who wants to do strongman training follows a well structured and periodised program with an emphasis on two key elements;
Getting stronger!
Getting stronger at lifting weights! This should be everyone’s number one priority. Strong is strong! We have structured training cycles that achieve progression in all the powerlifting lifts and strongman events. We almost always train the main powerlifts in some form depending on the wave/cycle. They are the best developers of strength for the strongman events other than the events themselves. Obviously there is more than one way to skin a cat and there are variations of these exercises and others that benefit strongman but if you’re skipping out on the basics you’re losing so much potential strength gain for no justifiable reason.
Structure Not Fads
Becoming more proficient at the strongman events. This is critical if people want to be lifting for more than a few months. I personally intend on doing this for a very long time so longevity in training and the sport is crucial! If the events are performed poorly over and over again injury is inevitable. We always introduce clients the basic events first and the ones that carry over most to other events. While it may not be inline with current “trends” I really don’t care. What I do care about is progress, results and repeating the formula. For this to happen the clients need to able to regularly train injury free and practice proper execution of the movements.
Signing off,
We offer various training options here at Iron Revolution gym and you can find more about them here or by contacting us through our contact page
