Strongman's Peaking/Weight

I’m doing my 1st strongman contest on very short notice, the 16th, and I would like to know if anyone can recommend some decent information about strongman peaking in preparation for a show. The events are log c+p, farmers walks, tire and sled combo, max d/l. I will be able to access a log and tire once or twice over the next week before the contest, but primarily I have gym lifts and my own sled to work with. I would really appreciate anyone with experience or knowledge giving some recommendations on intensity and volume for the ‘last two weeks’ of peaking.

On another note, what body water reduction methods do strongman/powerlifters/wrestlers utilize in order to make weight and maintain strength/endurance levels? I was under the impression that the bb method of drying out left the athletes very weak. I need to cut about 6lbs of water but still have power the day of. The weigh-in is 1hr pre-contest. The gentleman running the contest had powerlifting on the brain, and made the LW/HW cutoff @ 220 instead of 230.

I appreciate the responses,
-k

I would also be interested in this.

What are the weights for the contest vs the weights you can handle now (comperable lifts for implements you don’t have).

Typically competitors cut weight weeks in advance and come in to the contest only a pound or two over. This usually equates to taking a dump prior to weigh in.

Seriously, there isn’t much significant cutting to make weight unless they planned poorly. Then the normal extreme tomfoolery comes into play.

Is it a NAS show? If it is he can’t just play with weight classes like that.

-Dan

Its non-NAS, hence me only hearing about it rather last minute, and why they picked 220 (a powerlifting weightclass). All the weights are doable for me, but I’ll be significantly more successful if i can place in LW. To anyone with any experiance, the question still stands:

  1. Cutting water w/strength in mind (non BB way)

  2. Appropriate peaking last couple weeks, using just gym lifts.

thanks
-k

[quote]kane101nod wrote:

  1. Cutting water w/strength in mind (non BB way)

  2. Appropriate peaking last couple weeks, using just gym lifts.

thanks
-k[/quote]

I actually do have some experience in this area - the numerical answers to my questions are important :slight_smile: The questions is whether or not to try and peak max strength or get the metabolic end of things kicked into high gear.

The easiest way to cut water weight is to produce low blood glucose, low blood proteins, and low blood salts, but that’d leave you weak. What does your diet look like now? Quantities are important here too.

-Dan

[quote]buffalokilla wrote:
kane101nod wrote:

  1. Cutting water w/strength in mind (non BB way)

  2. Appropriate peaking last couple weeks, using just gym lifts.

thanks
-k

I actually do have some experience in this area - the numerical answers to my questions are important :slight_smile: The questions is whether or not to try and peak max strength or get the metabolic end of things kicked into high gear.

-Dan[/quote]

We’ll, @ this point in the game, i am just going to swallow the HW category and focus on the lifts themselves:

Tire-over 600lb ‘some distance’
Farmer’s-180 per, as far as possible
Log C and P- 215 (clean 1x,press for reps) 90sec
Max deadlift

As i lack experiance with these exact lifts, i can only imagine them to be ‘near maximal,’ but with a week left, i can only really address the endurance component effectively. As a OL/PL, reps for time certainly are NOT my thing and i intend for the next few days to train extensively on the metabolic/power/endurance aspects of my gym lifts while keeping intensity low.

I hope that makes things more clear buffalo killer
-k

[quote]kane101nod wrote:
buffalokilla wrote:
kane101nod wrote:

  1. Cutting water w/strength in mind (non BB way)

  2. Appropriate peaking last couple weeks, using just gym lifts.

thanks
-k

I actually do have some experience in this area - the numerical answers to my questions are important :slight_smile: The questions is whether or not to try and peak max strength or get the metabolic end of things kicked into high gear.

-Dan

We’ll, @ this point in the game, i am just going to swallow the HW category and focus on the lifts themselves:

Tire-over 600lb ‘some distance’
Farmer’s-180 per, as far as possible
Log C and P- 215 (clean 1x,press for reps) 90sec
Max deadlift

As i lack experiance with these exact lifts, i can only imagine them to be ‘near maximal,’ but with a week left, i can only really address the endurance component effectively. As a OL/PL, reps for time certainly are NOT my thing and i intend for the next few days to train extensively on the metabolic/power/endurance aspects of my gym lifts while keeping intensity low.

I hope that makes things more clear buffalo killer
-k[/quote]

Any experience with the hook grip? If you can learn that in a week, it’ll help immensely on the farmer’s walk. 180 per hand isn’t heavy at all for a HW, it’s going to be all about endurance and grip is almost always the weak link. You can practice what the weight will feel like in your hands by loading two bars parallel to each other in the pins, picking them up, and purposely rocking forward and backward a little. Don’t try 180 per hand, though, more like 100 since the levers are so much longer.

600lbs tire isn’t too bad. If you can deadlift 450, you can probably get a 600lbs tire at least 100 feet given some metabolic work. I recommend doing a couple sessions of high-rep snatch grip deadlifts. Remember not to try to flip the tire with your arms, too, that’s when injuries happen. Pop it up with your hips like a clean.

215 on a log clean and press for reps as a heavy is going to give a mix of results depending on the log diameter. If it’s an 8", and there’s some guys there with experience, 15-20 won’t be out of the question. If it’s a 12", though, it’ll be considerably less. There’s a recent article on the dieselcrew site about log form you may want to take a look at as far as form goes. You also would want to focus on using dumbbells in the gym for some practice using an unstable load over that 90 seconds.

Is the deadlift an 18" deadlift? If it is, you may just want to try a few heavy singles from that height just to get an idea of where you’ll be.

Best of luck, have fun at the show,

-Dan

You can’t peak for a contest with only a few weeks notice.

[quote]MachineAZ wrote:
You can’t peak for a contest with only a few weeks notice.[/quote]

I absolutely agree with machine on this. Peaking is a much more involved process than “hey im two weeks out, what should I do.”

What I WOULD suggest doing is getting your hands on the implements, if nothing else the tire and the log. Even just playing around with it for 10 minutes before the contest can help get some of those beginner mistakes out of the way.

As far as the weigh-in, if its a one hour weigh in i would STRONGLY suggest not cutting any water weight. Even if its not that hot you’ll regret it. If you can weigh in 12-18, or ideally 24 hours in advance, then get your hands on some water shed tablets (its a brand name. google it with ‘diuretics’ and it’ll come up) theyre very mild and you should be able to rehydrate in time.

I would assume lay off all heavy weights, rest, relax, and go over technique?

I have a lot of interest in how to peak for a strongman contest as well. In a perfect world (one where you don’t find out about contests a month out), I imagine you would practice with the impliments once or twice a week, leading up to the contest and then the last two weeks of training would be just event days. I read on eltefts.com, in mike Johnstons log that this is how he trained for the last 2 weeks before a recent show.

Will42

it’s 6 pounds not 20. watch your carbs for a couple days and drink lots of water before bed so you can drift more weight at night. with this you should be fine. this is a old wrestling trick.

Here’s a link to a forum on this very topic: www.midwestbarbell.com/totalelite/index.php?showtopic=1783

As far as weight loss (and any other questions for that matter) Matt R. there has recently won his Light Heavy procard and knows what he’s doing. He has come down from around 275 or so to a solid 242. Check it out.