Strongman Training for Powerlifting Gains
By Michael Watkins
The idea for this article began during and after preparation for my
first Strongman meet. I had been powerlifting for just over two years
and had never really given much thought to Strongman. While surfing the
web, I came across a Strongman meet that was close to where I live. With
only six weeks of training, I entered the Lake Cumberland Strongman
Championship and had a blast competing with and against six other guys
who were in our group. Altogether, there were 30–40 lifters, and even
though I didn’t place, I ended the day on a positive note. I won’t give
up powerlifting, but I do see more Strongman meets in my future.
Let’s get back to the article with a little background. As mentioned
above, my powerlifting experience is limited to just over two years.
I’ve been training since high school and took up powerlifting as a
change from what I had been doing. I needed something different, and
after turning thirty in May of 2005, I did my first powerlifting meet in
October of that year. I competed raw in the 198-lb weight class, and
despite a third place finish (really last because there were only three
competitors in my division), I was hooked. Since then, I have continued
to work toward my elite total competing in the 275-lb weight class while
using single ply gear. I write this article not as an authoritative
figure on training, nor an elite lifter or even a top Strongman
competitor. I write this as an average trainee who, like many others
visiting this website, is looking for additional knowledge to increase
his total.
Transitioning from powerlifting to Strongman training took pretty much
the same approach that was already in place. My training is based on a
Westside template that is customized to my own needs. The major change
is the frequency. I train an average of three times a week. This is
mostly based around my work schedule, which is once every third day. I’m
a paramedic and work a 24 on–48 off shift. Coming in before shift is an
easy way for me to work toward my goal and balance my other
responsibilities. The unexpected benefit has been better recovery
because the standard four day approach takes too much out of me.
The competition I entered had four events—the log press, farmers walk,
deadlift for reps, and stone sequence. I had never done any of these
events except for the deadlift. I didn’t even have the implements to
perform the events or the knowledge of how best to execute them. I
turned to EliteFTS.com to gather my information.
Mike Johnston on the Strongman Q&A was very helpful in answering my
rookie questions and so was CJ Murphy from Total Performance Sports. I
even purchased the video,
Functional Strongman Training for Athletes
and Competitors, from EliteFTS.com to lay the ground work for my
plan. I was even fortunate enough to find a Strongman competitor close
to where I live who had all the implements I would need to train with
and was generous enough to allow me and some other guys to come and
train.
During the time leading up to the meet, I chose to drop the bench press
and focus on the log press. As a powerlifter, I believed that I didn’t
need any real shoulder work in my program to increase my bench. Needless
to say, overhead pressing strength was of low priority. I embraced this
same philosophy for bicep work. Hell, it was Dave Tate who led me to
believe that “curls are for girls,” and like any good disciple, I took
it as truth.
Unfortunately, these weaknesses would be glaringly obvious come game
day, and bicep tendonitis became so bad that the idea of a bicep tear
became a real possibility. Bench work was excluded for the entire six
weeks while I focused on increasing strength on the log. ME days
remained with an emphasis on deadlifting for reps. The farmers walk and
stones were done either after leg days or on a separate day geared
toward event work only.
Now that you see what changes were made in preparing for the Strongman
meet, let me share with you the crossover effect it has had in my
preparation for my upcoming powerlifting meet. During the six-week
preparation for the meet, I took a max on the safety squat bar box
squat. My previous max before the Strongman training was 605 lbs off a
parallel
box in a squat suit with straps up. After three weeks of
Strongman, I hit 655 lbs. A 50-lb PR isn’t bad for changing no other
component of the routine except for the addition of event work. As happy
as I was over this PR, it in no way assisted the actual Strongman work I
was doing. It hindered it if anything. Live and learn I guess. I also
noticed that walking this weight out was far easier than any other
attempt I have ever done. Walking weights out isn’t an issue for some,
but for me, it is the hardest part of the squat.
The next thing I noticed was my increased deadlift ability. The deadlift
has been a difficult lift since I went from a 198-lb lifter to a 255-lb
lifter. The additional weight has benefited my squat and bench, but it
has destroyed my ability to utilize the best leverage for the deadlift.
The work performed using repetitions during pulls has helped me utilize
better technique with heavy weights. This is something that speed pulls,
rack pulls, and reverse band pulls haven’t been able to do. I haven’t
performed a max deadlift yet, but all my indicators show that it should
be significantly improved. The biggest surprise was yet to come…
I felt that during this phase of Strongman, my squat and deadlift would
go up but my bench would go down. It would only be logical to conclude
that while not performing a movement, one’s strength would decrease in
that movement. My last 2-board with a shirt was done about two weeks
before my last meet back at the end of July. I did shirt work for the
first time since then and hit a 5-lb PR on the shirted
2-board bench
last week. This to me was amazing. How do you get stronger without doing
a movement? Again, I did zero benching while preparing for the Strongman
meet and hadn’t been in a shirt in over eight weeks. I was unstable at
the upper end of the movement, but the strength was there and I was
ecstatic!
This has been my experience while utilizing the Strongman training. My
training partner, who competes as a 198-lber, has experienced close to
the same results. I believe the results can be attributed to the
following factors:
Addressing weaknesses: Every program has weaknesses. Even
programs that address weaknesses will create or reveal other weaknesses.
Say you become more explosive and learn how to get out that last little
bit of support from your double ply gear. Congratulations, now you
realize that your core isn’t strong enough to support the weights it now
takes to get you to parallel. We all have some weakness that is holding
us back, and believe me, Strongman training will manifest any weakness
you may have in a hurry. For me, the following weaknesses weren’t
completely corrected but improved upon. This had the biggest carryover
for me.
- Core development. When it comes to big deadlifts and
heavy squats, nothing can hold a lifter back quicker than a weak
core. When the core is developed to an unusually greater degree of
strength, the squat, bench, and deadlift are easier to execute.
Nothing will work your core like lifting a stone and setting it on a
platform or doing
farmers walks that make your hips feel as if the
femurs will separate from the pelvis. You can’t find that kind of
core work in traditional powerlifting programs.
- Posterior development. This is comparable to the above.
I’ve done
glute ham raises and
reverse hypers and other work for my
posterior, but nothing had the effect that the events I trained for
had.
- Shoulder strength. I never really thought that one needed
strong shoulders to bench well. I was one of those lifters who
believed that the indirect work received from chest and back
training was enough. However, I can’t deny the effect my new found
shoulder strength is having on my bench. The results of these are
still being discovered.
Event training: As I said before, the events that were in the
meet were new to me. Three out of four movements, I had never done. In
Strongman, the events are always changing. Adding in tire flips, yoke,
power steps, and medleys would add a whole new dimension of adaptation
in one’s training cycle. This new level of adaptation has a crossover
effect when going back to a traditional powerlifting program.
Conditioning: This probably had the least effect, but it did play
a role. I’m one of those guys who did zero conditioning. Hell, the most
I got before Strongman was looking at the sled and that was on a good
day. The first time I did farmers walks I thought my heart would
explode. After having performed it for a few weeks, I began to enjoy it,
and I noticed that when I was doing heavy deadlifts, stone work, or even
DE box squats, the movements were easier and not as demanding. I even
noticed something that Mark Bartley had mentioned when talking about the
Prowler work he did—better recovery between work outs.
This is what I believe was responsible for my recent across the board
PRs. After the December meet, I will begin training again for my next
Strongman meet. With more time and a better understanding of what my
weaknesses are I hope to have a much better performance.
I will write another article at that time to chronicle my (hopefully)
continued success with the Strongman protocol. Currently, I have added
shoulder and bicep work to my routine to balance out my program and
perform the event work every other week to better my form. I think many
lifters can benefit from adding some of the Strongman events to their
training. It doesn’t take a willingness to compete in Strongman to
realize the benefits of such training. Adding in some of the events will
have unexpected results that might be the ticket to getting yourself
closer to an elite total. I know it has for me.
Elite Fitness Systems strives to be a recognized leader in the
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