My Venture into Strongman.

[zackdarnell]

Saturday I drove about 2 hours to train with a friend of mine who is a competitive strongman. Here is what we did (all weights are what I used):

40" chain-suspended Goodmornings:
Worked up to 365x1

Front Squats:
135x5, 185x5

Speed Deads:
225, 275, 275, 315, 315

Reverse Hypers:
3x10 with light band

Standing Calf Raises:
135x10, 185x10

Viking Press
Worked up to 200x4

Farmers Walk:
160 lbs (each) x 200' with 2 turns
200 lbs (each) x 130’ with 1 turn

Super Yoke/Tire Flip/Sled Drag medley:
440 yoke/550 tire/260 sled, all 50’

Rolling Thunder:
Worked up to 160

Atlas Stones:
singles loading to 60" platform- up to 190 lb stone

Conan's wheel:
190 x 1 turn, 280x 1 turn, 370x 1 turn (just to finish us off)

A very fun, and exhausting day. I may have slightly strained my traps on the Viking Press....feels a bit funny. Other than that, it went well. It was a very nice day for garage/outdoor training...sunny and about 45 degrees. I have to say that the strongman events are very tough. It is not all about strength. A lot of it is speed, quickness, and endurance. The medley was especially exhausting.

I should have pics and videos posted here before too long.

[zackdarnell]

200 lb Viking Press:
Click here for video.


200 lb (each) Farmer's Walk:
Click here for video.

[zackdarnell]

Medley:

440lb yoke:


550 lb Tire:



260 lb Sled:

[zackdarnell]

160 lb Rolling Thunder (revolving-handle one-handed deadlift):


280 lb Conan's Wheel:


370 lb Conan's Wheel:

[zackdarnell]

Anyone know why those pics arent showing up? In enclosed them in the proper [img ][/img ] tags (without the spaces, or course)

[Monte Cristo]

Very impressive. Some of the equipment
also looks professionally made. Did you or your friend make it?

Except for the rolling thunder that IronMind sells, I don't see anything I
recognize as available for sale, but maybe it is somewhere.

[zackdarnell]

Originally posted by Monte Cristo
Very impressive. Some of the equipment
also looks professionally made. Did you or your friend make it?

Except for the rolling thunder that IronMind sells, I don't see anything I
recognize as available for sale, but maybe it is somewhere.

I'd say he made some of it and got some of it made custom. I think some of it was bought from somewhere, though. Not really sure.

[Deejay_Spike]

excellent post man! you look strong man!

sorry, you ARE strong!

[Monte Cristo]

Thanks. Does the Rolling Thunder handle
revolve pretty easily and about what is the diameter of the grip. I homemade one of about 2 & 7/8 inch diameter pipe, but my rig doesn't revolve very well, just
enough to make pulling with it very tough.


I thought I would trick something up and
try it for a while to see if I could get improvement in my grip before I bought
one.

[zackdarnell]

Originally posted by Monte Cristo
Thanks. Does the Rolling Thunder handle
revolve pretty easily and about what is the diameter of the grip. I homemade one of about 2 & 7/8 inch diameter pipe, but my rig doesn't revolve very well, just
enough to make pulling with it very tough.

Yes, it revollves very easily. It is 2 3/8" I believe.

[Wildcat33]

Great post! Are you a Vandy grad? I live in Portland, TN north of Nashville.

[zackdarnell]

Originally posted by Wildcat33
Great post! Are you a Vandy grad? I live in Portland, TN north of Nashville.

Actually, Im a sophomore at Vandy right now.

[Wildcat33]

Nice, I graduated from Lipscomb U a couple years ago, 5 minutes down the road from you. During college I lived in an off campus house with two good friends who were Vandy students.

[Monte Cristo]

zackdarne, thanks again.l

[matt_T]

Great stuff Zack. If you don't mind what do some of your other workouts look like? I have been wanting to do some Strongman-type training, but I don't have any equipment. I guess what I'm trying to ask is what do your gym workouts look like? Or is your routine soley based on this equipment? (God I am full of question today) Do you know where your friend got the tire? I have been searching for some time, but to no avail. Thanks and heavy lifting.

[zackdarnell]

Originally posted by matt_T
Great stuff Zack. If you don't mind what do some of your other workouts look like? I have been wanting to do some Strongman-type training, but I don't have any equipment. I guess what I'm trying to ask is what do your gym workouts look like? Or is your routine soley based on this equipment? (God I am full of question today) Do you know where your friend got the tire? I have been searching for some time, but to no avail. Thanks and heavy lifting.

Actually, I am a powerlifter. This is the 1st time I have trained with any Strongman stuff.

As for the tire, not sure where he got it, but if you know of anywhere that uses cranes or big trucks they might have some laying around you could buy. Or a re-treading plant or something like that.

[Deciever]

look good.. the viking press is cool. Looks like all you guys had fun at b folds house. Everyone there was so strong.

nice work.

so what do you like better? PLing or strongman?

[zackdarnell]

We had a great time. Learned a lot too. We worked on my box squat form a little after we finished all the events. I think I'm going to stick with pling, at least for a while. However, in a few years, who knows....

[Deciever]

definately... Strongman does seem like a lot of fun.... i gotta try some of that stuff one day..

[jeremys]

good work

strongman stuff is fun as hell. i like taking care tires and having competition distance throws with my friends. of course, i always win because i outweigh them by about at least 100 pounds, but i still win

[Kane Fan]

I have trouble dling videos if they are mpegs or anything like that
can you describe a Viking Press for me

[zackdarnell]

Originally posted by Kane Fan
I have trouble dling videos if they are mpegs or anything like that
can you describe a Viking Press for me

The videos are .wmv form, I believe. You can see the pic kind of what the viking press is. It is an overhead press. You are pressing up on one end of a lever. You can use leg drive, but no rebend.

[p0w3rlift3r]

haha...we have the same exact shoes new balance all the way

[BrANjiSpAd]

i don't feel so bad for dragging the sled up and down my street with the neighbors saying: wtf is he doing. lol i bet all the locals are like damn what are they doing over there. this one time i was pulling the sled and this old black dude started singing spirtuals as i walked by. guess he thought i looked like a slave.

cool post man, i wanna compete in strongman.

[zackdarnell]

Originally posted by BrANjiSpAd
i don't feel so bad for dragging the sled up and down my street with the neighbors saying: wtf is he doing. lol i bet all the locals are like damn what are they doing over there. this one time i was pulling the sled and this old black dude started singing spirtuals as i walked by. guess he thought i looked like a slave.

cool post man, i wanna compete in strongman.

The neighbors were all watching. A lot of them were used to it, though, because the guy whose house we were at does the events every weekend. It was kind of funny, though. The neighbor and his 2 kids were trying to put up a basketball goal and we were 20 feet away screaming and grunting and throwing stuff around.

[Powerlifter16]

Originally posted by zackdarnell
The neighbors were all watching. A lot of them were used to it, though, because the guy whose house we were at does the events every weekend. It was kind of funny, though. The neighbor and his 2 kids were trying to put up a basketball goal and we were 20 feet away screaming and grunting and throwing stuff around.

Thats awsome lol. I live on a huge farm so lifting large things pretty much becomes an everyday afair.

lifter

[Antaeus]

Great post zach! Man that stuff looks fun. I would love to try all those strongman exercises. Living in the city isn't really conducive to that sort of thing though lol.

We're still thinking about making/getting some atlas stones for GPP. Other than that I just stick to farmers for the moment.

Keep it up!

-Ant.