STRONGMAN SECRETS BY JULIAN SCHMIDT How the world's mightiest men build their incredible strength and power Raw strength seems to embarrass us, as if too much of it disfigures the civilised human being, so we try to sublimate it into sports that tame it with rules and egalitarian fair play. We "level the playing field" to punish superiority and pamper inferiority. Consequently, bodybuilders of old, who proudly qualified for muscle contests by lifting weights, now curl an eyebrow at "shows" where judges fuss over trumperies such as striated glutes and symmetry. Olympic lifting is limited to a couple of movements that are improved more by perfecting a skill than by improving strength. Even powerlifting uses only the vertical plane of gravity for all three of its lifts. Where can we find today a measurement of strength that has meaning in real life — for pulling a stalled vehicle to safety, lifting a collapsed wall off an injured person, carrying boulders from the opening of a mine cave-in or unloading a rail freight wagon full of steel ingots? The answer: a strongman contest. It's the only "sport" that tests the limits of strength and stabilising power in the human body against unpredictable stresses from every conceivable vector, and under varying dynamics of twisting, bending, walking, lifting, throwing, carrying — ad infinitum. Preparation for such forces is not a matter of creating the perfect shape for a specific muscle or of perfecting a skill, but of making body, mind and soul as strong as preternaturally possible for the sole purpose of performing real work. For that reason, strongmen can't "train" as we know it. They can only prepare as best they can, building systemic strength by every means of weight resistance possible. They bodybuild, powerlift and Olympic-lift, each of which is necessary but none of which is sufficient by itself; they also practise lifts they did in past contests and those yet to be invented. Even then, many events in future competitions will come as a surprise. At the 2006 Arnold Strongman Classic in Columbus, Ohio, these men demonstrated the highest level of functional strength the world has ever seen, and an audience of thousands was gobsmacked at their performance. How ironic that this most basic of Spartan contests finds its florescence in the new millennium. Truth, late won. Here's how they were able to do it. #1 ZYDRUNAS SAVICKAS 2003-06 ARNOLD STRONGMAN CLASSIC WINNER AGE: 30 HEIGHT: 6'3" WEIGHT: 375 pounds COUNTRY: Lithuania BEST LIFTS: squat, 903; bench press, 600; deadlift, 850 "The most important exercises for building strength are the powerlifting exercises of squats, bench presses and deadlifts, and [practising] strongman events; so I train six days a week, three times powerlifting and three times strongman events, alternating workouts. For each power-lifting exercise, I do six or seven sets of three reps." Savickas was victorious in four of six events en route to winning the Arnold Strongman title. Jerking 366 pounds overhead eight times put Savickas on top in the Apollon's Wheel competition. #2 VASYL VIRASTYUCK With five clean and jerks, Vasyl Virastyuck earned second in the Apollon's lift. #3 MIKHAIL KOKLYAEV 2006 ARNOLD STRONGMAN CLASSIC, THIRD PLACE; TWO-TIME RUSSIAN STRONGMAN WINNER AGE: 27 HEIGHT: 6'4" WEIGHT: 320 pounds COUNTRY: Russia BEST LIFTS: squat, 704; bench press, 528; deadlift, 825; snatch, 462; clean, 550 "A cold head and a hot heart are most important for strength. Also, work, work, work, work and work. I train six days a week, alternating with two workouts one day, one workout the next. I train in my garage with powerlifting and Olympic lifts. In the morning, it will be snatch, deadlift and bench press at 70% of my max, each for three sets of four reps. Afternoon workouts are clean and jerk, snatch, deadlift and front squat at 80% of my max, each for four sets of three reps. The next day is jumping with a barbell. For one month before a competition, I increase the weight to 85% of max and do singles." Mikhail Koklyaev powers the 500-kilogram sled down the course in 19.32 seconds, the seventh-best time in the Heavy Yoke.
#4 PHIL PFISTER 2006 ARNOLD STRONGMAN CLASSIC, FOURTH PLACE; WORLD-RECORD HOLDER IN FINGAL'S FINGER, TRUCK PULL, STONE CIRCLE AND HERCULES HOLD AGE: 34 HEIGHT: 6'6" WEIGHT: 350 pounds COUNTRY: United States "Number one: be drug-free. I'm lifetime drug-free. I always encourage that. Number two for me is, ideally, to train every day; realistically, it's four, five or six times a week, two hours per session and very instinctively, something different each time. Usually, it's strongman events. Lately, I've been doing a tiny bit of powerlifting, but mostly I concentrate on building my torso strength, doing lots of ab work — five to 10 exercises for abs, three, four or five times a week. Also, hip flexors, pelvic girdle and lots of stretching and flexibility for those areas, as well as range-of-motion movements. I'm also very concerned with conditioning, flushing lots of blood through my body, just generally promoting good health. It's really neat when your abdomen, even when you're relaxed, is tensed. That really helps with lower-back strength. Strongman competition is a very damaging and destructive pursuit because you're pushing yourself to the limit all the time to be your best; you're walking a very fine line, so you have to be in your very best condition. "Number three: keep it fun. Strongman training is fun and everyone can do it. Be creative. Little kids can flip car tyres, old ladies can flip tyres, junior high and high-school kids, all the way up to whatever age, can flip a tyre. Whether it's a 30-pound tire or a 1,300-pound tyre, there's a tyre out there for everyone to flip. "Enjoying it as I do makes it difficult to generate maximum intensity. It's very tough to make it all click. It really comes back to the training. If your training is clicking, then you're in the zone. When that happens to the best athletes in the world, they all describe being in that perfect mode where they're on the outside looking in, detached, and things happen almost automatically. Those moments are rare. Every once in a while, I have to use different mental tricks, such as thinking about my five-year-old son when I'm deadlifting, and I have to help him and the only way is to pick up that weight. Sometimes those tricks work, sometimes they don't." Phil Pfister hoisted the 172-pound replica of the "Inch" dumbbell six times, a feat only two of his fellow competitors could match during the contest. The handle is 2.5 inches in diameter, making for an extremely difficult grip. #5 BENEDIKT MAGNUSSON 2006 ARNOLD STRONGMAN CLASSIC, FIFTH PLACE; WORLD-RECORD HOLDER IN CONVENTIONAL DEADLIFT (970 POUNDS); ICELAND'S STRONGEST MAN, 2003 AGE: 22 HEIGHT: 6' WEIGHT: 354 pounds COUNTRY: Iceland "I tried bodybuilding for a few months and lost lots of bodyfat, then went to powerlifting and gained 40 pounds. Now, I'm trying strongman. I just like to train, that's it; I use all types of training. Sometimes I jump hurdles, do sprints, swim and I sometimes powerlift, but my main interest is the deadlift because it's the only true measurement of strength: there's no technique and no equipment. You're only as strong as your weakest link in the deadlift. It's pure. "I'm known for my intensity, but I have to train that, too. I've always been wild in my mind, but the hardest part is to stay focused. With deadlifting, intensity comes naturally. It's forced upon you. You have no choice. It's just brutal strength. You don't have to think about it. The bar simply needs to be pulled, so you just attack it. "For strongman strength, I make my own equipment for events in the next competition. For powerlifting strength, I've found that if I train at 80% of my max and do eight sets per movement, for three reps per set, I gain the fastest. "By the way, I'm the smallest man in my family." After only seven weeks of strongman-specific training, the competitive powerlifter from Iceland was rarin' to go. #6 MARIUSZ PUDZIANOWSKI 2006 ARNOLD STRONGMAN CLASSIC, SIXTH PLACE; 2006 BATTLE OF THE GIANTS, WINNER; 27 CONTEST WINS IN 2005; THREE-TIME WORLD'S STRONGEST MAN AGE: 29 HEIGHT: 6'1" WEIGHT: 320 pounds COUNTRY: Poland BEST LIFTS: squat, 836; bench, 616; deadlift, 924; snatch, 440; clean, 462 "I train five days a week for strongman events, but three of those days I add gym lifts of shoulder presses, squats and deadlifts, each for eight sets of five reps. Each type of workout takes three hours, which means that on the days I add the gym lifts, I work out for six hours — three in the morning for strongman, three in the afternoon for gym lifts. "The reasons I've never injured myself are probably because my reps are fairly smooth, not explosive, and because I work so hard on conditioning. I swim three or four times a week, skip every day and run a lot. I grab a 200-pound bag of sand and run back and forth with that. I've never been a bodybuilder, powerlifter or Olympic lifter — only strongman. "My physique comes from family genetics. My father was a weightlifter who doubled his weight in the snatch and the clean and jerk; my 21-year-old brother Christian, who weighs 200 pounds, already deadlifts 660 and does the stones for 396 pounds. You'll see him next year. "My energy comes from my diet. Breakfast is 10 eggs and two to three pounds of bacon. Between meals, I eat lots of chocolate bars. In the morning, it will be several 3 Musketeers and/or Snickers bars; I need them for energy. Lunch, at 1 or 2 pm, is a double meal of a Polish pork chop, sauerkraut and potatoes. An hour later, I work out, then take lots of supplements: magnesium, creatine, amino acids, all that stuff, and more chocolate. Dinner is whatever meat I can grab — steaks, pork chops, bacon — plus more sauerkraut and potatoes. At 9 or 10 pm, I work out again. Afterwards, I have a protein shake and more chocolate. At 3 or 4 am, I wake up and have more chocolate, then go back to sleep until morning." # 7 BRIAN SIDERS 2006 ARNOLD STRONGMAN CLASSIC, SEVENTH PLACE; IPF WORLD CHAMPION POWERLIFTING 2005 WORLD-RECORD BENCH, 772; 2006 ARNOLD STRONGMAN CLASSIC, WORLD-RECORD HUMMER DEADLIFT (988.5 POUNDS) AGE: 26 HEIGHT: 6'2" WEIGHT: 335 pounds COUNTRY: United States BEST LIFTS: squat, 936; USA "My best lifts are the overhead press and deadlift. I train for presses by doing one-arm dumbbell presses, standing military presses, dumbbell shoulder presses and incline presses, all for eight sets of five reps with a two-minute break between sets. I go by percentages, using 50 to 60% of my incline bench-press max. I train seven days a week, sometimes three or more hours a day. Usually, I do bench presses and military presses three times a week, four to six compound exercises per workout. I don't train bodyparts; I train lifts, and each workout is very long and very grueling. "My bench-press workout, for example, includes delts, triceps, chest and lats. All of that is for overhead power. I also do squats and deadlifts together on another day, squats first; again, high volume. "I don't repeat workouts. Every time, it will be a little different. One day I may focus more on overhead pressing, the next on chest, the next maybe on triceps, but their ratios will change. Let's say, on Monday, I worked squats and deadlifts. Tuesday might then be close-grip bench presses and a lat/shoulder workout." Brian Siders chalks one up to experience, taking seventh in the prestigious Arnold Strongman competition. No doubt, though, he'll be back. Strongman is truly an international sport. M&F