[quote]KO421 wrote:
what does everyone think about overhead squats?
I started doing them yesterday figuring it would transfer over well.
Wow where they rough, I figure it will help with getting my body used to holding weight in the lockout among many other things. [/quote]
I am personally not a fan of these. Many people will have enough trouble do to shoulder flexibility. I can think of many better ways to load the legs or improve your shoulder and core stability.
[quote]MachineAZ wrote:
Brad Cardoza wrote:
I guess if i had to change one thing about my training it would be my heavy pulling frequency. When doing stones, tire, deads etc… your low back will take a beating. Dont pull heavy more than every ten days or so. If you need to get tecnique work in on events and have already pulled heavy that week just hit them for speed. I have seen just as much benefit from doing light stones and tires for speed as I have from hitting them heavy and being fatigued all the time.
This is a great point, although I know the best strongman deadlifter in the country Kevin Nee deadlifts very often.
For most people, with all the event work your low back will be sore a lot. I deadlift very seldom. I pull heavy about every 3 weeks (rack pull, floor, etc.) and occasionally if I feel good will pull moderate in between that time.
[/quote]
You and I both know that Kevin is a freak and a bad example of what normal human beings are capable of … lol
[quote]MachineAZ wrote:
KO421 wrote:
what does everyone think about overhead squats?
I started doing them yesterday figuring it would transfer over well.
Wow where they rough, I figure it will help with getting my body used to holding weight in the lockout among many other things.
I am personally not a fan of these. Many people will have enough trouble do to shoulder flexibility. I can think of many better ways to load the legs or improve your shoulder and core stability.[/quote]
I agree, there are a lot of exercises that would help a lot more. Also, I dont know about you, but the weight I am comfortable doing overhead sqauts with is much lighter than anything that would challenge my shoulder stability.
Thanks for the advice Brad and Machine.
I didn’t mean to imply that there is a way to prevent all injuries. I work around smaller injuries all the time. My main objective is to the avoid the more serious injuries.
I don’t really pull from the floor much. I find that I don’t really need to pull for the floor in order to get my deadlift up and pulling from the floor continously (week in and week out) is just too harsh on the CNS. I’ve been rack pulling (from knee height) for the past 7 weeks and my deadlift increased about 23 kg (227 kg 1rm at 76 kg).
Any other pulling excercises that you would recommend that aren’t from the floor? Also, I don’t have much access to strongman equipment (maybe once a month at best). However, lately I’ve been using diesl crew’s BB stone variation of the atlas stone. That excercise has def. helped strenghten my obliques and lower back.
[quote]bklyncobra wrote:
I don’t really pull from the floor much. I find that I don’t really need to pull for the floor in order to get my deadlift up. I feel like pulling from the floor continously (week in and week out) is just to harsh on the CNS. I’ve been rack pulling (from knee height) for the past 7 weeks and my deadlift increased about 23 kg (227 kg 1rm at 76 kg).
Any other pulling excercises that you would recommend that aren’t from the floor. Also, I don’t have much access to strongman equipment (maybe once a month at best). However, lately I’ve been using diesl crew’s BB stone variation of the atlas stone. That excercise has def. helped strenghten my obliques and lower back.[/quote]
I don’t understand how you can think pulling from knee height is any less taxing on your body and CNS than pulling from the floor. If anything it is MORE taxing b/c you can use larger loads.
I agree though in that you don’t need to pull from the floor very often to increase your deadlift. I once went 2-3 months in between and increased it by 25 lbs.
Non-strongman stuff that I rotate in and out which will increase your deadlift…
Deadlifts
Rack pulls (varying heights)
Reverse band deadlifts
Zero-momentum Squats
Grappler deadlifts
Trap-bar deadlifts
I also thought that’d I’d burn out quick when I did rack pulls. When I used to pull from the floor every week ( in cycles of 6-8 weeks than taking 4 weeks off) I burned out close to the 5th week. Going into the 6th week I just felt crappy everytime and would have to scale back.
I’ve been doing rack pulls on and off for the past year now (usually 8 weeks, then taking 4 weeks off)and everytime I haven’t burned out yet. Going intot he 8th week I still feel as if I’m starting my 1st week. I don’t pull from the floor anymore save for the times that me and my training partners test out our 1rm (about once every 4 months).
Thanks for the suggestion on utilizing the other lifts.
Where is the best place to really start to research a training template?
[quote]worker wrote:
Where is the best place to really start to research a training template?[/quote]
Elite FTS has an article about integrating strongman and conjugate training principles which has been very helpful for my training. Also if you go to their site, check out the training log of Steve Macdonald, as he has a good 3-4 day template. You could also do a search on T-Nation; I know there have been some good articles.
We’re planning a meet sometime in May.
The events so far…
Keg relay, 5 kegs
tire flip
thick bar clean and press
farmers walk.
We were going to make the 5th event deadlift for reps, but I realized how much lower back work that is for one competition.
We’ve got 2 grip events, an overhead event, etc. I’m wondering what you guys would recommend…?
We’re working on a limited budget, but I’m sure I can get a hold of stuff as long as it isn’t extravagant.
[quote]wressler125 wrote:
We’re planning a meet sometime in May.
The events so far…
Keg relay, 5 kegs
tire flip
thick bar clean and press
farmers walk.
We were going to make the 5th event deadlift for reps, but I realized how much lower back work that is for one competition.
We’ve got 2 grip events, an overhead event, etc. I’m wondering what you guys would recommend…?
We’re working on a limited budget, but I’m sure I can get a hold of stuff as long as it isn’t extravagant.[/quote]
Why not a truck or tire pull. Or a crazy medley
[quote]wressler125 wrote:
We’re planning a meet sometime in May.
The events so far…
Keg relay, 5 kegs
tire flip
thick bar clean and press
farmers walk.
We were going to make the 5th event deadlift for reps, but I realized how much lower back work that is for one competition.
We’ve got 2 grip events, an overhead event, etc. I’m wondering what you guys would recommend…?
We’re working on a limited budget, but I’m sure I can get a hold of stuff as long as it isn’t extravagant.[/quote]
The low back has to be strong in strongman.
The contest I’m promoting is…
Axle clean & press
Carry medley (farmers, sanbag, keg)
Tire flip
Deadlift
Stones
I just wanted to say that this is a great site! I love it nice job fellas.
[quote]MachineAZ wrote:
wressler125 wrote:
We’re planning a meet sometime in May.
The events so far…
Keg relay, 5 kegs
tire flip
thick bar clean and press
farmers walk.
We were going to make the 5th event deadlift for reps, but I realized how much lower back work that is for one competition.
We’ve got 2 grip events, an overhead event, etc. I’m wondering what you guys would recommend…?
We’re working on a limited budget, but I’m sure I can get a hold of stuff as long as it isn’t extravagant.
The low back has to be strong in strongman.
The contest I’m promoting is…
Axle clean & press
Carry medley (farmers, sanbag, keg)
Tire flip
Deadlift
Stones
[/quote]
We were thinking of turning the farmers walk into a medly with a sled drag and a keg load.
Other ideas were a chain yoke and a sandbag lateral hold (crucifix?).
We’re doing a fire truck pull as a fundraiser sometime in march. Everyone on the team wanted to do one, but we are hosting the meet in a large athletic facility and couldn’t get a truck indoors. This is also a work in progress, but I was going to ask you guys about that in a different post.
[quote]Brad Cardoza wrote:
bklyncobra wrote:
Hey Brad,
My foremost objective in training for strongman ( and for purely recreational purtposes) has always been to avoid or prevent injuries.
What common injuries have you seen in your time in the sport and what general advice would you give in avoiding them.
Thanks.
As far as common injuries are concerned, I have experience with most of them. Machine is right, if you are worried about injuries and you are serious about the sport you must be willing to train as smart as possible and deal with them as they come.
Over the last few years I have been through an umbilical hernia, abdominal hernia, torn bicep tendon, torn gastroc/soleus, partial hamstring tear, herniated disc, broken foot, blah blah blah There are a lot of ways to train smart, but like machine said when you are pushing your body to the limit all the time you have to expect them to happen.
I guess if i had to change one thing about my training it would be my heavy pulling frequency. When doing stones, tire, deads etc… your low back will take a beating. Dont pull heavy more than every ten days or so. If you need to get tecnique work in on events and have already pulled heavy that week just hit them for speed. I have seen just as much benefit from doing light stones and tires for speed as I have from hitting them heavy and being fatigued all the time.
[/quote]
Agreed. And just for an older fart (36) to chime in, the older you get, the longer the lower back recovery. Sometimes, the speed work is just as effective.
Injuries - Multiple knee sprains, 3 lower back injuries, 2 shoulder, 1 hip flexor, and countless falls, pass-outs, etc. If you’re going as hard as you can, shit will happen.
[quote]wressler125 wrote:
MachineAZ wrote:
wressler125 wrote:
We’re planning a meet sometime in May.
The events so far…
Keg relay, 5 kegs
tire flip
thick bar clean and press
farmers walk.
We were going to make the 5th event deadlift for reps, but I realized how much lower back work that is for one competition.
We’ve got 2 grip events, an overhead event, etc. I’m wondering what you guys would recommend…?
We’re working on a limited budget, but I’m sure I can get a hold of stuff as long as it isn’t extravagant.
The low back has to be strong in strongman.
The contest I’m promoting is…
Axle clean & press
Carry medley (farmers, sanbag, keg)
Tire flip
Deadlift
Stones
We were thinking of turning the farmers walk into a medly with a sled drag and a keg load.
Other ideas were a chain yoke and a sandbag lateral hold (crucifix?).
We’re doing a fire truck pull as a fundraiser sometime in march. Everyone on the team wanted to do one, but we are hosting the meet in a large athletic facility and couldn’t get a truck indoors. This is also a work in progress, but I was going to ask you guys about that in a different post.
[/quote]
Where in NY???
Henrietta, part of Rochester NY. I’ll post on the board as the events develop. We’re also hosting a USAPL meet sometime in march, but have to draw up applications.
Looking forward to hearing about these.
[quote]wressler125 wrote:
Henrietta, part of Rochester NY. I’ll post on the board as the events develop. We’re also hosting a USAPL meet sometime in march, but have to draw up applications.[/quote]
Ok so a short break from being online, but im back. Should be smooth sailing from here on in.
Hey Brad,
Welcome back. What your status? You’re my hero, although I never seemed to notice that you compete LWT. I think I saw this in a another thread, but how much did you have to cut for comp?
Anyways… I’ve wondered for awhile why you split your lifts into upper/lower days . Did you try the full body everyday, ie East European/Russian style routines? What were your perceived benefits?
I hate to cross post but I’d hate to send you over to another forum for info.
I’m in GPP phase right now prepping for late summer and fall competitions. (Although I may do Monsters of the Mall in Salina, KS.)
The below is where I am going for the next 4wks. Intensity starts at 77% going up to 85% with rest period shrinking from 120s to 90s.
Monday
SquatThrusts 2x20
Barbell Low HangSnatch 5x3
Step-Ups 5x4
Military Press 5x4
Bent Row 5x4
Back Split Squat 2x15
Tuesday
SpiderMan 2x20
Clean Grip Deadlift 5x4
Clean Pull 5x4
Push Jerk 5x4
RDL 5x4
Clean Grip OHS 2x15
Farmer’s Hold for 2mins
Wed- Off
Thursday
Mountain Climber 2x20
Clean grip Snatch 5x4
Snatch grip DL 5x4
Snatch grip Pulls 5x4
CG Incline Press 5x4
Bwt Chins 2x15
Friday
2 sets of 10-count bodybuilders x 10reps
(A squat thrust with 3 push-ups thrown in)
Back Split Squat 5x4
Push Jerk Behind the Neck 5x4
Power Curls (Reverse grip Clean) 5x4
A1.Close/Neutral Grip Chins 5x4
A2.Neutral 1-arm DB press 5x4
Behind the Neck Press 2x15
dont have question but wanted to bump this thread as it is one of my favorites