You have competed in many sports and I believe(?) you said you have done strongman or trained for it. What are your thoughts on a split for strongman/set rep scheme? I’m currently following Defranco’s version of Westside and wanted your input.
[quote]mch60360 wrote:
You have competed in many sports and I believe(?) you said you have done strongman or trained for it. What are your thoughts on a split for strongman/set rep scheme? I’m currently following Defranco’s version of Westside and wanted your input. [/quote]
I did one strongman competition, but I didn’t train for it. It was one week after I competed in the Canadian olympic lifting championships. So I could not afford to really train for strongman.
Not to mention that I was down to 205lbs since I had to make weight for the olympic lifting contest.
I still did fairly well, I even shocked some spectators by besting several 270-300 guys in three events (log clean and press, half deadlift, tire flip). But sadly, my height (5’8’') and short arms killed me on 2 other events (atlast stones and another type of lift, carry and drop).
That having been said, the training I would recommend would depend on the federation you compete in. The WSM-type contest is more of a strength-endurance nature (lots of carries, medleys and max reps stuff) while the International Federation of Strength Athletes uses events that are more max strength oriented.
Both are thus very different (think WSM champion Pudzinowski, IFSA champion Zydrunas Savickas) and require different type of training.
The training would also vary depending on the time of year (more events training close to the contest, more general training in the early stages of the year).
Some things that I would do differently then the DeFranco program would be:
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Focus on overhead pressing (military, push press, push jerk) instead of horizontal (bench) pressing.
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Instead of dynamic lower body using box squats or the likes, I would use the power clean from hang, power snatch from hang (even light snatch throws) and continental clean and press. Rotate the exercise every 2-3 weeks, just like with the max effort stuff.
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Add a strength-endurance extra session (especially if competing in WSM-type contests), using 5 exercises covering the whole body, performing them as a circuit (little to no rest between stations) and use 85% of your max for sets of 3 reps.
You drop an exercise when you can’t complete the 3 reps and continue on with the other exercises. You do that until there is no exercise left.
For example:
A1. Deadlift 3 reps
A2. Overhead press 3 reps
A3. Barbell rowing 3 reps
A4. Power clean 3 reps
A5. Bench press 3 reps
So a workout could look like…
Deadlift 3 reps
30 sec
Overhead press 3 reps
30 sec
Barbell rowing 3 reps
30 sec
Power clean 3 reps
30 sec
Bench press 3 reps
30 sec
Deadlift 3 reps
30 sec
Overhead press 3 reps
30 sec
Barbell rowing 3 reps
30 sec
Power clean 3 reps
30 sec
Bench press 3 reps
30 sec
Deadlift 3 reps
30 sec
Overhead press 3 reps
30 sec
Barbell rowing 3 reps
30 sec
Power clean 3 reps
30 sec
Bench press 3 reps
30 sec
Deadlift 3 reps
30 sec
Overhead press 2 reps (drop overhead press on the next circuit)
30 sec
Barbell rowing 3 reps
30 sec
Power clean 3 reps
30 sec
Bench press 3 reps
30 sec
Deadlift 3 reps
30 sec
Barbell rowing 3 reps
30 sec
Power clean 2 reps (drop the power clean on the next circuit)
30 sec
Bench press 3 reps
30 sec
Deadlift 2 reps (drop the deadlift on the next circuit)
30 sec
Barbell rowing 3 reps
30 sec
Bench press 3 reps
30 sec
Barbell rowing 3 reps
30 sec
Bench press 2 reps (drop the bench press on the next circuit)
30 sec
Barbell rowing 2 reps (GAME OVER)
Very informative, I will be sure to make some adjustments. thank you
I dig the heavy circuit idea.
The strength-endurance extra session is intriguing. Would you recommend this as a fifth day if currently working 4 days on an upper-lower split or as a replacement for an existing day?