If you thought that strongman training is only for overweight guys who want to lift a truck, think again. Strongman training is all about building true functional strength to an extent you never thought was possible and it could be one of the best additions to your regular gym routine – not only will it promote insane muscle growth, but it will increase your power, endurance, static strength and mental fortitude as well.
And since training plateaus are usually the result of mental barriers rather than physical limitations, strongman training can be used as a vacation from your traditional workouts that will overdose your entire musculature and help you overcome any weakness, both in the mental and physical realm.
Finally, strongman training can increase the speed of your fat loss and improve your overall body composition in less time than any other program you’ve tried. And the best part? Strongman exercises have an excellent carryover to daily activities, meaning that it will make your muscles exactly as strong as they appear to be.
One recent study has shown that strongman training can be just as good as traditional weightlifting for building muscle. When the researchers compared the effects of a 7-week weightlifting training which included classics such as the deadlift, clean and jerk, military press and back squat, and the effects of a 7-week strongman training that involved exercises such as log lift, farmer’s walk and heavy sled pull, it was evident that the athletes who performed strongman exercises gained slightly more muscle and had similar increases in strength and power as the weightlifting group.
Here’s the fine print. That study is Winwood et al. (2015) in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, and it followed 30 rugby players. The strongman group added some lean mass. The weightlifting group didn’t. The strongman group also finished with a much bigger bent-over row, while the weightlifters did a little better on squat and deadlift numbers. So it’s a tie on most measures and a win for strongman on muscle. Not bad for a group that spent seven weeks flipping and dragging things.
So why limit yourself to weightlifting when you can have the best of both worlds and get the best gains possible? Incorporate strongman training into your routine today to start building real muscle and functional strength, as well as melt excess body fat away. But that’s not all – read the rest of this article to discover the 6 most important benefits of strongman training.
6 Benefits of Strongman Training
#1. Strongman exercises give you the most bang for your back
Strongman training is an optimal mix of training for static strength, strength endurance and maximal strength, all in the same bag. Strongman exercises provide powerful co-contractions (simultaneous activation of antagonist and agonist muscle groups of the same joint) in the largest muscle groups in the body, which means they are able to stimulate greater muscle growth than other training styles.
In addition, given their huge carryover to other types of strength training as well as everyday activities, they build that strength you always wished you had. Since muscle gains are the result of time under tension and heavy loads, strongman exercises, which allow for more volume and more weight to be used, enable optimal muscle overload, thus promoting optimal gains in every aspect. In addition, strongman training can do wonders for your grip strength. And the best part is that you don’t need any special equipment to perform strongman exercises – it all boils down to finding the heaviest object in your yard and lifting it up.
#2. Strongman exercises increase fat burning
When it comes to fat loss, the superiority of strength training over other workout regimes has already been proven in multiple occasions. More specifically, certain studies have shown that anaerobic workouts are at least 20% more effective at burning fat than aerobic exercises. And since strongman training takes everything on a whole new level, it also has a great effect on the rate of fat burning, due to its ability to boost the metabolism and result in a large accumulation of lactate in the body. The best part is that strongman exercises produce a lasting effect on the body’s ability to burn fat, keeping you in optimal “fat burning” mode long after the workout is finished.
One honest note. Fat loss still comes down to burning more than you eat. Strongman work helps because heavy carries, drags and pushes are hard work you can’t coast through, and because you keep your muscle while the scale drops. If you’re comparing this to steady cardio, read how much cardio you really need first. Most people need less than they think.
#3. Strongman exercises enhance anabolic hormones production
Strongman training is different to regular weight training in a way that it tends to involve more dynamic movements utilizing multiple muscle groups, resulting with a higher degree of neural stress and a more favorable hormone response.
One study reported that sled-training workouts using a load of 75% of body weight had a huge impact on post-workout hormone response – the results showed significant elevations in testosterone levels in the immediate post-workout period and in the next 24 hours.
Another study, published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning also found an important difference between traditional weightlifting programs and strongman programs in terms of eliciting a testosterone response. A third study found that strongman workouts resulted in a 70% increase in post-workout levels of free testosterone that persisted for more than 30 minutes after the end of the workout. Therefore, if you’ve hit a training plateau, you can count on strongman workouts and their anabolic effect to give you that extra boost to push through it.
Keep this in perspective, though. In one study of 16 trained men, a strongman session raised salivary testosterone by about 74%. A standard hypertrophy session raised it by 136%. So strongman gets a strong hormone response, but it doesn’t beat a good bodybuilding workout here. And these spikes are short-lived. They don’t build muscle on their own. Think of them as a bonus, not the reason to train this way.
#4. Strongman exercises train both conditioning and strength
The fact that it provides both conditioning and strength training is perhaps one of the most unique attributes of strongman training. That means no need for separate conditioning workouts to help you increase your power and endurance – you get all of that in the same workout. In addition, strongman training helps athletes avoid catabolism and loss of muscle.
For this goal, experts recommend circuit training with 2-minute work sets and the total workout lasting around 30 minutes. For example, perform 5 different exercises for 1 minute each for five rounds in total, but select a weight that allows you to perform the entire workout with proper form and technique.
#5. Strongman exercises produce less muscle soreness
One of the most important positive aspects of strongman training is that it produces minimal muscle soreness because its primarily concentric nature doesn’t lead to dramatic muscle damage. In other words, the absence of negative/eccentric motion makes strongman exercises relatively easy to recover from.
The best example for this is sled training, which lacks a lengthening, eccentric muscle motion that’s mainly responsible for tissue damage, thereby resulting with lower creatine kinase (the key marker of muscle damage) levels than traditional weight training. This makes strongman training superior to its more traditional counterpart because it allows you to get a higher level of metabolic gains, muscle-building hormone levels and increased fat-burning ability, but without the unpleasant muscle soreness associated with the latter.
#6. Strongman exercises build the grip and core that other lifts leave behind
Here’s the sixth benefit we promised at the top. Pick up a heavy object and walk. Your hands hold on, your abs brace, your back stays tight and your legs keep moving. All at once. A 2019 systematic review of 11 studies in Sports Medicine – Open found that loaded carries like the farmer’s walk create high compression through the trunk, and that tire flips fire up the front of your core harder than log lifts do. That’s why your abs and grip feel wrecked after a few trips.
Strongman Workout: A Simple Circuit You Can Do Today
You don’t need a strongman gym for this one. You need a few heavy things and some open floor. A pair of dumbbells or kettlebells, a sandbag or heavy backpack, a sled or a tire if you have one, and a barbell or a log.
It follows the same setup we mentioned above: five exercises, one minute each, five rounds. Rest 90 seconds between rounds. Keep the whole thing near 30 minutes.
| Order | Exercise | Work time | How to load it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Farmer’s walk | 60 sec | Start with about half your bodyweight in total, split between both hands. Build up from there. |
| 2 | Sled push (or heavy sled drag) | 60 sec | Heavy enough that your pace slows. Light enough that your back stays flat. |
| 3 | Sandbag bear-hug carry | 60 sec | A load you can hold tight to your chest without rounding your spine. |
| 4 | Tire flip (or sandbag over the shoulder) | 60 sec | Use a tire you can flip for 3-5 clean reps in a row. |
| 5 | Log or barbell overhead press | 60 sec | Around 50-60% of your strict press max. Move fast, stay tight. |
The loading numbers above are starting points, not rules. Use them to find your level and adjust from there.
How to run it:
Do this once or twice a week. Not more. It’s hard work, and you need the recovery. Keep your regular squat, deadlift and press days. This circuit replaces your cardio, not your lifting.
When a round feels manageable, don’t rush to add rounds. Add weight to the farmer’s walk or sled first. Heavier beats longer.
No sled? Do heavy walking lunges with a sandbag on your back, or add a second set of carries. No tire? Use a heavy sandbag and lift it from the floor to your shoulder. These swaps keep the same idea and the same effort.
A Few Words of Caution
- Make sure your core strength level is admirable prior to starting strongman training. If you core is weak, underdeveloped and unbalanced, you’ll be at a higher risk of lower back injury.
- Make sure you’ve mastered the squat, deadlift and overhead press with flawless form before starting a strongman program. This will help you reduce the risk of back injury and achieve better results.
- When designing your workouts, keep in mind that the horizontal nature of some strongman exercises, such as sled pushes, involves an added level of friction force.
- Due to the heavy loads and the big toll on metabolism, you need to ensure proper recovery in between trainings. Proper hydration, nutrition and sleep should be the focus of your approach to post-workout recovery.
Strongman Training: FAQ
Is strongman training good for fat loss?
It can be. The work is heavy and demanding, so you burn a lot of energy, and you hold on to muscle while you lose fat. But you still need a calorie deficit for the scale to move.
Can strongman training replace cardio?
For most people trying to lose fat and build muscle, yes. Carries, drags and pushes raise your heart rate and build conditioning at the same time. If you love running or you compete in an endurance sport, keep it in.
Do you need special equipment for a strongman workout?
No. Dumbbells, a sandbag, a heavy backpack and a barbell cover most of it. As the article says above, you can start with the heaviest object you can safely find and lift it.
How often should you do strongman training?
Once or twice a week is enough for most lifters. Heavy loads tax your recovery, so give yourself at least two days between sessions.
Is strongman training safe for beginners?
It can be, if you’ve learned the basics first. Get comfortable with the squat, deadlift and overhead press before you touch atlas stones. The 2019 review linked above calls the stone lift one of the most mechanically demanding strongman moves. Start with carries and sleds.
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