looking for a training partner to help me get started in strongman competitions, and to possible be a training parter for powerlifting. Im located in huntsville texas (about 30-45 min north of houston). if anyone knows of a place to train that would be great. any info on how to get started in strongman would be helpfull too.
Here’s a warning from CT’s locker room that I think can help you.
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
undeadlift wrote:
Hi CT. What are the benefits of incorporating strongman stuff in one’s training program if he trains for powerlifting/oly lifting? How would you recommend integrating strongman into a PL/oly program?
No real ‘‘elite level’’ olympic lifter trains concurrently on the olympic lifts and strongman events; very few, if any, powerlifter do strongman training outside of GPP work.
You cannot do both seriously, to get maximal results and improvements in both, and expect an optimal performance in either.
While all of these are strength events, their different nature make it almost impossible to train for all of them at the same time and reach a high level. It’s kinda like asking how to become both an elite football and rugby player at the same time… both are ‘‘similar’’ sports, but you can’t split practice time and expect to improve as much in football as those who only practice football and improve as much in rugby as those who focus on rugby.
YES there has been some powerlifters and olympic lifters who did very well in strongman comps. BUT that was AFTER they were done competing in powerlifting/olympic lifting, or at least during a time period where they were far away from a powerlifting competition.
I do have a good friend who competes in both powerlifting and strongman… and he’s pretty good at both. BUT he has a rule of doing only 1 contest of each per year (2 if they are really close) AND that each type of contest must be at least 5 months apart.
When preparing for a powerlifting contest he never do any strongman stuff except for GPP work (mostly restorative sled pulling).
Back in the days it was easier to do both at the same time because strongman comps were more strength-based while now the events are more about strength-endurance than raw strength.
Plus, when SM comps started it wasn’t specialized: it attracted strong people from other sports. Now it is so competitive and the events are so much more technical that you really have to focus on it to get the best results possible.
That having been said, ‘‘strongman’’ training can be used for GPP work, but the intensity of the work should be low enough to avoid draining the body and nervous system.
The problem, as I see it, is that a lot of people are more into this to get their kicks than to actually accomplish something:
-
Ahhhhhhh… I’m training on the powerlifts just like those big guys from Westside (mental erection and psychological orgasm)
-
Ahhhhhhh… I’m doing the olympic lifts just like those guys from Bulgaria (mental erection and psychological orgasm)
-
Ahhhhhhh … I’m doing strongman lifts just like those guys on TV (mental erection and psychological orgams)
This is all fine and well if all you want is to get some sort of mental satisfaction; but don’t expect optimal progression in either events. You’ll improve in all of them, but you will never become REALLY good at any of them.
Serious strength athletes are all about PROGRESSION. And optimal progression in one type of strength sport means focusing on that sport, not becoming a jack of all trades.
Is it possible to do all three forms of training? Yes of course… heck, you can even throw in some MMA training on top of that if that floats your boat (Ahhhhhh… I’m doing fight training just like those guys from UFC).
Is it possible to progress OPTIMALLY without focusing on one sport? No!
Yeah but they are all strength sports, they must be related! Not as much as you think! The technique as well as required physical capacities are different for all three strength sports.
For example, focusing on the powerlifting deadlift can REALLY screw up your olympic lifts… a powerlifting deadlift is DRASTICALLY different mechanically than an olympic lifting pull. For example, in powerlifting you keep your hips high even in the starting position, you are taught to keep your shoulders behind the bar and are told that rounding the upper back is fine as long as your lower back stays arched.
In olympic lifting you must pull with the hips low, keep the whole back flat/arched and keep the shoulders over the bar as long as possible.
For that reason, except for some rare exceptions, olympic lifters actually do not train the deadlift.
And I can personally attest that strongman events that are ‘‘similar’’ to olympic lifting (log clean and press for example) will REALLY screw up your olympic lifting technique.
Another example is the squat. A powerlifting squat and an olympic lifting squat are two completely different lifts(wide stance, hips dominant, torso bent forward for the power squat; close stance, quads dominant, torso straight for the olympic squat).
A REAL strongman training session is one of the hardest physiological thing you can do. When you do a maximal session you will need a lot of time to recover. So SM training will require you to reduce the training frequency of your other types of strength sports.
Since technique now plays such an important role in strength sports; this reduction in training frequency of the more technical events WILL lead to lesser performances, especially in the olympic lifts.
[/quote]