Powerlifter Tries Strongman

Hey all,

I’ve been powerlifting for a few years now and want to give a strongman comp a try. I’ve found this contest near me

http://www.nastrongman.com/pdf/2013/Santa_cruz_sstrongmanfinal.pdf

I’m 5’9 and about 200lbs. For powerlifting, my best comp lifts are at 181 with a 502-335-601 showing, while best gym lifts are 545-340-620x2 (haven’t gone for a heavy single since my last meet). I’ve also hit a 245lb strict press in my training as well, for what it’s worth for the comp. I plan to come into this right at about 200lbs.

The deadlift medley looks like something I’d have an easy time with, but everything else looks pretty foreign to me. I’ve got a pretty decent home gym to train with, but curious what sort of DIY solutions people have come up with, or any other tips for a newbie coming in with my background.

So far, I’m thinking of slapping my fat grips on my bar to train for the axel press, heavy dumbbells for the farmer’s walk, and I have a sled I can drag. I’d have to build a chain yoke if I really wanted to train the yoke, as otherwise my only other option would be to put 500lbs on barbell/safety squat bar and try that. No idea what would be a good way to train for the stones.

My training is structured like 5/3/1, with a day for squat, bench press, deadlift and pressing. I primarily train with ROM progression for the squats and deads, while stick with 5/3/1 for the bench and press. I’m thinking of either training the events at the end of a session or adding an event day to my training, but I’m willing to take any advice.

SO yeah, anything people have for me, I’d love to hear it.

Really light show to bad so damn far away haha.

You’re definitely strong enough for all of those events and more. If you could get access to some real farmers and a yoke, you could get a chance to really push the foot speed. But you probably know the biggest unknown will be the stones. You could definitely dominate a 220lb stone, but it’ll be tough if you’ve never tried a stone before.

The lifts that get mentioned the most often as having carryover to stones are the barbell hip thrust, the power clean, the deficit deadlift (especially to the knees), zercher squats, and front squats. However, all of those really just strengthen the muscles that you use for atlas stones. There really isn’t a good gym lift to learn stone technique. Try and get access. At a minimum, youtube has a lot of videos of good stone technique.

Silyak: Thanks for the advice man. I’m thinking of building a stone trainer out of some bumper plates and a sled peg so I can at least get the technique developed. I’m going to make an axel this weekend to start learning how to clean a non-revolving bar.

Any sites you guys prefer for DIY strongman stuff? There are a lot of resources out there, but it’s always nice to hear from personal experiences on success/failure stuff.


Welp, farmers and axel built. They ain’t pretty, but they’ll work I’m sure.

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
Welp, farmers and axel built. They ain’t pretty, but they’ll work I’m sure.[/quote]
Looks like good stuff. Did you find a good site for instructions or did you just work it out on your own?

[quote]Silyak wrote:

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
Welp, farmers and axel built. They ain’t pretty, but they’ll work I’m sure.[/quote]
Looks like good stuff. Did you find a good site for instructions or did you just work it out on your own?[/quote]

I got some general ideas from around the web, but more just google imaging and reverse engineering it. I only have hand tools, so drilling was a bitch.

Thanks for the reply. I’ve only got hand tools, too, and I was skeptical of trying to do something like this without a drill press. Looking at your results, I might give it a try.

[quote]Silyak wrote:
Thanks for the reply. I’ve only got hand tools, too, and I was skeptical of trying to do something like this without a drill press. Looking at your results, I might give it a try.[/quote]

It was definitely a bitch to do, but it can be done. The holes aren’t straight or even, but it works.

I got a 10’ 1.5" galvinized steel pipe cut into 2 5’ lengths for the farmers, then got a 7/16th bit for my drill with some 6" bolts. The handles are 1’ pipe nipples, I forget how thick, but just what felt good in my hands.

I had 2 batteries that I had to keep recharging as I drilled, because this took a lot out of them. It was about 5-6 hours of work overall, and draining as shit. Lot of manual pressure to get the drill to punch through.

The axel was easy at least. 7’ of the 1.5" galvinized steel, and then used gorilla tape to make the sleeves.

WOW! That is a LIGHT contest. You can smoke it if you really hone your technique in the time being.

Got a video and a write-up

Summary: As a powerlifter, I had great static strength and terrible footspeed/cardio. I’m happy with what I managed to do in 1 month of training, and am looking for more to do in the future.

Didn?t cut weight for this, because it was my first time competing and I didn?t want to mess around with extra variables. Weighed in at 197lbs. Ate a light breakfast of 4 cherry poptarts, a McDonald?s sausage biscuit and a large diet coke. Was sipping on half Gatorade/half water throughout the day to stay hydrated, and the comp was right across the street from a Costco, so I was able to have pizza for lunch, which is always a good day.

I did practically no warming up for events. One reason for this was because there was a pretty big turn out for the comp (9 people alone in the 200lb division, and probably about 25 people total), so getting access to the implements was tough. The other reason was because I simply don?t spend much time warming up in general. Never really felt a need to. While other people were foam rolling and stretching, I was sitting on the floor drinking Gatorade.

First event was the 200lb axel clean and press for reps. Clean each rep. This was the event I was the most worried about, mainly because up until a month ago I had never done a clean in my life. I made an axel to train with in my garage, and the very first time I attempted to clean, I sprained the holy hell out of my left wrist. Since I only had a month to get good at events, I kept training with the injury and went through 100 motrin tablets in a month, but the most worrisome thing was that whenever I sprained my wrist, my grip was shot in my left hand. I knew that if I re-aggravated the injury, my grip would be done for the rest of the comp. Also, since cleaning injured my wrist, I was never able to train very heavy for high reps. I could either go heavy, or light for high reps.

Amazingly, everything came together for the event. I thought for sure I was going to need to continental clean after the 3rd rep, but I was able to get the weight up with a double overhand for 7 reps. My biggest problem was overcoming my body?s natural instincts to set up for a deadlift instead of a clean. You can see it in the video where I go to do the first pull and roll the bar too close. Once I got out of my own head, I could move the weight. My leg drive was purely cosmetic whenever I did try. I had managed to get decent at it in the gym, but fell back into old habits on comp day. 7 reps put me in 4th, with 1st doing 10, second doing 9, and third doing 8.

Next event was the 500lb yoke walk/300lb sled drag medley. I was able to practice the sled, but had never even seen a yoke in person before. There was a chance to warm up with the implement, but I turned it down, mainly because after the first event I knew my cardio was crap and I basically had to save every ounce of energy I had for each event. I wore my elitefts SHD knee sleeves for this, and was thankful I had them, because the support went a long way.

Just like on the clean and press, I set up for the yoke like it was a squat, which was a big mistake. The bar was too low on my back and made it impossible to control. I could get a few steps before my hips shot out from under me and my legs went wonky. I did this a few more times before the judge told me to put the bar higher on my neck. This made a huge difference, and I was able to walk much further with the implement. I was also holding my breath the entire time, trying to use the valsalva maneuver, which was a mistake that the judge told me to quit doing, and that helped as well. I still wasn?t comfortable with the implement by the time I got it to the finish line, but I at least managed.

Grabbing the sled was an entirely different problem. I had trained up an incline with a wide sled with long straps, so I was used to putting a LOT of force into my backwards drag. This was a rogue sled with two skis on a level surface with a short chain, which meant that as soon as I grabbed the v handle, it went flying. I ended up losing my footing and falling backwards from walking too fast with it, and actually had to move slower because I couldn?t coordinate my feet with the rate of the sled. I barely made it to the finish line before the event ended, having to fall backwards and row the sled the last few inches to make it in time. In general, I knew footspeed was going to be my weakness for this comp, and it?s something I need to work on.

Farmer?s walks with 180lb per hand for 40 meters with a turn at the mid point was next for me, and since my wrist was feeling good I wasn?t too worried about this. I knew my footspeed would be mediocre, and I posted a pretty average time of about 39 seconds. Amazingly, it was my right hand that lost its grip rather than my left. I think I may have set up the right poorly at the start, because it started to slip before I made the turn, and once I had made the turn the implements bumped into each other and it forced me to drop. Otherwise, pretty uneventful, my training with the implements helped out.

Next event was a deadlift medley with a 500lb 18? pull, 405lb trap bar, 315lb barbell and 365lb axel. I had pulled 600 in a powerlifting comp at 181 a year before and 620 for a double with straps a few months prior to this, so I came in confident. Only thing I was sweating was the axel pull, just because I had issues with it in training because of my wrist, so I chose that as my first pull. I hit up a smelling salt beforehand, because I?m still a powerlifter, and blitzed through the course. Only thing I could?ve done to do this event faster was move quicker between the implements, because I managed this in under 15 seconds.

Final event was 220lb atlas stone over a 40? bar. I had built a stone trained out of 2 45lb bumper plates, but was only able to work technique with that. This was my first time with a real stone, and at a real weight. Also my first time using tacky. When the event started, I lapped the stone first thing just to get a feel for the weight and the technique. I did this for 2 more reps before I realized I was strong enough to just move the stone form the floor to the bar in one movement, which saved a lot of time. I used a deadlift technique of getting the stone rolling toward me before the pickup so that I could use it?s momentum to roll back onto my heels, which really helped me move fast. Sometimes, the judges would deadstop the stone, which would kill my strategy. I managed to get 12 reps with this, and knowing what I do now, I?m sure I could?ve got another 2 reps in.

All in all, I had a blast, and am really proud of my showing. I?m going to continue to build my static strength, because I love powerlifting and I?m good at being strong, but I?m going to ensure that I work an event into my training at least once a week to improve my conditioning and technique. My cardio and footspeed were my weaknesses coming in, along with just my general inexperience, and I think I can definitely improve those come next go-round. I would love to see a contest with a max rep or weight deadlift and a log press next time, and will keep my eyes peeled for what is available to me.

1 Like

Great stuff man

Thanks man. I appreciate that, especially for your first post, haha.

Shame about the medley as it looks like you could have done a lot better with a couple practice runs. You absolutely massacred that stone, though, which is especially impressive since it was your first time with a stone.

[quote]Silyak wrote:
Shame about the medley as it looks like you could have done a lot better with a couple practice runs. You absolutely massacred that stone, though, which is especially impressive since it was your first time with a stone. [/quote]

I actually felt pretty good about the medley, haha. The stone was a blast though, even if it looks like I took a cheesegrater to my forearms.

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:

[quote]Silyak wrote:
Shame about the medley as it looks like you could have done a lot better with a couple practice runs. You absolutely massacred that stone, though, which is especially impressive since it was your first time with a stone. [/quote]

I actually felt pretty good about the medley, haha. The stone was a blast though, even if it looks like I took a cheesegrater to my forearms.[/quote]
I wouldn’t say you did badly at anything. But having a dry run with the yoke and knowing the weight of the sled ahead of time would have probably given you a much faster run. Nicely done, though, all around.

[quote]Silyak wrote:

I wouldn’t say you did badly at anything. But having a dry run with the yoke and knowing the weight of the sled ahead of time would have probably given you a much faster run. Nicely done, though, all around. [/quote]

Ah, I thought you meant the deadlift medley. Yeah, it was my bad for having such terrible cardio. I knew I only had one shot, and I didn’t want to spend it on warm ups, haha.

just seen this now you did really well mate well done , i did something similar back in july it was sort of a festival thing momentary decision so no preparation and there was four of us i was the lightest weighing in at 79kg the other 3 were 102kg, 110kg and 120kg so i was outweighed by alot anyway first event was a max frame deadlift that you would have rocked i hit 310kg 18 inch frame deadlift, next event was the yoke for 40m with 220kg on i did terrible on this only doing about 30m again like yourself first time ever doing it , following event was axle clean and press with bw for reps which i hit 8 the only thing that helped with this was a background in olympic weightlifting helping with the clean, i came second in that event,

next was farmers walk with 90kg each hand first time again and completely failed dropped a few times due to inexperience mainly finished in weirdly 39 seconds exactly same as yours haha, following event was a circus dumbell medley with 53kg and 62kg dumbells i only got one on the 53kg, shield carry was next 70kg shield carried 60m came second in that and last event was a 250kg frame drag which i did 35m, sorry if i was rambling but i thought id share my experience with someone who has done similar things to myself thanks for reading and much respect T3h Pwnisher

Good to hear man. I definitely got bit by the bug and can’t wait for my next comp.

Awesome job!

Did you feel alright gripping those farmer’s handles that far back? Seemed like they were tipping forward on you. Don’t want em to bump the ground obviously.