Question of the Week #4: Starting Strongman - March 2, 2007

by Ben Hanson

This week's Question of the Week comes from "DannyMac" on the chazingkaz messgeboard (if you haven't checked it out yet, there's a link to it on the right).

"Are there some general rules of thumb or an overall strength level someone should have before considering strongman event training. How strong should you be at the three powerlifting lifts, plus any others that are applicable before it would be beneficial to begin event training? Obviously this is different for light vs. heavyweight, but any rules of thumb would do."

As a general rule of thumb, if you are asking this sort of question, you should get your ass out there and give it a shot. In all seriousness, if you've asked this question you'll find strongman training both challenging and inspiring.

When I first got the bee up my ass to try this stuff, I was relatively weak. My deadlift was barely over 400 lbs and my squat was even less impressive. In fact, I never even had aspirations of competing when I first started. I just wanted to try a new style fo training to make me a better rugby player. Don't get me wrong, I was no weakling when I stumbled onto the scene, but I didn't possess a fraction of the "powerlifting strength" that some of these guys have.

I walked away from my first session training strongman events knowing a couple of things:

First, I was going to do this again. It was a refreshing change and challenge. It broke up the monotony of standard day-to-day gym training and it forced me to use muscles that I'd never used before.

Second, if I wanted to maximize my event training sessions, I was going to have to get stronger in the "meat and potatoes" lifts, primarily the deadlift. The necessity for a killer deadlift inspired me to train it endlessly

My decision to enter my first contest was almost entirely a consequence of those two pieces of knowledge. I loved training events so much I almost had to do it. The training also helped me achieve my original goal of becoming more dominant on the rugby pitch.

That was the long answer.

The short answer is that there is no minimum standard. I could say that you have to deadlift 600 lbs and squat just as much to be successful, but I'd be lying. You'll certainly have a great base to work with if you can lift that much, but those aren't the only aspects of strongman. In all honesty, I'm not very strong compared to the other competitors when it comes to the tradinal powerlifting lifts, but I make up for it with my pure athleticism in the other events. Strength, agility, speed, endurance, and guts are just as important as raw strength.

f you have any interest, any curiosity, try it. Don't worry about where you begin or how quickly you achieve arbitrary target numbers. You will progress at your own pace.

Just Imagine where you would be if you'd never had sex because of your virgin apprehensions.

Posted by Ben Hanson at 9:27 AM

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