Alternative to Powerlifting: Conventional DL, Front Squat, Press

Wait what? I seriously always do my weigh-in wearing nothing but undies. This isn’t normal?

1 Like

I’ve been in several comps where the 181 class was waaaay more stacked/stronger than the 198 class. There’s almost always a class or 2 that absolutely sucks in any given show.

The thing that keeps the better athletes from just cherry picking a weight class in strongman just to take home a trophy is nationals qualification. You have to win (or take top 3, depending on the show) in the class you want to compete in at nationals, not just any class. So like, I can’t just go win an easy 198 show and then show up at 181 for nationals. I’ve also gotta win a local show at 181.

I had to take off my underwear last year at nationals to make weight. I stepped on the scale with it on and I was still over by a few ounces. Made by about an ounce after I took my boxers off.

#nailedit

1 Like

Yea this was the actual reason I didn’t (couldn’t) deliberately go up a weight class. I’d qualified by placing at nationals so it was 181 or nothing.

Dude how do weight classes work? If I weight 182 would I be in the 181 class or the one higher?

Pretty sure the weight class you’re in is the maximum you’re allowed to weigh within that class. No idea what strength sports weight classes are, but if I remember correctly from my friends who wrestled in high school, there was a 182 and 195 class. So you’d be in the 182 class, unless you weighed 183+, where you’d be moved to the 195 class.

yea, weight classes are maximum weights.

And they are actually approximations with lbs. they come out to weird poundage numbers because they’re actually based on a kg weight class system. so like, the 181 lbs weight class is ACTUALLY the 82.5 kg class. which means the real weight I had to get to was something like 181.8 or below, not 181 on the dot.

I make it my goal to be able to weigh in wearing my street clothes. Occasionally I’ll have to take off my shirt.

I don’t cut it close either, not sure how it works in Strongman once you’ve made weight, but in PL the extra lb or two being naked makes can be the difference between 1st and second, and definitely makes a difference for best overall when they use Wilks. I’m too competitive to leave points on the table

I figure I should just be stronger, haha. I’ve won 1 competition based on weight. Basically me and the other guy tied, we both took first place in an equal amount of events, and we both took second place in an equal amount of events. There was no tie-breaker event, so they went by weight.

I came in 3lbs light without cutting weight. He had cut to just barely the limit, so I ended up winning.

My first win was extra satisfying because of a similar thing. It was in the 198 class, I didn’t have to cut any weight. There was a guy who was signed up for the 220 class, ended up water cutting close to 20 lbs to get down to the 198 class because he was afraid of the competitors in the 220 class, didn’t think he could beat them. Which meant he thought he could beat me. That was some real kick-ass motivation for me. The 2 of us took 1st and 2nd on every event of the day, and I ended up beating him by 1 rep on the last event (stone to shoulder) to take the show.

1 Like

I find this part interesting since Rippetoe is all about low bar squats and is even stupid enough to say that Olympic weightlifters would get more out of low bar squats. He is clearly delusional.

There’s already plenty girls pissing themselves, this is about levelling the playing field between the sexes.

With the back angle in that video they might as well just do incline bench instead. The press was taken out of weightlifting for a reason but Rippetoe must have missed that.

1 Like

I’m actually interested in the technique for strongman purposes, lol. It looks like it could be effective.

1 Like

He was too busybstaring at the floor

2 Likes

It is

1 Like

For strongman it makes sense to press like that, but Rippetoe’s argument has to do with the press being a “true test of upper body strength” or some nonsense like that in comparison to the bench press.

They took it out of weightlifting because of difficulty in judging, I think it was the Europeans who decided it was acceptable to press like that and the Americans considered it a technical violation but then it became a question of how much arch is acceptable and it was impossible to enforce at that point since you can’t press a bar overhead from the front rack position without some spinal extension. It’s similar to the situation with people against arching in the bench press, combine that sort of foolishness with difficulties in judging squat depth and there is nothing left except a deadlift competition.

1 Like

YESSSSSSSSSS!!!

1 Like

is your log max limited by your clean or your press?

I’ve legit never tried to max a log to be able to say for sure. At this point, I imagine I’d have more difficulty getting the log to chest vs pressing it out once it’s there. Adding a soft belt has helped quite a bit though.

really? you’ve never had max log in a show? I’ve had it a few times, and I"ve got it coming up in April again. And then static monsters in june, lol

Nope. Been lucky so far, haha. Had a max axle a while back, but that’s about it. Usually see more medleys and for reps stuff, which is a plus, since I’m better at reps.