This year’s World’s Strongest Man will be held in April and we’re feeling inspired to train like our favourite Strongman, Adam Bishop. X2 Britain’s Strongest Man has given us the lowdown on what to expect at this year’s event and how we can train like a Strongman during our own workouts.

Adam Bishop talked through six of the events at this year’s games and how you can practise in your own home gym.

Loaded Carry Race

The loaded race is a simple event where you’re moving various objects. We don’t know what the objects are going to be at World’s yet. In previous years it’s been items such as anchors, chains, blocks of ice and even wine casks and beer kegs. Sandbags are really good for loading in the gym, you can drop them without damaging the floor, they’re easy to pick up and come in a variety of different weights. Pick the weight up, run it down the course and load it onto something like a high bench or dump it on the floor and run back for the next one. Select four or five different sized bags and practise.

The loaded run is all about speed, so make sure you’re not trying to do it with the heaviest bag possible. It’s a great finisher exercise to use as cardio at the end of a workout.

Deadlift Machine

The deadlift machine is a continuous strength workout. Athletes do one rep of a deadlift, usually lifting the weight of a container of kegs. Once the lift has been completed, more kegs are added to the container and the weight increases. You keep doing a repetition of the load until the heaviest weight is lifted.

You might not have kegs available, but you can do this with a Barbell and Weight Plates. This is done as a rising bar; you do one rep then add more weight. It’s a ladder style workout where you usually do about seven reps. Again, the deadlift machine is about time, not max weight, so your heaviest rep should be well within your one rep max. Have some fun with it and keep the number of sets low.

Log Ladder

This year at World’s there’s going to be a log ladder. In 2020 it was in the final but now it’s moved to the heats. In the competition it starts at 120 kg and moves up to about 180 kg over 5 different logs. You can do the same thing at home. If you’ve got a Strongman Log you can lift up and put it back down and then load with more weight and make it a ladder workout  similar to the deadlift machine.

When you lift it, make sure the weight goes all the way up overhead, pause at the top and then bring the weight back down under control. Again, the log ladder is about speed and so you shouldn’t be walking between the logs. Make sure you’ve got your set up right so that you can minimise time spent between the logs. It doesn’t matter if you clean and press the log or lift it in one movement as long as you get it from A to B.

Conan's Wheel

On day two of the heats is Conan’s wheel. It's a pretty specialist exercise and many athletes fabricate their own wheel for training.  However, it’s possible to train for this event using a Strongman Yoke. Set your yoke up in a Zercher position. You can also use a barbell if this is what you have available in your home gym, again just holding it in a Zercher position. Load the weight and carry the yoke or barbell as far as you can. The event is about distance, not max weight, in the event we carry about 300kg, but just focus on a weight that you can try and walk further with each week.

Kettlebell Toss

The next event is the kettlebell toss. At World’s Strongest Man we have eight kettlebells ranging from 20-30kg, tossing them over a four and a half metre barrier. Now this is a bit dangerous and not something you can practise in your commercial or home gym. However, what you can do is practise with medicine balls, and especially Non Bounce Slam Balls.

If possible, practise in an outdoor space where you can’t hit anyone or anything, and practise tossing the slam ball overhead behind you. If you’ve got various weights, you can set them up like the kettlebells in competition. The aim of this event is to be fast and explosive, make sure you’re throwing upwards as opposed to directly behind. When the ball leaves your hands, your arms should be pointing upwards.

Stone Off

The last event in the heats this year is going to be the stone off. If you’ve got an atlas stone, great, if not you can use a sandbag. Set up a strongman yoke at about chest height and just practise picking up the weight and getting it over the yoke. You can also do this with a partner and keep passing it over to each other. In competition we have approximately 20-30 seconds to get the stone over, so maybe set a timer and try to stick to the time limits. This is great conditioning work.

Hopefully this has given you some inspiration for your own workouts in the lead up to the World's Strongest Man. Make sure you get involved, have fun and see if you can take on the professionals and be a home gym warrior.

Written by guest author Eryn Barber.

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Tags: Exercise Type > Strenth ; Exercise Type > Strongman ; Misc > Mirafit Ambassadors