Strongman Domination

[DKing]

Its time for a new log. I am nice and rested and ready to kick ass. I took all of this past week off to give my body, and probably more importantly, my mind the rest it needs.

My next contest is June 5th and I have another June 24th. The second contest is much more important to me so most of my strongman training will be geared towards those events.

My goals are:
-Get healthy (almost there)
-Build up my max strength (this is where I tend to lose contests, when it comes down to maximal strength)
-gain some size in my upperbody (you can't flex bone)
-gain weight in general (I am a skinny little girl)

When I have all of this together it should end up with me accomplishing what I really want to do this year which is qualify for Strongman nationals and take 1st place in a contest.

First gym workout back is tomorrow and either tonight or tomorrow I am going to post a basic breakdown of my training plan.

Danny

[ninja]

First reply biatch.

Get to studying. I need to do that too.....

[K-Court]

Hey Danny - look forward to reading your log as you lead up to the contests. Good stuff.

[JoshDunn]

I'll be following the strength gains of this skinny little girl with interest.

[DKing]

Nick - studying is for girls.
K - Thanks man, hopefully I can kick some ass for you guys.

I figured I would point out some specifics besides the broad, lame ass goals I put up before.

Eventually I want to front squat 405. Before that I will back squat it. That will fall soon though so my official back squat goal is 450.

I plan to deadlift 500 soon. The June 5th contest has a max deadlift and 500 will fall there.

I really need some serious rotational strength and better core endurace. I also need to get my scapula moving correctly and gain the range of motion I need in my upper body. I am pretty close with that one though, band tractioning is an amazing thing.

I don't have any specific numbers for upperbody yet, as I would rather focus on being healthy with proper function before I try to hit specific numbers. Expect a lot of bodybuilder type stuff with the upperbody for a while. I want to be all swole!111!!

The next 4 weeks is all about the dynamic effort. There is a speed emphasis for my lower body squat training. I am super slow on squats and it kills me when I hit my sticking point. The deadlift will get occasional attention just to get my form back (ignoring my deadlift leads to crappy ass form) and there will be a large emphasis on posterior chain strength.

Monday - speed strength day
speed squats at around 50% for sets of 3-5 using a 2 second drop off
heavy hip dominant
unilateral quad dominant hip dominant superset

Tuesday - core work and maybe some energy systems stuff

Wednesday - Upperbody stuff

Thursday - Strength speed day
squat triples at 70-75% max
higher rep hip dominant
unilateral quad dominant
Friday - Energy systems work

Saturday AM - Strongman with a focus more on conditioning, technique,and speed rather than heavy ass events. I am too slow walking with weights and have been sucking at my truck pulls. This will also keep me from getting burned out with too much heavy training

Saturday PM - Upperbody work -more bodybuilder crap if I have the time and energy

Sunday - off

All days have mobility stuff at the beginning and corrective exercises at the ends but that stuff is boring to write out and plan. I do a lot of myofacial release every night as well as some band traction stuff. I feel really good right now and am excited get under heavy weights again.

Danny

[JoshDunn]

That looks fun. How much weight are you trying to gain?

[DKing]

Josh - My best bet at qualifying for nationals is as an Under 200 guy so I don't plan to stray to far from that for a while but that still gives me some grow room. I am about 190ish right now and would like to get to about 210. From there I could easily drop under 200 when I need to and will have some much needed size.

Danny

[Chris D]

Danny,

Good to see you back and ready to roll. Where are the strongman competitions that you are planning on doing (not that I can make either one of them...well maybe the 24th).

I'll be watching the log to see how your progress.

CD

[DKing]

Thanks Chris. June 5th is in St. Paul and June 24th is in St. Cloud (my home turf).

5/1/06

Speed Strength

A) Full Squats
warm up
185x5 - 9 seconds
195x5 - 9.5 seconds
205x5 - 10 seconds
215x5 - 10 seconds
225x5 - 10.5 seconds
235x5 - 11.5 seconds
more sets than I thought it would take

B) Romanian Deadlifts
3x6 225,275,295 - I hate not having chalk. I hook gripped these and the bar still slipped. I am bringing chalk from now on, I work there so I am the only person who can yell at me and I don't plan on it. These were easy weights though, just easing into the week.

C1) 1 leg cable deadlift to row
2x12

C2) low to high woodchops
2x12

D) planks
1 setx 2:15 - wow was this borning and kind of hard at the end. I got bored and quit. Probably had another 5-10 seconds in me.

Good workout. Happy to be back.

Danny

[kjcreigh]

Danny,
Those are some serious weights to be throwing around at those speeds on your squats! Good job. And a little off topic, but I have never felt the need for chalk, but I'm a climber so I guess I have pretty solid grip strength. Anyways, keep it up and keep us posted.
-KJ

[DKing]

Thanks man. For me its not totally grip, its just that the weight slips right out of my hands. I have a great grip as long as I can chalk up a bit, but without it the bar wants to slid out badly.

Danny

[pjb923]

Those deadlift numbers are impressive. I can't wait for the day that I can call a set of 295 a light set.

Do you do any direct grip work?
I just order my first set of Captains of Crush grippers, a trainer and a #1. I hope working with them will improve my grip strength.

[John Sullivan]

Keep it up. I'll see see you at nationals this year.

[DKing]

PJB - Thanks man if you stick with it you will get there. Find some strong people to train with, it helps.

I don't really do much specific grip training because, well, I hate grip training. A lot of the strongman stuff I do is quite a challenge to the grip like farmers walks, timed holds, axle work, and arm over arm pulling with a thick rope so my grip gets plenty of work. Using things like COC grippers and similar items has never been high on my list. Which is funny because I train with a guy who owns like 40 or so grippers and ever other grip toy you can imagine.

Sully - Thanks man I am definatly going to make it this year. How many contests are you doing this year?

Danny

[John Sullivan]

I'm doing an Oly meet August 6th, then probably the Paxton Power contest on September 2nd as a tune up for nationals (assuming nationals isn't very close to that).

[hard_rox]

Intersting workout program, Danny. Looking forward to watching your progress.

Regarding the DLs at Strongman competitions, are most of them using thick bars? I also noticed most, if not all, have tires as weights/bumpers. What size tires do they use? Does it vary? The only reason I'm asking is that the bigger tires get the bar off the ground a good bit higher than normal Oly weights. I'm thinking that increases the amount of weight one is able to lift. Correct?

[DKing]

Some use thick bars and some don't. I have seen both. It really just depends on what the promoter of the contest wants to do. I have never done a deadlift with tires on the bar, but it does happen and yeah, they vary the height just for fun. You will also a lot of times see deadlifts off of blocks for the same reason, to get bigger numbers. It usually does increase the weight, but not always. For me, pulling from 18" (a really common height for strongman) is usually a little bit worse than my deadlift from the floor. Part of this is probably training because I don't train that often, but its also a bad spot for me and my leverages. It puts me in an awkward position to start from.

So yeah you are mostly right but it doesn't always work out.

Danny

[DKing]

5/3/06

Upperbody

A1) Seated cable rows - 6 count pause at chest
4x6 120
1x20 second eccentric 140

A2) Lateral Raises
3x8 6 count pause at top

B1) Low Incline bench press
3x10 45

B2) Rear delt raises - totally bodybuilder style...I wanted a fanny pack and do-rag!
2x10 25

C1) Cable Crossovers
2x10

C2) Pullups
2x6

D1) Hammer curls
2x8
D2) Decline Tricep extensions
2x8
E1) Rope tricep extensions
1x20
E2) Cable rear raises/external rotation thingy
2x12
a bit of shoulder stuff and some traction work for the lats

Wow was this a lame ass workout. But I had a huge pump which is cool for like 5 minutes. I feel really good right now though so thats the positive. Nothing bugged the shoulder at all.

Danny

[Mahler]

Danny,
Domination is the key word, my man. I am going to expect serious, ass kicking workouts and complete reports on your contests. Nothing less will be tolerated. Now get to it.