The short version
- Strongman is gym strength plus event skill plus work capacity. Most novices are short on the last two.
- One event day a week is enough outside of a competition build-up; two in the final 6–8 weeks.
- Cue externally on events. Save internal cueing for the hypertrophy work that feeds them.
- Grip and bracing decide more novice competitions than raw strength does.
- The muscle still has to be built in the gym. Events express strength; they are an inefficient way to create it.
Why strongman is not just heavy gym training
A barbell is a cooperative object: balanced, knurled, predictable, moving in one plane. A yoke is not. Strongman implements are awkward, they shift, they load your trunk asymmetrically, and many of them punish you for how long you hold them as much as for how heavy they are.
That changes three things. Skill matters far more — the gap between a good and bad stone technique is enormous. Work capacity matters, because most events are 10–60 seconds of near-maximal effort while breathing badly. Recovery cost is high, particularly from heavy carries and pulls, which is exactly the problem for a drug-free lifter who also needs to build muscle.
Gym work builds the engine. Event work teaches you to drive it. You need both, and they compete for the same recovery.
The events, and what they ask for
| Event | What it builds / needs | The thing novices get wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Log press | Overhead strength, leg drive, trunk bracing, triceps and delts | Treating the clean as a formality — it costs more than the press |
| Axle deadlift | Posterior chain, grip (no knurl, thick bar), bracing | Training only the strapped version and never the grip |
| Yoke walk | Whole-body bracing, trunk stiffness, short fast steps | Long strides and a loose brace — the wobble is the killer |
| Farmers walk | Grip endurance, traps, upper back, posture under load | Picking up slowly and starting walking too late |
| Atlas stones | Hips, back, biceps and technique above everything | Trying to muscle it instead of learning the lap position |
| Sandbag / keg loading | Work capacity, hip extension, breathing under compression | Pacing — going out too hard on the first two implements |
| Frame / Husafell carry | Trunk endurance, grip, upper back | Letting the chest collapse, which ends the carry early |
| Truck or sled pull | Leg drive, low body angle, patience at the start | Standing too upright and spinning the feet |
Skill days beat heavy days early on
For your first six months of events, the most valuable session is a moderate-weight, high-repetition technique session — ten yoke runs at 60% rather than three at 90%. Skill is the cheapest strength you will ever buy, and it costs almost nothing in recovery.
Structuring the week
The mistake is bolting a full event day onto a full bodybuilding programme and hoping. The week has to be built as one thing.
Off-season (no competition booked)
Build the muscle. One event day a week, mostly skill work, plus three or four gym sessions from the hypertrophy guide.
| Day | Session | Cueing |
|---|---|---|
| Mon | Lower (squat-focused) — hypertrophy | Internal on accessories |
| Tue | Upper (press-focused) — hypertrophy | Internal on accessories |
| Wed | Rest or easy conditioning | — |
| Thu | Lower (hinge-focused) — hypertrophy | Internal on accessories |
| Fri | Upper (pull-focused) — hypertrophy | Internal on accessories |
| Sat | Event day: two events, skill emphasis, grip finisher | External, always |
| Sun | Rest | — |
Competition build-up (final 8 weeks)
Now specificity wins. Two event days, gym volume trimmed to what maintains muscle rather than what builds it, and every event in the entry list practised at competition weight and distance at least twice.
| Day | Session |
|---|---|
| Mon | Heavy press (log or axle), pressing accessories, triceps |
| Tue | Heavy pull (deadlift variation), back, hamstrings |
| Wed | Rest or low-intensity conditioning |
| Thu | Event day 1: moving events — yoke, farmers, carries |
| Fri | Squat or leg press, arms, rear delts (lighter, 2–3 RIR) |
| Sat | Event day 2: loading events — stones, sandbags, medley |
| Sun | Rest |
In the last ten days before a show, drop volume by roughly half, keep the intensity, and stop chasing personal bests in training. Nothing you gain in the final week beats turning up fresh.
Bracing and breathing
Bracing is the one technical skill that shows up in every single event. Get it right and the yoke stops wobbling, the stone comes off the lap, and the press stops leaking power through your midsection.
- Breathe into the belly and the sides, not the chest. Your ribcage should widen, not rise.
- Brace as if about to be punched — 360° of tension, abs and obliques and back together.
- Hold it through the hardest part, then exhale sharply against a closed-ish throat if the event is long.
- Re-brace between reps. Most failed reps are failed braces.
On carries, you cannot hold one breath for 20 metres. Take short, sharp top-ups — a quick sip of air at the same brace pressure — rather than relaxing to breathe.
A note on blood pressure
Heavy bracing plus maximal effort spikes blood pressure substantially. If you have any cardiovascular history, discuss it with a doctor before training events, and don't treat the light-headedness after a heavy yoke run as a badge of honour.
Grip is the cheapest place to gain
In novice competitions, more people lose points to grip than to strength. It is also the quality that responds fastest to direct work.
- Static holds: heavy farmers handles or a loaded bar held for 20–40 seconds, 3–4 sets, twice a week.
- Thick bar work: axle holds and axle deadlifts. Thick implements are their own skill.
- Train unstrapped first, then use straps for volume once grip has failed. Never the other way round.
- Don't neglect the openers: band extensions for the extensors keep the elbows and forearms healthier.
How to cue yourself on events
This is where the mind–muscle guide flips around. Under a yoke, thinking about your quadriceps is actively harmful — it slows the movement and fragments the pattern. Every event cue should point outside your body:
| Event | Use this | Not this |
|---|---|---|
| Yoke | "Small fast steps to the line" | "Squeeze the core" |
| Log press | "Punch the log at the ceiling" | "Contract the delts" |
| Deadlift | "Push the floor away" | "Feel the hamstrings" |
| Stones | "Hips through the stone, to the platform" | "Pull with the biceps" |
| Farmers | "Pick, turn, go — eyes on the finish" | "Grip hard" |
One cue per attempt. Two is a committee.
Conditioning that helps rather than hurts
You need enough aerobic base to recover between events on competition day and between sets in the gym — and not one session more, because conditioning competes with recovery for the same budget.
- Two easy aerobic sessions a week: 20–30 minutes of sled dragging, cycling or incline walking at a conversational pace. This is the base, and it costs almost nothing.
- One event-specific piece: a medley or an EMOM of carries, done once a week inside the event day, not as an extra session.
- Skip the endless HIIT. Hard intervals on top of hard lifting is the fastest route to joints that ache and sessions that get worse.
Kit, in the order worth buying it
| Priority | Item | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lever or 10 mm belt | Something to brace against on every heavy event |
| 2 | Flat, firm shoes | Deadlifts, carries and pulls. Running shoes are a liability under a yoke |
| 3 | Knee sleeves | Warmth and support for squats and stone loading |
| 4 | Figure-8 straps | Legal in most deadlift events; essential for heavy strapped work |
| 5 | Wrist wraps | Pressing support on log and axle |
| 6 | Tacky and sleeves | Only once you are actually training stones regularly |
Safety is mostly boring: warm up the event before you load it, never run a yoke alone without spotters, learn to bail forwards, and stop the run rather than fight a wobble you have already lost.
Getting to your first competition
- Enter a novice show 12–16 weeks out. A date on the calendar organises everything else.
- Read the event list and the rules the day you enter. Implement weights, time caps, what's legal.
- Practise every event at least twice at competition weight, including the ones you're bad at.
- Rehearse the transitions — picking up, turning, dropping. Novice medleys are won in the turns.
- Plan the day: food, fluids, chalk, belt, sleeves, straps, and how long between events.
- Go to one show as a spectator first if you can. It removes most of the nerves.
Keep the muscle
Event training is expensive and it does not build much size on its own. Whatever your competition schedule, protect two or three genuine hypertrophy sessions a week — that is where the body doing the events actually gets built.