Conditioned to be STRONG

May 29, 2015

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Chris Tutela

If you’ve read my previous posts, I think you know me well enough to know that I am not a huge fan of long distance jogging or slow, steady state cardio on a elliptical or treadmill.

And you probably know that I am a huge fan of hill sprints, bleachers and flat ground sprints for their muscle building and conditioning benefits. They are also a great way to develop athleticism and explosiveness.

But you guys already know that.

So since summer is here, as well as training camp for football, I wanted to let you guys in on a great way to condition a little more unconventionally.

This isn’t only a great way to condition, but what if I told you that you can actually get stronger and BUILD MUSCLE on top of melting body fat!

I’m talking about strongman training.

Some of you may be familiar with strongman training by seeing it on TV or on a youtube video. For those of you that don’t have the slightest clue what I’m talking about, strongman training is training with heavy, odd objects like kegs, tires, sandbags and sleds. You can do some of these lifts by carrying something for distance, time or even just lifting something up or overhead.

This style of training is much more difficult because it is so much harder to stabilize an odd object like a keg filled with water than it is to lift a barbell that weighs the same amount. This is due to the constant movement of water inside the keg that makes it so much harder to handle.

Due to the instability of the object your lifting your body is forced to recruit more muscle fibers to get the job done, which will elicit a muscular growth response.

In addition, these exercises are extremely calorically challenging which means they will burn a ton of body fat simultaneously.

So now you might be saying, that all sounds great Chris, but all that shit is expensive and how do I even begin to add that to my program. Well, I’m delighted to tell you that you can make most of the equipment you need for under $200 AND I will be outlining a few sample programs below so you know EXACTLY what to do.

Now you’re probably thinking…

“Wow that’s pretty awesome, Chris!”

I know, I know, it’s what I do.

So here’s what you need to do. Head over to an army- navy store and pick up a heavy duty duffle bag without handles. Then go to home depot and pick up a couple bags of sand. After that go to your local liquor store and grab an empty keg. Or drink one and use the empty. Either way you can probably get one for $30 or cheaper. Then take a truck over to a junkyard and grab a heavy tractor tire. You can also grab a sledge hammer if you don’t have one.

If there’s one thing I would recommend paying a few bucks for it would be a prowler sled, but if you don’t want to you can make a tire sled that you can at least do some forward and reverse drags with.

Now that you got all the pieces go over to youtube and you can find out how to make a keg, sandbag and tire sled.

There are definitely a few things like duct tape and a few other small gizmos you’ll have to grab from a hardware store as well. All of this stuff is cheap and simple to make! And they are great tools for getting conditioned and developing strength.

Now let’s take a look at how to put together a strongman conditioning routine!

Sample program 1:

1a) Keg clean and press 5 x 6

1b) Tire flips 5 x 8

1c) Sand bag shouldering 5 x 8 each

1d) Reverse sled drag 5 x 25 yards

1e) Farmer's walk 5x 25 yards

Perform in circuit fashion from 1a-1d then rest 60-90 sec. Repeat for the prescribed number of sets.

Sample program 2:

1a) Sandbag Clean from hang 3 x 6

1b) Push-ups 3 x 1 < max

1c) Sandbag zercher lunge 3 x 12 each

1d) Prowler push 3 x 20 yards

1e) Sledgehammering tire 3 x 20 each

Perform in circuit fashion from 1a-1e then rest 60-90 sec. Repeat for the prescribed number of sets.

Of course as these get easy you can add more sets and reps, or pick up some more equipment and add exercises to your program. Just make sure to take a 5-15 minute dynamic warm-up prior to training.

I like to do my strongman day on a Saturday but if you’re an athlete be sure to consider your recovery time when you choose which day you’ll do this on. If you’re a non-athlete try throwing it in at the end of the week so you’re not too fatigued for your big lifts.

An example can be something like this:

Monday- Upper body

Tuesday- Speed

Wednesday- Lower body

Thursday- Off

Friday- Full body

Saturday- Strongman

Sunday- Off

However you structure it is up to you but like I said earlier, consider your recovery and goals. If your main priority is fat loss I would definitely recommend adding in some sprints and other methods for conditioning on your “off” days. I would however, take at least one day per week completely off (aside from stretching and foam rolling) as a recovery day.

Hopefully this helped you guys and will give you an alternative to your conditioning/training program.

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Catch you guys on the next one!