Jay Sylva – Find A Way Fitness
I train strongman, but I don’t have any strongman equipment. How do I do it? How can you do it? Its easy to train like a strongman with the equipment from your standard local gym. All gyms are different and carry various items, but don’t have any strongman equipment. That should not detour you from becoming a great strongman athlete! I’ll run you through how I “Find A Way” to train strongman when I don’t have access to the right equipment. Majority of these workouts act as substitutes to the actual thing but transfer very well. “Four strongman exercises can easily be done in any gym–tractor tire flips, the circus dumbbell lift, the farmer’s walk, and the crucifix hold. A heavy bag is a decent replacement for a tire; the circus dumbbell has a close cousin in the push press, and both the farmer’s walk and crucifix hold only require dumbbbells [sic]” (Poundstone).
So, I guess I should explain what strongman is. Explained in simple terms, the goal is usually to lift heavy, and do it fast. It actually takes a lot more endurance and strength than most think. The athletes in this sport are scored by time, reps, or maximum weight lifted. Unfortunately, people usually assume it’s all strictly power mixed with poor form. Strongman has grown to become a large sport and is only getting more popular. The sport of strongman has many levels and sometimes includes weight classes, meaning it’s a sport open to lots of people. You can be male or female, weigh 145lbs or 355lbs, be an experienced lifter or even just a hobbyist that enjoys going to the gym. Somewhere there is a competition for you.
A strongman competition can include various events, sometimes some you may have never even seen before. This means that every contest is different. Because of this variation in events, everybody has their own strengths, and this can level out the playing field. A small strongman event will usually last a few hours with 4-5 events. The events have an average number around 12-15 competitors. Bigger event can go for 2-3 days and have many more competitors. There are also strongwomen events. These usually happen alongside the men’s shows. Here’s the best part, you don’t have to compete to have fun!
Here’s what you’ve been waiting for. How to train strongman with your standard gym equipment. Atlas Stones are very popular in strongman. There are many ways to simulate picking up one of these heavy balls of concrete. My favorite way to do this is with Zercher Deadlifts. The bar starts on the ground, you pick the weight up while holding the bar inside the bend of your arms. As demonstrated in the photos. While the goal is to lift heavy, you want to be careful. This puts a lot of stress on your back, it’s better to hurt your ego than it is to injure your body. To practice the form of lifting an Atlas Stone, I will use the heaviest medicine ball I can use. I then lift it as if it was an actual stone and the goal was to lift it over a bar around chest height shown in a couple photos.
The deadlift must be in your arsenal if you want to participate in strongman. Everybody knows what the deadlift is. Weight on the ground that you pick up from your shins to your hips. The gym I go to has this amazing machine that reminds me of the form used to participate in the car deadlift, only it is nowhere near the weight of any vehicle. The car deadlift is a metal frame that a vehicle can drive onto giving the participant grips to deadlift one side of a car.
This is one of my favorite events. The overhead dumbbell press, this is tested in most competitions by pressing the highest amount of weight you can. The lift starts from the ground, you can bring it up to your shoulder with both hands. When you get it positioned correctly and clear the opposite hand you must press it with one hand only. I like to rest the dumbbell on my trapezius muscle, this is the meaty part between the shoulder and neck closer to your back. Circus dumbbells are used when performing this in competition, but most gyms only have standard dumbbells to use which is perfectly okay to use. This is what I am using in the photos demonstrated.
Some competitions like to include an event that involves pulling a heavy vehicle. I don’t have a vehicle to use in my workout plan, so I use the pulley row machine to simulate this. I put on heavy weight and do 15-20 reps as fast as possible in order to train that situation. The movement involves more than just arm movement though. You are also using the power in your legs. The photos show that at the end of the rep my legs are extended to help pull the weight towards me.
Finally, strongman need cardio. But strongman cardio is different from standard cardio. This involves farmers walks, goblet walks, keg carries simulated with dumbbells with heavy weight for 20-30 yards. Farmers walks can be done with dumbbells to simulate frame carries as well. For goblet walks you hold a dumbbell as if you were going to do a goblet squat, but instead you are walking as fast as you can with it. Keg carries is what is sounds like, you use a dumbbell and hold it as if it was a keg.
I have an Instagram page @FindAWayFit where I post strongman content, as well as my own strongman experiences that I highly suggest you to follow for more strongman related content. Instagram is also a platform that you can use to contact me! I’d love to here about your start in strongman and would love to help you with a strongman-based workout plan written specifically for you. Thank you for reading, Find A Way!
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