Road to Strongman

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
1

This thread is for those interested in gaining muscle by eating alot of good foods and for those that like it when you bleed in the gym and others stare.

I figure that I have got to start somewhere. I started at 160 pounds a couple of years ago (2005) now I’m about 180 lbs. 6’1" tall, 180 pounds, about 6 percent body fat.

My ultimate end goal:

Be as big and strong as my body will let me. Is that 280 lbs and being able to bench press a buick…god I hope so.

The Bad:

Bench: 185 for 2 reps
Squat: 205 for 2 reps
Deadlift: 245 for 2 reps
Wide Grip Pullups in a row: 6
Farmer’s Walk: 235 Pounds for 50 yds

One word: Pathetic.
Two words: Pathetic and Weak.

This is where I want to make my stand. So I’m starting this thread and I’m not going to stop until I have entered my first strongman competition.

Goals:

By January 25th:
Weight: 190 (+10 lbs)
Bench: 205 for 2 reps (+20 lbs)
Squat: 215 for 2 reps (+10 lbs)
Deadlift: 260 for 2 reps (+15 lbs)
Wide Grip Pullups in a row: 8 (+ 2 reps)
Farmer’s Walks: 250 for 50 yards (+15 lbs)

Current Diet:

Breakfast: 3 Blueberry Waffles
1/2 Cup Sugar Free Syrup
4 Cups Egg Beaterz
2 Granola Bars
1 Bowl Oatmeal
1 Scoop Protein

Lunch: 1 Lb Deli Turkey
4 Slices Whole Wheat Bread
1 Serving Baked Potato Chips
Honey Mustard (4 Spoonfuls)
1 Granola Bar
1 Apple

Snack: Handful of Almonds
1 Scoop Protein

Dinner: 1 Lb. Ground Turkey
1 Slice Fat Free Cheese
1 Organic Bun
1 Apple

Before Bed: 1.5 Scoops Protein
4 Fishoil Capsules

Anyway I gotta get back to work I get off at 4 am and I got some training tomorrow at Noon. Let me know if you have any good recipes for mass or any good training tips. I’ll start posting my workouts too. I’ll try to get some pictures eventually but I don’t have a digital camera.

Hope some people check this thread out and I’ll keep it updated, I need something to keep me on track and I need to start preparing now for what I want.

Cya Soon,

-Hawk

2

Your grip strength looks pretty good!

Your diet looks a little to clean for me, it’s going to be hard to get enough calories to fuel your workouts and put on weight. Add in more meat, more eggs, milk, weight gainer shakes, etc. Also, if you really want to do strongman, you should quit worrying about your bodyfat for a while.

Start lifting heavy stuff. Deads, squats, good mornings, cleans, olympic lifts, lots of tricep and overhead work, lots of ab and core work, grip work, it doesn’t end. There is so much involved in stongman, it’s overwhelming. There are some pretty smart guys here for strength, so keep posting, and start eating. Good luck

Monopoly

3

Just Posting my workout from Thursday.

Warmed Up for 10-12 minutes

External Rotator Work

Deadlifts: Narrow Stance

1 Warm-Up set of 8 @ 135
5 Sets of 4 at 225
Final Set 2 reps at 245 and 2 reps at 225

Then did a set of 6 at 185 just for fun.

Decline Bench
4 sets of 6 at 145
(Last week I was only able to do 135)

Narrow Grip Pulldowns
3 sets of 8 at 75 lbs

Incline Dumbell Press
3 sets of 8
1 set 35 pound dumbells
2 and 3rd 40 pound dumbells

Face Pulls
2 sets of 12 at 35 pounds

Wanted to train today but I understand I need to heal before Saturday which is high rep squats day.

I will do some Farmer’s Walks tomorrow too, going for 240 so we’ll see how it goes…later on

-Hawk

4

first thing u need to do is eat more, and i mean a lot more, but Im not sayin mcdonalds and taco bell. As a strongman myself i gotta tell you that u really need to train the events that will be in ur contest. U dont have to train like that all year around, but when u have a contest comming up, you should put most of ur efforts into training those specific events.

The second thing is u need to eat more.

Third, are u doing farmers at 250 each hand?, if so that is pretty amazing for your size and strength, if so than good job. Fourth is u need to eat more. good luck, train hard, dont give up, then someday u’ll be able to deadlift boats!

daws

5

My Farmer’s Walks right now are just around 230 lbs total right now, not each hand. I use a trap bar because that is all I have right now but I’m about to purchase some specific bars.

And after I got done reading your post I cracked open a new jar of natural peanut butter and started eating.

And yeah deadlifting a boat would be pretty sweet. Thanks for the advice.

-Hawk

6

6% bodyfat is great for looking good on the beach but it’s hard for most folks to gain muscle and strength at that bodyfat percentage. I’d say 10% to 12 or 15 % is great for gaining size and strentgth.

Your diet:

It does look too clean. Steak would be great along with some whole eggs. Don’t be scared of good carbs, either–whole grain bread, brown rice, etc. Have plenty of vegetables, some fruit,cottage cheese, a lot of water, eat six good meals a day.

Rest: 8-10 hours a night.

Your Workout:
Read Beyond Brawn by Stuart McRobert.
If you just concentrate on getting stronger on your bench, squat, dead, military press, and chins, along with eating and resting you will get bigger.

A good goal for you I think would be to weigh 210 at 10% bodyfat and apply the 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 rule: 315 bench (pause, no bench shirt), 420 squat (deep and just a belt) 525 dead (just a belt).
Give yourself 18 months to get there from where you are. See how you look and feel then and if you want to keep getting bigger and stronger (and I assume you will) go for it.

7

[quote]Hawksmoor wrote:
My Farmer’s Walks right now are just around 230 lbs total right now, not each hand. I use a trap bar because that is all I have right now but I’m about to purchase some specific bars.

And after I got done reading your post I cracked open a new jar of natural peanut butter and started eating.

And yeah deadlifting a boat would be pretty sweet. Thanks for the advice.

-Hawk[/quote]

OK wew was going to say your grip is friggin off the chain to your other stuff still keep it up and well listen to what others are saying eat bro 6% and strongman they arent conductive of eachother. some ppl can pull it off but you need to eat to perform above all.

Ill stop there as looks like great advice above just follow it,

Phill

8

If you CONSISTANTLY eat enough relatively clean cals. to help you recover from your CONSISTANTLY grueling workouts you will CONSISTANTLY gain quality muscle and strength. A lot of these guys aren’t in their prime until their mid-30’s so just be patient and…you guessed it…CONSISTANT and it’ll work out for yah.

9

either you are under estimating your ability with squats, or your not recognizing their importants. What I mean is it will be MUCH easier to add 20lbs to your squat then it will be for your bench, and upping your squat will be more benificial for your future endevors.

10

My biggest problem is going to be that whole sleep thing. I’m in a profession where I work from 6pm to 4am and then I wake up and go to the gym at 10. I think if I got more sleep my numbers wouldn’t look like shit.

Also I was thinking about buying a sledgehammer and doing some strength work with that, good idea? bad idea? What can I buy relatively cheap to work on my grip? I bought some rope for pullups and there is a creek bed near my house with a bunch of heavy rocks that I’ve been working with.

I’m close to having enough money for a log and some farmer’s bars so we’ll see when I can afford those.

I’ll post my workout tomorrow afternoon before I head into work.

I haven’t really eaten this much food before and my body feels overwhelmed with all the food but I’m not really gaining weight yet so I’m going to start eating more red meat and maybe start eating avocados I heard they are packed with calories. By the way I just bought a blender and I have made some really good Metabolic Drive shakes so that has helped.

Thanks for reading, and for the help.

Later on…

-Hawk

11

Eat more, don’t follow a strict plan just eat a ton every 2 hours. Also, I’d like to know your training program. You might want to give Westside for skinny bastards a look.

12

I too am trying to get stronger and bigger for strongman. I am in the same boat as you. How can one not be inspired by these competitors ? I look at these strongmen and I know that there is nothing but myself holding me down from getting stronger, having better endurence and being bigger.

That said, you seem to have gotten the message to eat more. Try westside for skinny bastards out. It really is good like someone else told you. Just modify it so that you’re incorporating overhead lifts instead of horizontal pressing as you main movement. Throw in some cleans and snatches and it’s an incredibly solid program.

13

Zarro I’ll post my full workout plan tomorrow, hopefully some people will chime in and tell me better stuff to be focusing on.

Where is the Westside plan at, I have no clue.

-Hawk

14

[quote]Hawksmoor wrote:
Zarro I’ll post my full workout plan tomorrow, hopefully some people will chime in and tell me better stuff to be focusing on.

Where is the Westside plan at, I have no clue.

-Hawk [/quote]

Do a simple seacrh for the name of the program Westside for Skinny Bastards or an author search under Defranco.

Eat up yes avacados are awesome train hard and smart sure a sldge is great for conditioning, Get dog ass strong and keep a good amount of conditioning of the right type running you dont need it jogging NOPE, Hard and fast drag shit beat the hell out of things, carrying things etc.

Best of luck,
Phill

15

[quote]Hawksmoor wrote:
Zarro I’ll post my full workout plan tomorrow, hopefully some people will chime in and tell me better stuff to be focusing on.
[/quote]

Your workout doesn’t matter. It’s your diet that is holding you back.

How many more people need to tell you that if you don’t eat more, you won’t make any progress?

If you’re not going to eat more, you may as well quit now. Seriously. Because you won’t make any progress, and like so many others who initially post here, you’ll become frustrated and quit eventually.

So either start eating, or save yourself a lot of trouble and frustration by quitting today.

17

Lol cali-law knows everything about everything, apparently.

18

Yesterday’s Workout

15 Minutes Warm-Up Dynamic Stretches

Squats

6 Sets of 4
Started at 135 worked up to 2 reps at 205, felt really good.

Decline Bench Presses

4 Sets, 10, 8, 8 , 8 at 115lbs
This was the easiest I’ve ever done this.

Bent Over Barbell Rows
3 Sets of 8 65 lbs
I definitely feel that next week I’ll be able to do more, I found that keeping a good stretch in my hamstrings and having my torso parallel to the ground works very well. More weight will take time though because I don’t want to sacrifice form.

Rope Rows to Neck
2 Sets of 8 at 45 lb

Worked on Hang Cleans and Overhead Squats, overhead squats went well, but I still need help on cleans. I still don’t know if I’m using the correct muscles to get the weight up, anybody have any good videos or advice?

I just started taking Spike by the way and holy crap does it work for me, I used to be pretty sluggish in the gym but I find that I’m really having better workouts I’m pretty happy.

And just so we can be clear…training is important and I’ve never heard of that word that guy used “quitting?”. What’s that?

I was up last night eating peanut butter at 5 in the morning and drinking Metabolic Drive and I just ate breakfast but now it’s time for 2nd Breakfast.

Anybody have any good recipes for Metabolic Drive? Any good steak and chicken recipes?

Anyway everyone have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and I’ll leave you with an essential question…

Are you going to eat that?

-Hawk

19

You need to find a group of big strong lifters and train with them. Where are you located?

Along with everyone else - Eat, Eat, Eat more…

20

Hey buddy try this place for equipment, very cheap. http://www.midwestbarbell.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=30 Also, you can up the food gradually as long as you are upping it. Pinch plates together for time do reverse curls while pinching plates together maybe two 5 lbers with smooth side out and then add a third when you can.

[quote]Hawksmoor wrote:
My biggest problem is going to be that whole sleep thing. I’m in a profession where I work from 6pm to 4am and then I wake up and go to the gym at 10. I think if I got more sleep my numbers wouldn’t look like shit.

Also I was thinking about buying a sledgehammer and doing some strength work with that, good idea? bad idea? What can I buy relatively cheap to work on my grip? I bought some rope for pullups and there is a creek bed near my house with a bunch of heavy rocks that I’ve been working with.

I’m close to having enough money for a log and some farmer’s bars so we’ll see when I can afford those.

I’ll post my workout tomorrow afternoon before I head into work.

I haven’t really eaten this much food before and my body feels overwhelmed with all the food but I’m not really gaining weight yet so I’m going to start eating more red meat and maybe start eating avocados I heard they are packed with calories. By the way I just bought a blender and I have made some really good Metabolic Drive shakes so that has helped.

Thanks for reading, and for the help.

Later on…

-Hawk [/quote]

21

I’m based in NC, honestly all the gyms around here really cater to the “cardio” crowd. Nobody really lifts anything heavy in my gym. You should see the looks I get when I do farmer’s walks. My favorite thing ever though was this guy walked up to me when I was doing atg squats and he said “You know you shouldn’t go down so far or pause at the bottom you’d probably be able to lift more weight if you don’t go down so far. You might hurt yourself.” So yeah…

I’ll try that plate pinching exercise, I’m sure that’ll help my grip on every other exercises.

And it’s lunch time…drool