Good Max Conan’s Wheel?

Hi all,

So assuming my back is up to the challenge and C19 doesn’t derail things, I’m eyeing a comp on September 19 (South Texas Strongest Man/Woman).

The events look new & appealing:

  1. Viking Press (for reps)
  2. Farmers Walk / Hand-Over-Hand Truck Pull Medley
  3. Ukrainian Deadlift (for reps)
  4. Max Conan’s Carry (1 revolution)
  5. Atlas Stone Over Bar (for reps)

I’ve got a good idea how to approach most of it, but am a little lost on the conan’s wheel. Have y’all ever had it in a comp for either max distance or weight, and what were some of the winning stats?

I compete in 175, and am trying to decide how heavy I need to train, and an idea of what my three attempts are going to be

I’m looking to wave volume/intensity over 6 weeks like:
Medium weeks: 70-80% comp weight for 3 rounds
Light: 50-60% comp weight for 5 rounds
Heavy: 90+% comp weight for 1 round

@flipcollar I want to say you came in first over my buddy Jake in Dallas?

Thanks!

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@T3hPwnisher avatar on his blog is him doing the Conans wheel in a comp, I believe. He would likely have some pretty decent ideas on how to train for it. He also has a write up of his last strongman comp over there, that featured the conans wheel and stones over bar at least, from memory.

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Thanks @dagill2! I’ll check out @T3hPwnisher’s stuff. Admittedly, I’ve paid almost zero attention to the Conan’s wheel until this comp, haha.

Stats are proving hard to find on it too in the competition results pages.

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I did zero training for it, haha. Just relied on guts. Didn’t pan out as well as I thought. Lower back was absolutely fried by the time I got there.

Hold it high and take short steps is the best I got.

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Haha, thanks man. I imagine that’ll factor into the approach. The closest I’ve trained for it has been caring around a driftwood telephone pole around my driveway (pre back screw up) Fortunately the events prior don’t seem too low back intensive, which is honestly one of the reasons I am liking the layout of this comp.

The way life is going right now, this is probably gonna be my last competition for a very long time. So, I really wanna do this one right

If I remember right, that competition was the one where your lower back was hit so hard with every event that you passed out on the stones over bar?

So my advice would be: don’t do that.

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You got it! Total out of body experience, haha

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I have absolutely no idea how you can figure out what weight to use on the conans wheel. I would say that training with a yoke lowered to your arms would be the best way to practice for it. But there are too many variables with a conans wheel to figure that shit out… You’re really going to have to go by feel on the day of comp. Pay close attention to how your warm ups feel, and pick your attempts based on what your competitors are picking. Man, that would be hard to figure out. But also pretty fun, lol.

As far as training goes: this is all I did. Runs with a yoke to figure out how to hold it, how to pace myself, etc. It’s a hard event to train well for.

I can tell you that breathing is the hardest part of this. That’s something you really need to nail down in training.

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Appreciate it, @flipcollar! I should be able to rig up a yoke walk around a tire. That’ll make up the bulk of my training. At least that way I can figure out “400 straight weight feels okay, 500 feels like a Buick.” I’d wager different fabricators have wildly different designs, but I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to ask around and if someone does in fact have a wheel, I can stop in and get my hands on it to feel it out a bit.

Breathing and bracing has gotten a little jacked up since the layoff, and in the interim I’ve just been one-breathing. Thanks for the tip, I’ll need to retrain the choppy breaths in case I’m going to be under that beam for a while.

Man it should be a fun one! I’m happy to see some less common events. I don’t know how the COVID situation is going to be by then and the RGV is a far drive for you, but it’d be cool to see you there in South Padre. SPI makes for a nice family getaway.

I’d train yoke zercher carries and pretty deep zercher pin squats, in case you have a similiar experience to mine.

I’ve only had a Conan’s wheel once in comp. I even trained for it using a Conan’s wheel implement twice and the yoke in other sessions. Then came the plot twist: The height of the implement in competition was not adjustable. So we had to do a dead stop, damn deep, 300 kg zercher squat to start. A ton of tall guys, including me, zeroed the event because they couldn’t squat that up.
Definitely was a day for the shorter guys, haha.

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I didn’t even consider the start height. That would be an absolute game changer. I’ll definitely work on that. Thanks @Koestrizer!

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Now that you know, I suggest asking the organizer if it will be adjustable.
None of us thought about that last year, haha. Tbh for me it wouldn’t have made a difference, my squat was not up for that at all.

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Definitely, great call. Yeah if I have to squat it up I’m in for a rough comp.

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