The Wheel of Pain

[EliKoehn]

https://youtu.be/z5KYZ74OAak?t=92

This scene has always inspired me. If you haven't seen Conan the Barbarian, you should go fix that and then come back.

In all seriousness though, there is a wheel of pain event in the Arnold Classic - but does anyone know of any gyms that have similar equipment or a way you could mimic this? The closest thing I can think of is a sled pull, and that's not something you can mange to do in most public gyms. That said, the power motion of essentially benching and squatting at the same time looks like a lot of fun. Besides that, pushing someone's car with them at an incline in the parking lot is the closest I've done.

You know if commercial gyms had wheels of pain in them, that would obviously be everyone's new favorite lift though.

[air2fakie]

Start challenging guys at your gym to push against you on the merry go round at the local playground. But set some ground rules and call it The Wheel of Pain. Set up a scoreboard at the gym.

[Garage Rat]

Strongman use to have an event called "Conan's wheel".
Basically the same thing except you yoke in the crook of your arms and walk in a circle.
It was weighted.
Sort of like a zercher walk with a barbell.
You tried to see how far you could go before putting it down.
I certainly don't think this would be popular in a commercial gym only a strongman type gym.

[GrouchyUSMC]

If you have access to a yoke, do front carries. This gave me the biggest carryover to the event.

I had to turn the top of the yoke upside down so that it was about at chest height. I would then load it up, wrap my arms underneath it like a Zercher squat, and then walk with it. It was way harder than an actual Conan's wheel at an event. My best prior to the competition was 410 pounds for 50 feet. At the actual event, I did 215 feet with 450 pounds at a bodyweight of around 175.

Video from an event I did years ago with that 450 pounds.

[Brandon2576]

Strongman use to have an event called "Conan's wheel".
Basically the same thing except you yoke in the crook of your arms and walk in a circle.
It was weighted.
Sort of like a zercher walk with a barbell.
You tried to see how far you could go before putting it down.
I certainly don't think this would be popular in a commercial gym only a strongman type gym.

My first strongman comp had a conans walk. These are literally death. You can barely breath the whole time and it just hurts everywhere. I think it took me like 19 sec to go 40yrds uphill with 310lbs. If you ever try this, my #1 recommended is take a huge breath before picking it up because you aren’t getting another semi decent one without setting it down.

[MyEgoProblem]

Conans wheels crushes the life out of you xD I love it...just to confirm all of the above with Annecdote.

My training partner competes and we had to come up n with a training substitute for him.

We tried a commercial log Zercher carry.
3" axel Zercher carry with bumpers.
Yoke Zercher carry (this was the best) I had a battle rope to one side to make the chump go in circles.

And many other stupid objects to build the carry portion less specifically.

[EliKoehn]

If you have access to a yoke, do front carries. This gave me the biggest carryover to the event.

I had to turn the top of the yoke upside down so that it was about at chest height. I would then load it up, wrap my arms underneath it like a Zercher squat, and then walk with it. It was way harder than an actual Conan's wheel at an event. My best prior to the competition was 410 pounds for 50 feet. At the actual event, I did 215 feet with 450 pounds at a bodyweight of around 175.

Video from an event I did years ago with that 450 pounds.

That looks miserably hard. Although is this the actual "Conan's Wheel" strongman exercise? From the scene in the movie, the wheel isn't being held up but rather just pushed forward.

[Brandon2576]

That looks miserably hard. Although is this the actual "Conan's Wheel" strongman exercise? From the scene in the movie, the wheel isn't being held up but rather just pushed forward.

Yes this is it. It is basically just a zercher carry. This setup is very similar to worlds strongest man. The one that is being pushed forward is the Wheel of Pain at the Arnold classic. From what I’ve heard, that one is just as terrible as the conans walk.

[GrouchyUSMC]

That looks miserably hard. Although is this the actual "Conan's Wheel" strongman exercise? From the scene in the movie, the wheel isn't being held up but rather just pushed forward.

This was called the Conan's wheel back when I was competing. Being pushed forward would actually be a lot easier to train for - on our strongman Saturdays, we would usually finish the session by using my car. One of us would hop in the driver's seat and put it in neutral, and the other would push it for 1/4 mile. We'd then switch places and push it back. Doing that would carry over well to a forward push event.

[EliKoehn]

^^ Hmm, while the Conan's wheel has all my respect, the forward push movement as seen in the movie is what I was referring to, as that is a fundamentally different exercise.

Looks like the vertically stable, forward push is in fact part of the Arnold Classic. This is what I think would be a popular machine if gyms had them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC0SNs1zS44

[GrouchyUSMC]

^^ Hmm, while the Conan's wheel has all my respect, the forward push movement as seen in the movie is what I was referring to, as that is a fundamentally different exercise.

Looks like the vertically stable, forward push is in fact part of the Arnold Classic. This is what I think would be a popular machine if gyms had them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC0SNs1zS44

Just use that car pushing idea for the same benefits. Anecdotal evidence but I noticed some carryover to the pulling events as well.