#BuiltByMike
Proven Programming Methods For The Strongman Athlete
By Mike Westerling
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Ryan Bakke getting ready to train events
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FORWARD BY KRISTIN RHODES
Programming Genius. Those are the two words that come to mind when I think of my coach, Mike
Westerling. I was first introduced to Mike late in 2010 after suffering a significant back injury, followed
by a devastating loss at America’s Strongest Woman. Over the last 5 years, Mike has guided me to 3
additional America’s Strongest Woman titles, 3 World Strongest Woman Championship titles and
multiple world records including 3 Guinness World Records.
Under Mike's guidance, I have become the strongest version of myself both physically and mentally.
When you use a program that progressively and continuously works to make you stronger and faster, it
is very rewarding. The programming makes you want to train.
“Trust in the Process” - That is what it is about. This was a hard thing for me to accept and learn. As any
athlete does, there were many times I wondered if I would be ready the day of competition, yet I was
always more than ready. Everything always came together perfectly. There is a method and a reason
behind every single workout. Coach Mike is so knowledgeable and patient, he has always answered
every single question with a scientific backed reason why things are programmed and done the way
they are, in language that I could always understand.
In all my years of experience I can honestly say that he has strongman training down to a science. I have
tried several training programs in my 9 years as the best Strongwoman athlete in the world and nothing
has ever come close to producing the results that Mike’s programming does. I have trained 3 days a
week for the past 5 years and I have never been healthier or stronger. My programming has revolved
around low volume, max effort lifts while constantly rotating exercises. This type training has also
allowed me the most rest between workouts.
Training under Coach MIke has been one of the best decisions my husband and I have ever made for my
competitive career as a StrongWoman. I challenge you, yes you, the one reading this book to give his
programing a try. I can guarantee that you will not be disappointed! Get ready to be the strongest
version of you!
So Thank You Coach Mike! Together we have built a legacy!
Trust in the Process!
Kristin Rhodes
6X America’s Strongest Woman Champion
3X World Strongest Woman Champion
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Table Of Contents
Forward: By Kristin Rhodes
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Who am I and what do I know anyway?
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Believing in yourself and your training
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Stress and Adaptation
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Speed of adaptation
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Train movements not body parts
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Minimizing body part overlap
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Progression schemes
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Multi-set percent training
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1 set max rep training
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Simple linear progression
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Complex linear progression
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Failing
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Slo-mo reps
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Paused reps
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Negative reps
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Hitting PR’s
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Accessory work
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Warm up and stretching techniques
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Strength Athlete ‘must-do’ warm ups
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The difference between Olympic style lifting and Strongman
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Powerlifting and Strongman
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Why overtraining is real and how to avoid it
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Strength – Power – Skill and Conditioning
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Table of contents continued…..
Blending skill strength and conditioning without overtraining
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The Devil is in the Details
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Laser Focus
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Controlled Chaos
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Proper Weight Selection
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Working up to and doing your top sets
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Hitting your top sets and what comes next
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Event Training
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Log Press
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Axle Press
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Circus Bell Press
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Yoke
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Farmers
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Front carries
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Tire flip
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Stone load
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Arm over arm
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Sled drag
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Chain drag
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Vehicle or sled push
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Harness, vehicle or sled push with rope assist
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Conan’s wheel
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Must do gym training
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Bench
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Incline Press
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Squat
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Deadlift
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Rows
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Front Squat
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Writing your own programming
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Defining goals
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Defining the necessities
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Accessories
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Where to go from here?
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Some programming examples
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Sample 3 day a week split
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Basic Strongman
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Advanced Strongman programming
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Kristin Rhodes 2015 Arnold training
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Carl Foemmel off season base building
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In Summary
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Who am I and what do I know anyway?
I grew up a sickly kid in a small town that prided itself on being only 5 square miles.
We had 1 drugstore, 1 single screen movie theater, 1 Chinese food restaurant and
1 gym; Pep’s Gym. The gym was a small 40x60ft basement room under the local
Masonic temple. It consisted of 2 squat racks, 2 benches, 1 behind the neck press,
1 power rack and one of those old universal machines like you see in a high school
gymnasium. However, to me it was a magical place that seemed ten times the size
of the town that housed it. It was filled with real life superhero’s performing feats I
would have imagined could have happened only in comic books. I would go there for hours every day
after school and sweat and strain as I spied on these monstrous humans trying to figure how I too could
become a living caricature. You see, as far back as I can remember I had asthma. At that time rescue
inhalers were not available and an attack meant an ambulance trip to the hospital and an adrenalin drip
that would leave me shaky for hours. I was an active kid when I was feeling good but all too often I
would “overdo it” and end up back at the hospital. During high allergy seasons I would try and “stay
quiet”, as my grandmother would say, and lie around getting lost in comic books dreaming of being
indestructible like Superman or the Hulk. At some point I remember seeing a picture of a bodybuilder on
one of the back pages. The image is fuzzy and I can’t recall his name but I remember thinking he looked
like a superhero and I had to know his story. I went to the local paper store in hopes of finding a book or
magazine that had information on him in it. It was the early 80’s and there was no google. I tried my
best to explain that I was trying to find out about a real life superhero looking guy in a lady’s bathing suit
bottom. The lady behind the counter had no idea what I was talking about but then had an epiphany
and said there were magazines that were full of “muscle men”. I went over and looked at the covers
and…holy crap!!!! There were tons of these guys!!! And they hadn’t been bitten by radioactive spiders
either!?! They made themselves this way through hard work?!?! So, anyone can do this? I can do this?
I only had enough money to buy one magazine. So, I chose the one that had something along the lines of
“The secret muscle-building techniques used by the pros” written in big bold letters. It seemed to be
written in another language; sets and reps, protein, bench
presses, spider curls…whoa! I was instantly intrigued and
drawn into this complicated matrix of exercises and
workouts. Everyone did something different and each had
their own “secret” exercise or diet or workout. I had hit the
heavy bag and done pushups, situps and curls with my
grandfather who was an ex-pro boxer but I had no idea there
were this many exercises available that when done to
extremes could affect the human body in such a dramatic
way! Over the next few months I found a rusted up weight
A little off season lat spread
set at one yard sale and an old cement filled plastic one at
another. A next door neighbor had an old dilapidated bench with leg extension attachment that I
actually had to nail to my grandfather’s workbench so it wouldn’t tip over. I set up a nice little gym in
the garage with a makeshift lat pulldown/tricep extension using a length of clothesline and a pulley off
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an old ladder. I wrote my routine on the garage wall and got started right away. My first routine actually
came out of a Billiard Barbells training manual with Bill Grant modeling the exercises. I decided I didn’t
think his legs were big enough so I replaced his workout with another one from one of the guys known
for their quads in one of the many magazines I had now collected.
I read all about intensity, forced reps, negatives, supersets, giant sets. I added everything I read about in
and spent at least a couple hours a day sweating, straining and pumping. Many days I would go back in
and repeat the workout again for a second and sometime third time. After a few months of this I really
hadn’t noticed much of a difference other than I didn’t get sore anymore. I thought it must be that I
didn’t have the right equipment and decided it was time to join a gym. One day while out getting a
hoagie with my grandfather at the local sub shop he pointed out the cooks arms were as big as
superman’s. I instantly felt like we were best friends because
I too was a bodybuilder. It didn’t matter that I weighed 85lbs
and had looked like I had a pair of pipe cleaners for arms. I
had been pumping away for months. That’s gotta buy me
some street cred right? Anyway, the guy was super nice and
told me to check out Pep’s Gym. He said it was hardcore and
the owner coached nationally ranked powerlifters,
bodybuilders, pro athletes, and he himself was a lifter from
way back. I walked through the door and this jacked up
college kid Bruce came over and immediately dismissed my
interest. He said I was too young and it would bend my
bones. What?!?!?!? Was he crazy??? Obviously he hadn’t
read the article that said the Russians started their world
champions at 8 years old! Disgusted and heartbroken, I left
Tire Flip at AZ Strongest Man
and went home and read some more magazines looking for
some evidence to go back and plead my case with. A few
days later I returned with a whole argument prepared in my head. Luckily for me the owner’s son,
Tommy, was working. Tommy was a national champion powerlifter and trying to make the Olympic
Wrestling team. He was a ginger and looked like someone had built him out of a pile of rocks and put a
t-shirt over it. He managed the gym for his father during the summer while home from college. To this
day, Tommy is the only coach I have ever had that I felt truly cared about my progress and wellbeing. He
started me off on that old universal to build my base saying that I wasn’t strong enough to do the
exercises correctly with the 45 lb bar yet. My bar at home was a hollow 10 pounder. I was devastated at
first, but after dropping the bar on my nose the first time I tried to bench it I really couldn’t argue. I
followed his advice for a month or two but I started to lose interest since it was obvious all the big guys
used free weight and I hadn’t hit puberty yet so no muscles where showing anyway. After a week or two
away from the gym I ran into Tommy and his girlfriend at a local lake. He asked where I had been and I
told him I was thinking of giving up. He said “That’s too bad I was planning on starting you on free
weights this Monday”. Just when I thought I was out, they drag me back in…
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I went back that Monday and Tommy told me he was starting me on a 4 day powerlifting routine. I told
him I wanted to look like the guys in the magazines and he said that I wasn’t yet strong enough to lift the
kind of weight it would take to build that kind of muscle. So powerlifting it is then! Tommy was real
good about making sure I used what he considered the proper technique on all my lifts. He made sure I
didn’t go to heavy or do too many sets. I would of course sneak in a couple sets of pec dec and preacher
curls when he wasn’t looking but he didn’t seem to mind too much. As long as I tried hard on the basics,
he would let me “play around”. I got my bench up to 135 for 5 rather quickly and that was a huge deal
because none of the bigger guys would let you work in if you couldn’t at least do a 45 on each side (after
warm up of course). I always pushed as hard as I could and it won the respect of the more serious guys
rather quickly. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t even close to strong yet. They knew I was young and saw
that I idolized them and was willing to work to make it happen. Finally, some street cred!
After a while I started reading more magazines and learned to filter out what worked and what didn’t. I
watched the different lifters at meets we went to and analyzed their techniques and hit them up with as
many questions as they would tolerate. As they started to look irritated I’d ask them a couple more and
jet! At one of the first contests I ever went to 33 years ago I asked Bev Francis so many questions I’m
pretty sure she’d remember me to this day. I applied everything I learned and took note of how I felt
and how I performed. I modified a lot of the techniques Tommy had taught me and started to really
progress. Bench, of course, was the first lift I fell in love with. It made sense to me. I figured out the
purpose of the arch the first time I saw it and started working on getting more flexible so I could arch
higher. I immediately saw how the guys used leg drive and lat flair to get the bar moving. I started
training my lats harder and practiced driving into a big arch. I hit a 300lb bench at a local contest my
freshman year in high school and was convinced I was on to something. I loved sharing my revelations
with others. At first the older guys had the predictable “Who are you to tell me?” “I can out lift you by
200lbs!” The ones that could get past their own ego realized I had something to say and would
sometimes ask me for advice. I always seemed to be able to pick things apart and come up with a
solution. When I was 15 years old a girl named Tara joined the gym. No one took her seriously or really
gave her much attention. She was pretty serious about lifting so I decided I would try and help her since
I went through the same thing when I first joined and Tommy was away at school. I trained her for her
first powerlifting meet at which she ended up posting a qualifying total for that year’s world
championship. The next year I trained her for a bodybuilding show which, by the way, she won. This
gave me a little more credibility and I was now in full puberty and my own weights were skyrocketing.
My two best friends had joined the gym and we had a great training group of guys and we learned quite
a bit from each other. However, as strong as I was getting, powerlifting still didn’t hold the allure that
bodybuilding did. I kept getting stronger and stronger but I never seemed to get that bodybuilder look.
The articles in the magazines said these guys were working out with weights that powerlifters would be
lucky to hit for a 1 rep max. At the time I didn’t realize it was all BS and fake plates. I was still a wide
eyed gullible teenager that believed there were secrets that we just didn’t have access to.
“Education of a Bodybuilder” by Arnold Schwarzenegger was just sitting there, on the book shelf at the
paper store. It was marked down to two bucks which meant it had been sitting there, unpurchased for
quite a while. How did I miss this? At the time I got into bodybuilding Arnold had already had his day in
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the sun and wasn’t really in articles. He was always mentioned in passing though. Usually the reason
someone chose to get into the sport. Known as the King! I had never even seen a picture of him before
this. He was just a larger than life myth in my mind. As soon as I saw that ridiculous peak on his bicep I
was planning my trip to California to follow in his footsteps! I bought the book and read all about how
he escaped from boot camp to win Mr. Germany and how Joe Weider flew him out to California to
become the greatest bodybuilding champion there ever was! Ok now I was convinced there were
secrets and they were at Gold’s Gym in Venice California. For the next few weeks I worked extra hours
and did odd jobs for people till I had a whopping $1,500 saved up. I then talked my mother into having
me emancipated so I could get a job and go out on my own.
“Welcome to Los Angeles” was hung on the wall above the down escalator at Los Angeles International
Airport. I stared at it as I impatiently
paced back and forth on my stair behind
a group of people who refused to walk
down the damn escalator. Didn’t they
know I had to get to muscle beach? I
took like 74 buses and asked about a
thousand strangers on each bus
directions to Venice beach. I had never
rode public transportation before and I
was convinced that everyone was as lost
as I was so I had to double check
everything and would only follow a
direction if I got it from 3 different
people. At some time around lunch I
arrived a block away from Gold’s Gym
Discussing Strategy with one of my athletes, proon Rose Avenue. There was a breakfast
strongman Carl Foemmel at Americas Strongest Man!
place on the corner so I decided to fuel
up before hitting the gym. I sat by myself for the first time ever and remember feeling like I was a grown
up for the first time. My breakfast came quickly and I devoured it even quicker. As I was looking at the
check, trying to figure out the tip, Arnold Schwarzenegger himself walked in with his entourage and sat
down. There was no denying it was him. He was like royalty. His hair was spiked and he was wearing a
red polo shirt and the gargoyle sunglasses from the terminator movie poster. I waited till they all got
settled and walked over and introduced myself. He was very warm and genuine and even offered me a
seat to have breakfast with them. I was so excited all I could do was thank him and say I already ate and
had to go to the gym. I asked him to sign my lifting belt. He signed it and told me to have a great
workout. I walked the block over to Gold’s and without hesitation plopped down three hundred and
some odd dollars for a year’s membership. So what if it was a third of the money I had left after paying
for the plane. Conan himself just unknowingly validated my every decision to that point!
In my first few minutes at Gold’s I saw what seemed like a sea of giants all mulling about doing their own
thing. At first I was a bit scared I’d be out of place but no one seemed to notice me so I set up on a
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bench for my first workout. Mike Christian, a pro-bodybuilder of the time walked in laughing and saying
hello’s. He was larger than life in both physique and personality. I hastily ruffled though my gym bag till I
found the copy of Iron Man magazine. I had brought it with me on the plane and it had an article on
Mike Christian “The Iron Warrior’s back attack” or something to that effect. It started with something
like 5 sets of wide grip pull ups. So I decided today just became back day and I went over to the pullup
bar and got to work. After about an hour I finally finished the routine and walked over and introduced
myself. I told him I had moved out there to be a pro bodybuilder and I had just finished doing his back
routine. He said he noticed me doing behind the neck pull ups earlier and wanted to know where I got
the idea that was his back routine. I pulled out the Ironman Magazine and showed him. He laughed and
said they just had him pose for pictures they thought would show off his physique and some guy who
probably didn’t even lift ghost wrote the article. I felt like I was about to puke! Are you kidding me? I just
flew half way around the world to learn the secrets and they won’t even tell the truth about them!?!?
He said relax and told me he trains people for a living and if I wanted to know the secrets I could pay him
for a consult and he would tell me everything. Hmmm…ok how much? Seventy dollars for an hour, thirty
five for a half. I had to think about it. That was a lot of money to pay someone who let people tell lies
about his workouts in the magazines. He must’ve thought I was bargaining with him so he asked how old
I was. I said 15. He decided he’d tell me everything I wanted to know for $20. Deal! We went over to
Robin Rose Ice Cream and sat for a couple hours as I asked him every question I could imagine and he
wrote out my new workout routine. It was very vanilla with a lot of cables and machines. The typical 3
sets of 8 to 12 rep stuff you’d see in the bodybuilding mag’s at the time. I was really surprised to find out
he really didn’t seem to have any insight. I even remember thinking there was some stuff I thought he
could be doing better. Anyway, I thanked him and went back to the gym. I decided I still needed to train
chest and went back over to Gold’s and set up on a bench. David and Peter Paul, of the famed Barbarian
Brother’s walked over and asked if they could work in with me on the bench. I had seen them on a talk
show and read quite a few articles about them. They were often called the world’s strongest
bodybuilders in the magazines and did seminars where they performed various bodybuilding exercises
with crazy weights. I was delighted to have them work in. About half way through bench presses the
front desk guy came up and told Peter he had a phone call. David got pissed that Peter was leaving and
asked if I wanted to finish the workout with him. We must’ve done at least a couple of heavy sets of 5 of
every freaking chest exercise that was ever written by the time we were done. His theory was beat the
body as hard as possible, with as much weight as possible and in as many different ways as possible.
When we finished he actually thanked me and asked if I wanted to train tomorrow. We met every
morning at Gold’s after downing a quart of chocolate milk for roughly the next 6 months. I learned so
much about training and got introduced to all the big guys of the time through him and his brother.
David was friends with the manager and got me a job as a “weight picker upper”. I basically got paid $8
an hour to make sure the gym was tidy and spy on all the monsters. I had a notebook I kept in my cooler
that I would take notes in whenever I overheard or saw anything interesting. I became friends with all
the regulars and everyone was very open and honest with me about training diet, supplements etc.
David and Peter got an acting deal and their workout schedules no longer matched up with my own. I
started working out with the late Grizzly Brown and ended up being roommates with him and the also
late Don “the ripper” Ross. May they both rest in peace! Grizzly trained quite differently than David and
was big on not going to the limit but leaving some in the tank for the next time. His philosophy was
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basically as long as you do a little better than last time it’s all you need. Extra work just tires you out.
One thing Grizzly never thought you didn’t need too much of was food. He and I used to demolish the
Swedish Buffet at least 3 to 4 times a week. We used to walk around the corner from our apartment and
buy banana cream pies on sale more times than I care to admit. After watching him move disgustingly
huge weights including 385x3 standing strict press with a barbell, I was convinced he may know a thing
or two about getting strong. Grizzly was huge and carried a lot of fat. He really didn’t have the look I was
after so I started getting more into the intricacies of diet. Our other roommate, Don, was ripped year
round. He was a bodybuilder from the 70’s and had been a pro wrestler called “Ripper Savage”. Don had
learned most of his training and diet from legendary trainer Vince Gironda. Don was one of the few
people making a living training people at the time and helped me tremendously once I decided it was
my calling as well. Don and I became great friends. We would drive to the gym in the morning and he
would train people all day long. I would have time to work out, work 8 hours, go to the beach, come
back to the gym, workout a second time and shower by the time he was ready to drive home. He was
busy as hell but seemed to thrive on it. He was a great man and although I hadn’t seen or spoke with
him in years until about a week before he died, whenever I think of him I can’t help but miss him
tremendously!
Don had given me the single best piece of advice I had ever gotten. “Climb up on the roof of a building.
The bums can’t get you there.” When I first got to Gold’s I was staying at a local motel. It was about $30
a night and I didn’t have a job. I only had about $800 left by the time I had paid for airfare and my gym
membership and it didn’t take great math skills to know that wasn’t going to last very long, so I decided
to sleep on the beach one night and save myself some money. The next day I was telling Don about it
and he told me two of the guys I had been friends with at the gym that hadn’t been around were doing
that and bums beat the hell out of them while they were sleeping and took everything they had with
them. Turns out the two guys weren’t much older than me and they were both in intensive care. I
decided to keep all my stuff in one of the lockers at the gym just in case, and I would climb up the
outside of the roof ladder when the gym closed. The ladder was encased in a sort of cage so people
couldn’t climb up the ladder and get on the roof without a key. I just climbed up the outside of it. I
figured it would be even safer up there! I used to wait till everyone left and climb up with my sleeping
bag. The roof under the air conditioning vents was sloped so if it rained I could sleep under the vent and
not wake up in a puddle. There was only enough room to lay flat and if I wanted to turn over I had to
shimmy out, flip and shimmy back in. I used to wake up with both shoulders wet when it rained but it
was better than being soaked all over, or dead! I slept up there for a few months until I got a job
scooping ice cream at Robin Rose where I met with Mike Christian that first day. One day I was eating
breakfast at a pastry shop on the beach and struck up a conversation with the kid working behind the
counter. He said he had a one room studio and was looking for a roommate. Sold! Peter was a great kid
but he smoked like a chimney and the smell left me lying on my side of the room each night by the
window wanting to puke. How I missed my ac vent!
One day I was sitting around the gym after my shift ended shooting the shit with Gold’s day manager
Dave when in walked an older gentleman and his wife. They wanted to join and asked about getting a
personal trainer. After they joined and they had met a few of the trainers they asked Dave why it was so
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expensive. Dave looked over at me and said “Mike here only charges a little more than half that. He’s
young but he knows his stuff” and winked at me. They said they were excited to meet me and wrote me
a check for 3 months of training before I could tell them I wasn’t’ a trainer. We met the next morning at
5am and I hadn’t slept a wink! I spent the whole damn night checking the alarm clock to make sure I
hadn’t overslept. I had trained Tara to bodybuilding and powerlifting wins and I had taught new people
to do the basic exercises and machines when asked. I had discussed training with elite lifters and I was
filled with knowledge. But this was the first time I was going to get paid for it. I had zero confidence! I
felt like a fraud. What if they asked me questions I didn’t know the answers to? They were both in their
50’s and very successful. I was sure they would see right through me! We got started and everything just
fell into place. They would ask why we do a certain exercise and I knew. They would ask what they
should eat and I knew. They had the usual aches and pains of inactive older people and I knew how to
work around it and make them feel better. Within a month they had gotten me a bunch of their friends
and Don had given me a couple of his clients who couldn’t afford his rates but wanted to keep working
with a trainer. He told them he would write their workouts and I’d take them through them. Don
showed great faith in me and gave me the confidence to build my business. I soon stopped working for
Gold’s and became a freelance trainer. I was making more money than any 17 year old could ever dream
of and living my dream. I would get up, train clients, workout with the best pro bodybuilders in the
world, walk down the beach all afternoon, come back and train again, train a few more clients and go
home and go to sleep. I was in heaven. Like any young kid with too much money, I spent instead of
saving and when Don met the love of his life, Rita, Grizzly and I had to find our own places. Grizzly went
home to San Francisco and I didn’t have enough money to put a down payment on my own place. My
Grandmother had contacted me and told me my Grandfather was sick and needed me to come home
and help out. I decided to go home and help out. David dropped me off at the airport and I remember
being a mix of heartbroken and excited to leave and go see my family for the first time in years!
When I got back home there was no market for personal training so I worked full time at boring,
unfulfilling jobs and when my Grandfather passed, I traveled back and forth to Venice a few times. I
picked up where I left off and started training clients at Gold’s again but it just didn’t click this time.
Things were just different. Eventually, I decided I wanted to go to med school. I moved back home and
took my SAT’s. I scored high enough to get accepted at Tuft’s. Unfortunately I couldn’t get the financial
assistance needed so I decided to do my undergrad at a state school then apply for an MD/PhD program
after I graduated. While I was in college I continued to train and played Rugby. I was lucky enough
during this time to train alongside some very knowledgeable professional football and hockey players
and learned all about training for athletics versus training for bodybuilding and powerlifting. The market
for personal training in the area started to grow and I started to pick up a few clients at some of the
local gyms to help pay for my education/spring break. By the time I finished my undergrad I was sick of
school and was offered a job at Natick Army Labs as a biologist working on the spider silk project. They
were trying to genetically manipulate cotton plants to produce spider silk so they could make bullet
proof vests out of them. As exciting as the concept was, my part in it was boring and monotonous so I
left and got a job as an assistant chemist. I hated every minute of it. I used to fantasize about getting in a
car crash on the way to work so I could take a few days off to look for a new car! The place I was working
at took a huge financial hit and I got laid off. While I was laid off I started training people full time again
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and again I realized that was my calling. I love helping others fulfill their goals. Getting up at 5am all of a
sudden didn’t bother me. I looked forward to going to work. I stayed awake all night to make sure I
didn’t miss the alarm! The market was booming and I was in high demand!
Over the years I have had the privilege of working
with and learning from some of the best athletes and
coaches in their respective sports. I was lucky enough
to be able to bend the ear of Lyle Alzado’s strength
coach day in and day out when I worked at Gold’s.
I’ve travelled to seminars given by so many athletes
and coaches I can’t remember half of them. I’ve read
almost every book on strength training that’s come
down the pike. I’ve gotten training certifications from
multiple organizations. However, I’ve learned the
most through my own training and working with less
Competing at nationals in Las Vegas
than gifted athletes trying to overcome their own
shortcomings. I learned a lot by having clients who placed their trust in me, and allowed me to test out
my theories to better them in spite of not being built for their sport or starting late in life; or coming
back from devastating injuries. I’ve learned more about mobility and body positioning teaching a 70 year
old man with a bad back how to deadlift properly than I did from all the certifications combined.
Right about the time I got laid off from my chemist job I tore my Achilles playing in a game of football. I
had been training for a bodybuilding show and was using the “strength shoes” to develop my calves.
Fred Hatfield had recommended them at an ISSA certification
seminar and my calves were always my weakest body part
and I was determined to fix that. I had tried everything for
calves and they never showed much improvement so I
figured the shoes were worth a try. I started following the
recommended routine and my Achilles tendons seemed to be
sore all the time. The manual said that’s normal and they
would adapt after a while. It made sense to me at the time so
I kept going. Then as I came off the line and smashed the guy
in front of me I heard a loud SLAP! I thought someone had
run by and kicked me in the ankle. My whole lower leg went
numb and I felt nauseous. I tried stretching my calf to get the
feeling to come back but my foot just kept going! I knew
immediately I tore it and hobbled on off to my truck and to
the hospital. As I was recovering from surgery for the first
couple days I just laid around and rented all the original UFC
tapes. I was in awe of the talent and conditioning these guys
possessed. The fact that little old Gracie could even survive
Me winning farmers walk for
against Dan Severyn was a miracle. My new sport was
distance at Arizona’s Strongest Man.
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picked! As soon as I got through my rehab and built a decent base of strength back I went and joined a
local BJJ place that would later be named “The Dragon’s Lair” in Framingham MA. I immediately hit it off
with the owner and spent all my free time meeting up with him and training and sparring. In exchange
for all the additional help I did his strength training and conditioning programming. There I learned a lot
about strength training a fighter and the unique demands it puts on your body and what type of
exercises and programming are most useful for training a fighter. Along with my personal training, MMA
ate up the next 5 years of my life. I even won my class at the North American Grappling Championships.
One day I tore my right brachialis escaping an arm bar in training and decided to take some time off. I
missed lifting heavy and decided to spend some time just building up some of the strength and muscle I
had lost as a fighter. A client and good friend of mine, Craig, who I was training for bodybuilding
suggested we take a trip to Las Vegas for the Mr Olympia that year. As we walked around the expo we
saw that Met Rx had a booth set up with that years World’s Strongest Man, Mariusz Pudzianowski
demonstrating the atlas stones. Of course Craig and I had to try them. Neither of us could load the
smallest one and as I tried Bill Kazmier was announcing to the crowd how “I bet this kid sits at home
watching World’s Strongest Man on ESPN and thinks this stuff doesn’t look too hard!” I went back to the
booth about 100 times during the weekend to try again and ask Mariusz for technique tips. Later on I
realized back when I shook his hand it was covered in tacky. I didn’t know what it was at the time I just
thought it was dirt and grime from the stone. I have never been so mad that I couldn’t do something in
my life! As luck would have it, former World’s Strongest Man winner Sven Karlsen was putting on a
strongman seminar a few weeks after we got back home. At the seminar we heard his life story, learned
about programming for strongman and got to learn technique on the more common events. I drank in
the information like I was dying of thirst in the desert and this was a spring in an oasis! I took tons of
notes and hung on every word he said. At the end we got to try the stones and one of the guys gave me
some tacky and I easily had a 300lb stone up on the lip before I dropped it. They didn’t teach me how to
grip it over the top so I was kind of curling it up but even though I didn’t load the stone it was close
enough! I was hooked! I started researching all I could about strongman and joined a couple discussion
groups online about strength training and was one of the first members on the late Jesse Marunde’s site
Marunde Muscle. I started buying up strongman implements and a set of stones and a 500 and 700lb
tire. I put it all in my basement and built stone platforms down there. We would train stones in my
basement, tire in my driveway and load the yoke and farmers plus a thousand pounds of weight into the
mini-van each Saturday and drive it down to a parking lot where we could train walking events then load
it all back up and bring it back to the basement. The whole ordeal usually took from 10 am to 6 pm but it
was worth every minute! I started competing a lot locally and even made it to nationals one year in
Vegas. I think I placed dead last at nationals due to the fact I made some real stupid mistakes but hey it’s
all part of the game! I met tons of people through strongman and spent hours on the phone and
through email learning everything I could about the sport.
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My daughter Sammy and I enjoying some cheat food on the 4th of July our first year in AZ
My wife’s father had a stroke in 2009 and we started looking for a home that he could live with us in so
she could take care of him. Arizona had the best houses for the money and a friend I had met on line
who was a pro strongman Ryan Bakke had a wife who happened to be in real estate. We decided to buy
a house in 2010 with a 3 car garage we could turn into a personal training studio. Ryan said if I moved
out to AZ I would be welcome to train with him, Kevin Knee and Scott Porter. Kevin had been to World’s
Strongest Man and Scott was a light weight Pro. Ryan even had the world record on the Axle clean and
press for a short time. To me it was a no brainer! I couldn’t wait to get out to AZ and learn all I could. If
nothing else at least I’d have some good partners to train with. Well, it didn’t quite work out that way.
Don’t get me wrong, when we actually got together the workouts were awesome and I got to watch
Ryan and Kevin do some amazing things! However, most of the time someone couldn’t make it or
someone had to work or we rescheduled the time 500 times. Also, as I was getting ready to leave
Massachusetts I tore my pec on a heavy bench so there was a lot I couldn’t do when I first got together
with them. Soon Kevin moved back home and Scott opened up his own gym in Phoenix. For the most
part I just trained on my own in my garage and hooked up with Ryan when I could. One day Ryan and his
family had come over for a barbeque and to swim in the pool and we got to talking. He was saying how
he was thinking of giving up strongman because all the injuries weren’t worth it. He said he couldn’t
even pour milk for his youngest son because his elbows hurt so much! I told him what I thought he was
doing wrong and why his elbows hurt. I explained how I had trained my athletes back home to win some
local shows. He totally agreed with everything I said and wondered why I never mentioned anything
about it before. I told him I was new and there to learn and didn’t think it was my place. He asked me if I
would be willing to train him for Americas Strongest Man that year and I agreed. In just a few weeks he
was feeling great and said he was back to his old self that loved training and was looking forward to
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competing again. Meanwhile he was telling his friend and fellow pro strongman Marshall White about
the type of training I had him doing and Marshall was not at all a fan. Marshall and I had numerous
arguments about training philosophies online until he tore his bicep. He came out to AZ after his surgery
and stayed with Ryan. We talked at length about the injury and where I thought he went wrong. By the
end of the weekend he was convinced I was right and had asked me to train him for that years America’s
Strongest Man as well. Marshall ended up doing great and the next year was the most successful of his
career. He placed high in shows, did a ton of traveling and got a sponsorship to help with it all. Marshall
would always tell other strongman competitors about how he was training and how it differed from
what most where doing. Among those he told was Kristen Rhodes who had won America’s strongest
woman. She contacted me and asked me to train her for World’s Strongest Woman and we have been
working together ever since. She has become the winningest strongwoman of all time! My life has been
a wild ride of trial and error and I am thankful for every moment I have been able to spend training and
learning about this wonderful endeavor. I look forward to working with you all and sharing the
knowledge I’ve gained. Here’s to what the future may bring!
Thank you,
Mike Westerling
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Believing in Yourself and Your Training
It is extremely important to have faith and buy in to what you’re doing. A lifter that believes he’s found
the “keys to the Bat cave” will try harder, have a better attitude and get more progress than a lifter
floating aimlessly from routine to routine thinking “I hope this works” or worse yet, doesn’t trust in what
they’re doing. A lifter that questions his program shows up for a workout tired and picks up a weight
that feels heavy and thinks “I knew it, this program is BS, I’m getting weaker” and puts it down at the
first sign of struggle. Belief is an important thing. It’s why products like “Alpha Fuel X” and that “crazy
wrap thing” have success stories. People find a product that they believe in and it gives them renewed
faith in their ability to lose weight. So they stay on their diet because it “helps” the magic product work.
They try harder in their workouts because their new product will allow them to reap more benefit. Then
they lose weight, look better and start selling the product because they can make money “helping”
others. Instead of realizing they would have made all that progress without the product had they just
followed the diet and trained hard. What makes it worse is people trying to change their lives will
exaggerate (at least subconsciously) a particular products effect to justify using it and selling it to
themselves. Because they’ve tried to lose weight before and it didn’t work, right? It’s like my friend
Kenny D always says about these hucksters: “You’re going to use soap anyway, Why not buy it from
yourself”…..
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Believing in her training helped Kristin Rhodes to keep pushing when things got
tough and become the winningest strongwoman of all time!
Stress and Adaptation
Training IS stress. Whether it’s a 1 rep max deadlift, a slow squeezing concentration curl or a 100 mile
ultra-marathon, the body views it simply as stress. Training is actually training the body to deal with
THAT stress. The body deals with these repeat exposures by building itself up to accommodate future
exposures. The more specific you are in the stress you subject your body to the more specifically it will
adapt and the more energy it will have to put towards that adaptation. However, it is important to
realize conditioning the body to deal with a certain stress does not necessarily mean you are training it
to perform the way you want it to. For example: running nothing but 5k’s will condition the body to the
stress of running. But conditioning the body alone will not provide you with your best mile time which
would be better trained with shorter fast repeats of 400m and 800m.
Speed of Adaption
Adaptation to intense stress takes far longer than we as athletes would like to believe. Hans Selye, who
is credited with being the first to focus his study on the non-specific adaptations of stress observed the
process to look like this:
1. Alarm Stage
In this stage the “fight or flight” mechanism kicks in and hormones are released that will allow the body to
react at a heightened level and give the body it’s best chance of survival. Muscle damage can even occur
because the body shuts of its fail safes and basically goes into a true “beast mode”. Like when a scared mother
lifts a car off her trapped child.
IN TRAINING: This is what happens when we hit a hard workout. The amount of tissue damage and strain
incurred during an hour or more of focused training can be much more than experienced in a 30 second fight or
flight situation. Granted our “alarm stage” during a workout is self- induced and the adrenaline response may
not be as high as if we were in a life or death situation but highly trained athletes are capable of achieving
performance states that can closely mimic these conditions. Combine that with an athlete’s willingness to
prolong this stress for extended periods of time and a carefully thought out workout and the musculoskeletal
system can sustain a heavy amount of immediate trauma. Much more than a one time “lets save the child from
under the car” moment.
2. Resistance Stage
After the initial flooding of hormones and insane muscle contraction we called “beast mode” in the earlier
example the lady’s body will now enter a slightly weakened state. Her body will slowly decrease hormone
production. Damaged muscles will be repaired. Her central nervous system will return from its excited state to
normal. Her body will remain “on guard” for a bit but her ability to react as powerfully as she did originally
will be diminished as this healing takes place.
IN TRAINING: Most athletes have experienced this; they add in a new exercise. The first time they do it they
get a great result and are ecstatic with their performance. Next time they do it they see a slight drop off and
think something must have went wrong. This is also very common when training an exercise too frequently.
For the fastest gains in size and strength the resistance stage must be over before repeating the stress. That’s
not to say the movement cannot be performed at a lesser intensity so the athlete can practice technique during
the resistance stage in the case of a highly technical lift. However, it will slow the process of adaptation and
overcompensation considerably. The higher the initial stress the longer this stage will last.
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3. Exhaustion Stage
During this phase the body has been required to exert too many repeated efforts and eventually cannot produce
a response at all. Eventually health problems will occur and the organism could even die.
IN TRAINING: This is overtraining. At this point workouts will start to suffer and top end weights will be
going down. The athlete can “cowboy up” as much as they want and gut out “20x more than they think they
can” and “insert favorite fitsperational quote here” all they want but if you record and track your performance
it will be down. This is not to say every workout has to be a PR. Far from it. However, if your numbers are not
increasing every few weeks you are in this stage. A deload must occur here to alow progress to begin again. If
the athlete has fallen too far into the hole a week off followed by a 3 week build up to normal training may be
needed to get the athlete back into the gain zone again.
The Goal:
With training we want to mimic the first phase without overdoing it and allow the second phase to play out and
get as close to complete recovery as possible and then repeat the first stage until that level of effort becomes
our new “normal” so our bodies will build up their ability to perform in the alarm stage and never reach the
exhaustion phase. If we are careful about not doing too much and overwhelming our system we can get a fairly
fast turnaround on the recovery. However, if we beat ourselves down too much in the alarm stage recovery can
take up to 6 weeks. It is even possible that we could push all the way to the exhaustion phase in one session. It
is especially tricky for those in strength sports requiring a high level of skill such as the snatch and clean and
jerk as they need to be able to practice those skills frequently enough to perfect technique without cutting too
deeply into the recovery stage.
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Train Movements Not Body Parts
Strength training in general is about getting stronger at movements, not individual bodyparts. When
flipping a tire we don’t want to flip it with our biceps. We want to use our body as a whole to make it
happen. Try and set up training to involve similar movement patterns such as press day, squat day,
deadlift day etc instead of the traditional bodybuilding groupings of chest and arm day, leg day and back
and shoulder day. The goal in strongman is not to isolate any one particular body part but instead to get
as many body parts working together in concert as possible. This is actually the definition of functional
training. Think of it as a bunch of guys pushing a truck. Each guy represents an individual muscle. The
group of guys together make up the entire body. If we make each individual guy push by himself we can
give each of them a hell of a workout and make each one very strong. However, if we teach them to
work together and coordinate their efforts they can push a much bigger truck much faster. If we set up
our training to reflect this by training movements instead of body parts we are encouraging the mindmuscle connection required to call on multiple muscles at once. Also, thinking of movements allows us
to better understand the programming behind it. For example, doing log cleans and stones are very
similar movements. Getting strong at one involves developing the muscles to be good at the other. Once
technique in both are sound, only one will need to be trained to develop the other. This will go a long
way towards allowing work on weakpoints without overtraining. For example; if your stone loading is on
point but you need extra work on your Log clean and press you can drop stones for a bit knowing
cleaning the log will maintain the muscles needed for stone loading. Also, if you need to train axle and
stones for an upcoming show and drop log in place of axle you know that the stone loading will keep
your log cleans strong.
Minimizing Body Part Overlap
Although we aren’t setting up our training in bodyparts we must keep an eye on overlap. For example
if we did log clean and press on Monday, stone loading on weds and tire flipping on Friday we are
straining the crap out of our biceps 3 days in a week harder than any combination of bicep curls ever
would. If the lifter was lucky enough to get away with it for a while they would most likely develop
horrible tendonitis that would most likely lead to a tear over time. In the beginning lifters will almost
always end up overtraining slightly because there are so many movements to learn. You must realize
that your number one asset in strongman is a strong and healthy body. It would be far better to go into
a show fresh and healthy and slightly under-practiced than with great skills but beat down with a bunch
of joints that ache like a 90 year old man.
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Progression Schemes
There are many different progression schemes out there. Almost all can work under the right
circumstances and almost all can lead to total burnout if not used judiciously. Following are my favorites
and how I feel they’re best used:
MULTI SET PERCENT TRAINING: Basing training off of 1 rep max VS current PRs.
This type of training works best for exercises that require a high degree of skill. It allows the athlete to
practice the movement over many sets with a heavy enough weight that holes in technique will show
themselves and corrections can be made and practiced as they go. The following example would work
great on push press or power jerks. A full log clean and press each rep for example would have too high
of a metabolic cost to use these percentages on. If it is an exercise with a long rep cycle percentages
may have to be lowered some. It would also work well on bench, squats and deadlifts with lower level
athletes still learning technique as these percentages don’t truly represent what their bodies are
capable of. Women also respond well to these percentages on the squat bench and deadlifts until they
are getting close to their upper limits.
Week 1: 10 sets of 2 reps at 75% of 1 rep max. On the minute for 10 minutes. This means you would do
2 reps and rest the rest of the minute. When minute 2 hit you would begin your next set. This would be
noted as EMOM 10. (Every Minute On the Minute for 10 minutes)
Week 2: 80% for 8 sets of 2 reps with 1 minute between sets. This is like week one except instead of
only getting a fraction of the minute for rest you would get a full minute. Only 8 sets would be done
here because fatigue starts to creep in with the added weight and it’s important to get all your reps!
Week 3: 85% for 10 sets of 2 every other minute. This would be written as:
EMOM 20
1st minute 85% for 2 reps
2nd minute rest
This gives you the rest of the minute you’re in along with the following minute to rest before your next
set.
Week 4: EMOM 10 @90% now we’re back to a rep on the minute but since it is only a single the fatigue
build up is minimal. However the overall effect is quite crushing.
*Important note on multi set percent training: When going for a PR, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a
true 1 rep (or multi rep) maximum. Lifting more weight than your body has ever lifted (or lifted recently
in the case of a comeback) will be enough to stimulate the growth/strength mechanism into action.
Furthermore, stopping shy of a true max lift leaves room to build some momentum. Instead of draining
your central nervous system and needing to deload or cycle back your training a bit. When using percent
training your percentages should be based off PR’s (personal records ) and not true 1rms (1 rep
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maximums) this is because the goal is to expose your body to a certain percent of what it has adapted
to, not what it is actually capable of. For example: If for the last cycle you trained at 90% of 540 and that
was a true 1rm your weight for that workout would have been 486. Now lets say you go for a 1rm and
hit 555 with a good 10lbs in the tank. Going forward you base your 90% off 555 and train with 500
(499.5 to be exact). Even though you're not at 90% of your TRUE max, which would be 508.5, you are
still training with 14lbs more than you did for a similar workout in your last cycle. This will be enough to
stimulate just as much of an adaptation as 508 would with the added benefit of being easier to recover
from. For the most part percentage training (in my opinion anyway) is about working at a percent of
what your body has been exposed to, not a percent of what it's capable of.
1 SET MAX REP TRAINING: This technique can be used for just about any exercise that doesn’t rely on a
high level of skill and a totally fresh central nervous system or CNS. Full snatches and full clean and jerks
are probably not the best exercises to use this progression with although power cleans and push
presses will work nicely if the athlete has solid technical skills. However, just about any other exercise
will work great. The best way to set it up is to do a couple light warm up and work up sets to the working
weight. Then set your weight and go to town. One all out, balls to the wall, set. Each time that exercise
comes around, you simply add 5-10lbs to last times set and go all out once again. The warm up will
depend on the exercise and where it is in the workout.
Here’s a couple of examples:
Bench (done as the first exercise) 45x15, 95x10, 135x5, 185x3, 225x3, 275x3, 315x11.
Curls (done late in the workout) 60x8, 100x15.
Bent Over Rows (done after squats) 45x10 95x10 135x5 185x3 225x3 275x3 315x3.
The next time bench came around the lifter would use 325 since he got a nice 11 reps with 315. The next
time curls came around the lifter would go 105 since 10lbs would be too big of a percentage and
probably lead to a big drop in reps. On rows the lifter would most likely stay at 315 for the next workout
and see if they could get more reps or even drop down a bit to ensure at least 5-6 reps next time. This
particular style of workout works best if the athlete starts at a higher rep number like 10-15 on week
one and just keeps adding a small amount each workout until they drop below 5 reps. Then drop back to
the heaviest weight they’ve hit 10 reps with and start the whole cycle over.
SIMPLE LINEAR PROGRESSION: This style of training has been around as long as the hills and has built
many world champions. It works best on the big basic heavy exercises that the athlete already has solid
technique on. Squats, Bench, Deadlifts and all of their variations respond very well to this style of
training. Using bigger weight jumps on the higher rep days and smaller jumps on the lower rep days
allows volume to be similar without too much undue fatigue. The following example would be for a
beginners bench press.
Week 1 Work up to a 5 rep max taking 30lbs jumps. For example: 135x5, 165x5, 195x5, 225x5
Week 2 Work up to a 3 rep max taking 25lb jumps 150x3, 175x3, 200x3, 225x3, 250x3
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Week 3 Work up to a 1 rep max taking 20lb jumps 150x1, 170x1, 190x1, 210x1, 230x1, 250x1, 270x1
Week 4 Work up to a 5rm taking 30lbs jumps, shoot for 10lbs more than week 1.
Week 5 Work up to a 3rm taking 25lbs jumps, shoot for 10lbs more than week 2.
Week Work up to a true 1rm taking bigger weight jumps to make sure fatigue is minimal.
COMPLEX LINEAR PROGRESSION: This is similar to the above progression plan but done with multiple
exercises and/or multiple variables. The following example would be for an advanced lifter trying to
bring up his bench and incline pressing power. If the athlete doesn’t get greedy this usually will play out
right on the money. However, if the athlete does get greedy and pushes too close to the limit a light
week may be thrown in for recovery by just stopping one jump shy of the expected top set. This will
usually allow the athlete to get right back on track the next workout.
Week 1 Bench Work up to a 5 rep taking 50lbs jumps. Pause each rep on the chest for 1 second.
Week 2 Incline Work up to a 5 rep max taking 45lbs jumps. Pause each rep on the chest for 1 second.
Week 3 Bench Work up to a 3 rep max taking 40lbs jumps. Pause each rep on the chest for 1 sec.
Week 4 Incline Work up to a 3 rep max taking 35lb jumps. Pause each rep on the chest for 1 sec.
Week 5 Bench Work up to a 1rm taking 30lbs jumps. Pause each rep on the chest 1 sec.
Week 6 Incline Work up to a 1rm taking 25lbs jumps. Pause each rep on the chest 1 sec.
The next 6 weeks are done without a pause on the main sets but then followed up by a set of pauses
after the main set is done.
Week 7 Bench Work up to a 5 rep taking 50lbs jumps. Then 5 pauses with 5lbs more than week 1.
Week 8 Incline Work up to a 5 rep max taking 45lbs jumps. Then 5 pauses with 5lbs more than week 2.
Week 9 Bench Work up to a 3 rep max taking 40lbs jumps. Then 3 pauses with 5lbs more than week 3.
Week 10 Incline Work up to a 3 rep max taking 35lb jumps. Then 3 pauses with 5lbs more than week 4.
Week 11 Bench Work up to a 1rm taking as big or small jumps as needed to express a true 1rm.
Week 12 Incline Work up to a 1rm.
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Failing
Failing doesn’t build strength. Complete reps reinforce movement patterns through neurological
efficiency. Missed reps cause an incomplete contraction of the muscle and reinforce faulty neuro
pathways. While muscle mass can be built through training to failure, it is not necessary to train to
failure nor is it desirable. Strength is built through a combination of increased muscle mass and more
efficient contractile patterns of that muscle mass. That’s not to say training to failure is useless for
strength training and should be avoided altogether. In the case of a highly skilled lift like the snatch it is
ok to fail because there is a learning curve and in most cases the movement pattern is completed even
though the lift may not be. For example: someone missing the catch has already achieved a full
contraction in pulling the bar to height. Obviously too many misses isn’t ideal either but it’s not as
detrimental as fighting a squat and getting stuck halfway up. Think of shooting hoops. If you took 100
free throws and hit 85 of them you would get much better at free throws than if you got tired at 105
and started missing every other one but just kept shooting at the basket till you were too tired to throw
the ball anymore. You’d just be teaching yourself to miss. The other time failure can be useful, is as a
training tool for beginners. As motor units fatigue their body will call on fresher unused ones to
complete the task; thus establishing the connection to it and the ability to call upon it. Advanced lifters
are already efficient at calling a maximal number of fibers into play so there are no fresh ones left. This
is why you rarely see the top guys grind out a lift. All their fibers contract and the weight goes up or it
doesn’t. There are no fibers left to help when the weight slows down. I touch on this more in other parts
of the book.
Slow Mo Reps
Slow motion reps are a complete waste of time unless rehabbing an injury and trying to keep the actual
force on the body as low as possible. It is a well-established fact that individual fibers will either contract
all out or not at all. For example when you do a bicep curl slowly, each individual motor unit is
contracting all out but not all are contracting at once. Much like if you had 30 guys pushing a truck. Each
guy is only allowed to push as hard as possible or not at all. How would you control the speed? By only
letting one or two guys push at a time. However, this would make them tired quickly so you would have
to switch off between guys to keep the truck moving. If you had everyone push at once the truck would
fly. This is how the body gets stronger initially. It gets better at contracting all the fibers at once. Over
time the repeated stress causes the muscles to grow as the body becomes more efficient at contracting
and you end up with a much bigger and stronger muscle. Incidentally this is why the strongest guys in
the world always look like they have another 20lbs left in them after a big lift. It’s not because they
didn’t actually try their hardest. It’s because every single fiber in their body contracts at once and the
weight flies up OR it goes nowhere. A beginner still has un-recruited fibers they can call on as they shake
and strain and grind out a 20 second max rep. Not so for the elite lifter.
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Paused reps
Paused reps have their place in training. They can let an athlete get used to or become stronger at a
certain position of a movement. Rebounding out of the bottom of a squat using the stretch reflex and
having to overcome inertia to rise out of a pause at the bottom are two vastly different stresses on the
muscle. One will help the other. As a strongman there will be times both types of strength are
important. Such as rising out of the bottom of a squat after lapping a stone or a quick reversal of
movement on a keg squat like at the World’s Strongest Man competition. They are also a good way to
build in weight progression while still hitting PR’s early in the cycle. For example: You may start week
one working up to a good heavy set of 5 pauses on close grip bench. Week 2 we increase weight for a
set of 5 touch and go. Week 3 we hit a new PR on a 3rm. Week 4 a 3rm touch and go… etc. This allows
enough variation of stimulus to draw out a training cycle and allow constant progression while still
seeing new PR’s.
Negative Reps
Slow controlled lowering of weight (also called eccentric contractions) can be useful in getting used to
heavier weights and building strength. Especially for weightlifters who have to receive heavy weights as
they are moving into a squat position. Being extra conscious to control the negatives on their squats will
condition them to receive heavy weights as they are descending down to catch a clean or a snatch.
Controlling your negatives on all lifts will help build more strength, control and muscle than dropping
your reps. However, this is a double edged sword because they will cause more soreness and can lead to
overtraining. The fact weightlifters training is primarily centered around exercises like snatch and clean
and jerk where they drop the weight instead of controlling the negative portion is why they can train so
often without becoming burned out. It may also be why they carry less muscle mass on average than
competitors from other strength sports. Except in their quads of course which is the muscle that
receives the most amount of eccentric work. It is well known that you can lower more weight than you
can lift and some athletes will take advantage of this by having partners raise a weight over their max
and then lower it under control. For the most part I believe this is overkill and not necessary. Controlling
your negatives on most lifts will be good enough. In some cases of stubborn lifts it may be a last resort
once all other options are exhausted.
Hitting PR’s
Hitting PR’s is important. It’s an immediate feedback that you are on the right path. This doesn’t mean
you need to hit a PR every workout BUT you certainly can and should most. However, that’s not
necessarily a 1 rep max. It could be a 5 rep max, a 10 rep max, the most weight you’ve hit for 5 sets of 2.
Maybe the same weight you hit for 5 sets of 2 with 3 minutes rest between sets this time you hit with 2
minutes rest between sets. Maybe you loaded a stone 10 reps in 2 minutes and now you did that same
stone 10 reps in 90 seconds. These are all PR’s and appropriate to shoot for and monitor in your training.
Even a 5lb gain a month adds up to 60lbs in a year. It’s important not to get greedy though. A 5lb gain on
a set of 5 reps on strict shoulder press for example is enough to stress the body sufficiently enough to
cause adaptation, but not enough to be unable to recover from by the next training session. Similarly a
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30lb gain may be awesome but will most likely cause a cessation in progress over the following week
and may cause the central nervous system to be drained and leave the athlete feeling tired for the next
few workouts. For long term progress it’s more important to get multiple workouts of small gains than
one workout with a big PR and end up needing a deload week. Or worse yet, push through the tired
central nervous system for a couple weeks only to end up drained and overtrained. This is a good
example why 1 SET MAX REP training should be used most of the time. It gives immediate feedback as
to whether or not you are getting stronger. It is low volume so the athlete is more unlikely to overtrain.
Physically, it is high intensity so you are ensuring you are hitting the threshold needed to stimulate
positive changes. Mentally, it is easier to “get up” for one set than multiple sets. Emotionally, it is
rewarding because you are constantly proving to yourself you are on the right track. Statistically, it is
easier to track progress since you don’t need to take into consideration the cumulative effect of multiple
sets and how they factor into your current level of performance.
Accessory Work
Static VS Dynamic Movements: for the intents and purposes of our discussion we will consider static
movements a movement where we stay in one place and grind out an exercise such as a squat, deadlift,
or shoulder press. These movements are the ones that build absolute strength and muscle mass.
Dynamic lifts are those where the body is moving across an area such as a farmers walk, or the intent is
to accelerate the bar through a concerted effort of many muscles using momentum and leverage to
their best advantage such as a clean and jerk or pushpress. In reality all movement is dynamic and
accomplished through multiple muscle groups but I think we can all agree some movements are more
dynamic than others. For the most part dynamic movements are used to develop the body’s ability to
coordinate inter and intra muscular effort to produce power.
Warm Up And Stretching Techniques
(To prep correct movement patterns and minimize injury)
It seems these days every expert that comes down the pike either bashes on stretching saying it’s
dangerous OR decides to make a science out of it, add in a bunch of lacrosse balls, bands and foam
rollers and call it mobility work. Here’s the thing: In the 30+ years I’ve been coaching, most minor soft
tissue injuries I have seen occurred due to inadequate warm up and/or dehydration. Most joint injuries I
have seen can be attributed to incorrect movement patterns (bad form) usually due to a lack of ability to
achieve the correct position for optimal power output. At the very least a couple high rep warm up sets
with the bar and some light 10-15 second stretching of the muscles about to be trained should be done.
A full body warm up like a slow 500m row or a few sets of 10-15 bodyweight calisthenics can warm the
body up a bit, get the juices flowing and ready the tissues for some stretching. Way back in college when
I was into playing rugby I noticed I was getting a lot of small muscle pulls at almost every practice. I
made up a small stretching routine where I stretch each body part for 10-15 seconds; that takes about 5
minutes to get through. It is great for getting the stiffness out and priming the body for movement. If
there is a mobility issue like not being able to rack the bar for a proper front squat for example, it is
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prudent to add a bit more mobility work so correct technique can be used. I personally have to devote
about 2-3 minutes extra into getting my shoulders ready to properly front rack the bar.
Strength Athlete Must Do Warm Ups
Strength athletes can be a unique breed and love to skip the “fluff” and get right to the heavy stuff. So
for those of you that refuse to take 10 minutes to do a big elaborate warm up (I say that tongue in
cheek-because what’s 10 minutes?? Go to any pro football or baseball practice and they’re out on the
field warming up and stretching for an hour). The must do’s include bicep, calf and lower back/hammies.
These 3 areas are most susceptible to injury. I recommend for biceps: 2 sets of 15 band rows each (band
rows are better than curls because they remind you to pull with your upper back before engaging the
biceps) followed by a 10-15 second bicep stretch in the power rack. For lower back and hamstring: The
empty bar for 2 sets of 15 deadlifts each followed by a toe touch stretch. For the calves: 30 leaning calf
raises followed by a 15 second calf stretch. It’s literally the least you can do for yourself!
The Difference Between (Olympic Style) Weightlifting And Strongman
I write about this because there is always controversy over whether or not weightlifting is a good sport
to look to for programming. With the success of weightlifters such as Misha Koklayev it is easy to see
why people think it is a beneficial way to train. Weight lifting as seen in the Olympics is comprised of 2
highly technical lifts; the snatch and the clean and jerk (aka “the quick lifts” or “the classical lifts”)
performed on perfectly machined equipment with virtually zero deviation. Strongman is performed on
awkward, unwieldy, unbalanced, unforgiving pieces such as chunks of iron and stone. Although
technique is certainly important in strongman, brute strength will rule the day if the implements are at
all different than those practiced on. For example I have seen people that are great log pressers on their
New York barbell log get to a show and get crushed by the same exact weight on a Bigg Dogg just
because the log itself is heavier and they were used to most of the weights being in the plates and the
log spins like a bar. Then they grab the Bigg Dogg and when they roll it up it feels like it’s going to steam
roll over them because the log itself is 250 lbs and tries to take your head off. I’ve seen guys show up at
a weightlifting meet and be put off by the different feel in an Elieko bar vs the Pendlay NexGen bar they
have at home but the difference is minor and can be overcome with a couple warm up sets.
Weightlifters must spend endless hours perfecting their technique much like gymnasts if they want to
get to the world level. They must be incredibly strong also, but good technique will go a long way
towards creating a champion. Strongmen must also develop their technique to a certain extent but once
they have a good solid technique it is much more important to get stronger and stronger than try and
get every last angle perfect. For example you could spend hours and hours video taping yourself flipping
a tire, study the angles, practice your grip, adjust your feet, position your chest all perfectly till it is
ingrained and automatic. Then you get to the show and find out the tire you’ll be flipping is a steel
belted tire half the height of the one you’ve been practicing on. Your technique just went to crap! Now
you’re just struggling through like the rest of the guys, complaining there’s no grip and it’s covered in
dirt and grease. It’s like a gymnast training on a spring floor and showing up and having to do his routine
on pavement. It sucks but it’s the nature of the sport. Almost nothing is standardized so training for
overall brute strength is the way to go. So, maybe we should train like Misha and we’ll be great at
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strongman too. Yes, if you train like Misha and become a world champion weightlifter that can clean and
jerk 500 plus pounds you too could transition to strongman quite nicely. However, that’s going to take
some time. You may not even be able to do it. It’s a far better plan to get super strong and learn the
events. Many pros have beaten Misha with zero proficiency in the quick lifts. Are the quick lifts a good
way to build explosive power? You bet! But they are very technical to learn correctly and take a lot of
time and energy that could be spent learning the events. The power version of the lifts will develop all
the speed you’ll ever need for strongman without having to dive under a huge snatch into an overhead
squat. A case can also be made for speed work against bands using variations of the squat, bench and
deadlift at 50-70% of max weights. I do believe the snatch and powerclean to be superior for developing
speed because you will never be motivated to move the bar as quickly as possible when you don’t have
to achieve a certain speed to make the lift. On a squat or deadlift you may intend to move the bar as fast
as possible but there will be some hesitation because you don’t need to. On a max power snatch or
power clean you will not make the lift without a 100% violent effort. Furthermore, since strongman is
more about brute strength than skill following a weightlifting style program with a ton of frequency to
learn skill makes little sense. Strongman lifts are far more stressful on the body than the quick lifts and
will see us burnt out and beat up in no time. Especially if we train them heavy enough to mimic shows.
Powerlifting and Strongman
Strongman and powerlifting are very similar and one can build a great base for the other. Most lifts in
strongman require straining your body under a heavy weight for a prolonged period of time.
Powerlifting may only consist of 9 singles at a meet but the powerlifter will have strained through tons
of different set and rep schemes over the course of a career. Powerlifting will create a great base for a
strongman and it is relatively simple to get proficient at walking with weights you can already squat. The
powerlifter must take special care to watch the effect moving heavy weights in unusual positions will
have on the central nervous system when they are still unaccustomed to it. Walking with heavy weights,
triple extension and grip are the main things a powerlifter is lacking coming into the sport and these
things can be shored up rather quickly if concentrated on in the correct way. Since powerlifting is more
of a “grinding” sport than weightlifting powerlifters may have a better understanding of the
programming for these types of lifts than weightlifters.
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Why Overtraining Is Real and How To Avoid It
“There’s no such thing as overtraining. Only undereating and the failure of will” is the mantra of the
super serious competitor; until they over train and go backwards. Or worse get a catastrophic injury.
Don’t believe me? Want proof? Think about this: How many guys tear there biceps on tire flip? The first
time they did tire flip their form most likely sucked but their biceps didn’t tear. The second time they did
it they got better, still no tear. Fast forward months or years later to that fateful contest; their technique
is the best it’s ever been. Their biceps have done it a million times and should be used to it. Surely they
are flipping more efficiently than the first time right? So something happened to weaken their bicep
since the first time. Maybe they didn’t train it enough? Maybe, but they didn’t train it at all before the
first time so something happened. Dehydrated? Maybe. Over trained? Most likely. If training makes us
stronger why are they tearing now if they didn’t when they were untrained and pulled on with horrible
technique? Because too much breaks us down. I love training and if I could have trained 7 days a week 3
times a day I would’ve done it. As a matter of fact I have done it. My freshman year in college I followed
this course called The Bulgarian Burst Training manual. It was an 18 month course that had you work up
to three 45 minute workouts a day 6 days a week. I followed it religiously, constantly reciting the mantra
“The body becomes its function” to myself till I believed it. After a while I got used to the volume,
soreness hardly ever happened, I was bigger and stronger than I had been. Not by a lot but it didn’t
matter. I got to train my balls off 3 times a day and wore it like a badge of courage. I only stopped
because I ran into a friend of mine who I hadn’t seen in about 2 years that had the pleasure of training
with Dorian Yates. He had adapted Yates’ methods and he was JACKED!!!!! This was a guy that was
always pretty strong and pretty well built and had a handle on diet but had trouble making gains and
gaining weight. He had easily put on 20lbs and looked like a real competitive bodybuilder. He explained
he had been overtraining for years and after cutting his volume way back he allowed his body to recover
and make gains. I knew Yates had adopted a lot of Mike Mentzers principles and since I was working out
at the same gym as Mike I figured I’d get it straight from the horse’s mouth. Mentzer was more than
willing to tell me his theories and they immediately made sense to me. Later on Mike kinda went off the
deep end and took his theories to the extreme of what he felt was their logical conclusion. I don’t agree
with his later writings where he took volume to 1 set every 10 days but the underlying theory was
sound. I adopted his approach and in roughly 6 months I was far stronger than I had ever been and
gained tons of bodyweight. I had put on some fat because I was still eating like a guy who was training
three times a day but most of the weight was solid. Training on the Bulgarian routine the best I had
managed on the bench was 315 for a good set of 5-6 reps. After about 6 months of training logically I hit
405x5 and 315 for 17 reps. I have now been training athletes for well over 30 years and trust me when I
say overtraining is real!
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Strength, Power, Skill and Conditioning
Strength- is the ability to lift heavy objects and your number one goal as a strongman. The heavier your
one rep max is the faster you can move with lighter percentages. Sometimes people like to debate this
and say strongman is more about speed and endurance and should be trained as such. At one time this
was true but not anymore. Show weights have become frighteningly heavy and competitors are
expected not only to move them but race with them. Think about this: You can bench 70% of your max
faster and for more reps than 80% of your max right? So the higher your strength level the greater
POTENTIAL you have for speed at lower weights. A guy who can yoke 1300 can run with 800 and it will
have very little effect on him after. A guy who can yoke 900 also can run with 80, maybe even just as fast
but the toll on hjs body from doing it will be greater. What happens when the show weight becomes
900?
Power-is defined as work divided by time. So your power output increases as you move heavier loads
faster. This quality is trained through explosive work such as tire flips, percentage training over multiple
sets at weights that allow fast movement. Skill work and power work can be blended nicely to
supplement strength work. Such as; 2 tire flips done every minute, on the minute, for 10 minutes. This
will train skill on the tire, powerful hip explosion, and condition the arms, upper back and lungs all at
once.
Skill-There is a good better and best technique to every lift and they must be learned and practiced.
Some skills need to be practiced semi heavy, like a log press where the heavy weight will throw you back
making it impossible to keep the same technique you could with an empty bar. Axle will not be as
dependent on weight because the mechanics of the press will be the same. Although the axle clean will
differ a lot once your press out runs your grip strength. Transitioning from stone to stone in a series can
be practiced light because you’re practicing moving from one stone to the next more efficiently. Arm
over arm can be practiced fairly light because re-gripping the rope fast is the same with light to medium
weights you may see in a show. Heavy weights will require a more full body pull but running your arms
up the rope efficiently will carry over to re-gripping speed and all your heavy deadlifts and rows will
translate into pulling power.
Conditioning-When speaking of conditioning there are generally two different definitions. The first, and
most commonly used, is speaking of “being in shape” and relates to doing hard medleys and not feeling
like you’re going to die as your heart beats through your chest. The other is being conditioned to the
movements themselves.
Conditioned-This is the other definition of conditioning and it refers to having your body “in condition
to withstand the stress of a particular event or movement”. A good example is stone lifting. You may
have trained your ass off all year long in the gym. Your deadlift is up, your rows are beastly and your
arms are bigger than ever. You meet up with your friends for the first time since last summer to hoist
some big stones. Your delighted as you blast through bigger stones than ever. However, the next day
your bicep tendons are sore as hell and your forearms feel like someone removed the skin with a blow
torch. Why? Because your body has become deconditioned to the movement. Your muscles themselves
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may be stronger than ever and you know how to load a stone from practicing all summer but your bicep
tendons and forearm skins haven’t been stressed that way in a long time. Yoke is another good example.
You can come back from a year of big squats and deadlifts to a hitting a monster yoke workout. You
leave feeling like a million bucks because you haven’t lost a step and feel stronger than ever BUT you’re
crushed for days and have trouble on your warm up sets the following week. Ugh, you must be getting
old, right? Nope! You just aren’t used to the movements. A great gymnastics coach (who’s name escapes
me) once explained when he adds in a new training technique for his athletes he has them do it for 6
weeks before increasing the intensity of the lift. For example if he has a newer athlete working on his
front lever he may hold a modified version of it for 5 sets of 20 seconds and not even try to increase his
time for 6 weeks. Then he will add either time or a harder version and stay there for another 6 weeks.
His thinking was that his athlete needs to become conditioned to that movement BEFORE he can train it
hard and regularly. I’ve found something similar with my athletes. It takes roughly 6 weeks from the
addition of a new exercise to become conditioned to where you can really start pushing it without
having it take too much of a toll on the CNS or make the body overly sore. However, the movement
doesn’t have to be trained often at all for this adaptation to occur. As long as it is hit once every 2 weeks
the body will become conditioned to it just fine. Once the body becomes conditioned to a movement it
only needs to be hit once every 3 weeks to stay conditioned to it. If similar movements are hit an
exercise can be as far as 4 weeks between sessions and still not lose conditioning to it. For example:
hitting yoke once a month, farmers once a month and a good squatting session in between will keep an
athlete conditioned to the movement and actually allow them to get stronger at it.
Blending Skill, Strength and Conditioning without overtrainingThis is the real trick to succeeding at the sport of strongman. This is achieved through a planned rotation
of similar lifts that will build upon each other. Hitting each basic movement pattern (press, pull, squat,
walk, push, drag) hard only once a week will stimulate growth while allowing recovery of the muscles
and central nervous system so burnout doesn’t occur. Also, changing the exercise will decrease the
chance of overuse injury such as tendonitis. Low volume, high intensity work on exercises that the
athlete is currently proficient at allows more energy to be left over for the extra sets needed on
movements that require more skill practice. Conditioning will be done with events that may also need
skill work to further condition movement patterns during levels of high stress.
THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS
Laser Focus
In training, the best athletes will have laser focus every time they grab the bar. Watch videos of the top
weightlifters and you will see 100% concentration combined with picture perfect technique starting with
their very first sets with the empty bar all the way up to the final set of the day.
Controlled Chaos
Modified Mini Cycles: Life is rarely linear so following a strict linear progression method can be
challenging if not impossible. Life is usually chaotic but training simply by how you feel based on how
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chaotic your day was is haphazard at best. There must be some type of built in progression with enough
wiggle room to make it work. I find the best way to accomplish this is in 3 workout mini cycles. A
beginner would be most likely be hitting the same main exercises each week so that’s a 3 week cycle. An
intermediate would be hitting said lift every other week so that would be a 6 week mini cycle and an
advanced lifter would be working on either every third week or even once a month which would stretch
the mini cycle out to 9 or 12 weeks. Accessory work may be done more often and mini cycles for
accessories could range from 3 to 6 workouts. Since accessories are generally done for higher reps at a
lower percentage of max, burnout doesn’t occur as quickly and they can be ridden out a bit longer
before hitting a plateau. Even though we are trying to follow a progression of some sort over our mini
cycles we also have to be willing to take a step back, modify our workout or go easy as needed if we are
to stay on track. This is where 1 set max reps works well. Picking a weight that is manageable for that
day and doing as many reps as possible with good technique ensures you have maximally contracted
enough fibers to stimulate a positive change of some kind even though the weight may be lighter than
originally planned.
Proper Weight Selection
Although you may be shooting for a certain percentage or a personal record of some sort, the amount of
weight on the bar remains nothing more than your tool. If selected properly it will allow the working
muscles and movement pattern to be stressed adequately enough to elicit a response while not forcing
a breakdown in technique. Just because “3 plates” is easier to put on and sounds better than “305lbs”
that isn’t a good enough reason to load it on the bar. If the plan calls for a 3 rep max, a solid, powerful
set of 3 push presses done with crisp technique using 305 will stimulate as much muscle growth as
straining your guts out as you barely lockout 315 for a shaky double. It will also have the added benefit
of reinforcing a better groove, carry less risk of injury, be less likely to lead to burn you out and set you
up for an even better lift next time around. I have seen it time and again. The athlete hitting 305 comes
back the next week fresh and powerful and hits all their numbers while the athlete who hit 315 comes
back and scratches their heads wondering why they are struggling with 275 on the warm ups. Training
weights should almost always be “manageable”. Save the “bust a gut” heroics for a contest where you
will have all the time in the world to recover after you collect your trophy.
Working Up To and Doing Your Top Sets
Using the push press as an example:
Let’s say Steve is in the end of a 3 week mini cycle and comes to the gym with a goal of hitting a 275lb
PR push press out of the rack. His old best is 260 and he’s been regularly hitting numbers that translate
to a 275 single on paper.
First we assess how Steve is feeling that day: Did he sleep well? Is he well hydrated? Are any muscles
overly sore from a previous workout? Has he eaten all his meals? Let’s assume he’s planned his training
properly and shows up with minimal soreness that works it’s way out after a little rolling out and a
general warm up.
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Light Warm Ups: Starting with the empty bar Steve will make sure he has a proper front rack position
and take great care in keeping his hips, knees and toes all lined up properly. He slowly dips on his heels
and executes 10 perfect push presses. They aren’t super-fast but they are deliberate and smooth.
Holding each lockout for a second, he further ingrains the groove so it happens automatically when he
gets to the heavier weights. Steve likes a lot of practice reps but doesn’t want to get super fatigued so
he takes small weight jumps of 20lbs per set and only does singles, doubles, or at most triples with each
weight on the way up. Every single rep is done with laser focus and he makes sure all his body positions
are correct on each rep.
Work Up Sets: As the weight gets heavier he switches to only singles and starts to add quite a bit of
speed to his lifts. Now that a good solid groove has been established it’s time to get a bit of speed on the
bar. As the weight’s pass the 50% mark he’s starting to really work on speed more and more and by the
time he hits the 80% mark his technique and speed are on point. Now it becomes a matter of dipping
and driving as hard as possible.
Hitting Your Top Sets and What Comes Next
Top Sets: When he gets to 240 he is feeling lightning fast and strong! 250 is a breeze and the easiest it
has ever felt! But Steve gets cocky and assumes 260 will be a breeze so he is surprised when it feels
heavy coming out of the rack. He gets it and the lift is solid but he is second guessing himself and isn’t
sure what to do next. He’s sure he can get 275 and really wants it but has a feeling it will be an ugly
grinder.
What To Do Next: The smart thing would be to go for 270 or even only 265 and maybe try 275 only if
the 270 feels better than the 260 did. This would set him up for a better workout next time. However,
Steve has a deload coming up so he decides to go for it and blasts it up to just shy of lockout. After an
extended fight he barely gets his PR and all of a sudden everything is well in his world.
The Following Week After A Big Fight With The Weight: At this point we would rarely try and hit an
even bigger PR in the following week knowing that lift took quite a toll on his nervous system and even if
he hits another PR it may set him up for an even bigger fall after. Most of the time we will be switching
main exercises week to week so the following week may see him go for a max lift on a different
movement pattern like close grip bench.
If He Had Smashed It: Or even if he had stuck with a solid 265 or 270 but he hit it like a boss. Then we
would start the next modified mini cycle with 225x5 which would most likely be a rep PR. Even though
he hadn’t got his magic 275 number he still would have pressed more than he ever did in his life, PLUS
he would have set himself up for a rep PR the following workout and possibly finished the next mini
cycle well over 285.
If He Had Failed: We would have most likely dropped down to a slight deload of say 185x5 the following
workout then priming in the next workout with a snappy double at 225. The third workout we would
have him try 275 again if everything is lining up. This would have set us back 3 workouts when we could
already be hitting rep PR’s and moving forward.
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Event Training
Log Press
Split Jerk vs Power Jerk vs Push Press? Depending on which way you decide to get heavy weights
overhead will define your training style on these implements. A split or power jerk must be drilled with
multiple sets of 80-85% weights to become efficient and mobility along with heavy chest supports and
overhead supports along with press outs will go a long way towards becoming successful at overheads.
A push press technique is also important to drill and mobility is needed but will develop and rely more
on raw brute upper body pressing strength than its dynamic counterpart. I haven’t mentioned strict
press as a technique because it is very inefficient and sometimes it can actually confuse a good jerker by
making them think they need to drop their elbows too early on the jerk and change their technique.
Training the strict press will definitely build bigger stronger shoulders and triceps and make you more
efficient at pressing blocks and sandbags overhead when they come up BUT in the beginning jerk
technique needs to be ingrained perfectly before introducing strict presses for most athletes.
Axle Press
Most of what I’ve said about log applies here as well. Although some will find a push press technique
works better on log and a power or split jerk is preferred with axle. Furthermore a power jerk may work
better for multiple reps and a split for 1 rep maxes. In the beginning it is important to pick one and get
100% efficient at it. As you get more advanced you can rotate through and train all the different
techniques if you want. An interesting note: Pro Strongman Ryan Bakke, who had the axle record for a
while was actually a better jerker when he was lighter and weaker. As he got stronger he started to rely
more on his massively strong upper body for pressing and forgot the power dip/drive quick dip he had
when he had to rely on leg speed and athleticism. Although he ended up hitting the same numbers, he
should have been and would have been capable of so much more had he stayed in strongman and
started working on the jerk technique again.
Circus Bell Press
This seems like it’s going to be a staple in contests so it’s a good idea to get some practice on it. If you
can’t afford one and can’t get access to one at least every couple weeks it’s a good idea to do some one
arm dumbbell presses to get your shoulder conditioned to the groove of the movement.
Yoke
Nothing will get your body conditioned to the strain of supporting and moving with heavy weights like
yoke walk. Unfortunately nothing will beat you up like it either! Training yoke too frequently, too heavy,
or with too much volume will make it hard for your central nervous system to recover and progress on
all lifts will come to a grinding halt. The best way to train yoke is alternate it weekly with farmers when
you’re a beginner. Rotate through a 3 week cycle of week 1 yoke, week 2 farmers, and week 3 front
carry. For an advanced strongman who is proficient in all the events, hitting yoke once a month and
farmers once a month will be plenty to allow all around progress without overtraining the central
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nervous system. Once a high level of development and skill has been earned, hitting squats will keep the
body conditioned to weights up high on the back. Farmers will take care of the “supporting weight while
you walk” muscles, deadlifts will keep the core strong and the drags and pulls will train the leg
conditioning needed. So hitting it once a month will be fine and allow progress of all lifts evenly.
Farmers
Heavy farmers are a close second to yoke for overloading the body and beating you down. However, just
like farmers will carry over to yoke, yoke will carry over to farmers. On the weeks in between farmers
training the deadlifts will strengthen the pick up, yoke will train the supporting/walking muscles, squats,
drags and pulls will take care of the rest. The combination of these things will allow progress to be had
every time you get back to farmers in the rotation. How do I know? It works on all the strongman
athletes I train. Ask Kristin Rhodes! It got her stronger than ever and won her the title of “Worlds
Strongest Woman”.
Front Carries
In the beginning it’s best to pick one style and work it. Lighter carries like keg and sandbag will allow
better recuperation than heavier ones like Conan’s wheel, Zercher Carries with the yoke and Hussafell
Stone. Depending on the level of athlete, how far out they are from a show and current
strengths/weaknesses and goals these could be rotated in on a third week OR left out completely till a
show is coming near. The combination of yoke and farmers walks along with stone loading, cleaning the
log and tire flip will adequately train all the muscles that need to be strong for front carries. As long as
conditioning is being trained it will take only a matter of weeks to get used to hitting some long carries.
If this is a weakness then it must be trained more often. If the athlete is particularly thick through the
waist and carries a big belly, the center of gravity changes and the load is so far away from the spine
they are at a distinct disadvantage. In this case, it would be prudent to train it more often AND lean out
a bit.
Tire Flip
This is probably the most notorious exercise for injury in strongman. Special care to learn the most
efficient technique for your body must be taken. It must be trained often enough to be conditioned to it
but not so often that the body starts to break down. Every second or third week seems to work best
here and volume should be kept fairly low. Almost never will you see more than 10 flips in a show so it’s
wise to keep total volume under 15-20 flips. I’ve found the best training strategy here is to start with
workout one consisting of 5 to 7 total singles taking ones time to learn the technique. Obviously if
lighter tires are available its best to start out easy. If the athlete is coming back from a period away from
the tire, 3 sets of 3 or 5 sets of 2 at a slow methodical pace work best for the first day back. Just enough
reps to practice technique but not get beat down. The next workout should be two weeks later and 2
sets of 5 flips going at a bit faster pace. The next workout 2 weeks after that could be 10 sets of 2 reps
on the top of every minute. Really focusing on transition times and explosive movements. Once the
athlete is conditioned to the tire a set of 10 flips for time can be rotated in every third week to work
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conditioning, strong triple extension for loading events and to keep the athlete’s flipping technique
sharp!
Stone Load
This is everyone’s favorite event. Nothing says “Strongman” like stone loads. It’s good to rotate through
workouts of 5 stone series with manageable weights to various heights to get good at transitioning from
stone to stone, stone over bar for reps in 90 seconds and working up to a max single. Stones should be
trained every 2nd week for a beginner / intermediate still learning events or every 3rd or 4th week for the
advanced guy to develop qualities that are applicable to many strongman events. Such as: Hugging
Strength used to grab sandbags, hussafell, fire hydrants and all odd objects. Triple extension to clean a
big log, flip a big tire or hoist up a big weight for a front carry.
Arm Over Arm
Arm over arm is a relatively easy to learn event. Basically you sit with your legs anchored and pull on a
long rope to drag an object toward you. If the weight is heavy you must quickly re-grip with both hands
and deadlift the weight toward you. If the weight is lighter it will be a more upright twisting and one arm
pulling motion to get your weight over the line. In the case of a vehicle it may start out as a deadlift but
as it gathers momentum you will switch to the alternated twisting pulling motion for greater speed.
Once the technique is acquired and understood, it is more of a conditioning event. As long as your upper
back, arms and grip are strong and well-conditioned it really doesn’t need to be trained often. However,
it is a great event to train for those qualities. Once every 4th week is about as often as it needs to be
trained before a show. In a 12 week cycle that means you’ll hit it 3 times.
Sled Drag
Sled drag is great for conditioning and knee rehab when trained light to medium. It can be trained
medium heavy quite often and is a great finisher on a every other week basis.
Chain Drag (and How to simulate with a sled and Kettlebells)
Dragging a sled and dragging a chain is very similar and a good training tool. However, nothing will
prepare you for the feeling of those heavy links in your hand and the oxygen deprivation you feel as
your lungs catch on fire and your legs turn to concrete while your chest cant expand because of the
downward pull from a heavy chain. The best way I’ve found to simulate the feel of the chain is to use a
50lb kettlebell as the handle you drag the sled with and hang a few 25lbs plates along the chain you are
pulling the sled with. This downward pressure changes the dynamic drastically and will come as close to
an actual chain as you can get.
Vehicle or Sled Push
Sled or vehicle push, like the sled drag, is great for conditioning the legs and strengthening the calves for
moving events. It can be trained every other or every third week for best results. It’s great when used as
a finisher for event days and alternated with sled drags on opposite weeks.
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Harness Vehicle or Sled Pull with Rope Assist
This is basically pulling a heavy object with your legs by wearing a harness and having a rope in front of
you to pull on with your arms. This is probably the best conditioning exercise you could ever do for
strongman as it works the entire body. If you could hit this once every third week hard you would be
golden come show time. However, sometimes the amount of time and effort it takes to set it up is
beyond the time constraints of the athlete. In that case vehicle and sled pushes and drags will have to be
close enough.
Conan’s Wheel
The biggest trick to Conan’s wheel and front carries in general is: Don’t have a gut. Every inch of fat
between you and the implement sends it further away from your center of gravity and adds extra stress
to the low back and hamstring. Fat guys are almost always last in these events. Think of sitting on a seesaw: every inch the other person moves away from you the “heavier” they get!
Must Do Gym Training
Bench
Most strongmen seem to shy away from bench because they may not be as good at it as they are at the
events and don’t want fellow lifters to see the chink in their armor. Also, it’s hard to get super good at
bench while training events because shoulder stabilizers are never 100% fresh for bench days. Besides
we don’t want a torn pec either right? True, but the bench is responsible for tremendous upper body
strength and growth in the biggest men of all time. Why wouldn’t you want to be strong in all angles of
pressing anyway? Presumably you got into strongman to be strong right? Why be weak at anything? The
solution is close grip bench. Not super close, just wide enough so your arms travel straight down in line
with your shoulders. This will allow you to press big weights which will develop all the upper body
pressing muscles and keep the risk of pec tear and shoulder impingement to a minimum.
Incline Press
The incline press will more directly transfer into overhead pressing strength than bench press and is a
little less risky than the bench when it comes to injury. Still the grip should be shoulder width apart like
the close grip bench and press with the elbows slightly forward not flared out or the carry over to
overhead pressing will be much less.
Squat
The overall hip/glute and leg mass (depending on style of squat) built from squatting can’t be beat.
Which way to squat? High bar oly style? Low bar wide powerlifting style? A hybrid of both? Switch every
workout? For the most part athletes should pick the style that feels most natural and work from there.
Each style has its benefits but the risk of fighting your own body’s mechanics just isn’t worth it. Add
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100lbs to any style of squat and the overall strength and development will transfer to the events quite
nicely. Dan Harrison is a good example of a strongman that was focused on pure event training and
shirked the more traditional lifts like squat and bench early in his career. When he decided to pursue
powerlifting his squat and bench improved rapidly and next thing you know he was posting 400lb logs
and 900lbs deadlifts.
Deadlift
If you want to be a strongman you’ve got to be good at deadlift. Virtually every show has some form of
deadlift in it. Car deadlift, axle deadlift, 18” tire deadlift etc. etc. Luckily if you understand the mechanics
of it and get a little practice on the actual implements, one transfers quite nicely to the next so you can
rotate through the different versions weekly or every other week depending on a variety of factors and
one builds the other quite nicely! The best versions in my opinion are: regular height, right below knee
caps (about 14-16”), and 18”. Getting strong from right below knee caps is important because it’s all
lower back, hammies and glutes. The bar must pass through this position on every full range deadlift and
developing strength in this position along with getting in the perfect position for a good start on this lift
will teach the athlete how to pass the knees with power when pulling from the floor and help them
overcome the usual just above knee sticking point. 18” is seen in contests quite frequently and the
heavier weights used in this version really help the athlete over load their body and get used to heavier
loads. Defecit deads can be useful in teaching the athlete how to drive with the legs if getting stuck on
the floor is a problem. However, the setup for a defecit deadlift is with a much more exaggerated bent
knee postion and doesn’t translate to the full version as the aforementioned lifts since they actually go
through a range the athlete will find themselves in on a regular deadlift.
Rows
Rows are a great upper back and bicep movement and teach the body to radiate power starting at the
hips then the back and followed by the biceps. Core to extremity is the correct movement pattern for all
lifts. Band Rows are a great exercise to use to warm up the biceps while reinforcing correct movement
patterns. Bent over Barbell Rows is a total body exercise that will build strength for any event relying on
the posterior chain. One arm rows teach the athlete to concentrate the strength of the entire body
behind one limb. It builds great core stability when done with heavy weights. Done strapless it is a great
grip and arm builder while still teaching the body the correct movement pattern and not to try and lift
with the bicep as a prime mover. One arm Kettlebell Rows allow a greater range of motion since the
plates wont be hitting your leg and lend themselves to a more bent over position. Also, they can be
done without straps and still not be limited by grip strength. Seated cable rowing is great for improving
arm over arm and pulling with big weights.
Front Squat
Some feel this is even more important for strongman than regular back squats. It develops great leg
drive for pressing and all the core and back muscles involved in front carries and loading. Pro Strongman
Marshall White told me it was responsible for making him a beast at front carries even though he rarely
trained front carries.
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WRITING YOUR OWN PROGRAMMING
Writing your won programming seems like a simple task at first. You take the stuff you NEED to do for
your sport. You add in the accessory exercises everyone else says you need. You add in the stuff you like.
Then you salt and pepper it with all kinds of fun and crazy set and rep progression schemes that would
make Smolov himself jealous. You look it over and it looks cool. Wait a minute; you forgot to add face
pulls. Everyone who’s anyone does them right? Oops, gotta add in some Z presses! Those are a must!
How about some bicep work? Some 100 rep curls like Poundstone would be cool as hell and we can’t
forget about some Indian Club work….somebody said those were good… Hmmmm, seems like a LOT…
You decide there’s no such thing as overtraining only under eating and failure of will. So you go out and
buy a shopping cart full of beef and stock up on some Jack3d. What the hell just happened there????
This is totally normal. In today’s instant access of information overload it’s easy to get carried away. We
want to make sure we get everything out of our training and not cut any corners or leave anything to
chance. Besides, there’s a little girl in Bulgaria squatting our max for reps 12 times a week so this can be
done….
OK enough joking around…
Dorian Yates told me “Make your training as simple as possible and only change one thing at a time.
Otherwise how will you know what’s working?”
DEFINING GOALS
Designing an effective program must begin by defining our goals. What are they exactly? Be as specific
as possible. Saying “I want to be strong” or “I want to compete in a strongman contest” is a good start.
However, we need to define specific parameters. “I want to squat 600, bench 400 and deadlift 700” or “I
want to compete at the Baddest of the Bayou in 16 weeks” are much more workable scenarios. Even “I
want to be World’s Strongest Man” is better, no matter how unlikely, because it gives us a blue print to
work backwards from. End goals don’t need to be all that realistic because we won’t know what we’re
capable of until we try. Setting up smaller goals needs to be attainable. For example; anyone can say “I
want to win World’s Strongest Man one day” even if they currently only have a max squat of 100lbs..
Obviously one of the smaller goals will be to bring that up. Saying “I want to squat 400lbs in 12 weeks
with a current max of 100 is obviously ridiculous”. Once a goal is set we must figure out what is
necessary to accomplish that task.
DEFINING THE NECESSITIES
Ok, so our goal is to win The World’s Strongest Man. What is necessary to accomplish this? We know
every year there is a certain base of events and we know what the majority of competitors are capable
of on each. For example: a competitor that can’t move pretty damn quick though a 100m yoke run of
900lbs, rep the hell out of a 300lb Log and load a 400lb stone at the end of a series isn’t likely to make
the finals. There are other standards as well and the weights are increasing yearly at an alarming rate.
However, having specific goals in mind will allow us to break down our training yearly, monthly, weekly
and finally daily. To get to WSM we will need to build the strength and eventually work our way up
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through the ranks to get there. Picking a smaller goal like “Making it to Nationals next year” is a little less
daunting and can be broken down a bit more specifically. We know the basic events contested and we
know the competition schedule coming up so we can pick out our qualifier. From there we will choose
our “Must Do’s”
ACCESSORIES
Whether or not we need accessories and which ones we need is highly individual. How frequently we
program them in and how much volume we do with them will depend greatly on: our current level of
development and current volume of training. Throwing stuff in just because everyone does it is a
haphazard approach at best. Everything we do should have a clear cut purpose so adaptive energies
aren’t wasted on BS movements we don’t need. For example: A guy with tremendous upper back and
rear delt development doesn’t need to be wasting time doing endless sets of face pulls because he read
somewhere his favorite lifter does them. Conversely, a guy with a 325 strict press and a 365 push press
or jerk doesn’t need to be doing Z presses every week. He would be much better off using the time and
energy to learn how to push press or jerk properly.
WHERE TO GO FROM HERE
When planning your program it is best to take into account what you are currently doing and add or
subtract slowly. Adding a bunch of stuff too heavy or too fast without giving your body time to adjust
and adapt can lead to overtraining and injury. Taking too much stuff away is far less risky but can lead to
a decrease in overall conditioning. If you are adding strongman events like yoke and farmers to your
routine for the first time; it is appropriate to keep weight and volume low and increase each or both
weekly so as to learn the technique and give your central nervous system, joints and muscles a chance
to become conditioned to the new movements.
Some Programming examples:
Sample 3 Day A Week Split
For the best results in strongman I prefer a 3 day work week. This allows a full days rest between
workouts and 2 days rest between weekly cycles. For CrossFitters, 5 or 6 days are needed to work on the
huge variety of skills they may be expected to perform (although most of those days will include mostly
skill and lighter loads used to build up the lungs and work capacity). For Powerlifters great gains can
even be made on 2 days a week since they are using higher loads and don’t need as much practice. It is
possible to have 2-3 full days off between sessions and come back fresher and grow stronger for each.
For weightlifters (or oly guys as the rest of us call them) more days can be programmed because they
need frequent practice to hone skills and don’t need as long to set up and train each lift. Also the nature
of the quick lifts is that they aren’t as stressful on the muscles and won’t lead to overtraining as easily.
Strongman is also unique in that one may or may not require skill work depending on their goals. For
example: Zydrunas probably doesn’t need a ton of skill practice to muscle a 500lb log over his head with
brute force but Mikhail Koklyaev has spent a ton of time perfecting his split jerk. In the beginning it will
be appropriate to do a lot more volume in training to learn the techniques since the weights will be
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fairly light. The advanced lifter, however, who already has a solid grasp of technique but stresses his or
her body to the core by hoisting bone crushing weights, will need lower volume of training and much
more rest. The following is your basic split along with the how and why’s…
Day 1
Overhead pressing is best here because the hips and back are usually tired from event training on the
prior weekend and are not yet ready for a big squat or deadlift. In the intermediate and advanced lifter I
recommend alternating between strict presses as your main lift here one week and a dynamic push
press or jerk on the next.
Accessory work for this day would be an upper back movement. Alternating rows one week with pullups or pulldowns the next works nicely. Trying to keep the rows on weeks you’re squatting and pullups
on deadlift weeks keeps overlap to a minimum. Also, during periods where intense tire flipping or stone
work is scheduled for the coming weekend it is prudent to keep the intensity down a bit on these so
biceps are fresh and recovered for the more dangerous movements.
Supported pressing such as bench press or incline should be done on this day also. It can be done as an
accessory exercise at the end of the workout on weeks where a dynamic press is the first exercise or as
the primary movement on weeks as your strict press variation.
Day 2
This is your squat and/or deadlift day. I recommend deadlifting on the weeks you have done dynamic
pressing. Then squatting on the weeks you do strict pressing. This way your knees are fresher for the
squat.
Core work is done on this day and should be worked in low volume high intensity sets. If you are new to
core specific work, start light and increase weekly over a period of time. Weighted ab work involving the
hip flexors like sit-ups or leg raises and side bends holding a dumbbell in one hand is plenty when
combined with all the supported work your midsection will do on a typical event day. Some like to do
rotational work as well here. Still keeping the movements low volume and in a safe range of motion is
your best bet.
Day 3
Yoke or Farmers. Yoke is best done on the weeks you’ve deadlifted and farmers on the weeks you’ve
squatted. This keeps lifts less similar and allows for better recovery.
Tire flip/stones/sandbag all work the biceps heavy and have enough overlap that only one is needed per
week. Obviously if one is truly lacking on the technique it would be appropriate to train that more often
than the other two. Keep volume low here and break into the intensity slowly if you’re new to the
movements or haven’t done them in a while so the tendons and connective tissues can become
conditioned to the movements without setting yourself up for an injury.
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Drag and Push Alternating between a sled drag and a car or prowler push weekly is a great way to get in
some extra lung work and condition the calves and Achilles to the motion of pushing and pulling they
will be expected to do in upcoming shows. If tire is trained on this day sled drag will have less overlap
than pushing.
BASIC STRONGMAN
The focus of this 12 week template is the development of strength while acquiring the technical skills to
become proficient in the most often seen strongman events. It is a 2 week rotation. There is no
accessory work as just about every muscle is hit good and hard throughout the week. A case could be
made for the addition of an upper back exercise either between the two pressing exercise on day one
OR as a warm up before stones and tire. Core work would be added at the end of day 2. Vehicle pushing
alternated weekly with sled dragging could be fit in on the end of day 3. Remember though, the more
you add to this the less energy you will have to recover and grow from the meat of it!
Week 1
Day 1
Close Grip Bench: Work up over 7 sets to a 3rm. For example: 45x10 95x5 135x3 185x3 225x3 275x3
315x3 pause all reps of all sets on the chest for 1 sec.
Log Strict Press: Work up over 4 sets to a 5rm. Example: 100x5 130x5 160x5 190x5
Day 2
Squat: Work up over 7 sets to a 3rm. Pause each rep at the bottom for 1 sec.
Deadlift: Work up over 5 sets to a 5rm. Touch and go style.
Day 3
Yoke: Do 5 progressively heavier runs of 50ft. Go up to a challenging but manageable weight. Should be
heavy enough to slow you down but not so heavy you can barely walk with it.
Stones: Do 1 set of 5 light loads then one load on the minute for 5 minutes with a medium heavy stone.
Week 2
Day 1
Close Grip Incline: Work up over 7 progressively heavier sets to a 3rm. Pause each rep on the chest 1
sec.
Axle Press: Work up over 4 sets to a 5rm.
Day 2
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Front Squat: Work up over 7 progressively heavier sets to a 3rm. Pause each rep in the hole 1sec.
Rack Pull: Work up over 5 sets to a 5rm. Pull each rep from a dead stop.
Day 3
Farmers: Do a 200ft run with a turn at 100ft with a light weight. Then do a medium heavy weight for
100ft. Then finish with a heavy weight for 50ft. On the last run hold the handles for max time before
dropping.
Tire Flip: Do 1 rep on the minute for 10 minutes.
Week 3
Day 1
Close Grip Bench: Work up over 7 sets to a 2rm. Pause each rep on the chest 1 sec.
Log Strict Press: Work up over 4 sets to a 3rm.
Day 2
Squat: Work up over 7 sets to a 2rm. Pause each rep at the bottom for 1 sec.
Deadlift: Work up over 5 sets to a 3rm. Touch and go style.
Day 3
Yoke: Do 3 progressively heavier runs of 50ft to get up to 70% of your top run from last time. Do 3 runs
with 70% time each one and try and go faster!
Stones: Do 1 set of 5 light loads then 2 loads on the minute for 5 minutes with the same stone as last
time.
Week 4
Day 1
Close Grip Incline: Work up over 7 progressively heavier sets to a 2rm. Pause each rep on the chest 1
sec.
Axle Press: Work up over 4 sets to a 3rm.
Day 2
Front Squat: Work up over 7 progressively heavier sets to a 2rm. Pause each rep in the hole 1sec.
Rack Pull: Work up over 5 sets to a 3rm. Pull each rep from a dead stop.
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Day 3
Farmers: Do a 200ft run with a turn at 100ft with 20lbs more per hand than last time. Then do a 100ft
run with 20lbs more per hand than last time. Then finish with a max weight run for 50ft. On the last run
hold the handles for max time before dropping.
Tire Flip: Do 2 reps on the minute for 5 minutes.
Week 5
Day 1
Close Grip Bench: Work up over 7 sets to a 1rm. Pause each rep on the chest 1 sec.
Log Strict Press: Work up over 4 sets to a 2rm.
Day 2
Squat: Work up over 7 sets to a 1rm. Pause each rep at the bottom for 1 sec.
Deadlift: Work up over 5 sets to a 2rm. Touch and go style.
Day 3
Yoke: Do 3 progressively heavier runs of 50ft to get up to 80% of your top run from week 1. Do 3 runs
with 70% time each one and try and go faster!
Stones: Do 1 set of 5 light loads then 1 set of max loads in 60seconds with the same stone as last time.
Week 6
Day 1
Close Grip Incline: Work up over 7 progressively heavier sets to a 1rm. Pause each rep on the chest 1
sec.
Axle Press: Work up over 4 sets to a 2rm.
Day 2
Front Squat: Work up over 7 progressively heavier sets to a 1rm. Pause each rep in the hole 1sec.
Rack Pull: Work up over 5 sets to a 2rm. Pull each rep from a dead stop.
Day 3
Farmers: Work up to 70% of your heaviest 50ft run and do 3 runs of 50ft for speed. Time each run and
try and get faster.
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Tire Flip: Do 2 sets of 5 flips.
Week 7
Day 1
Close Grip Bench: Work up over 7 sets to a 3rm. No pausing on chest.
Log Push Press: Work up over 4 sets to a 5rm.
Day 2
Squat: Work up over 7 sets to a 3rm. No pause in bottom..
Deadlift: Work up over 5 sets to a 5rm. Each rep form a dead stop.
Day 3
Yoke: Do 5 progressively heavier runs of 50ft up to a max 50ft run.
Stones: Do 1 set of 5 light loads then one load on the minute for 5 minutes with a heavier stone.
Week 8
Day 1
Close Grip Incline: Work up over 7 progressively heavier sets to a 3rm. No pause on chest.
Axle Push Press: Work up over 4 sets to a 5rm.
Day 2
Front Squat: Work up over 7 progressively heavier sets to a 3rm. No pause in hole.
Rack Pull: Work up over 5 sets up to a new 5rm. Shoot for a 20-30lb gain don’t get too greedy. Pull each
from dead stop.
Day 3
Farmers: Do a 200ft run with a turn at 100ft with a light weight. Then do a medium heavy weight for
200ft with a turn at 100.
Tire Flip: Do 2 reps on the minute for 10 minutes.
Week 9
Day 1
Close Grip Bench: Work up over 7 sets to a 2rm. No pause on chest.
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Log Push Press: Work up over 4 sets to a 3rm.
Day 2
Squat: Work up over 7 sets to a 2rm. No pause in hole.
Deadlift: Work up over 5 sets to a 3rm. Pull form a dead stop each rep.
Day 3
Yoke: Do 4 progressively heavier runs of 50ft to get up to 90% of your top run from last time. Do 2 runs
with 90% time each one and try and go faster!
Stones: Do 1 set of 5 light loads then max loads in a minute with your weight from week 7.
Week 10
Day 1
Close Grip Incline: Work up over 7 progressively heavier sets to a 2rm. No pause on chest.
Axle Push Press: Work up over 4 sets to a 3rm.
Day 2
Front Squat: Work up over 7 progressively heavier sets to a 2rm. No pause in hole.
Rack Pull: Work up over 5 sets to a new 3rm. Pull each rep from a dead stop.
Day 3
Farmers: Work up over 4 runs of 100ft to a max weight for 100ft no drops!
Tire Flip: Do max reps in one minute.
Week 11
Day 1
Close Grip Bench: Work up over 7 sets to a 1rm. No pause on chest.
Log Push Press: Work up over 7 progressively heavier sets to a 1rm.
Day 2
Squat: Work up over 7 sets to a 1rm. No pause in hole.
Deadlift: Work up over 7 sets to a new 1rm.
Day 3
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Yoke: Do 3 progressively heavier runs of 50ft to get up to 80% of your top run from week 1. Do 3 runs
with 70% time each one and try and go faster!
Stones: Work up over 4 or 5 progressively heavier singles to a 1rm.
Week 12
Day 1
Close Grip Incline: Work up over 7 progressively heavier sets to a 1rm. No pause on chest.
Axle Push Press: Work up over 7 sets to a 1rm.
Day 2
Front Squat: Work up over 7 progressively heavier sets to a 1rm. No pause in hole.
Rack Pull: Work up over 5 sets to a 1rm.
Day 3
Farmers: Work up to a new max 50ft run.
Tire Flip: Do 2 flips on the minute for 10 minutes.
ADVANCED STRONGMAN PROGRAMMING
This template is for the athlete that has a solid technique in the basic lifts and is now mostly concerned
with building overall strength. The movements are done with the perfect frequency to build strength
and not over train any one movement pattern. A beginner would need more frequent bouts with each
exercise to really hone their technique. This template revolves around the basic movement patterns you
will see in every strongman contest and will have carry over to the events less frequently seen. It is a 4
week rotation that can easily be manipulated to peak for a show. For the most part I recommend a 3 day
week. This gives more rest for the central nervous system and cuts down on body part Overlap.
Following are 2 examples of advanced programming.
KRISTIN RHODES PROGRAM TO WIN 2015 ARNOLD
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THIS IS THE ACTUAL ROUTINE I SENT TO KRISTIN TO PREPARE FOR HER WIN AT THE 2015 ARNOLD
Here is what we knew when we decided she was going to train for The 2015 Arnold’s:
It would be a 2 day contest:
Day 1
120 DB for reps in 60 seconds
500 yoke 60 ft down drop pick up and take back 60ft
220 farmers 60ft
DL medley 90 seconds
straps allowed no suits
405 barbell
405 axle
Car DL pull for max reps
Day 2
Last man standing log press
athlete must take all jumps
Mystery event?????
Up to this point I had Kristin doing lighter CrossFit workouts for rehab from her surgery and to lose some
weight and get in shape. When she decided she wanted to do the Arnold’s we knew it was going to be
cutting it close. We had to make sure every workout was on point for the next 11 weeks if she was going
to come back at 100% or better.
12/21
Day 1
AXLE CLEAN AND POWER JERK Start with the empty axle and do singles taking 20lbs jumps. Only move
up to the next weight if your technique was perfect on the last. Work up to a 1rm for the day. Drop
down to a fairly easy weight and do a PERFECT set of 5.
PUSHUPS With band across neck. Make any kind of PR you want for 2 sets. Add bands or do more reps.
Day 2
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SQUAT Do triples up to a 3rm.
Abs Your choice 2 hard sets,
Day 3
STONE Do and easy 3 stone series carrying each stone 20ft. Do a medium 3 stone series carrying each
stone 20 ft. Do a heavy 3 stone series from right in front of platforms.
SANDBAG CARRY Carry a heavy bag max distance. Rest exactly 5 minutes and carry it back.
12/28
Day 1
CLOSE GRIP BENCH Do triples up to a 3rm.
CIRCUS BELL Do one rep on the minute for 5 minutes with 90% of your 1rm left then change the weight
and do the same with 90% on your right.
Day 2
DEADLIFT Work doubles up to a 2rm.
BENT OVER ROWS Work up to a medium hard set of 5 then drop weight and do a set of 10. Both sets
should be bodybuilder pump style.
Day 3
YOKE Do 50ft runs with 300 400 500 600 Then do a run just like show with 500.
CAR PUSH Do 2 sets of 150ft
1/4
Day 1
LOG CLEAN AND POWER JERK Start with empty log and do singles taking 10lbs jumps to a 1rm. Only add
weight if the last set was perfect.
ONE ARM ROWS Hit a PR strapless and a PR strapped in. Weight and reps are up to you as long as it’s a
PR.
50 Burpees for time.
Day 2
FRONT SQUAT Work singles up to a 1rm.
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Abs Your choice, 2 PR sets.
Day 3
FARMERS Work up to 70% of your best 50ft run and do 3 runs of 50ft. On each run I want you do
deadlift them 3 times and then take off on the third one. First set medium fast, second one faster, 3rd
full speed. Rest, then do a pick and hold for max time.
SLED DRAG 5 runs of 100ft with 1 minute rest between. Go about 60% of your heaviest recent weight.
1/11
Day 1
AXLE Do singles taking 20lb jumps up to 90% of your 1rm.
CIRCUS BELL Show weight max reps in 60 secs strong arm then do same percentage that ends up being
of your max for the other arm for 60 secs max reps.
Day 2
SQUAT Doubles up to a 2rm.
Abs Your choice 2 hard sets.
Day 3
STONE Work singles up to a good heavy load.
SANDBAG CARRY Max distance in 2 minutes unlimited drops. Don’t be a pussy
1/18
Day 1
CLOSE GRIP BENCH work up to a 2rm.
CIRCUS BELL Work up to a set of 5 at 70% of max.
Day 2
AXLE DEADLIFT Work up to a 1rm set up like show. Drop down and do a set of 8.
AXLE BENT OVER ROW Work up to a set of 5 with no straps then a heavy set of 5 with straps.
Day 3
YOKE Work up to a good heavy 50ft run at about 90%.
CAR PUSH 2 sets of 150ft.
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1/25
Day 1
LOG Warm up then do one clean and 2 jerks at 30%, 45%, 60%, 75%.
ONE ARM ROW Work up to a medium set of 10 strapless and a medium set of 10 strapped in.
CIRCUS BELL Do 2 reps on the minute for 5 minutes right arm with 120 then do 2 reps on the minute for
5 minutes with the left arm using a weight that will be the same effort that 120 was for your strong arm.
Day 2
FRONT SQUAT Work up to a new 5rm.
ABS Your choice 1 all out PR set.
Day 3
FARMERS Work up to a max 50ft carry. Then do a max rep set of farmers deadlifts with a weight you can
hit at least 10 with.
SLED DRAG 3 runs of 100ft. 1st light, second medium heavy but smooth. 3rd Grinder.
WEEK OF 2/1
DAY 1
CLOSE GRIP BENCH Work singles up to a new 1rm.
AXLE JERK OUT OF RACK Do 8 sets of 2 with a minutes rest with 80% of 1rm.
DAY 2
SQUAT Work up to a good heavy single with about 90% of 1rm.
ABS Your choice 2 max reps sets.
DAY 3
STONES Set up a 5 stone carry and load from varying distances and heights like at wsm. Do one run light
and one run medium. Work on speed and transitions.
CAR PUSH 2 pushes of 150ft.
WEEK OF 2/8
DAY 1
LOG C+P Work singles taking 20lb jumps up to a new 1rm.
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CIRCUS BELL Work singles up to a max taking 10lbs jumps. Drop to 70% of what you hit on each arm for
max reps in one minute.
DAY 2
DEADLIFT MEDLEY Set up like show and run through twice. First time just do one rep with each weight
without the rep-out at the end. Second time do the rep-out at the end.
DAY 3
SPEED YOKE Do 3 runs of 50ft with 500lbs. Rest 1 minute between runs.
SLED DRAG Do 5 runsof 100ft with a medium weight with 1 minutes rest between runs.
Here’s the final peak for your show. Resist the urge to go crazy! Trust in who you are and where you are
at!
WEEK OF 2/15
Day 1
Close Grip bench Work 5 progressively heavier sets of 3 up to a good solid triple with 80% of 1rm.
One Arm Rows Work up with 3 progressively heavier sets of 10 each arm to about 20lbs less than you
think you could hit if you went all out for 10 reps. Strap in for all sets after warm up.
Day 2
Squat Work up over 5 progressively heavier sets to a set of 5 with 75% of 1 rep max.
ABS Your choice 2 medium hard sets.
Day 3
FARMERS Work up over 3-4 progressively heavier sets to show weight for 1 run just like show
conditions.
Sandbag Carry Max distance in 2 minutes. Go all out!
CAR PUSH Do 2 pushes of 150ft.
2/22
DAY 1
LOG OUT OF RACK Work singles taking 20lb jumps up to 80% of max for a single. Really focus on fast
solid drives!
DAY 2
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FRONT SQUAT Work up to a double at 80% of max.
DAY 3
SLED Do 5 100ft runs with 1 minute rest between.
3/1 OFF WEEK OF SHOW DO THE USUAL WALKS, STRETCH, ROLL OUT, STAY HYDRATED ETC…
WIN SHOW!
CARL FOEMMEL
Here is an example of 4 weeks of programming I used for Pro-Strongman Carl Foemmel back in 2014. It
is a good example of where accessory work can be put in and how to set it up.
Carl Deadlifting 750 for reps!
Pressing a 300 plus pound keg!
WEEK of 7/27
DAY 1
LOG PRESS: Work up doing one clean then one strict press and 1 push press with each weight, taking
30lb jumps to 30 lbs LESS than you maxed out on for strict press last time. Then continue up doing
singles on push press for a new max.
WEIGHTED PUSHUPS: Use bands or a plate or sandbag on your back. Use 5-10lbs more resistance than
last time and do 2 sets max reps.
DAY 2
DEADLIFT: Do singles taking 90lb jumps up to a max single.
SHRUGS: 1 set of 20 reps with no straps. Then one set 20 reps with straps.
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DB CURLS: Work up to a good hard set of max reps each arm with the weight you have gotten your best
set of 10 with.
DAY 3
YOKE: Work up to a max 50ft carry (no drops).
CAR PUSH (or sled): 3 sets of 100ft with exactly 2 minutes rest between.
WEEK of 8/3
DAY 1
CLOSE GRIP BENCH: Work up to a 2 rep max then drop down to a set of 5 pauses.
ONE ARM DB SHOULDER PRESS: (strict) work up to 2 sets each arm for max reps with 5 lbs more than
last time. OR more reps with same DB if no heavier available.
DAY 2
LEG PRESS: Do sets of 5 up to a 20 rep set with 20- 50lbs more than last time.
LEG PRESS CALF: Work up to a good hard set of 25 reps.
DAY 3
ROWS: Your choice. Work up to a medium set of 5 reps.
STONE OVER BAR: Work sets of 3 with each weight then do 5 reps with your 360.
HUSAFELL CARRY: (or any stone or sandbag that weights 300ish) Go max distance, drop, rest 5 minutes,
carry back. Beat last time!!!!
WEEK of 8/10
DAY 1
AXLE PRESS: Do one clean and one strict then one push press taking 30lb jumps till you hit a 1rm strict
press then do one clean and push press till you get a 1rm on push.
CLOSE GRIP AXLE FLOOR PRESS: Work up to a good heavy set of 8 reps. Pause each on the bottom.
DAY 2
RACK PULL: Do sets of 2 up to a 2rm.
FRONT SQUAT: Work up to a 3rm for the day.
DAY 3
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FARMERS: Do 125x200ft with a turn at 100, 215x100ft with a turn at 50ft, 305x50ft, 355x25ft then hit
the max weight you think you could go 50ft with no drops. Hold for max time before setting at the end.
SLED DRAG: 3 progressively heavier sets of 100ft. Beat last time!
WEEK of 8/17
DAY 1
CLOSE GRIP INCLINE: Work up to a 3rm then do a set of 3 pauses.
ONE ARM DB ROW: Work up to a max rep set with no straps. Then strap in and do one set of max reps
each arm.
SEATED DB PRESS: Work up doing 5’s to either a 5lb gain for a 10rm or max reps with the heaviest bells
if you’re already there.
DAY 2
SQUAT: Work up to a good heavy double.
ABS Your choice 2 hard sets.
DB SIDE BENDS: One light set of 15 each side then one set 10 heavier. Use 5-10lbs more than last time.
DAY 3
SAND BAG: 1st set carry the 300 for 50ft and load it. 2nd set, load the 300 max times in one minute. 3rd
set, carry the 300 max distance.
CAR PUSH: Do 3 pushes of 100 ft with 1.5 minutes rest between.
IN SUMMARY
Training is stress. Stress hurts the body. The body adapts to better handle more stress. The body must
be stressed enough to elicit a response. The body must be rested enough to allow the response to occur.
Skills must be practiced. Doing too much will lead to overtraining and/or injury. Doing too little will not
stress the body enough to change. Training is an act of balancing equations. Finding the least amount of
training needed to stimulate a response and giving 100% intensity and focus into that training is your
winning ticket.
Train Smarter AND Harder,
Mike Westerling
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