So I’ve been training for strongman for roughly 6 months now, gained a lot of strength recently.
The problem i have is that I’m ridiculously unfit. I even struggle to log press for 60 seconds straight, my cardiovascular pulls out before my strength does. It feels like i can’t get enough oxygen to my muscles fast enough to complete the full 60 seconds.
I’ve recently gained a lot of weight thou due to just doing strength work (pressing, squats, deads and some event work every weekend) and eating a lot, I gained 20kgs (45lbs) in 8 months, currently 128-130kgs (282-286lbs) @ 25% Body Fat. Also 6foot2 for the curious.
I haven’t really put together a solid conditioning day to help with my cardiovascular.
I always knew strongman needed conditioning work but i was always afraid to do it due to losing strength, which is obviously incorrect.
I’m open up to suggestions to help with my conditioning day! Very appreciate it and thanks in advance.
Strongman is about going all out for 60-75 seconds, so your conditioning should reflect that. Go all out at something for 60 seconds. Strongman events are good options. I also like a concept 2 rower.
I would add that being able to wind yourself very quickly isn’t necessarily a sign of poor conditioning in my opinion. Everybody should be able to do something at a high enough intensity to be sucking wind within 10-20 seconds. Do that in intervals with short rest and even a well conditioned athlete will find himself lying on the ground trying to catch air within a couple minutes. Anyone who doesn’t isn’t fit; they just don’ know how to push themselves.
Now, obviously in competition you may want to pace yourself a bit and I’m not advocating trying to completely gas yourself in the first 10 seconds of an event. But for training it helps to go hard as you can sometimes.
So I’ve been training for strongman for roughly 6 months now, gained a lot of strength recently.
The problem i have is that I’m ridiculously unfit. I even struggle to log press for 60 seconds straight, my cardiovascular pulls out before my strength does. It feels like i can’t get enough oxygen to my muscles fast enough to complete the full 60 seconds.
I’ve recently gained a lot of weight thou due to just doing strength work (pressing, squats, deads and some event work every weekend) and eating a lot, I gained 20kgs (45lbs) in 8 months, currently 128-130kgs (282-286lbs) @ 25% Body Fat. Also 6foot2 for the curious.
I haven’t really put together a solid conditioning day to help with my cardiovascular.
I always knew strongman needed conditioning work but i was always afraid to do it due to losing strength, which is obviously incorrect.
I’m open up to suggestions to help with my conditioning day! Very appreciate it and thanks in advance.[/quote]
This is something I have struggled with too. I had a great coach when I first started who was a LW Pro and he helped me a lot with this. He had me do “strongman” conditioning at the end of each training session. I would do sand bag carry for 100’ for 10 minutes carrying every minute on the minute. Or I would do 700# chain drags 100’ for 5 drags, or tire flips with the 500 lb tire do 20 flips without stopping for 2 sets. Things like this that were still functional to what our end goal is while increasing our cardio strength.
I would try and implement this type of thing into your workout on a daily bases that you train and see if this doesn’t improve your cardiovascular strength as well.
Hi weighted carries are lung searing. Shoot for 60 seconds all out as fast as you can go for distance and then rest 90 seconds and repeat x 6. You will need to carry slightly lighter loads than a " timed stationary hold" drill. It is punishing!! After that (it is not over) it is time for thumping the you know whats out of a big large tyre with a sledge hammer. I would suggest you do this part Tabata style…Remember the carries ARE FAST AS POSSIBLE. Good luck
Just another possibility to build strength in the legs is find a high rise building and sprint up stairs then get the escalator down to your starting point. This will negate the eccentric part making it an awesome “pure concentric” drill. Obviously, for strongman purposes running the Empire State Building Run would not be of benefit but you could run PART of it if you get me…hope this has given you a few more ideas
All of the above would work. Weighted carries, ANY medley really will gas you, tire flips, drags, yoke…do it for time or speed for a certain distance. Probably 60-70 seconds, but if your out of shape you might try to at least get 45.
My conditioning kind of just implemented itself when i started doing actual strongman movements on the weekends (tyre, sled/truck, farmers, anvil carry etc…), over time it fixed itself.
Tabata intervals for sure.
I do it at the end of my workouts. Best part is that you can do it with anything, but my personal favorite is sledgehammer work. Good grip/shoulder girdle/lower impact workout, and if your not winded at the end you did something wrong.