Has anyone ever trained for highland games? Curious if anyone has some pointers for additional strength training in the gym and where you can practice locally for the events.
Thanks for any help.
Well, besides your normal training you could work in:
Push presses
Clean grip power snatches
DB/KB swings or Dan John’s patented “Core Blaster”
There is a listing of some competitions on the West Coast here:
http://www.saaa-net.org/fullcalendar.html
For practice sites, I’d attend one of the competitions and talk to the local throwers. They’re glad to introduce newcomers to their sport.
Also, Dan John is a very accomplished Highland Gamer and excellent coach. Maybe post a question directly to his thread.
Good luck!
[quote]tekgrl wrote:
Has anyone ever trained for highland games? Curious if anyone has some pointers for additional strength training in the gym and where you can practice locally for the events.
Thanks for any help.[/quote]
Here’s a link to the thread I used when I was training for my first Highland Games last year.
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1096718
You might be able to pluck a useful chunk of knowledge or two from somewhere in there.
As for where to practice, any local park should do fine. I used a high school that’s just a few blocks away from me. Basically, you want a big open space where you won’t hit anyone with the stuff you’re throwing around, and where you won’t mind getting some awkward glances from strangers while you workout.
Do you know exactly which events you’ll be doing, and when it is?
Deadlifts and squats (I like a HEAVY set of 15 on each twice per week).
Cleans and snatches w/ barbell and/or dumbbells.
And throw just about any logical thing you can think of… stones, tires, sledgehammers, dumbbells etc.
Oh, and jump shrugs are cool too!