A little over 2 years ago, I was a CrossFitter in his prime. I had recently started my own affiliate, and was surrounded by solid, hardworking training partners. My times were improving on every workout; I was getting stronger, faster, and better conditioned for the onslaught of training I was experiencing. Yet like many people, CrossFit served as a gateway drug for the myriad of training options available. A seemingly simple task of getting stronger to see how it improved my CrossFit game lead me into an unlikely scenario: I'm a 6'2", CrossFitter-turned-Lightweight Strongman. I've spent the last two years immersed simultaneously in the worlds of CrossFit and Strongman, teaching, training, and competing. What I have seen from exposure to strongman contests and athletes, as well as day to day interactions with the dedicated trainees at CrossFit RVA, is a commonality in the demands of CrossFit and lightweight amateur Strongman, and a potential for mutually beneficial interactions of the two that is just now being explored.

Taking the Plunge

My descent into Strongman madness began with a class at the local Powerlifting/Strongman gym, The Weight Room, taught by experienced lightweight strongman and then Virginia NAS chair Chris Lawyer. An interest in strength had already been piqued with a recent foray in a Starting Strength cycle, followed by the Performance Menu's original Mass Gain program (Issue 17).I was still reverting back to some combination of main page CF and lifting, before we had all the fancy names for such a setup When I heard about the Strongman class, it seemed like simple way to add some more tools to the toolbox.

We learned to press axles, sandbags, kegs, and logs overhead. We shouldered, pushed, pulled, and did heavy support walks with everything imaginable. I was struck immediately not just by the unique nature and novelty of the implements, but the huge variation in effective technique based on individual strengths and weaknesses. As the class would show me, you could have a decent deadlift and squat, but be unable to pick up a 230 pound atlas stone, shoulder a 200 pound sandbag, or flip the 550 pound tire without a monumental struggle.



During the strongman class, I heard about an upcoming contest in Pittsburgh, the Kumite Classic. While I knew I would be out of my league, I decided to give it a shot. Outside of the log press, all of the events seemed at the very least within the realm of possibility. The contest was a typical amateur strongman contest. The weight classes were 175 lbs. and under, 200, 231, 265, and 265+. It consisted of five events, which are chosen by the event promoter. The events are often known months in advance, but can, and usually do change to some extent, adding in an unknown element. The implements themselves allow a great deal of variation - meaning what you're training with back at the home gym may or may not be exactly what you'll run into at contest time.



This contest, like most, consisted of rep events, max weight events, and timed medleys. Scoring is done by points and for each event, the winner having the highest total points. Points awarded are relative to the number of competitors; if there's 10 competitors in a weight class, first place gets ten points.

An Unlikely Strongman

At my first contest, I walked in with a 430# deadlift, a 335# back squat, an earth-shattering 150# press, and weighing in at 173#. My training consisted of four days a week of CrossFit, MEBB lifting, and event-specific work once or twice a week. Some of those numbers might be semi-respectable for a CrossFitter, but I was woefully lacking if I wanted to be able to hold my own in the world of strength sports, where the guys in my weight class were lifting significantly more. Typical amateur strongmen in the lightweight classes can routinely deadlift and squat 100 lbs. more than me, if not more. Some contests require lightweight competitors to lifts 330 lbs. atlas stones, do farmers walks with 250+ lbs. in each hand, and do yoke walks with 600+ lbs on your back.

On the first event, I scratched, unable to get the 200# log overhead. Second event, a funny thing happened - when it came to running the fast-paced atlas stone/keg carry, I was faster than many of my opponents, landing 2nd in the event. I got a few funny looks and a few pats on the back. Maybe I wasn't so out of place here? I gave it my all in the deadlift, but came up short, with only a few reps at 400#, and held my own on the tire flip for time, with a middle of the pack performance. The last event, as it most often is, was the stones. I had put my hands on the stones many times, but was consistently outclassed by the bigger guys at the gym. I was one of the last guys to go, and got to see several people miss the first few stones due to the height of the first few platforms. When it came time for me to go, arms tackied and heart racing, I moved through each of the stones, not with ease, but with a little determination. The last one barely went up, taking several seconds and a little luck to get it over the lip of the platform. As I got cheers from the audience, I realized that there might be room for a tall/skinny guy in the world of lightweight Strongman. The end result; a 5th place finish out of 9 competitors, at the tail end of tight pack from 2nd through 5th .

Commonalities

What I saw on my first contest, and all subsequent ones, is that Strongman measures a host of physical capabilities outside of absolute strength. Particularly in the lightweight divisions, proficiency in any one aspect of physical capacity does not guarantee success. From my experience working with the trainees at CrossFit RVA, I have seen that there are similarly some nuances in the paths to becoming successful at CrossFit. At the gym, you can see this every day when people walk in, and begin speculating as to who will get the best time on a workout. Our top trainees are measured out as if their stats are printed out on a baseball cards. Yes, the person who has the strength and conditioning to produce a great amount of power and extend that power output over a long period of time will usually excel. But can they run fast, are they skillful, good at bodyweight movements, and strong? The varied demands ensure that no one person consistently takes the top time on the board, and to even get to the top you have to be more than a one trick pony.

Yes of course, we all know this about CrossFit, right? Yet in Strongman, we see some very similar demands. The strongest, however we choose to measure it, will ultimately have a high chance of success but it is by no means guaranteed. Strongman does not simply test 1RM strength; we see events testing strength-endurance in a rep overhead event, absolute strength in an 18" deadlift, power and conditioning in the tire flip, and speed in the medleys. Most of us CrossFitters will likely be broken by the weights being used, making strength the bottleneck in performance. But as strength increases to match that of the other competitors, we see other aspects of physical capacity tested to a greater degree.

Let's skip right over my second contest - it ended in me trapping myself under a 787 lbs. tire, and having to be rescued by people who were actually strong. I'm still waiting for a video to find its way to YouTube. Moving on.

After my third contest, a fellow competitor came up to me, saying "When you first got here, we all thought you were a cross country runner who showed up to the wrong competition. I've totaled over 1600 in equipped power lifting, but you beat me badly in almost every event." I had scratched the log press, again, but got 2nd in two events, and held my own in the other two, landing an overall 3rd out of 15. I was stronger than I was during my first contest, in the vicinity of a 400 pound back squat, 500 pound deadlift, and deadlifted 600 pounds from 18” at the contest.. Yet I had maintained a high level of conditioning and increased my proficiency in the events, with the result being that I was able to be competitive in a class of athletes much stronger than myself.

A Possibility for Interaction

My anecdotes might suggest that I think not being the strongest guy in the room is just fine for a Strongman, or that anyone training CrossFit would be absolutely kick-ass if they got up to typical amateur strongman levels. Not so. Strength may be the ultimate goal, but my experiences have opened up the possibility for me to effectively use alternative conditioning methods to improve my strongman performance in the future.

On the other hand, CrossFit trainees will benefit by incorporating strongman implements and methods; heavy support carries, odd-object lifting, medleys, etc... There's many of Weightlifting CrossFitters as Everett called them in his opus on weightlifting and CrossFit, and no shortage of CrossFitters training with various strength-biased, hybrid, flavor of the week, oh-my-god-I've-discovered-something-new-because-I'm-doing-more-lifting-and-fewer-metcons, yet only a handful of people training simultaneously with metcons and Strongman methods. As we have seen by the incorporation of other strength sports with CrossFit, these people tend to wreak havoc at CrossFit, as the strength and power of the CF Games competitors seems to be what separates them from the average CrossFit trainee. I'll be interested to see if/how the Strongman-CrossFitter makes an appearance, and how they might add to the CrossFit community.