Strength extreme is a sport in which strength exercises are performed with non-standard equipment: large tires, thick bars, concrete balls, racks or frames with weights.
This sport is suitable for those who are tired of regular strength exercises and want to try something new and challenge themselves. Also, athletes who are stuck on a training plateau should pay attention to extreme strength training.
Extreme strength exercises will help you:
- increase muscle mass;
- increase pain tolerance;
- become stronger;
- pump up endurance;
- take a break from routine.
Tip: Find someone who will train with you. It is important that he is stronger than you and that you, looking at him, constantly strive to expand the boundaries of your capabilities.
New extreme strength exercises combined with a competitive element will help you overcome plateaus and reach a new level of training.
Keg throws over the shoulder
Can be replaced with a ball or sandbag. A good exercise for developing explosive hip strength. Throws are great as a final warm-up exercise before deadlifts, jumps, or Olympic lifts. You can get a keg from a nearby bar or draft beer store; just ask if there are any spoiled kegs. If you fail, you can get by with a ball or a sandbag.
Recommendations for implementation: stand over the barrel so that it is between your legs, take a deep breath and lift your chest up as much as possible (this will help stabilize the spine), grab the barrel tightly, tense your back and press your feet into the floor. It is important to remember that the throw is performed using the strength of the legs, not the back.
Tire edging
It's hard to find a muscle that doesn't work in this exercise. You can only perform tire deadlifts, without turning them over, instead of deadlifts.
Recommendations for implementation: rest your chest against the tire, place your hands slightly wider than your shoulders and insert your fingers as deeply as possible under the tire. Do not press down with your legs (as in squats and deadlifts), but back. Important: don’t be afraid to sit lower after the explosion in order to turn the tire over.
Try performing several flips in a row without resting, or perform a flip at the beginning of every minute. An alternative is to push the car - there is no pulling motion, but the final phase is very similar. Remember two rules: there must be a person behind the wheel, and the car must be in neutral gear. Bend over slightly and place your hands at chest level and push your feet back.
Nutrition
Increased physical activity requires a special nutrition system. In this case, the athlete must eat a lot and satisfyingly. To maintain balance in the body, a special diet is provided, mainly consisting of proteins and complex carbohydrates. Mikhail Koklyaev himself adheres to the following diet - a sample menu for one day looks like this:
- Breakfast - rolled oats porridge with water and no added salt, three sandwiches with cheese and three fried eggs.
- Lunch – vegetable salad, classic first/second course, natural juice, still mineral water.
- Dinner - hearty dishes in large quantities.
This diet should not be confused with proper nutrition aimed at losing weight. In this case, food helps to effectively replenish significant energy losses that occur during severe physical activity.
Koklyaev’s training is relevant for men. Women can only admire the strength and courage of athletes involved in strength training and choose less strenuous physical activity for themselves. For example, classes according to the Kurkurina system are perfect for representatives of the fair half. You will also find information about these trainings on our website. Give it a try. You will definitely like it.
Reverse dragging of the load or dead pull of the rope
A great exercise for strengthening your back muscles, which can also replace deadlifts. To perform this you will need a cable and the load itself, or a fixed support. As a load, you can use a loaded sled, a tire (both with and without a load) and anything else that can be dragged.
I recommend performing this exercise in long sleeves. Wrap the cable around the forearm of the hand that will be closest to you, keep your arms bent and push your legs forward. Make sure that the body does not tip towards the load. Try dragging a load 5-10 meters in one go. If it's easy, add weight or distance.
What is power extreme?
Strength extreme is a specific sport based on performing various strength exercises using non-standard objects. Such projectiles include huge car tires, concrete balls, racks with weight plates and other similar items.
This sport is suitable for athletes who are interested in strength training and want to try something new. In addition, extreme strength exercises help increase muscle mass, help you be stronger, increase endurance and increase pain tolerance.
Farmer's Walk and Rocker
The most popular, in my opinion, extreme strength exercise. Direct application in life - shopping. To perform this you will need 5-10 m of straight space and 2 identically shaped projectiles that can be held in your hand. This could be weights, dumbbells, barbells, discs, sandbags, or anything else you can find.
Perfectly develops stabilizers and extensors of the body. There are 2 options for execution: for grip and for general load. In the first case, the weight is small, but the object is inconvenient - discs from a barbell, a bar (can be supplemented with extenders). In short, the goal is to walk in such a way that your forearms tire first. Try to choose a weight so that you can hold it for 30-60 seconds in one approach.
In the second case, the weight of the projectiles should be as heavy as possible; a sure sign will be the dropping of the shoulders down and a burning sensation between the shoulder blades. It is important to keep your chest up. The standard distance of 15 m works well here, try to go through it as quickly and smoothly as possible. The rocker can be replaced by walking with a barbell on your shoulders. The weight of the barbell should be at least 120% of your squat.
Training program
Here is an example of an extreme strength training session. Weight is indicated as a percentage of one-rep max.
- Clean with press or push: warm-up with bar - 5 times, 45% - 5 times, 55% - 5 times, 65% - 5 times, 75% - 5 times, 80% - 5 times, 85% - 5 once.
- Stand deadlift: 45% - 5 times, 55% - 5 times, 75% - 5 times, 85% - as many times as you can in 60 seconds.
- Trap bar carry (weight as a percentage of deadlift 1RM): 65% at 15 meters, 75% at 15 meters, 90% at 15 meters.
- Finger Dumbbell Hold: Hold 10-pound dumbbells for 60 seconds.
- Tire rolling. As many times as you can in 60 seconds. If you don't have a tire, replace this with other multi-joint exercises like pull-ups or bent-over dumbbell rows.
The principles of extreme strength are simple: grab a heavy, awkwardly shaped object and move it faster and further, or lift it more times than the guy next to you. However, it only sounds simple.
Extreme strength training will likely last longer than your regular training sessions and will likely be much harder. It’s good if you can do them at least once a week - that will be quite enough.
If you choose the right load, you can remove the psychological barrier to new weights, provide your body with an unusual load and quickly overcome the training plateau.
Pull and carry a stack of plates/bag or sand ball
An excellent analogue of the deadlift and a practical substitute for Atlas stones. If your gym has a jumping rack, you can use it. Thus, we have 3 options for exercises: rows to the belt, transfers and lifting onto a pedestal.
Execution: stand strictly above the apparatus, fix your chest in an elevated state. Squat down, keeping your back straight. Grasp the projectile from below and begin to pull with your legs. As soon as you lift the projectile above your knee, begin to sit under it, dragging it with your hands onto your hips. When the body is in an upright position, squeeze yourself powerfully with your legs.
The thrust is completed. In order to lift the projectile onto the stand, you must stand up at an explosive pace. When the projectile is at waist level, engage your back more actively and do a shrug to raise it even higher. Depending on the height of the cabinet, you may need to do some extra manual work to get the projectile to chest height. To carry the projectile, fix it at the top point of the pull by lifting your chest up and moving your elbows back.
Strongman exercise as part of a training program in the gym
Competitive strongman exercise as part of a training program in the gym
Now we will look at the strongman exercise “Farmer's Walk”, which can become an integral part of your basic fitness training program.
Strongman is a competitive exercise that involves an athlete carrying 2 suitcases weighing from 130 to 170 kg over a maximum or fixed distance in a minimum time, holding them by the handles in his hands.
Anatomy exercises
A basic exercise that uses a huge number of muscles. The main motor muscles: quadriceps, gluteal, hamstrings, lower leg, back extensors, trapezius, shoulder girdle muscles, hand muscles - are in constant statistical tension. The exercise repeats the natural locomotion of running/walking, and due to the fact that the weight of the load is high, hypertrophy of the working muscles develops faster. But the most important thing is that the increase in muscle volume occurs anatomically and organically. As a result, you get a chiseled athletic figure in the shortest possible time.
The Farmer's Walk is a great example of extra-strength performance.
Execution technique
The apparatus is installed parallel, the distance between the handles is approximately 70-80 cm. The athlete grabs the handles, sits down as low as possible, bends and strains his back, brings together and fixes the shoulder blades and trapezius, raises his head up, simultaneously moving the muscles of the legs and back, tears off the suitcases until straightened body (the lifting technique is similar to performing a “square deadlift”). Then he moves forward in small, frequent and springy steps. You should try to take short breaths and exhales for each step. Holding your breath for a long time leads to oxidation of the environment and loss of performance.
Nuances. Grip: Grasp the handles half a centimeter back from them, so that when transporting the front edges of the projectile are slightly tilted down. The center of gravity of the suitcases shifts forward and sets forward movement. It seems that the athlete is catching up with the suitcases.
Body position during movement: even from the start, fix the trapezius in tension, so that the shoulders are slightly raised - try to maintain this position during movement. The head must be raised at all times. If you lower your head and shoulders, then with each step the apparatus will swing your arms and this will lead to a weakening of the grip and the apparatus falling out.
Steps: As I said before, the steps should be small and frequent. Try not to firmly “stick” your heel into the floor with each step, as this will put a lot of compression on the lumbar spine. It’s ideal if you roll smoothly with each step from heel to toe, like when racing walking!
Shoes should be sports shoes (sneakers), but not with too soft soles. Basketball shoes work well, and Adidas Good Year shoes are ideal.
Fitness Options: The Farmer's Walk can be an excellent option for a basic exercise for training athletes or for fitness (recreational) purposes. This exercise perfectly develops muscles in their natural form and natural aesthetics, and also perfectly trains the cardio-respiratory system and the body’s ability to quickly utilize unrealized lactate. Naturally, to perform the Farmer's Walk, you need to be in good physical shape in advance so that the muscle corset reliably holds the spinal column during movement. Weights in the fitness room can be large dumbbells (30-60 kg) and the distance (for training purposes) can range from 20 to 50 cm.
Author: Sergey Konyushok
Side dumbbell hold (Crucifix)
An excellent exercise for strengthening the shoulder girdle. In this movement, the rhomboid minor and major muscles take on the active part of the work (they bring the scapula to the spine and rotate it inward). They play a very important role in keeping the barbell overhead during the snatch. So, Crucifix can be used as an aid to the snatch.
Execution: lift two dumbbells to your chest and begin to press them up, at the same time spreading them to the sides so that at the top point there is an angle of approximately 90 degrees between your hands (Y-press). For better stabilization, externally rotate your shoulder (turn your elbows forward) and place your palms with the back of your hands facing the floor.
Recommendations for implementation: find the maximum weight in the overhead press with a snatch grip. Calculate 30% - this will be your working weight. Take 2 dumbbells, the total weight of which is this 30%. Perform exercises in 3-5 approaches to the maximum with a rest of 30 seconds. As soon as you last more than a minute in the first approach, feel free to increase the weight.
Strength records of Mikhail Koklyaev
Those who are actively interested in news from the world of big-time sports are undoubtedly familiar with Mikhail Koklyaev - an athlete, weightlifter, multiple champion of Russia in weightlifting. In performances at the Russian Weightlifting Cup, he took first place six times, which is currently an absolute record. Koklyaev’s other achievements in powerlifting include a bench press of 230 kg, a deadlift of 417.5 kg, and squats of 360 kg. Another strength record of Mikhail Koklyaev in lifting a log - (log lift) 202.5 kg - is the second result on the planet and the best in Russia.
Mikhail Koklyanva’s weight is 160 kg, with a height of 1 meter 92 cm.
After retiring from big-time sports, the famous weightlifter decided to try himself in a new field - extreme strength, a sport that involves performing a variety of strength exercises in the form of competitions between individual participants. However, more about this.
