There are a lot of things we can learn from each other when it comes to strength training. The different strength sports have many beneficial elements to offer each other with strongman competitors in particular benefiting a lot from adopting some solid powerlifting principles into your programming. Some of the best tips I have learnt over the years are as follows;
Lesson 1- ALL STRONGMAN SHOULD BENCH PRESS!
I don’t know where this crap started that Bench pressing is not beneficial for strongman cos you do overheads in comp, and conversely that powerlifters shouldn’t overhead press cos they bench only in comp. Unless you have a significant injury that prevents you from doing one or the other you should be doing both. If you are competing for strongman then the MAIN emphasis should be on overhead pressing and shoulder strength with supporting bench work and vice versa for powerlifting.
You should still be getting stronger at both horizontal pressing movements (bench) and Vertical pressing movements (overhead) plain and simple. Especially in the case of strongman competition you will be far more successful and enjoy the sport more if you are versatile and not a 1 event wonder. Strongman is about being good at a wide variety of events not just 1 or 2.
Lesson 2- PEAKING FOR COMPETITION
Something often lost in strongman competition preparation. It can be harder to plan and prepare for a strongman contest as you may have up to 6 events you need to prep for and the comp could take place over 2 days. Certain events are going to be more taxing for you than others such as a max deadlift or heavy yoke. You must taper off the weights in training accordingly. As a general rule doing the last of your heavy session 7-14 days out from comp depending on the event is a good idea. Which events are your strengths and weaknesses along with which the weight of the events should be the biggest factors in deciding when to taper them off.
Remember, it’s what you do on comp day that counts the most. You cannot stay peaked for ever so going all out every session in the lead up to the comp and bombing the event on comp day is a waste of all the effort and hard work you put in during training.
Lesson 3- STRENGTH REIGNS SUPREME
Regardless of whether the event is a dynamic event such as farmers or yoke, reps such as monster DB or log or a max deadlift the stronger you are the better your chances at success. For moving events there is a point of diminishing returns whereby let’s say you weigh u80kg as a male and you can yoke 400kg. You probably will never have that weight used in a competition so your training focus would be better spent on getting faster with weights you are likely to have in your competition range, say 260kg-320kg, and using them to build your work capacity ie the amount of training you can handle and recover from.
For more conventional lifts and static lifts however the stronger you are the easier the rep work can become if you’re smart about it. If the same 80kg competitor has a log press for reps event at 85kg and their max log is 110kg they will have a far better chance at getting more reps at that weight than another competitor who has a max log of 100 kg. On top of this their rate of recovery and fatigue accumulation for the next event will be significantly better than the other competitor especially if they have been doing as I previously recommended and focused on using the moving events to build conditioning and increase work capacity.
Signing Off
