Strongman Meet 1 Wk Before PL Meet?

Would It Be a Dumb Idea To…

do a strongman meet and then right the next week do a powerlifting meet?

If it fits into your schedule well, you think both events look like you’d enjoy them and you’re just doing it for a fun experience I’d say sure why not.

There is a good chance you wouldn’t perform very well in the powerlifting meet, the strongman comp. will make peaking basically impossible to do right. If you’re okay with that then go ahead. Otherwise just pick one of the two.

Without you stating what your goals are, this is an impossible question to answer.

Are you wanting to win the strongman comp and take first in your weight class at the meet? Are you wanting to get experience at both? Is one more important than the other? Etc.

Hey shadow, which PL/ strongman comps are these? I was considering something similar… There’s the Ronnie Coleman strongman in May, and then Destination Dallas in June…

I think it would be pretty bad-ass.

You’re young, so you recover fast.

You lift heavy every week, it’s not like you’ve been training on a 16 week, linear PL “peaking-plan.” Your strength level is pretty constant week to week, right?

Think of all-time great strongmen/power lifter/throwers like Geoff Capes, Don Rienhoudt, Jon Cole, Kaz, Jon Pall. They’d lift anything, anytime. I’m sure they had competitions back to back sometimes.

Or even Cleave Dean or Magnus Samuelsson, just farmers who come out of the fields and show there are strong as hell, all day, everyday.

Work some front squats and power cleans in with your back squats and deadlifts. Try some farmer’s walks with 1 arm and 2 arms. You may build some new muscle, and even get a PR total.

Just remember to take care of your hands. Stones & farmer walks, to limit, can tear that shit up, making deadlifts a bit more unpleasant than usual. Personally, I would treat the strongman comp as more of a gpp/training/shits&giggles day, just so as to not incur injury a week out from the pl meet.

[quote]flipcollar wrote:
Hey shadow, which PL/ strongman comps are these? I was considering something similar… There’s the Ronnie Coleman strongman in May, and then Destination Dallas in June…[/quote]
I was thinking of doing the NAS strongman meet at Destination Dallas just for fun. I’ll be flying to Michigan the next week to compete in APF Nationals for powerlifting

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
Without you stating what your goals are, this is an impossible question to answer.

Are you wanting to win the strongman comp and take first in your weight class at the meet? Are you wanting to get experience at both? Is one more important than the other? Etc.[/quote]
the powerlifting meet is more important to me. I’ve been working on a goal to break the WPC World records in the squat and deadlift for my class. I’ve already got the squat down but I still need to get my deadlift strength up…

[quote]shadowbobo8028 wrote:

[quote]flipcollar wrote:
Hey shadow, which PL/ strongman comps are these? I was considering something similar… There’s the Ronnie Coleman strongman in May, and then Destination Dallas in June…[/quote]
I was thinking of doing the NAS strongman meet at Destination Dallas just for fun. I’ll be flying to Michigan the next week to compete in APF Nationals for powerlifting

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
Without you stating what your goals are, this is an impossible question to answer.

Are you wanting to win the strongman comp and take first in your weight class at the meet? Are you wanting to get experience at both? Is one more important than the other? Etc.[/quote]
the powerlifting meet is more important to me. I’ve been working on a goal to break the WPC World records in the squat and deadlift for my class. I’ve already got the squat down but I still need to get my deadlift strength up…
[/quote]

Gotcha. Yea based on the events of the Destination Dallas competition (they were the same last year), you should be fine. I will say, if they use the same truck they used last year for the truck deadlift, it won’t budge for you, unless you get substantially stronger than you are now. I couldn’t budge it, and I was deadlifting more at the time than you are now. I’d say you’d need AT LEAST a 550 deadlift, probably more, to move it. That seems to be the only event in my mind that could cause significant strain/potential injury that could hurt your performance the next week. The other events shouldn’t be an issue. Maybe take it easy on the log press.

[quote]shadowbobo8028 wrote:
the powerlifting meet is more important to me. I’ve been working on a goal to break the WPC World records in the squat and deadlift for my class. I’ve already got the squat down but I still need to get my deadlift strength up…
[/quote]

If deadlift is what is going to make or break you, I don’t advise performing a strongman competition the week before the meet, as strongman tends to always have a deadlift event anyway, and the majority of the other events heavily tax the muscles involved IN the deadlift. Additionally, like blue brought up, your hands are going to be pretty beat up after the strongman comp, which can make gripping a bar without straps really suck.

Were I in your position, I would either not do the strongman contest at all, or only enter the novice division and come nowhere near close to failure.

I change my answer!

I thought we were talking about a couple back-yard contests.

Any National meet is more important than strongman for fun. World Records Take Ultimate Precedence! skip the strongman, focus on power lifting. Maybe spend this time focusing on a specialized PL training plan.

Look at it in reverse. NO strongmen in the NAS are doing PL meets the week before strongman nationals.

going full out on a strongman meet is worse for your recovery than a powerlifting meet. This is a really bad idea if you want to be at your best at nationals

[quote]shadowbobo8028 wrote:
the powerlifting meet is more important to me. I’ve been working on a goal to break the WPC World records in the squat and deadlift for my class.
[/quote]

There’s your answer.

I think it’s pretty funny to witness the change in advice offered in this topic once goals are established, and feel that it speaks volumes to how critical it is to include that information whenever asking/answering a question.

What does whoever is paying for your plane ticket to Michigan think you should do?

You gotta have a good meet to get their money’s worth.

Maybe try to find another strongman comp to do AFTER your pl meet, if you’ve really got the itch to lift trucks and play with big balls.

[quote]BLUE wrote:
Maybe try to find another strongman comp to do AFTER your pl meet, if you’ve really got the itch to lift trucks and play with big balls.[/quote]
yeah that makes more sense

[quote]BLUE wrote:
Maybe try to find another strongman comp to do AFTER your pl meet, if you’ve really got the itch to lift trucks and play with big balls.[/quote]

The Strongman comp is at his home gym. I’m assuming that’s why he wants to do it.

Last year there was a dude who was in his first comp and really took it easy on pretty much all the events. I believe he flat out skipped the deadlift event. I don’t see a reason why the OP couldn’t do something like that if he simply wanted to participate and have some fun.

The events are keg toss, truck pull, truck deadlift for reps, crucifix hold, and max log press. I don’t see any of these events as being necessarily detrimental to his performance the next week, aside from the deadlift.

What kind of truck pull? Arm over arm, or harnessed?

The one and only time I pulled a semi in a harness, I was wrecked for weeks, haha.

He could definitely show up and do those events and be ok for a powerlifting meet the next day if he goes very easy on them. I personally wouldn’t take the risk if my goal was to set some sort of record and my deadlift was the one variable that could make or break it. If he had said it was his bench or squat, I would be a little more cavalier about it.

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
What kind of truck pull? Arm over arm, or harnessed?

The one and only time I pulled a semi in a harness, I was wrecked for weeks, haha.

He could definitely show up and do those events and be ok for a powerlifting meet the next day if he goes very easy on them. I personally wouldn’t take the risk if my goal was to set some sort of record and my deadlift was the one variable that could make or break it. If he had said it was his bench or squat, I would be a little more cavalier about it.[/quote]

It’s a harness. Or at least it was last year. I don’t remember it being so bad, but maybe it was, lol. I was terrible at that event.