Moving to Pure Strength

Bigger Stronger Leaner Beginners
#1

I am not a total newbie to training I have been lifting for about 3 years and have put on about 20Kg/44lb in that time making me 87Kg at 181cm at a reasonably low bodyfat. But now I am making a change towards strength training, which I am still a bit shaky on. I am thinking about trying out a >90kg Strongman Comp. I would just like you guys to take a look at my regime and tell me what you think.

Monday- Bench (MAIN LIFT) 60kgx8 warm up,70Kgx5,80kgx5,90kgx3,100kgx3,110kgx1or2,120kgx1 (if I get 2 on 110kg)
Secondary lifts
Barbell curl-30kgx5,35kgx5,40kgx5,45Kgx5,50kgx5
Incline DB/Bar press-30kgx6,35kgx6,40kgx6,45kgx6
DB Curl-15kgx8,20kgx8,25kgx6,30kgx6
any chest-5x5
any Bi-5x5

Tuesday-DAY OFF

Wednesday-Dead Lift (MAIN LIFT) 60kgx8 warm up,100kgx5,120kgx5,140kgx3,160kgx3,180kgx2,200kgx1
Secondary lifts
Seated Calf Raise-32.5kgx15,45kgx15,55kgx15,67.5kgx15
Wide Grip Pull up-4x12 or Lat Pull Down- 70kgx8,80kgx8,90kgx8,100kgx8 (machine)
Decline Situp-BW+15kgx15,BW+30kgx15,BW+45Kgx15
Seated Row-60kgx5,70kgx5,80kgx5,90kgx5,100kgx5 (machine)
45* calve extension-12x180kg as many sets as I can get increasing by 45kg per set
Wire Side Crunch-60kgx10,70kgx10,80kgx10,90kgx10

Thursday-Push Press (MAIN LIFT) 40kgx8 warm up,50kgx5,60kgx5,70kgx3,80kgx2,90kgx1 if I get 80kg for 2
Secondary lifts
Double Arm Tri Extension-5x25kg,5x30kg,5x35kg,5x40kg,5x45kg
Front DB raise-10x10kg,8x12.5kg,8x15kg,6x17.5kg,6x20kg
Tri Dip-8xBW,8xBW+15kg,8xBW+30kg,8xBW+45kg
Lat Raise-10x10kg,8x12.5kg,8x15kg,6x17.5kg,6x20kg
Single Arm Tri Extension-Rep out 28kg,20kg,16kg,12kg
BB Shrug-60kgx8, increasing by 20kg doing as many sets of 8 as possible

Friday-Squat (MAIN LIFT) 60kgx8 warm up,80kgx5,100kgx5,120kgx3,140kgx3,160kgx1or2,180kgx1 if I get 180kg for 2
Secondary lifts
Anything Lagging, mainly left Bi and grip strength. I would also like any tips you guys can give on grip strength, I find I am loosing grip with lifts as low as 140kg! As well as:
DB Lundge-8x15kg,8x20kg,8x25kg,8x30kg
Quad Extension-5x60kg,5x70kg,5x80kg,5x90kg,5x100kg
Ham Curl-5x50kg,5x60kg,5x70kg,5x80kg,5x90kg

week 1- regular workout
week 2- I do explosive/ballistic movements for main lifts.
week 3- regular workout
week 4- deloading
repeat

This is just an example, secondary lifts do/will change from week to week. I would like to try to drop 2 or 3% BF if I was to compete just to make room for more growth that would occur during this training. What do you guys think?

Other points
-I know I would have to dramatically increase my grip strength to compete.
-I dont plan on staying at 90Kg forever, most likely a year and then move my weight up again.

Lifting Goals (raw)
-250kg Dead Lift at 90Kg or under
-200Kg Squat at 90Kg or under
-150Kg Bench at 90k or under

#2

Come on guys over 100 views and no posts. Any advice would be great no matter how small. Even if u tell me its absolutly fine, that will be a help.

#3

[quote]lytw8 wrote:
Come on guys over 100 views and no posts. Any advice would be great no matter how small. Even if u tell me its absolutly fine, that will be a help.[/quote]

Guilt us into it…

Looks good to me. I personally think you could add in more work at a high percentage, that would mean not working to a max single every week. personally i got good results from doing 3 sets of max reps with the same weight(probably only get 5,4,3 or 3,2,2 or something), and i also got good results with 5/3/1. I think you should definitely try and get more reps than just a single, especially on the deadlift days and squat days. apart from that looks okay, i bet it will work regardless of what you do.

#4

check out Wendler 5/3/1 program: http://www.flexcart.com/members/elitefts/default.asp?m=PD&pid=2976

seems to be in line with your goals.

#5

Dunno, you probably should have posted this in the strongman forum?

It’s a weird split, I’m seeing-
Chest/bi’s
Back/Calves
Shoulder/tri’s
Leg’s/Random

But whatever, I’ll say the same thing as I say to everyone else who asks about a program they made themselves-
out there somewhere there’s a program that was written by a professional, for people with the same goals as you- and why not take advantage of that?

For grip strength- farmers walks, heavy db/bb holds for time, plate pinch-gripping for time. DL without chalk/straps and do as many sets as possible without using a mixed grip

#6

[quote]lytw8 wrote:
Come on guys over 100 views and no posts. Any advice would be great no matter how small. Even if u tell me its absolutly fine, that will be a help.[/quote]

It is because there have been a good thousand posts just like this one. There is a search function with plenty of articles and already posted threads you could read to answer your questions. Maybe there just needs to be a Critique My Program area…

#7

Seems pretty good man, your lifts are really good for your weight and height. The only thing I would look at is your splits coz they seem a little muddled. For strength training maybe focus more on working movement patterns or proper muscle splits. And you look a little short on core work. Otherwise it looks all good

#8

agree with what the other guys are saying about your splits.
also have you thought about adding olympic lifts ?

#9

Your “strength training” has you squatting only once a week? Fail.

#10

[quote]Dwigs wrote:
Seems pretty good man, your lifts are really good for your weight and height. The only thing I would look at is your splits coz they seem a little muddled. For strength training maybe focus more on working movement patterns or proper muscle splits. And you look a little short on core work. [/quote]

I would agree with this. If this were a hypertrophy program also going for strength, it’d be different and all good. I think your volume is too high (meaning too many exercises in a session. It’s rare I need to go above 4 or 5 in a session not counting abs).

You should start designing your program with the primary needs of a strongman comp in mind. Overhead strength is huge, squatting power is huge, deadlift power also big, Upper back, low back/p-chain strength, and conditioning. Grip strength is a must.

You should be squatting or at least working the posterior chain hard more than one time a week. All strongmen train it more than 1x a week, even if one of their days is an event day and only one is in the regular gym.

Things not important–bench press, isolation work (let me clarify–it’s low bang for buck. Still needs to take place for lagging muscle groups and weak points), body part training, ballistic movements. Unless you’re doing the keg toss, there aren’t really any ballistic movements in a strongman comp. I take it you’re probably putting them in there to work on power output, but there are better ways to do that for your purposes IMHO.

Since I assume you don’t have access to implements like the tire, stones, fingers, etc., you’ll need to train with regular barbells and dumbbells. Still, You should focus more on movements or attributes needed.

One final note, is that I don’t think you should be working up to heavy singles every day you train. Max strength is indeed important, but I think in your situation and experience level you should focus more on the 3-5 rep range. Besides, heavy singles tend to burn your CNS out much faster than the 3-5 range. You should definitely test your maxes regularly, but work on rep strength for much of the time on your main lift.

Good luck training for the competition, that’s a good goal to have. I might suggest looking through the strongman forum here and reading some threads/articles, and perhaps posting your question over there. They may be better equipped to answer specific questions on the sport.