The Misuse of Strongman Training Part I

A few years ago I was presenting at the Sport Specific conference with a host of coaches that was quite impressive. People such as Alwyn Cosgrove, Mike Boyle, Lee Taft, Dave Schmitz, Brian Grasso, and many more were all in the mix. I remember this being my first time in speaking in front of several hundred fitness professionals. I wasn't too nervous, I knew my presentation and felt confident it what I was going to speak about. However, when Ryan Lee told me that I was moved to present after Mike Boyle, I was a little more intimidated.

I had seen Mike Boyle present before and he does a great job of captivating his audience. I knew following him would be a great challenge as many people would still be digesting all that Mike had to say. So, I knew I had to bring my A game and standing outside rehearsing and preparing, I did feel a little nervous.

However, everything became so much more complicated as Alwyn Cosgrove and Ryan Lee hunted me down with a very concerned look on their faces. I thought, "great I've been bumped from the conference!" When in fact, they both tried to console me as though something very bad had happened. They kept saying to me, "you know he isn't talking about you." I had no idea what they were talking about, but I found out quickly Mike Boyle was saying how strongman training was just stupid.

I have to admit, my first reaction was to get very upset, ok, I was pissed!! I couldn't understand why a great coach would talk so badly about a method of training that was exploding because of it functional carryover. It wouldn't be for a few more years till I would understand what he was actually talking about.

At the time I was too deaf to listen to Mike's objection because I was immersed in training for a strongman competition. I was not only training for a competition, but had credited much of the training to healing my back. As I look back though, many people would assume that strongman training was ALL I did for my back. This is far from the truth. The extent to my low back rehab goes far beyond just using Strongman training (I will talk about this later).

Yet, the focus continued to be on strongman training and what I didn't realize at the time was how people were going to apply this type of training to various programs. When I trained for Strongman, the goal was to lift as heavy as possible, as fast as possible. I recall my first few times lifting stones my biceps throbbed for about two weeks!!!! I remember as the training for a competition got closer and closer, it was more about just managing my pain rather than increasing performance. Then I realized something really important!!!

I began to notice that many of the guys I trained with and myself moved horribly!! Yea, we looked like we could lift a lot of weight, but our arms didn't move when we walked, it felt like as though a steel rod was in my back and moving quickly or athletically was going to take some serious warming-up!!

Of course, if your only goal is to be a competitive strongman, then yes, this is part of the business. However, I know many coaches that are now implementing strongman based training for athletes and fitness individuals alike!

In regards to athletic training, the question has to be asked, "what is the cost of this training versus the benefit?" After being involved in strongman training for a few years now I think I can speak intelligently on the impact of certain types of training on athletic development. The truth of the matter is that there is nothing wrong with any of these movements, the problem comes from our lack of conditioning and strength to deal with them appropriately.

In Part II of this series I will cover how the different strongman events impact performance, good and bad! I will also discuss how to intelligently apply strongman training to any individual.