Atlas Stone Training

When strongman is more widely comprehended people won't always ask you how much you can bench but what the biggest stone you can lift is.... Already, when I tell someone I compete in strongman, they ask, you lift those stones like the guys on TV? I certainly do and I certainly think that some of the methods I'm going to cover in this article can improve anyone's preparation for the atlas stones in a competition.  At a certain point in your training you need to strategize your training for weaknesses and differentiate your training between off-season and contest training. 

I'm going to briefly break down the lift into lapping and loading phases, mention some assistance exercises to aid in these phases, and then I will go into a little of how I train stones during my off-season and for a contest.

Lapping

Lapping the stone is the act of pulling the stone from the floor to your lap. I've described it to my clients as a combination stiff-leg deadlift, row, and pec flye. If you are looking for assistance exercises for this part of the lift, start with those; but I will speak more to that later.

To pick the stone up, split it in half.  With your feet on either side, your arms go straight down. Spread your fingers to increase your surface area and squeeze the stone with your forearms. The stone should be close to your loading box or bar and the thought of hitting your head on it should cross your mind. This will make for a nice sharp line as you pull it straight up. 

For the smaller stones of a series, your goal should be to pull the stone up as fast as possible beyond the lapping and straight up into your sternum while blasting your hips forward. This will propel that stone to the box and save time. 

Watch Arild Haugen one motion every stone in this series.

Medium to medium-heavy stones you will pull right into your lap and squat them up.  For the heaviest or max effort stones you might need to get under them. As I pull those to my lap, I squat down under the stone quickly, pulling it over my knees so I am in a deep squat position.  From there, I just squat it. 

Watch Derek Poundstone do exactly this with a 555 lb stone:

For assistance exercises, I have already mentioned stiff leg deadlifts, barbell rows and pec flyes (this a lesser extent). I also like cable rows with a straight bar, 1 arm db rows, log rows, sandbag rows, picking up heavy sandbags from the floor (for loading or for medleys), all curls including reverse curls, and forearm and grip work.

I also use tacky a majority of the time when I lift stones but you might wish to go without tacky for a while to improve your lapping strength. This will cause you to squeeze much harder with your arms and chest while picking up the stone and will do more for you than pec flyes....

Loading 

This is the easy part (or the hard part if you are not a good squatter). 

Begin your ascent and pull back on the stone. After having lapped it you will have moved your hands over the top of the stone. As you stand, you pull the stone up with your arms so it rolls up high on your stomach or even to your sternum. Achieve triple extension as you reach above your loading-destination height and put the stone on the box or over the bar. You should aim to be explosive here and let it fly. Of course, for stone over the bar you should keep in mind that if you launch the stone and your catcher can't stop it's progress and get it back to you quickly then you lose time and likely points.

At a competition last year, the stone was getting away from the catcher so I decided to drop it nicely over the bar to save time. I was pissed at the end because I think we had a 5 or 6 way tie in that event and I needed some points :(  Here is that video:

To get better at the loading phase I suggest squats. I like to focus on front squats and high bar oly squats. In the past I enjoyed some success with banded low box squats. Others like power cleans and I like stone roll ups better than those.  If you don't know what a stone roll up is, check out Ryan Bakke doing them in this video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=88sNNRep0cw

Putting it all together and planning your atlas stone training

The way you train for stones like any event in strongman is generally going to be determined by the rules of your next competition. In all likelihood you will have stone over the bar for reps or a 5 stone series you must complete as fast as possible. 

If I have a stone over the bar coming up, I will train the event for 2 weeks on and then take one week off. For the first week, I work up heavy and get a couple sets in with a heavier stone that I can only do for about 3-5 reps. Then I back down and do a stone a bit lighter than my contest weight and get as many as possible aiming for 12-15. If I go over 1 minute, I don't care.

The next week I will go heavy again but do only one heavy set before going to my high rep set which I will now do with the contest weight. The goal is double digits in a minute so long as the stone is 315 or lighter for me. 

If I am training for a series then I start light and substitute a heavier stone for a lighter each series and try to keep the times comparable. 

For instance:

Week 1: 200/220/240/260/290. 3 sets and times were 29, 27, and 26 seconds.

Week 2: 220/240/260/275/290. 3 sets and times were 30, 26, and 25 seconds.

Week 3: heavy back work

Week 4: 220/250/275/290/315. Felt easy so went up on second set to 240/250/275/290/315. Two sets and times were 27 and 26.

Week 5: 240/250/275/290/315 in 26 seconds. 250/275/290/315/330 in 26 seconds. 

Week 6: heavy back work

Week 7: contest

Another way to schedule your training is to alternate a week with stone series with stone over the bar the following week. Since contests are often subject to change, you want to be ready for whatever you might have to do. During the offseason I train stones every other week and alternate the series with reps over the bar each time. 

As far as when you perform stones, I suggest doing them last on event day or after deadlifts. I have seen a lot of different event orders at contests but I have always seen stones last so I just train them after deadlifts or other events so I can emulate the fatigue I will experience.

You will also notice that I keep time. This is critical as stones are usually 60 seconds. You should time all of your events for that matter.

On weeks I do not train stones, I hammer my back with a variety of heavy rows and pull-ups and get some more arm work in too.

Arm and Grip Training and Atlas Stones

Grip training and strongman have a heavily connotative relationship. In my experience, grip training  and sometimes even direct arm training has to be omitted or kept to a minimum.  Remember that stone lifting taxes the biceps, forearms and hands in the lapping phase. Too much arm or grip training can temporarily weaken the muscles and tendons if you are not fully recovered or if it has pushed you into overtraining. 

Depending on what I'm preparing for or if I'm preparing for a competition at all I adjust my training accordingly. I typically do more arm and grip training when my event work is lighter, which falls between september -january. This is usually when I'm not competing and my training regimen looks more like a bodybuilder's. When I have a competition each month, and events are heavier, the bodybuilding and direct arm and grip work is kept to a minimum. 

Axle curl 3x8

Reverse curl 3x12

Wrist curl or wrist roller

As far as scheduling this routine, I like to do it immediately after stone training or the day after.

Summary

So, we have briefly covered the lift itself and skimmed over some assistance exercises and training routines. We know that the stone is generally a two part lift, consisting of lapping and loading. For lighter stones we can complete the lift in one motion. We know we need to strengthen our back and biceps and forearms as well as our hamstrings and pecs for lapping a stone and that we need to squat a lot to load it.

For training the stones we can train every other week if we are good at them or are not training for a contest. We can train them more frequently if we need the practice. For those of you who need a little more assistance in planning your training, I am going to shortly post a couple different training templates for stone specialization and some examples of how to set up your training week to recover and grow.

Plantar Fasciitis

I have had plantar fasciitis twice. The first time it went away in about four months, or likely the symptoms went away (that annoying pain in the heel especially getting out of bed in the morning). Every day I iced my foot, soaked it in Epsom salt, and I purchased a good pair of running shoes.

About a year later I got it again and it took me about eight months to get over it. I did some light farmers carries while wearing Chuck Taylor's. As soon as I put the weight down, I was walking with a limp. The next morning the excruciating pain in my heel made it impossible to stand up after getting out of bed.

I ditched my Chuck's and got a pair of running shoes. They had a thick heel and i thought it be perfect for me since I'm a heel striker.  Little did i know that such shoes actually encourage one to heel strike to a greater degree. 

I was also very aggressive with the aggravated tissues. I stretched my foot at night and in the morning. I massaged it with my hand and my rolling muscle massager.  My massage therapist also dug into my heel and my calves (I knew the tightness in my calves was part of a greater problem).

After about two months of the above protocol I had some improvement, but my heel was still really tight upon waking.  I bought a plantar fasciitis boot to wear at night so i could get over the nagging heel pain. This boot keeps the foot neutral since our feet relax during sleep and spend the night in plantar flexion. After a few days it didn't hurt to put pressure on my foot when I woke up. But my heel still ached throughout the day, particular after training.

I was still missing something. I continued with massage, stretching, ice and Epsom soaks. I wore my boot every night. After four months I still was hampered by this pain which limited my mobility and activity choices. At this time, I also had a chronically stiff neck, nervous tingling in my arms with occasional numbness and my hips were always screaming at me whenever I sat down. I went to see a chiropractor.

One month of chiropractic care alleviated much of my neck and nervous pain symptoms. The tightness in my hips began to relax and my hamstrings generally felt better as well. The chiropractor also used graston technique (imagine tissue rolling with a butter knife) and performed this on my foot during each visit.

In short time, my foot pain began to subside as well. At this point I had been suffering for five months. I still had not succumbed to cortisone shots or orthotics. I was still looking for another shoe to wear so I could perform strongman events without ruining the progress I had made. 

At this time I knew I needed to begin some increased movements for my calves, ankles a d feet. I began doing seated calf raises. I started my calf raises with a light weight and really let my heel stretch at the bottom of the movement. I slowly increased the weight on these and this made the stretch even more effective. Within a couple training sessions, I didn't have the same aching that followed my training sessions for the previous six months.

At this time a friend of mine was raving about his Merrell barefoot shoes. He was so impressed by their comfort that he bought me a pair as a gift. These shoes are wide and flat so my foot had room and I could easily wear them for static lifts like squats and deadlifts. They felt kind of weird at first. I could feel my feet on the ground with every step and as a heel striker I found myself walking differently to avoid slamming my heels with every step.  After a month, I was training and walking around without paying attention to my foot pain: it was gone! 

I read that barefoot shoes actually strengthen the tissue on the bottom of the foot since it allows the foot to feel the surfaces being walked on. This engages the fibers on the bottom of the foot whereas the extra padding of some of standard running or athletic shoes inhibit this contact and subsequent strengthening.

It took me over seven months to rid myself of this injury and I would not wish it upon my worst enemy. I tried a lot of methods to recover from this injury and perhaps the most important ones were footwear and going to the chiropractor. For me, the mistake was wearing Chucks left my feet unprepared to handle the stress placed on them. But the gift of Merrell changed my feet drastically, improving my gait and strengthening my feet in the process. The other critical tool for recovery is to find out what other issues are affecting your gait, to find out what greater issue your heel pain is a symptom of. My posture was terrible and with my regular massage and chiropractic adjustments I improved my alignment and began doing away with bad postural habits. No more slouching over means no neck or hip pain and ultimately a decreased likelihood of my heel pain returning.

The other methods I used such as ice and soaks and rollers are also helpful but those only offer short term relief. Seated calf raises and the nighttime boot were even more effective tools for recovery.  The boot was the best investment for the short term relief tools. Calf raises are a step in the direction of long term rehabilitation and prevention. I suggest you use these tools if you are suffering but changing your footwear and addressing your greater issues either skeletal or muscular will shorten the duration of plantar fasciitis. 

A Slow Sunday for a Fast Paced Week

People that know me are aware that I don't leave my neighborhood on Sunday. I don't take the train on Sunday. I don't work on Sunday.
                                             
My Sunday is however not a lazy one. For me, Sunday is the day I set myself up for success throughout the week by accomplishing a few simple and rewarding tasks:

1. Food
My training suffers when my meals are not organized. I go to the grocery store early and purchase enough food for the week. I immediately start preparing meals and stacking them in tupperwares in the refrigerator. I bake chicken breast, cook ground turkey, and sometimes grill some steaks and pair it with either jasmine rice, brown rice, sweet potato, or red potato. I thaw some broccoli cuts and throw those in and I have fuel for the week of work and training. And, if you work in Manhattan and eat like a 230+ pound man, you couldn't possibly make enough money in a day to pay for eating out three or four times.

2. Recovery
I take this slow day to prepare my body for the week of training. Sometimes I do some light steady state cardio or just take my dog for an extra long walk. I get out my lacrosse balls and soft tissue rollers and knead away. I ice nagging pains. I stretch. I also avoid sitting on the couch as comfort seems to blind me from the importance of maintaining good posture.

3. Schedule
I contact my clients to confirm or set up appointments for the week.

These three simple things on one lazy day will improve your performance and boost your productivity at work for the week.