To this point, I’ve never done strongman, but I’ve looked at the weights of some of the events at contests and it looks hard. I have to imagine a lot of newbies, like I would be, don’t necessarily have ready access/ experience with some of the stuff until they decide they actually like the sport. How do you all get over the hurdle of maybe I don’t even score in half of this thing?
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I’m pretty lucky since my gym has some basic strongman equipment.
I like more push presses and presses than bench, and I was interested trying the strongman stuff out since the competitions look fun. So I did more strongman focused training for a while.
I quickly learned what I like more and what’s not my thing. Farmers and carrying stuff is brutal and amazing, yoke is kinda meh (super heavy though) and logs we’re okay. Stones felt very natural for me, since I have long ass arms and large/strong palms.
So I had possibility to train with the stuff. And I liked it a lot. Strongman is fun since it forces you to train so many aspects, and it’s not so focused as WL/P. It also demands some endurance and cardiovascular fitness, but it’s not too condition based for my taste. I might still compete in it one day.
I have no idea how others have ended up with the sport. There’s zero strongmen in my gym, but people use the equipment as a part of their CF training at times.
Ps. I don’t know if this answered anything, but here you go. 
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They are doing Strongman! Stop gate keeping.
Okay, thats the last mention of it. 
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If I tried to improve Powerlifting, I’d replace the Deadlift with the Clean.
It seems a more balanced test of strength with a speed and highly skilled movement added.
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It actually came also to my mind. 
Don’t touch my deadlifts!
We actually once had a mock meet with friends. We did max singles in power clean, OHP and Front squat.
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I get that. It was my best lift of the Big 3.
I liked that I knew exactly what Deadlift weight to attempt to have a better total than a Powerlifter who very likely could have been slightly stronger than me. Plus I liked being in a small group of the last of the lifters in the meet.
When I competed in Powerlifting there was only a single round for all of the Big 3. In other words, once the first Squat (or Bench Press, or Deadlift) was started (by the weakest lifter in most cases) the weight on the bar only went up. There were many occasions where a lifter would have to follow himself. He was only granted a 3 minute rest before he had to execute his next attempt.
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How do you all get over the hurdle of maybe I don’t even score in half of this thing
My first competition, I showed up with the only strongman “equipment” I had to train on was an axle I cut from plumping pipe and some farmer’s handles I had drilled out of more plumbing pipe. 2 of the events it was my first time ever touching the implements (stones and yoke).
I had a blast and kept competing. And it wasn’t until like my 11th competition that I finally had a competition where it wasn’t the first time I handled an implement.
In the OG WSM, it was EVERYONE’S first time, and they just all showed up strong and game. It’s honestly the best way to go about it. We get strong in training, and we show up to compete with whatever is thrown at us.
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I like that approach.
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Ever considered Olympic Weightlifting? Bar starts on the floor and ends up overhead on both lifts. If you’re in the US there tends to be a lot of opportunities to compete locally, at least if you are close to a metropolitan area.
I think that federation went bellyup, but before they did, I saw they were also doing Clean & Press/Deadlift competitions, which I thought were cool. No rack or spotters, bar starts on the floor for both lifts. I thought that was simple, cool, and accessible. Like an even more approachable version of Weightlifting. I get Static Monsters has the same concept, but using the log/axle makes it inaccessible to a lot of folks.
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I find WL most awesome and entertaining to follow from the big strength sports.
I know few weightlifters, have tried it myself and know the insane skill level and precision needed to do it properly.
I’m not very good at it. I’m way too stiff from my shoulders.
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This exists.
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BUT… im talking Big girls.
This actually reminds me: Dan John was asked about how, if he could come up with a NFL combine test to replace the bench press test, what would it be.
I’ll have to re-listen to his response for the exacts. It boiled down to a trap bar lift, followed by a bear crawl, followed by a sprint. I can’t remember if it was double bodyweight for 5 on the trap bar, then 40 yard bear crawl and 40 yard sprint, but something along that line. I think that’d be a cool event.
Something else I’ve liked is “powerlifting total for time”. There’s a video of Klokayev doing this, that I can’t find at the moment, but you go straight from a squat to a bench to a deadlift. I did something similar a while back as a workout
This takes out the worst part about powerlifting: how LONG the meets run. Give each competitor something like 90 seconds to get the highest total they can of the 3 lifts.
A buddy of mine did something similar with a strongman competition. Called it a “sprint”. 5 events, all back to back, and then you’re racked-and-stacked compared to the other competitors when it’s over. Makes the day go by quick, and really rewards those that show up just game to play.
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Yes.
The competition would have numerous different weight Big girls to choose from (like weight on the bar).
The running course would have a set distance.
Your score is determined by dividing the weight of the Big girl by the elapsed time of the run. The contestant with the highest score wins.
You could use the Schwartz-Malone formula to rank for Best Big Girls Carrier.
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I have two main reasons I’ve only competed in gym meets or in a small local meets.
I’m not going to spend 8+ hours for doing 9 singles. Also, I don’t need to travel far. Longest I’ve drived to a meet was 30 mins.
I understand people who have goals for national or international podiums don’t have this luxury.
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Yeah, all 3 powerlifting meets I did were a 20 minute drive from my house. That was about right. I’ve gone further for strongman, but these days I just don’t care enough to do that. Having a family is a big part of that as well. I’m not going to subject them to all that, haha.
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That short of a time? I felt that you had better block off 8:00am to 6:00pm at a minimum. And it should be clarified that it is 9 single attempts. Not every person is aware of the Powerlifting rules (made up by people).
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Kind of plagiarizing a Jim Wendler Article but liked the idea for overall fitness evaluation:
jimwendler.com/blogs/jimwendler-com/from-average-to-athlete
- Broad jump for distance
- Overhead press for 1 rep max
- Trap Bar Deadlift for 1 rep max
- Pull ups for max reps
- 1 mile run for time
Score with 1st place getting 10 points, second place getting 9 etc.
Not sure if you’d want to divide by weight classes or trust the events kind of level the playing field (lighter people would have an advantage on running and pull ups, heavier people would have an advantage on lifting events, not sure about broad jump as I assume height helps here)
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