In today’s Strongman Landscape we’ve never had more opportunities to compete at high level shows. With a pair of National’s every year, Pro Strongman League Championships, Regionals for Strongman Corporation and the Official Strongman Games and of course the Arnold and OSG respectively, planning out your year can seem daunting. After a decade in the sport, having competed at some of the biggest shows, and working with hundreds of athletes at all levels I can say the main reason for the turnover at the highest levels of the sport is injuries. While some are obviously unpreventable, many of the nagging injuries we carry with us through prep after prep are preventable, or at least manageable if we’d take some time here and there to work on them instead of cramming our schedule full of heavy back-to-back shows.
The best piece of advice I received in this sport was from fellow 105kg (OG) Pro Strongman Derek Stone, who asked me (during his annual Refuge Classic) if I wanted to win shows or just compete at them. When asked for clarity he doubled down, “I watch you compete a lot, and every show you go into you’re competitive, but you’re competing too frequently to really achieve anything.” Driving home from that show holding on to my 2nd place trophy his words burned in my ears. From there I took some time before I “competed” again, realigned my training, goals, and applications. I went from competing 8-12 times a year to 3-4 depending on the opportunity and demands of the show. I began to prioritize an “off-season” and focus on my General Physical Preparedness (GPP). I would follow each show with a “recovery week” right into a GPP Block of 4-8 weeks depending on when my next show was planned for. Followed by a block of Specific Physical Preparedness (SPP). Think of GPP as widening your base, and SPP as honing your craft (aka specific implement preparation). GPP is meant to improve movement and mobility, its meant to be restorative and rehabilitative. Our preps are demanding enough, we can’t expect to batter our bodies week in and week out for numerous, back-to-back preps and take a better version of ourselves on to the competition field.
Getting started; as Strongmen & Women we do a majority of our work in the Sagittal Plane (all of our presses, squats, deadlifts, most of our carries) Training in the Transverse Plane however is where the magic happens. Building this rotational mobility and strength assists in building the armour needed for our sport, as well as improving your load management when loaded unilaterally (Farmer’s, Yoke, etc). Training in the Transverse Plane can be separated between rotational & anti-rotational work. Rotational work creates force through rotational movements, some of my favourite examples of these are; Reciprocating Ball Slams, Landmine Rotations, Bulgarian Bag Swings, and Kettlebell Rotational Swings. Anti-Rotation exercises on the other hand are all about fighting that resistance. Some of my favourite examples here include; Suitcase Deadlift, Suitcase Carries, Pall of Press, Single Kettlebell Front Squats, Half-Kneeling Kettlebell Strict Press. The ability to move, and function in this plane is an absolute necessity for LONGEVITY in this sport, and is my biggest mistake looking back that I didn’t prioritize it more.
While the sphere of (dare I say) “functional fitness” is inundated with charlatans, there are a lot of great examples and coaches to be found. You’ll find kettlebell “specialists” claiming it’s the best training tool, mace swingers, rope flowers, sandbag puritans and the like. The main takeaway here is, train odd. Strongman in and of itself is about being able to move “odd” things in odd ways. Take that into your training, reinforce and widen your base during the off-season, and don’t be married to the Sagittal Plane. Don’t overthink it, and don’t limit yourself, stick with variations of the basic human movements and go from there. Run, Jump, Squat, Hinge, Press, Carry, Twist.
In closing, Strongman is what you make it. If you want to compete in a parking lot twice a year, there’s a spot, and a community for you. If you want to compete 15 times a year and be East Georgia’s 3rd Strongest Deadlifter then there’s a spot for you too. But, if you want to do well at the top level of the sport for any length of time, and (more importantly) enjoy it while you’re there, then you have to prioritize an off-season, and becoming more generally physically prepared for the reality of what multiple heavy shows with very little rest will do to you.
Tyler Young
105kg Pro Strongman
Owner- Great Ape Performance
Co-Owner- BG Strength
