Training Strongman without Strongman-Part II: Triple Extension
Let me paint a picture for you…
It’s Friday night on sorority row, and your rival fraternity takes the party by storm and pins you as their target. It’s a swarm of socialites wanting to beat your rear for taking the coolest girl on campus. You have to retreat and find shelter before the storm erupts. You have to hop the fence and leap the sky to escape their hunt…
Best solution for this crisis? BECOME MORE DYNAMIC! TAP INTO TRIPLE EXTENSION!
Ok, so maybe the concept of training triple extension doesn’t have to be this precise, but for you to be successful in the world of strongman, you have to have a solid foundation with triple extension. When we say triple extension, we are talking about extending your body through three avenues: the hips, knees, and ankles. When you watch someone doing a power clean, log clean, overhead press, or even as specific as loading a stone during a strongman event, you’ll notice how in each of those movements the lifter is extending themselves all the way to their toes to generate movement, preferably with explosiveness. To be successful with extending yourself in this fashion, you have to also have strong hips. Perhaps not only strong hips, but mobile hips as well. To sum it all up into one statement….
You want to have athletic ability in your hips and train triple extension to be successful in strongman.
Is that the main ingredient? It’s important, and I’m sure the mindset of many who train strongman or who advocate for the sport. So let’s dive into this topic and talk about how to train for strongman, without strongman.
Let’s talk about a traditional barbell movement that could promote triple extension: the power clean. There are many components of the power clean I believe are transferable to not just strongman, but many sports:
1. The hinging position mimics the position we see in many athletic movements
2. The power clean requires you to be explosive to be successful, which triggers the body to work and train for dynamic ability…something we see in many athletic movements
3. The power clean requires you to catch the weight and learn how to accept the load and stick your landing…SOMETHING WE SEE IN MANY ATHLETIC MOVEMENTS
…so whether you’re going for a rebound in basketball, redirecting your body during a sprint or cleaning the log off the ground to press over your head, we are looking at many components that can be trained through the power clean. But a big issue with the power clean, though, is that it’s a tough movement to master. It requires much practice and effort, so whats a good progression to build into a power clean?
1. RDL
2. Power Shrug
3. High Pull
4. Flip Clean (practicing the catching position)
5. Power Clean
In this youtube video, I will be demonstrating to you these concepts and the importance of the progression towards becoming a better athlete for the power clean.
So if you’re lacking the ability to load the stones, explode into your stride or escape the beatdown of earning the heart of your campus sweetheart, it’s important to tap into your inner athlete and start training differently! Start taking a look at ways to train strongman without strongman, starting with traditional movements that could become perquisites towards more successful movements in strongman.