Weightlifting + Powerlifting + Strongman + Running

Bigger Stronger Leaner
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This question is mostly out of curiosity but are there any programs out there (I’m sure there are, I just don’t know of them) that combines all 4 of this and if so can I get a link/some suggestions on how one would approach this 4 way mediocrity fest.

First off, I didn’t include bodybuilding for a couple of reasons. Don’t plan on competing and I would say that since I’m training recreationally, that’d be some degree of ‘mirror muscle hypertrophy work’ in the work outs such as 3 giant sets of biceps or whatever.

Basically, I’m asking how do you train for Crossfit with additional emphasis on the powerlifting/strongman aspects of it cause as far as I know, Crossfit is very olympic lift dominant.

For example, I would like to be able to…

hit a Class 1/Masters powerlifting total

while

hitting a level 3 classification on the catalyst athletics weightlifting profiling (which is roughly 1.5x bw c&j and 1.2x bw snatch)

while

retain my ability to do strongman and hopefully improve at it (I’d think it’s inevitable my numbers will go up at least a little if both my powerlifting/weightlifting numbers increase)

while

run a 5km in under 25 minutes

while

improve on bodyweight stuff such as push ups/pull ups/standing broad jumps/etc

In short, I kinda wanna do everything.
My thoughts on how I’ll go about this is somewhere along the lines of…

Drop low bar squatting since it has very little carry over to weightlifting and I suspect it might do me better for strongman plus I just like it more

do strongman events as a form of conditioning, rotating it with a running plan

perharps I’ll add in the bodyweight stuff under strongman conditioning

yeah… that’s about it for now and if it doesn’t put me in a shitty enough situation with my retarded wants, I would say that the equipment for weightlifting/strongman won’t always be available for me so that surely does seem like the cherry of top of this poop cake.

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Howdy,

I think a lot of this would be based off off how good/shitty you are at the disciplines selected.

WS4SB (any version) is my first thought for a few reasons.

  • You can rotate PL variant/SM movements for max effort work (and condition with strongman stuff on the version2). They should carryover to each other well.

  • It’s made for athletes/running in mind. Just run when it wouldn’t interfere with your max effort lower day.

If you’re doing the first version, you could always include Olys in a warm-up before you run one of the days, which essentially would make it your DE lower day, and variations as assistance work or something on your ME lower day (Posterior chain volume work), or in place of upper body rowing work.

OR
Glenn Pendlay’s supertotal template with running on off days, and do strongman movements where they’d fit.

So…

Monday: Bench/Back squat + yoke/farmers
Tuesday: light Oly & running
Wednesday: off
Thursday: Press/Front squats+ tire flipping & running
Friday: off
Saturday: Heavy Oly & atlas stones/loading & running
Sunday: off

body weight stuff could be incorporated as assistance.

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Crossfit would most likely fit your goals here. Depending on the box/wod, you can get some strongman emphasis.

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doesn’t strongman pretty much already do all of that? Not so much running I guess, although they do run with heavy objects…

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Or this lol. I think CrossFit has really branched into the strongman realm with what a lot of boxes are doing now. Stones, stones everywhere!

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If I tried to hit a snatch, both of my shoulders would spontaneously combust.

And jerks are for people with coordination, haha.

The guys doing Olympic lifts in strongman are typically people that transitioned from weightlifting or track and field. Otherwise, few strongman go out of their way to learn/train them.

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I stand corrected. Pretty sure I saw a video of Mariusz doing something vaguely Olympic looking once so I just figured that was part of the training.

I have to admit to not knowing much about strongman training

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Yeah, Mariusz had a solid weightlifting background
His dad was a weightlifter apparently. Jesse Marunde was a track and field athlete that made good use of it too, as was Koklyaev. But I couldn’t even imagine Brian Shaw or Big Z hitting a snatch, haha.

Also, I would be remiss to neglect to mention how @Alpha trains would be a great direction as well.

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@TX_iron
I’ll look into it mate, thanks for the suggestions.

No such crossfit boxes in Singapore dang it and even if there was, it’d most likely cost a bomb and I’m not too fond of the whole group mentality aspect of it. The way I see it, if it appeals to the masses, it’s probably mediocre at best.

I wish, y’all folks in the US have it good.

That does not sound healthy… Not at all.

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You don’t have to join a box to steal the WOD though. A lot of sites post them online. Facebook groups too probably. Could be something to look into.

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One very important factor in designing the program to move you towards all of those things is knowing where you are now.

What’s your current:

Clean 1RM
Snatch 1RM
Squat 1RM
Bench 1RM
Dead 1RM
5k time
Max push-up
Max pull-up
Broad jump distance

Knowing your current capabilities will shine some light on what needs the most attention and what can be put on the relative-back-burner.

Also, your height, weight, and general fat level will also help put things in context.

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@T3hPwnisher Will do.

@Chris_Colucci That’s a very valid point, will look into it once I can resume training.

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Yeah…but they’re all pussified light weight stones!

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Yeah but…the published WODs generally suck for anything remotely not mediocre :confused:

OP–I think your goals are doable, and if you’re training for fun then I don’t see why not! Candidly the olympic lifting will probably take the most work because of the fine coordination and technique required to hit those numbers. The run is doable, the strongman stuff is fun, and the powerlifting can be done.

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For some sites definitely. I like what Alpha puts out on his site, although he isn’t crossfit.

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Well…he’s named Alpha for a reason! haha

True though.

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I don’t think it’s a good idea to put equal emphasis into all of them at once.

That’s not to say you can’t train and progress on all of them throughout say a year’s time.

If I wanted to do all of those, I would separate training into blocks where everything is included, but emphasis is placed on 1 or 2 of them at a time and the others are on maintenance.

Of those, I’m most familiar with powerlifting so lets take a powerlifting emphasis block:.

8 Week Block
2 weeks accumulation (volume phase) and 2 weeks intensification (heavy weights), then rinse and repeat again.

A workout might look like this for an upper day:

High Hang Clean to Push Press (I’d save jerks for a lower day). Don’t push it too hard because in this block you want to focus on the powerlifts.
Bench Press
Assistance work. Include some strongman movements that’ll also help your powerlifts, but not to the exclusion of bench specific work.

Do some running on off days. Don’t kill yourself so you can focus on the powerlifts.

Not sure if you mean like long distance or sprints. If sprints, then that’ll actually work a lot better with the other 3 since all 4 would then be strength/power skills.

You might want to take a look at alpha’s log and even ask him some questions. Also, see if you can find some logs of crossfit competitors. It’ll look pretty different from crossfit official published material.

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Will do and yup I’ve been following Alpha’s log/videos for quite some time now and I do frequently ask questions.

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@Benanything - Thanks for letting me know about the topic over here!

Yep. I’m thinking along similar lines, minus the running and strongman and less ambitious but this is helpful.

Oly Lifting + Maintain Hypertrophy + At least Retain my Strength + Ballet Barre

I’ve been reading some of Christian’s threads where people have asked him about incorporating Oly lifts. I need to take the time over the next couple of weeks to study some of his training plans because I’m pretty sure that’s where I need to go.

FYI, My Oly coach is having us beginners just practice the Snatch and Clean and Jerk progression right now (pulls from the hang, snatch balance, etc…). It’s all technique, and nothing heavy so we’re doing sets of 3-5 on most things. I know he has the intermediate people doing more tailored programs during the week where they focus on areas of weakness for them, and I know he has them doing back squats I believe 2X per week if they have time. As I move into more training with him next quarter, I’ll let you know what his layout looks like for me.

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Are you planning on competing in all these or is it just an idea? (Sorry if this has been answered)