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The Role of Coaching and Training in Strongman Competition Success
Strongman doesn’t just reward the strongest guy in the room. It rewards the one who prepared right. In over thirty years around this stuff I’ve watched genuinely strong lifters show up to a contest and come apart, and less-gifted ones clean up, because raw strength is only the raw material. What you do with it…
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Strongman Axle Press: Strategies for Improving Overhead Strength
The axle press is one of the most technical and humbling events in strongman. It looks like a simple overhead lift, until you grip a thick, non-rotating bar that gives you zero whip, zero rotation, and zero forgiveness. Grip becomes a limiter. The clean turns more technical. The press demands total-body tension from the floor…
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The Importance of Mental Toughness in Strongman Training
Strongman is as much a mental sport as it is a physical one. Raw strength might get you to the start line, but mental toughness is what carries you through when your grip is failing, your lungs are burning, and the clock is still running. In a contest that lasts hours and includes multiple heavy,…
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How to Start Strongman Training: Beginner FAQs
Strongman training can feel intimidating at first. Big implements, heavy loads, awkward objects, and the idea of competing with all of it. From the outside, it looks like something reserved for giants. But here’s the truth: strongman is one of the most accessible and rewarding ways to build real-world strength, mental toughness, and total-body power.…
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Strongman Competition Prep: Balancing Training Intensity and Recovery
Strongman competition prep is a different animal. You’re not peaking for one max lift. You’re preparing for a full day of multiple heavy, awkward events with limited recovery between them. The athlete who wins isn’t always the strongest on paper. It’s usually the one who trained intelligently, managed fatigue, recovered properly, and showed up fresh,…
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Strongman Training Volume: How Much Is Too Much?
Strongman is unforgiving on recovery. You’re not just hitting a heavy single and going home. You’re often moving awkward, heavy loads for distance or time across multiple events, with grip fatigue, core fatigue, and systemic stress stacking up fast. Training volume, which is sets times reps times load times frequency, is the variable that separates…
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Why More People Should Try Strongman Training
Strongman training isn’t just flipping tires and carrying logs on TV. It’s one of the most practical, full-body ways to build real strength, real conditioning, and real mental toughness, without the monotony of machines or the same old barbell routine. At its core, strongman is about lifting, carrying, pressing, and moving awkward, heavy, real-world objects.…
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Strongman Event Day: How to Strategize for Multiple Events
Strongman competitions aren’t won on a single lift. They’re won across hours of effort, multiple events, accumulating fatigue, and constant emotional swings. The athletes who end up on the podium aren’t always the strongest on paper. They’re the ones who manage the whole day better than everyone else. Success comes from treating event day like…
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Strongman Circuit Training: Building Functional Strength Across Events
Strongman circuit training builds real, usable strength by combining heavy compound lifts, loaded movement, and anaerobic conditioning into short, intense rounds that force you to perform while you’re already tired. It’s not bodybuilding. It’s not traditional strength training. It’s strength in motion. Log presses, atlas stones, farmer’s walks, sled drags, and carries get layered together…
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Strongman Sandbag Training: Enhancing Grip and Core Strength
Sandbags are one of the most versatile and effective tools in strongman training. They challenge your grip, your core stability, and your total-body coordination while forcing you to control a load that’s constantly shifting. Unlike barbells and machines, a sandbag moves unpredictably, so your body has to stabilize, adapt, and produce force in real time.…
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The Complete Guide to Strongman Training
Strongman training is one of the most practical, demanding, and rewarding ways to build real-world strength. Unlike a traditional gym routine that isolates muscles or chases aesthetics, strongman is about applied performance. Lifting, carrying, pulling, pressing, and moving heavy, awkward objects the way the human body was built to. Whether your goal is to compete,…
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Front Squats vs. Zercher Squats for Upper Back Strength
And What Actually Builds a Strong Upper Back for Strongman One of the most common questions I get in strength training, and especially in strongman, is which front-loaded squat variation builds the upper back best. Front squats? Zercher squats? Safety bar variations? The honest answer is that it isn’t either/or. It depends on the goal,…
