Strongman Training

Strongman training is quickly becoming a popular way to train and condition athletes. There are quite a few exercises you can do in your weight room with equipment that you already have. You just have to be creative and the benefits are numerous. First and foremost it creates a competitive environment. Because you usually only have a few implements, your athletes will have to compete in front of others and this always makes them work harder. Second it is a change from the traditional weight room exercises. Many times just changing up your program can foster more effort from your athletes. Third, you can train your athletes in an unstable environment. Now I am not talking about bouncing around on some ball although that may have its place. I am talking about moving real weights really fast and explosive. This is more like sport competition than traditional lifting. And best of all, its fun. Our kids absolutely love strongman training and constantly want to try more weight, go longer distances, and beat their old times. I will go through a few exercises we have used with some success.




Implements You Already Have

There are many things you already have and don’t even know it. You just have to be creative. Almost every school has a few of the following: trap bars, curl bars, and medicine balls. Here are a few exercises you can do with stuff you already have available.

Trap Bar Farmer’s Walk-Load up a trap bar and walk. Seems pretty simple but it’s extremely effective. One draw back is that it is not as unstable as traditional Farmer’s Walk implements, but the on the plus side you can use more weight. Our weight room is about 18 yards long and we do trips of 2, 3, 4, and 6. The hardest part is the turn. You really have to work to keep the bar from spinning you into the ground. We have enough room for 3 people to go at a time and usually will race each other and log the best times from one group to another. This movement really hammers the grip, traps, and entire lower body.

Curl Bar Farmer’s Walk-Almost everybody has old curl bars lying around. The good thing is that they do not have to be in good shape. Each person needs two, one for each hand. With these, the weight has to be lower because they are more unstable. But that’s ok. The parameters for the walks can be the same as with the Trap Bar. This movement also hammers the grip, traps, and lower body.

Zercher Walks-Most people have never heard of Zercher squats. This is a squat where you hold the bar in the crook of your elbows instead of on your back or clavicles. Zercher walks require you to hold the bar in the crook of your elbows and walk. It may be beneficial to fold up a big towel to pad the bar. It can become quite uncomfortable for the elbows if you don’t. You will feel this one all over. It will work your upper back, lower back, traps, biceps, and abs. Of course, all the walks will increase lower body strength.

Stone Load and Carry-You probably don't have strongman stones and don't have the means to make them. What you do probably have is an old broken bar that has one of the sleeves detached. This may be hard to imagine so try to follow me. Set the broken sleeve on its end. Load bumper plates up until you are satisfied with the load. Put a solid collar on the end to keep all the weights in place. Now pick it up and walk. This can be excruciating.

Implements You Can Easily Find

Items in the category are things you might not readily have but you can easily find for free. Or you may have to go deep into storage to find them.

Cooler Pushes-I believe that I invented these. After a game this year, we brought back a load of Pepsi’s in a large cooler. We arrived home late so we put the cooler by the door. On Monday morning I tried to move them into my office. Loaded with water and drinks it was very hard to move. I had to get low and drive to get it to my office. When I got finished the light bulb went off. Every school I have been to has old coolers lying around with broken handles and/or holes. We had 3. So we loaded them up and pushed them. It is very similar to the Prowler Sled but for free. Because the cooler is so low to the ground, you have to stay really low. It simulates the start in sprints and driving off the ball for offensive and defensive lineman. We call it the goal line drill. Of course if you have a sled you can add weight to and drive, by all means use it.

Tug-of-War-This one is easy. The hard part is finding a good rope. These ropes are invaluable because there are many things you can do with them. For Tug-of-War it is best to do one-on-one competitions but you can also do team competitions.

Cooler Pulls-This is a variation of the cooler push. We attach our rope to the cooler, sit and pull hand over hand. This really works the upper back, grip, and biceps. The trick here is to find a way to attach the rope where you do not have to use a handle because it will most certainly pull the handle right off.

Cooler Push/Pull-This is one event that we time every week. We start with pulling the cooler the length of the weight room. We then immediately get up and push the cooler back to the starting point. You wouldn’t believe the competition that this builds. Not to mention that every single muscle in your body gets exhausted.

Medicine Ball Throws-For this exercise, just throw any size medicine ball. You can do one throw for distance, multiple throws for distance, throwing the length of the field for time, or just use your imagination. You can also try and throw over the field goal posts from varying distances.

Medicine Ball Wrestling-This event is simple. Get a large medicine ball and have two athletes try and wrestle it away from each other. This will work the arms, grip, and back in addition to teaching leverage and balance.



Implements A Little Harder To Get

This category involves things a little harder to get. Mainly I am speaking of tractor tires. But all you really have to do is search around and somebody will give them to you for free. They have to pay to get rid of the old tires so they will be more than willing to give them up.

Tire Flips-This is probably the King of Strongman training. There are multiple variations you can use. I have done relay flips, multiple flips for time, explosive flips, etc. You can pretty much do anything you want to do. This most closely simulates the hip drive that all offensive and defensive linemen need to compete.

Tire Fights-Turn your big tractor tire on one end. Have two athletes on opposite sides of the tire. They push the tire back and forth until the tire hits the ground. This movement forces them to absorb force and reverse the tire in an explosive manner. This is also a total body effort similar to a Jerk and gets very competitive.



Ideas I Haven’t Tried

There are multiple things you can come up with that go beyond the scope of this article. Sand bag training has become quite popular and you can do sand bag carries, squats, cleans, overhead squats, throws, and heavy loads (onto a truck bed or high plyometric box). I read an article the other day from a strength coach who loads a bunch of weights, heavy dummies, and anything else he can find into the end zone. The athlete’s job is to move all the “stuff” from one side of the end zone to the other. Every week he adds more “stuff”.

You can see that by just using your imagination and some ingenuity, you can come up with an endless arrangement to help train your athletes. You will be hard pressed to find a method of training that fosters the excitement and effort of strongman training.