I get calls just about every day asking for help integrating strongman training and Westside style training, and I see a lot of confusion with this. Many athletes look at Westside and say it doesn’t work, or think it’s all about putting bands and chains on your bar, and that’s it. So, before we get into how we do it at Total Performance Sports, let’s clear up a few misconceptions as to how this works.

Westside’s style of training is for powerlifters looking to bring up the total amount of weight lifted in a contest. It is designed to increase the athlete’s 1 rep max in the squat, bench press, and deadlift. I will acknowledge that the sport of strongman does have events where an athlete lift at a 1 rep max, but most events require multiple reps (some as high as 20) with a very heavy weight. Some events require you to move, or carry and extremely heavy weight for a certain or maximum distance. A balanced amount of different types of strength needs to be developed at the same time. Training to increase 1 rep max on the three lifts ins not the best way to go for strongman competition. Westside style training is not just abut bands and chains either. This is a very common misconception we hear from people only remotely familiar with it.

So, will it work, and if it’s not just bands and chains, what is it? The simple answer is yes it will work if you apply their concepts and template, modified in a way to suit your sport. We’ll explain that in a minute.

The answer to the second question, what is it, could take eight hours, so I’ll be brief in my description. Westside is a method of training developed by Louie Simmons, that produces many of the most dominant lifters in the world. Even those who don’t train there use some of their techniques. The most basic concepts of Westside are work hard and work your weaknesses. If everyone did just that, they all would be a lot stronger. It’s up to you to know your weakness, do not accept them, eliminate them!

“The System” is the conjugate method which is different from traditional western periodization. The conjugate method focuses on developing all aspects of strength at once instead of one type at a time.

Training consists of maximum effort work, dynamic work, and repetition work. We’ll briefly explain each type. Max effort means exactly what it sounds like. Warm up, and then go heavy! As heavy as you can for whatever your goal of the day is. I’m a personal believer in maintaining perfect form on whatever it is you are doing. This will minimize your risk of injury.

Dynamic work is, for simplicity, speed work. On dynamic day we squat, pull, or press a sub-maximal weight as fast as possible with perfect form. Remember, the goal is speed!

Repetition work is assistance exercises done for higher reps. This causes growth (hypertrophy) and can also be used to develop local muscular endurance, which is important for strongman. For detailed explanations on this, many articles are archived on this subject on this site (www.elitefts.com).

Integration

There are many ways to incorporate these two styles of training. In this article, we will cover a traditional four day week. Day one is max effort lower body, day two is max effort upper body, day three is dynamic lower body, day four is dynamic upper body. When choosing exercises and program design, we’ll assume that you have a contest coming up. We’ll incorporate gym exercises and events into each training session. We have found this is much easier to recover from than doing all events on one day. In the early part of your training cycle, max effort work is best done with gym lifts, with the second exercise being an event. This allows you to develop a good base of strength with your gym lifts and a familiarity with your events with lighter weights. The lighter weights in the events also allow you to perfect technique, which allows you to go heavier with them later. As the training cycle progresses, you can reverse the order and us an event as your max effort exercise and use a gym lift as your second exercise. This allows you to get used to handling weights that are what you would see in a contest on your event training, and still maintain and build strength on your gym lifts.

As an example, we’ll look at a sample week. On day one (MELB) you’ll choose lifts in a three week wave; week 1 squat, week 2 deadlift, week 3 good morning. You may use whatever order you like, just keep the same order each week. The second exercise is an event.

Today is MELB day, so choose a squat movement, say Safety Bar Squats, and pick a rep range. If you have a squat for reps, such as a car squat, coming up in your next contest, you will need to use higher reps for ME work. (This is also assuming you can currently squat the amount of weight needed for the event) Lets say the car squat apparatus in your even feels like 600 pounds, and you can now squat at least 600 pounds for a triple, you might want to choose a safety bar squat for a 5 rep max. The higher reps will help you because you can be sure 1 rep won’t win in the contest, so don’t waste time trying to squat 900 if you can’t do 500 now, 5 times without passing out!

If you can’t squat the appropriate amount of weight now, stick with bringing your 1RM-3RM up, initially. The second exercise should be something that is in your next contest, say a farmers walk. Lets say your farmers walk is going to be 300 pounds each hand for 100 feet, no turns, and you are currently able to do about 25 feet with that weight. Chose a weight about 60% of that to start, and hit 100 feet as fast as you can for 3-5 reps. Your assistance work (repetition) is next. You will need a heavy dose of posterior chain work, as the posterior chain is dominant in strongman events. You could do glute/ham raises with weight for 2-4 sets of 8-12, and next hit the reverse hyper. We have found that doing the reverse hyper looser (fast) is best on ME day to loosen up your back. Do 2-4 sets of higher reps. I would also suggest that the first and second set is strict with the last ones looser.

Next is abs and grip. Always do 1 straight torso exercise and 1 rotational exercise. Choose different aspects of grip and work them as well (pinch, supporting, crushing, etc).

Max effort upper body, day 2 will be a little different for strongman than powerlifters. The bench is out! Until they add a flat bench press as an event, skip it. Overhead pressing is what strongman is all about. You most frequently see a log or an axle in strongman. The biggest problem we see with athletes is they can’t clean the implement to the pressing position. In all of my email and phone consultations with people, I have never heard one person tell me they will work heavy log or axle cleans first in the workout. if you can’t clean it, you can’t press it. If this sounds like you, add some axle or log cleans in for ME day. Here’s an example of our MEUB day.

Log clean, 3RM. Warm up and work up to a 3 rep max on the clean only. Your second exercise should be some type of pressing, it doesn’t really matter what you choose, axle presses, dumbbell presses, just work hard.

A tire flip would fit well into this day’s workout as a third exercise. Strongman frequently sees a tire flip for a set distance. You will always see a few guys who can’t finish and a few guys who go so fast it’s scary. My suggestion would be to work up to 10-12 flips over a few weeks. Once you can finish the course, work on shaving time off.

If you have some energy left, do some assistance work for your band and triceps.

Abs and grip are next. Choose different exercises than the previous days.

Dynamic Lower Body day is next and we’ll stick with the basic Westside template and do dynamic squats first. Using bands, chains, or straight weight will depend on where you are in your training cycle, and your experience level. I won’t discuss the dynamic squat routine, for information read the articles archived on this site.

Our second exercise on DynLB day is almost always stones. We have found that, for us at least, stones seem to fly off the ground after priming our nervous systems with the squats. Use various routines here, you could do speed doubles, 3-5 stone series, multiple reps with the same stone, be creative and work hard.

Our third exercise is usually some form of weighted walking exercise, either yoke or farmers walk. When choosing what to use for weights and distances, it is a good idea to do the reverse of what you did with the stones. This can be a little confusing so I’ll break it down with a short template for 2 weeks of DynLB days.

2 Week Dynamic LB 

Week 1

1. Dynamic Squat – Average Band 10 x 2

2. Stones – Work up to a heavy double, 3-6 sets of 2 / Heavy

3. Yoke – medium weight, speed, if your max is 600 for 25 feet, try 300-450 for 75-100 feet, as fast as you can, 3-5 trips

4. Pullthroughs 3x 8-12 5. R/H 2 x 12-15 loose Week 2

1. Dynamic Squat Average Band 10 x 2 2.

Stones – Light – Med weight, 5 stone series for fastest time, 3-5 sets

3. Yoke – max weight for 25-75 feet, 3-5 trips

4. Glute/Ham – 3 x 8-12

5. R/H 2 x 12-15 loose

As you can see, we alternated the loading pattern for stones and the superyoke. Varying the loading patterns each week from heavy to a more dynamic adds variety, conditioning, and is less traumatic to the body than constantly pounding it to death with huge weights.

Using the superyoke as an example, if you use a medium weight one week and take a 100 foot trip, you will build stamina, and gain confidence in the event. You will improve your ability to handle heavy weights on the other week by using a max weight for shorter trips. Obviously, you will add weights progressively as you go on. this loading pattern can be used on all of your events.

To finish DynLB day, add in some assistance for the posterior chain. We almost always do reverse hypers as our last exercise, and we use the looser dynamic form. It helps out after the stones and weighted walking. ABS and grip are optional here because they have both been hit pretty hard by the stones and walking.

Day four is Dynamic Upper Body day. When choosing your first exercise, choose something different than what you did on ME day. For example, if you did heavy cleans with the axle, you could do dynamic presses with the log here. Again, bands, chains, etc depend on your experience, and where you are in your training cycle.

Your second exercise will be an event, sled, Conan’s wheel, sand bag, etc. Choose something and work hard. Once your even is completed, hit the accessory work hard, rows, shrugs, etc. Bring out your weakness. Abs and grip are last.

There you have a great example of one way to incorporate Westside into a strongman workout. there are other ways that work well also.

The sport of strongman requires a tremendous amount of strength in the posterior chain, grip and the torso. When choosing ‘ab’ work, keep this in mind. a few sets of crunches won’t do it.

Get in there and work hard with weighted sit ups, heavy side bends, pulldown abs, twisting medicine ball throws, etc.

Your grip is very important too. Work in a different aspect of grip strength each workout. hammer leveraging and thumb work is often forgotten when training grip, many focus on just closing grippers. Go to www.dieselcrew.com for some outstanding articles on grip training.

A sample training template is listed, remember, this is a sample template, not the bible.

We are going to assume that this is an 8 week training cycle for a contest consisting of the following events: car squat for max reps, farmers walk, stones – 5, axle clean & press max reps, tire flip 75 feet

Week 1

Day 1 MELB

Squat – Cambered bar 5RM

Good morning 3 x 8-12

G/H 3 x 8-12

R/H 3 x 8-12

Day 2 MEUB

Axle Clean 1RM

DB press overhead 2 x 8-12

Tire flip 4 x 3

Rows 3 x 8-12

Superset curls & tricep extension 3 x 10-12

Day 3 DynLB

Dynamic squat light band 8 x 2

Stones – light stones speed 3 stone series 4 sets

G/H w/weight 3 x 10-12

R/H 2 x 10-12

Day 4 Dyn UB

Axle push press 10 x 3

Farmers Walk heavy 25-35 feet, 4 trips

Chins or rows 3 x 8-12

Shrugs 2 x 10-12

Curls & extensions 2 x 10-12, different than last day

Week 2

Day 1 MELB

Buffalo bar Good morning / suspended 5RM

Manta Ray squat 3-4 x 12-15

G/H 3 x 8-12

R/H 3 x 8-10

Day 2 MEUB

Axle Press from rack 3RM

Incline DB press 3 x 8-12

Tire flip 3 x 4-6

Fat guy pull ups (blast straps) superset w/ fat guy face pulls 3 x max

Superset curls & tricep extension 2 x 10

 

Day 3 DynLB Dynamic squat light band 10 x 2

Stones – heavy doubles 4 sets

G/H 3 x 12-15

R/H 3 x 10-12

 

Day 4 Dyn UB

Log Clean & press 8 x 3

 

Farmers walk light – medium / 100 feet, 4-5 sets

Shrugs & rows 3 x 10 each

Week 3

Day 1 MELB

Trap bar deadlift 2RM

Safety bar squat 3 x 10-12

Pullthroughs 3 x 10-12

R/H 3 x 8-12

Sled work – optional

Day 2 MEUB

Axle Clean & press 5RM

Tire flip 3-4 x 5-6

 

Pull-ups or pulldowns 3 x 10-12

Face pulls 2 x 10-12

Hammer curls & tricep extension 3 x 10-12

Day 3

DynLB

Dynamic squat average band 8-10 x 2

Stones – 5 stone series, best time, 3 sets

Keystone or Romanian deadlift 3 x 10-12

R/H 3 x 12-15

Day 4

Dyn UB

Axle push press w/bands 10 x 3

Farmers Walk heavy 25-35 feet, 4-5 trips

Rows & Shrugs 3 x 10-12

Week 4 Day 1 MELB

Safety bar squat 6RM

Cambered bar good morning 3 x 10-12

G/H 4 x 6-8

R/H 3 x 8-10

Day 2 MEUB

Reverse Band Axle Press 2RM

Incline DB press 3 x 12-15

Tire flip 3-4 x 6-8

Blast straps Fat guy face pull & pull ups 3 x max

Band pushdowns 50-60 reps

Day 3 DynLB

Dynamic squat average band 10 x 2

Stones – heavy doubles 5 sets

Pullthroughs 3 x 10-12

R/H 2 x 10-12

Day 4 Dyn UB

Axle push press 10 x 3

Farmers walk medium weight speed,/ 100 feet, 4 sets

Pulldowns 3 x 10-12 Rows 3 x 10-12

Curls & extensions 3 x 10

Week 5 Day 1 MELB

Switch events to ME work Squat contest weight max reps in contest time (e.g. 75 seconds)

Cambered bar suspended good morning 3 x 10-12

G/H 3 x 12-15

R/H 2 x 12-15

Day 2 MEUB

Axle Clean & Press contest weight max reps in contest time

Tire flip best time 75 feet, 2-3 sets

 

Rows 3 x 10-12

Face pulls 2 x 10-12

Hammer curls 3 x 10-12

Band pushdowns 40-50 reps

Day 3 DynLB

Dynamic squat strong band 10 x 2

Stones contest series 3 sets

Pullthroughs 3 x 10-12

R/H 3 x 10-12

Day 4 Dyn UB

Axle Push press 10 x 3

Farmers Walk contest weight & distance, best time

Week 6 – Deload week

Day 1

No ME

Buffalo bar good morning 3 x 10-12

Manta ray squat 3 x 10-12

G/H 3 x 12-15

R/H 2 x 12-15

Day 2

No ME

DB OH Press 3 x 10-12

DB Rows 3 x 10-12

Shrugs 3 x 10-12

DB Curls 3 x 10-12 P

ushdowns 3 x 15-20

Day 3 DynLB

Dynamic squat 10 x 2

Deadlift 5×5

Pullthroughs 3 x 10-12

R/H 3 x 10-12

Day 4 Dyn UB

Axle Clean & press 10 x 3

Farmers Walk Medium weight 3 x 100 feet

Blast straps fat guy pull-ups and face pulls 3 x max reps

Week 7 Repeat Week 5

Week 8 Contest Week

Workout Monday only

Squats 3 x 12-15

Rows 3 x 12-15

Incline DB Press 3 x 12-15

45 Back Raise 3 x 12-15

This cycle should have you prepared and in shape assuming you were well prepared going into the cycle. Look for more articles soon with more training templates.

Email questions to info@totalperformancesports.com .

About the authors:

C.J. Murphy MFS, C-ISSN, is a nutritionist and personal trainer in Everett, Massachusetts. He is a former Strongman competitor and National Powerlifting Champion and current Strongman coach. Murph is the owner and founder of Total Performance Sports.

Bob Jodoin is the former Director of Strength and Conditioning at Total Performance Sports in Everett. He currently is a Strength Coach in Florida.