You’ve just spent an hour doing a grueling full body workout. Your body is spent from deep, heavy squats, weighted chins, and max effort incline presses. So what do you do now? How about loading up the bar for deadlifts? Why not do them with an underhand grip while you’re at it? Or while standing on a low box?

To most sensible, experienced lifters, the idea of doing this seems ridiculous. Surely, you’re just setting yourself up for injury. Yet how many of these same lifters would flip a heavy tire under these same circumstances? Plenty.

Somehow, the idea got into the heads of trainees that Strongman exercises, when mixed with lifting, should always be done after the lifting. But why should this be the case? Better to examine the Strongman exercises for what they are in terms of load and movement and then place them in the workout.

For example, look at the tire flip mentioned before. If you’re lucky enough to have a 600- or 700-lb tire at your gym, count your blessings. But use it at the appropriate time for maximum effectiveness and minimum risk of injury. In my opinion, put this early in the workout rather than later or last. It could be first after a good warm up. An equally good option is after a warm up and then explosive work, whether it be an explosive full body exercise like snatches or one more limited to upper or lower body like benches or squats.

There are, of course, plenty of good finishers that are good at the end of a workout—pushing or pulling a Prowler with a moderate load, pulling a sled also loaded moderately, doing bear crawls, doing bear crawls pulling a sled, and so on. Of course, if the weight workout was for another part of the body, there isn’t any reason not do a near max effort finisher. An example of this is grinding out some heavy Prowler sprints after a grueling bench workout.

There isn’t any reason why you can’t use weights after Strongman equipment. An example of this is an MMA fighter who wants to develop strength and then get in some work to develop anaerobic activity and muscular endurance. For this, he could do several sets of heavy farmer's walks, tire flips, or sandbag carries. He could then follow up with barbell complexes.

Strongman training is one of the best tools for athletes. By using the preceding guidelines, you can use it safely and for maximum effect.

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