The sport of strongman continues to grow and becomes more and more exciting all the time. Each year, more and more amateur competitors enter the ranks, shooting for the stars and the chance to get their pro card. Many say the biggest attraction about the sport of strongman is the tremendous test of raw, brute strength, lifting the mighty atlas stones.

We did our first strongman contest in 2003 and in that contest was the atlas stone event. We had no atlas stones to train with, so instead we got beer kegs and filled them with sand to get as close to the odd object feeling of the stones as possible so that we could be prepared.

Shortly after that contest, we got our own stones and we have loved stone lifting ever since. They have been an exciting form of training to go back to every so often for that spark that breaks up the training program and brings about challenges amongst one another in our crew. In fact this past weekend, I went back to stone lifting, going after my 405-lb stone. You can see the video here ==> Diesel Stone Lifting, Kettlebells, and Phone Book Tearing.

Many people at the gym are stuck in a boring routine they have done for years. It’s all they know. They are dying for something new to come into their workout lives. I firmly believe that they would enjoy the feeling and challenge of stone training as much as we do here at Diesel Crew. While there’s dozens of reasons to include stone lifting in your training, here are the top seven reasons to start doing it today.

Please send your friends who are suffering from the most boring workout ever this way and we here at Diesel will show them what they are missing. Until then…

Here are the top 7 reasons to lift stones

1. Manly Fun

What do you think of when you see a giant freakin’ rock? You think about how massive the sucker is. You wonder how the hell it even got there. You think, man, I want to try to lift that thing.

Stone lifting is just plain fun. Picking them up and throwing them around makes you feel good and makes you look forward to the next stone workout.

2. Super Strong Back

Most personal trainers will tell you to keep your back straight when lifting weights. While this is a good idea to a degree, the fact is real life situations don’t always involve setting your back in perfect posture.

Breaking a tackle, pushing your car out of the mud, loading the keg into the kegerator, flipping your friend’s Honda, fighting a bear – sometimes, your back is going to be rounded. Atlas stone lifting puts you in the round back position and prepares you for real life force production.

3. Killer Instinct

You have to be somewhat of a psycho in order to lift stones. Your mind has to be just mixed up enough to put yourself through the tasty torture of stone lifting.

There is pain involved as the stone scrapes off your forearm skin. But the pain also brings power, and when you start improving and begin lifting heavier and heavier stones, it’s the biggest rush you can have. Nothing matches the feeling of lifting a new PR stone – bungee jumping, asking out a chick, robbing a bank – nothing else comes close.

4. Monster Core Strength

You might not get a rock hard six pack from lifting stones, but you can bet the rest of your core that actually matters is going to be solid. There won’t be any worries about strength in your lower back, lats, hammies, and glutes after a few months of stone training.

5. Big Meaty Arms and Shoulders

Stone lifting involves a great deal of pulling and stabilizing throughout the full range of the lift. This time under tension pumps your arms up and inflates the shoulders. Your shoulders will be so wide after stone lifting that you’ll be blocking out the sun and they’ll be showing drive-in movies off your back.

6. Get the Reputation of a Bad Ass

There’s no need to grow a stove pipe mullet to show you are an intimidating S.O.B. Lifting stones for fun will set you apart from everybody else!

The whole neighborhood is going to refer to you as that crazy guy that lifts stones. If people can’t find your house, just tell them to ask one of the neighbors who the strongman is. At least that’s what I do. Prepare to be the talk of the town.

7. Athleticism

The force needed to shoulder stones and load them onto platforms simulates the very important athletic movement pattern of triple extension – the near simultaneous straightening of the ankles, knees, and hips, which is responsible for many powerful movements in sports.

Triple extension is responsible for movements like sprinting, leaping, bounding and other sports power movements. Start lifting stones and you’ll be playing above the rim, leaping over linemen and speeding around the base path.

Specific Training for Strongman Contests

I know you want to try out a strongman contest – everyone does. The sport is so awesome, you can’t resist it. But you’re pretty much guaranteed that the atlas stones are going to be an event, so you might as well start training them today. While we used sand-filled kegs for a degree of success at our first strongman contest, the best thing is to get your hands on the real thing and either buy or make your own atlas stones.

Injury prevention is important, and make no mistake about it, Stone Lifting involves a bit of risk, especially if you have no idea how to lift stones with proper form.

For that reason, it is important to train with a coach or a partner that already knows what they are doing.

If you don’t have either of those, then we have the perfect stone lifting resource for you.

Check out our Diesel Stone Lifting Fundamentals DVD. This DVD will tell you everything you need to know about how to get started in stone lifting, how to do it without getting injured, and how to excel to the next level.

What is your number one reason for lifting stones? Post it below in the comment section!

All the best in your training,

-Jedd-

Articles You Might Also Like:

• Diesel Stone Lifting Chronicles – Part 1
• How to Begin Training with the Atlas Stones
• More Medley Training for Serious Athletes
• It’s Not How Much You Lift – It’s About…
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  This entry was posted on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 1:56 am and is filed under athletic strength training lift odd objects, core training workouts, core workouts for athletes, old strongman feats of strength, strength training to improve athletic performance, strength training workouts, strongman training for athletes, strongman training log stone tire farmer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.