Training Strongman without Strongman: Part I-Correcting your Movement
During spring semester of my senior year, I interned at the University of North Texas and worked with the track and field team through the strength and conditioning department. I was not allowed to lead workouts, I was not allowed to do much else except clean machines, wipe down platforms and correct the form of athletes. Now, when you read my previous statement, it sounds nice they would allow me to correct form and work with athletes to that capacity, but even when I felt I was giving good feedback, I was then corrected for giving the athlete “corrected” feedback. I was not instructed on how to identify any mistakes made by the athlete, nor was I given much background on what the coaches were looking for during specific movements. So although I was given the opportunity to interact with the athletes, I didn’t feel confident in my ability and felt lost throughout the process.
After my undergraduate career, I knew I needed more knowledge. I moved to San Antonio, Texas to further myself and gain more knowledge during a graduate career. Once I graduated from the University of Texas at San Antonio, I studied for my CSCS, earned my certificate and then even at that point…I still feel I lacked the amount of feedback I could provide to give the athlete the correct information they needed. It wasn’t until I attended a clinic about ACL prevention and rehabilitation that I started to understand more about movement and correcting form.
The premise of this clinic was to run the attendees through various barbell movements, such as the squat, deadlift, overhead press…and then afterwards the speaker had a system that placed markers on you to where he could see the lifter performing any inefficient biomechanical movements that could cause the lifter to lack in their performance. Although I don’t have access to this system and the ability to bring athletes to a top tier facility, I began to study my athletes and watch their movement with the barbell and began to understand not only what deficiencies they had, but what movements could help them grow and develop from it.
In this video, Spencer and I worked on three movements that I believe are big indicators of success in strongman: squat, deadlift, and overhead press. During these three movements, I watched Spencer and not only indicated the deficiencies, but how to correct them and promote better movement! Please watch and see the information provided. Knowledge is KEY!