Crissco
Master Don Juan
Heres some compound moment exercises to improve your overall strength.
Clean Pulls
Set up like a deadlift, except use an overhand grip (instead of a mixed grip) and keep your hips lower. Pull the bar past your knees and at the lower third of the thigh move your knees and hips forward. Extend explosively into a top shrug position.
Clean Holds
As an early preparatory exercise for Farmer's Walks, I used this to increase my grip strength. Holding something in front of your thighs is harder than when your hands are at your sides, so grab a barbell using a regular grip. Deadlift it from a rack or the floor, lock out, and hold for 60 seconds. Do this in front of a mirror and count how many shades of red your face turns! This is also a great forearm exercise and can help you ditch your lifting straps by strengthening your grip.
Farmer's Walk
Grasp a heavy object in each hand and walk — that's it. Since the grip width, implement diameter, and weight vary from competition to competition, I practice with a wide variety of equipment. Heavy dumbbells, however, should work well for you if you've never tried these. I like to walk a 100-foot course and then come back.
Early in my training I focused on increasing the weight. My next goal is to work up to 400 pounds in each hand. As I get closer to the competition, I focus on speed for the actual distance. Tips: Start with your wrists flexed. As you lift the weights off the ground, they'll straighten your wrists out. Also, make sure you're balanced before trying to walk fast with the weight.
Push Presses
Set up like you're going to do standing barbell presses. Let the bar rest on your clavicles. Bend your knees slightly and extend them explosively while pushing the bar overhead. Use the momentum from your legs to drive the bar to lockout.
One armed Dumbbell Snatch
When you first pull the weight off the floor, most of the work is being done by your legs, which are driving upwards. Once your legs have fully extended, the weight has probably come up to your chest and at that point you squat down very quickly so that your body is now under the weight and driving upwards again. If you don’t do this, it’s your arms and shoulders that will be doing the lifting, when really you need to make use of the big muscles in your legs to do the donkey work.
It’s a bit weird at first getting the timing right, but once you get it, you see how effective it is. The better your technique, the more weight you can snatch.
The Barbell Row.
Get the bar off the floor with straight arms by extending your hips. Pull your elbows to the ceiling, slamming the bar against your chest.
* Breathing. Take a big breath before pulling the weight to your chest. Breathe on the floor between reps.
* Hip Extension. Don’t extend your hips too much. Your back shouldn’t rise much higher then where it was at the start of the Barbell Row.
* Elbows Back. Don’t pull with your hands. Pull your elbows to the ceiling. Try to make your shoulder-blades touch & open your chest.
* Bar Against Chest. Pull the bar against your lower chest, not to your stomach. Pull it against the xiphoid process.
Barbell Squat
From rack with barbell upper chest height, position barbell on back of shoulders and grasp bar to sides. Dismount bar from rack.
Bend knees forward while allowing hips to bend back behind, keeping back straight and knees pointed same direction as feet. Descend until knees and hips are fully bent. Extend knees and hips until legs are straight. Return and repeat.
Empty Keg Toss
The keg toss is a great exercise for improving explosive hip extension and posterior chain strength. After a general warm-up, we usually use the keg toss as our first event. The keg toss acts as a final warm-up exercise and it also excites the nervous system for the more grueling events to follow.
It's very easy to obtain an empty keg. Go to a liquor store, buy a keg, invite some hot chicks over, drink all the beer, wake up in the morning with a hangover, a strange woman sleeping in your bed, and an empty keg! Or you can just go to a liquor store and ask if you can have one of their empties. Most will just look at you funny and give you the keg. Some may charge you a couple of bucks for them. It's that simple.
Tire Flip
This is a classic strongman event. I can't think of a single muscle in your body that this exercise doesn't strengthen! I also can't think of an athlete who wouldn't benefit from this exercise.
It's easier to obtain a tire than most people think, and you can't beat the price: they're free! Check your local phone book for the nearest tire company in your area. (Tire companies are pretty common; they're just usually not located in recognizable parts of your town). Call the company and tell them you're willing to take some tires off of their hands. They love for people to come and take used tires away from them. This is because they usually have to pay to get rid of their old tires. In essence, you're doing these people a favor!
Farmers Walk
The farmers walk is an incredible tool for improving your muscular endurance, anaerobic capacity, grip strength and your upper back, trap and oblique strength. It's also great for building hip, knee and ankle stability. You can carry any awkward object or just use the heaviest pair of dumbbells you can find.
I like to perform the "zigzag" farmers walk. Get six cones and set up one cone every ten yards. Place the first cone at the starting line and off-set each cone to the left or right from the previous cone. This creates a "zigzag" path which requires a high-level of oblique and core strength in general.
This summer we got our implements from Brutestrength.com and we loved them. They were well worth the money.
Backward Sled Drag
Since we do a ton of posterior chain work in the weight room, we chose the backward sled drag as our strongman event. It's a killer! No other exercise crushes your quads like the backward sled drag! Simply face your sled, grab the rope, turn your toes slightly outward and walk backwards using short, quick steps.
I recommend the sleds I purchased from Elitefts, but you can drag anything, though. Hell, you can even wrap a rope around your tractor tire and drag the tire if you like!
Tug-of-War
The tug-of-war competition turned out to be one of the most competitive (and fun) events of the summer. We'd break our athletes up into teams or we'd perform one-on-one competitions. The competitive nature in everyone really comes out with the tug-of-war. (I even had a fistfight break out with two of my strongest high school kids during one of our competitions!)
We either award the winning team/player with a T-shirt or trophy, or we punish the losing team with extra sled drags! This "punishment" really got guys motivated to win. This event also acts as "vanity" work as your biceps will get one hell of a pump!
Try to get a rope that's thick enough so your hands don't get completely ripped apart. I've seen thick ropes sold in various hardware stores, boating stores, as well as any store where scaffolding equipment is sold.
Sample Workout
A) Overhead Keg Toss: 5 tosses, rest one minute between tosses
B) Tire Flip: 3 sets of 5 flips, rest 3-4 minutes between sets, or 3 sets of 30 seconds, rest 3-4 minutes between sets. (In the timed set variation, the athlete performs as many tire flips as possible in the given timeframe.)
C) "Zigzag" Farmers Walk: Perform 3 sets of 50 yards around cones. Rest 3-4 minutes between sets.
D) Backward Sled Drag: 2 sets of 40-50 yards. Rest one minute between sets. This is a great "finisher!"
E) Tug-of-War: The tug-of-war separates the men from the boys. By the end of this workout, most guys are exhausted. Perform a two-out-of-three or three-out-of-five series to finish your workout. We rest one minute between each "war."
*6 Exercises to concentrate on*
1. The Squat - Regular, parallel, breathing style, or front style
2. The Press - Military, seated or standing, barbell or heavy dumbbells
3. Rowing - Bent over, barbell or dumbbells, one or two arm
4. Power cleans and High pulls
5. Bench pressing - barbell or heavy dumbbells, Incline or flat bench style
6. Stiff-legged dead lifting and heavy barbell bent over rows
Here's some links with more exercise variations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basque_rural_sports
http://www.elitefts.com/documents/general_physical_preparedness.htm
http://www.defrancostraining.com/articles/38-articles/62-strongman-training-for-athletes.html
Clean Pulls
Set up like a deadlift, except use an overhand grip (instead of a mixed grip) and keep your hips lower. Pull the bar past your knees and at the lower third of the thigh move your knees and hips forward. Extend explosively into a top shrug position.
Clean Holds
As an early preparatory exercise for Farmer's Walks, I used this to increase my grip strength. Holding something in front of your thighs is harder than when your hands are at your sides, so grab a barbell using a regular grip. Deadlift it from a rack or the floor, lock out, and hold for 60 seconds. Do this in front of a mirror and count how many shades of red your face turns! This is also a great forearm exercise and can help you ditch your lifting straps by strengthening your grip.
Farmer's Walk
Grasp a heavy object in each hand and walk — that's it. Since the grip width, implement diameter, and weight vary from competition to competition, I practice with a wide variety of equipment. Heavy dumbbells, however, should work well for you if you've never tried these. I like to walk a 100-foot course and then come back.
Early in my training I focused on increasing the weight. My next goal is to work up to 400 pounds in each hand. As I get closer to the competition, I focus on speed for the actual distance. Tips: Start with your wrists flexed. As you lift the weights off the ground, they'll straighten your wrists out. Also, make sure you're balanced before trying to walk fast with the weight.
Push Presses
Set up like you're going to do standing barbell presses. Let the bar rest on your clavicles. Bend your knees slightly and extend them explosively while pushing the bar overhead. Use the momentum from your legs to drive the bar to lockout.
One armed Dumbbell Snatch
When you first pull the weight off the floor, most of the work is being done by your legs, which are driving upwards. Once your legs have fully extended, the weight has probably come up to your chest and at that point you squat down very quickly so that your body is now under the weight and driving upwards again. If you don’t do this, it’s your arms and shoulders that will be doing the lifting, when really you need to make use of the big muscles in your legs to do the donkey work.
It’s a bit weird at first getting the timing right, but once you get it, you see how effective it is. The better your technique, the more weight you can snatch.
The Barbell Row.
Get the bar off the floor with straight arms by extending your hips. Pull your elbows to the ceiling, slamming the bar against your chest.
* Breathing. Take a big breath before pulling the weight to your chest. Breathe on the floor between reps.
* Hip Extension. Don’t extend your hips too much. Your back shouldn’t rise much higher then where it was at the start of the Barbell Row.
* Elbows Back. Don’t pull with your hands. Pull your elbows to the ceiling. Try to make your shoulder-blades touch & open your chest.
* Bar Against Chest. Pull the bar against your lower chest, not to your stomach. Pull it against the xiphoid process.
Barbell Squat
From rack with barbell upper chest height, position barbell on back of shoulders and grasp bar to sides. Dismount bar from rack.
Bend knees forward while allowing hips to bend back behind, keeping back straight and knees pointed same direction as feet. Descend until knees and hips are fully bent. Extend knees and hips until legs are straight. Return and repeat.
Empty Keg Toss
The keg toss is a great exercise for improving explosive hip extension and posterior chain strength. After a general warm-up, we usually use the keg toss as our first event. The keg toss acts as a final warm-up exercise and it also excites the nervous system for the more grueling events to follow.
It's very easy to obtain an empty keg. Go to a liquor store, buy a keg, invite some hot chicks over, drink all the beer, wake up in the morning with a hangover, a strange woman sleeping in your bed, and an empty keg! Or you can just go to a liquor store and ask if you can have one of their empties. Most will just look at you funny and give you the keg. Some may charge you a couple of bucks for them. It's that simple.
Tire Flip
This is a classic strongman event. I can't think of a single muscle in your body that this exercise doesn't strengthen! I also can't think of an athlete who wouldn't benefit from this exercise.
It's easier to obtain a tire than most people think, and you can't beat the price: they're free! Check your local phone book for the nearest tire company in your area. (Tire companies are pretty common; they're just usually not located in recognizable parts of your town). Call the company and tell them you're willing to take some tires off of their hands. They love for people to come and take used tires away from them. This is because they usually have to pay to get rid of their old tires. In essence, you're doing these people a favor!
Farmers Walk
The farmers walk is an incredible tool for improving your muscular endurance, anaerobic capacity, grip strength and your upper back, trap and oblique strength. It's also great for building hip, knee and ankle stability. You can carry any awkward object or just use the heaviest pair of dumbbells you can find.
I like to perform the "zigzag" farmers walk. Get six cones and set up one cone every ten yards. Place the first cone at the starting line and off-set each cone to the left or right from the previous cone. This creates a "zigzag" path which requires a high-level of oblique and core strength in general.
This summer we got our implements from Brutestrength.com and we loved them. They were well worth the money.
Backward Sled Drag
Since we do a ton of posterior chain work in the weight room, we chose the backward sled drag as our strongman event. It's a killer! No other exercise crushes your quads like the backward sled drag! Simply face your sled, grab the rope, turn your toes slightly outward and walk backwards using short, quick steps.
I recommend the sleds I purchased from Elitefts, but you can drag anything, though. Hell, you can even wrap a rope around your tractor tire and drag the tire if you like!
Tug-of-War
The tug-of-war competition turned out to be one of the most competitive (and fun) events of the summer. We'd break our athletes up into teams or we'd perform one-on-one competitions. The competitive nature in everyone really comes out with the tug-of-war. (I even had a fistfight break out with two of my strongest high school kids during one of our competitions!)
We either award the winning team/player with a T-shirt or trophy, or we punish the losing team with extra sled drags! This "punishment" really got guys motivated to win. This event also acts as "vanity" work as your biceps will get one hell of a pump!
Try to get a rope that's thick enough so your hands don't get completely ripped apart. I've seen thick ropes sold in various hardware stores, boating stores, as well as any store where scaffolding equipment is sold.
Sample Workout
A) Overhead Keg Toss: 5 tosses, rest one minute between tosses
B) Tire Flip: 3 sets of 5 flips, rest 3-4 minutes between sets, or 3 sets of 30 seconds, rest 3-4 minutes between sets. (In the timed set variation, the athlete performs as many tire flips as possible in the given timeframe.)
C) "Zigzag" Farmers Walk: Perform 3 sets of 50 yards around cones. Rest 3-4 minutes between sets.
D) Backward Sled Drag: 2 sets of 40-50 yards. Rest one minute between sets. This is a great "finisher!"
E) Tug-of-War: The tug-of-war separates the men from the boys. By the end of this workout, most guys are exhausted. Perform a two-out-of-three or three-out-of-five series to finish your workout. We rest one minute between each "war."
*6 Exercises to concentrate on*
1. The Squat - Regular, parallel, breathing style, or front style
2. The Press - Military, seated or standing, barbell or heavy dumbbells
3. Rowing - Bent over, barbell or dumbbells, one or two arm
4. Power cleans and High pulls
5. Bench pressing - barbell or heavy dumbbells, Incline or flat bench style
6. Stiff-legged dead lifting and heavy barbell bent over rows
Here's some links with more exercise variations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basque_rural_sports
http://www.elitefts.com/documents/general_physical_preparedness.htm
http://www.defrancostraining.com/articles/38-articles/62-strongman-training-for-athletes.html
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