Question for strongmen and massers......

[The Shadow]

Since it has been proven that certain exercise affect certain parts of the muscle, as strongmen, would it not be prudent to focus on developing the muscle to it's maximum extent??

In other words - shouldn't you try to be stong on more exercises that just the classic "mass builders"???


Just curious....

 

[MohawkMuscle]

Isnt this what most people do anyways?

Try to strive to add more weight to all their exercises.

 

[gymtime]

Might have better luck on the Powerlifting board.

 

[MarshallPenniford]

Cornholio - you are reading way too much into what you have read in "Muscle Meets Magnet" IMO. Assuming it's even accurate.

 

[deathonthefield]

strongmen focus more on strength in core lifts because that is particularly what u use when doing an event. The main mass builders as u call them are what the events are based on such as deadlift, squat, all these basic core exercises are what helps to add to ur events. See the difference is that a strongman does event training which is really intense, so when ur in the gym u dont want to overtrain ur muscles by doing several exercises, u can only hit the core exercises. You want to get the most bang for ur buck when lifting, so of course u stick to compound movements which have the best turnover rate to teh actual events. A push press or overhead press is much more relevant than a front raise when lifting , in fact front raises r pretty useless when training strongman style, as are many other isolationist movements. Its because 1)they have low turnover rates to the actual events 2)the strongman does not want to overtrain

 

[deathonthefield]

also if u are real strong in the core lifts, you are usually strong in teh auxilliary. If you can military press 315 pounds for reps, chances are ur front raise is up there too, just like if u can do pullups with 3 45's attached to u, then u will have a huge lat pulldown. If you concentrate on the core exercises, then the rest will fall into place

 

[b fold the truth]

Since it has been proven that certain exercise affect certain parts of the muscle, as strongmen, would it not be prudent to focus on developing the muscle to it's maximum extent??

In other words - shouldn't you try to be stong on more exercises that just the classic "mass builders"???


Just curious....

You know...I understand a bit of what you are saying.

Example: Flat Bench Press. I try to keep a decent amount of strength on the flat bench press but it serves no function in strongman. I do it with a close grip so that it helps with my overhead press.

Do I want to have a strong tric press down? It really doesn't matter to tell the truth. I want the most bang for my buck in the gym...the most efficient means to getting better and stronger on my events. If an exercise doesn't make me stronger on an event...then why do it? If I can do one exercise that will make several muscles stronger which pertain to an event...or I can do the one exercise that only strengthens one muscle...I take the more complex more efficient exercise every time.

For my first contest I tried to focus on getting stronger on every single exercise that I could find...and it failed. Events are a total body exercise...my gym lifts should be the same way...total body.

Hope this helps and answers some of your questions.

B True

 

[The Shadow]

cool.

Like the leg extension - no other leg exercise hits the quads themselves?? as hard as le. LE = bigger stronger quads = bigger squat...yes...no?

 

[deathonthefield]

perfect exercise for quads in my opinion would be front squats, i think it hits the quads more. Also by doing isolation exercises such as that ur not really training ur body to be used as one big part, rather as several parts independant of each other. If u take someone with a real strong front squat and squat they will be able to rack the leg extension machine for reps without a great challenge. So in my opinion it is wasted time and energy because ur body will already be taxed from events and also from ur heavy core exercises. In bodybuilding and various other sports u are going for the look or strength in a certain bodypart, and thats cool and thats why all the auxiliaries are needed, but for strongman the events are the main thing and the cores are teh auxiliaries, u kno what im sayin? like for strongmen the events are what ur squat and dead would be considered, and for us are core exercises like squat and dead are what ur auxillaries would be.
dont kno if it makes a lot of sense tho, i hope it does

 

[b fold the truth]

The events are our core exercises and the squat and the dead are our auxilliaries...yes...good thought.

The leg extension doesn't build the squat...the squat shouldn't be a lot of quad anyway. The quad doesn't exactly extend in the same manner in a leg extension as it does in a squat either. Pull throughs, gm's, rev hypers, etc...strengthen the squat more than anything.

B True