How to Prepare for Your First Strongman Competition
Embarking on your first strongman competition is not just about showing up and lifting heavy stuff. It’s a rite of passage. This isn’t powerlifting where you perform three known lifts. It’s not Olympic lifting with standardized rules. Strongman is chaotic. Events change, equipment varies, and conditions aren’t always favorable. If you want to succeed, you need a methodical strategy that prepares you for everything—not just a few barbell lifts. You need to build your body like a Swiss Army knife: versatile, durable, powerful.
In this blog, we lay out a detailed, phased, 16-week program to prepare for your first strongman competition, focusing on the development of grip, overhead pressing, pulling, loading, and carrying strength. These pillars show up in virtually every contest. Regardless of whether you know the specific events or weights ahead of time, this plan will have you physically and mentally dialed in when game day arrives.
PS - This information was built for the general population of strength athletes. If you feel you’re looking for more one-on-one focus with programming, click here to learn more about Harvesting Strength!
What Makes Strongman Different?
Strongman is not just about strength—it's about awkward, functional strength under real-world, often chaotic, conditions. The barbell lifts may form the base of your training, but they aren't the goal. Your grip will be tested through axle bars, thick handles, and sandbags. Your legs and lungs will burn during yoke walks and sled pushes. Your overhead strength will be challenged with odd objects like logs and circus dumbbells. You'll load stones, kegs, and sandbags onto high platforms. And all of this will often be done back-to-back, for time, and while fatigued.
The variability is what makes strongman so compelling and so brutally difficult. That’s also why your training must prepare you to adapt.
The 16-Week Phased Program
We structure training into four distinct 4-week blocks:
Hypertrophy (Weeks 1-4)
Strength (Weeks 5-8)
Power and Specificity (Weeks 9-12)
Peak and Event Rehearsal (Weeks 13-16)
This phased approach builds the muscle, neural efficiency, speed, and event-specific stamina needed for strongman.
Weeks 1-4: Hypertrophy Phase
Goal: Build muscle mass, reinforce movement patterns, and improve work capacity.
Training Ratio: 80% compound lifts / 20% strongman-specific work
In the first month, we focus on barbell fundamentals to create general strength and volume. We're also reinforcing joint stability and motor patterns. This is where we establish the foundation.
Sample Lower Body Day:
Barbell Back Squats: 2x8
Dead Squats 1-2 inches above parallel: 3x3
Speed Deadlifts (60% 1RM): 6x3
Seated Cable Rows: 5x12
Suitcase Holds (for time): 2x30 seconds per side
This is also the time to address weak links—mobility, conditioning, or posture. Get your body right before you ramp up.
Weeks 5-8: Strength Phase
Goal: Increase maximal strength and start integrating event training.
Training Ratio: 60% compound lifts / 40% strongman-specific work
If you have access to competition details, integrate those events into training. If not, build around common events: yoke walk, frame carry, log press, axle deadlift, stone load - for example.
Sample Lower Body Day:
Barbell Back Squats: 2x5
Yoke Walk: 3x120 feet (this distance means you can’t overload this lift as much as a shorter distance)
Axle Deadlifts for Speed (60% 1RM): 6x3
Seated Cable Rows: 5x8
Suitcase Holds (for time): 2x15 seconds per side (make it heavy)
Volume drops slightly, intensity rises. Start lifting heavier, but stay fast and crisp. Event days become more structured. Time yourself. Film reps. Know your pacing.
Weeks 9-12: Power and Specificity Phase
Goal: Build explosive power and increase event specificity.
Training Ratio: 80% strongman-specific / 20% compound lifts
By now, you should know your events and weights. Let’s assume they have announced a heavy yoke, a frame walk, and an axle deadlift maxout. Focus narrows. Explosiveness becomes king. Practice transitions, setup, breathing patterns.
Sample Lower Body Day:
Heavy Yoke Walks: 2x60ft
Pause Squats for Speed at 60%: 3x3
Axle Deadlifts for Speed (70% 1RM): 3x3 + 3 Seated Vertical Jumps
Seated Cable Rows: 5x8
Suitcase Holds (for time): 2x15 seconds per side (make it heavy)
These workouts start to mimic competition flow. This is also when mental toughness gets tested. The barbell still has a place, but only to support event work.
Weeks 13-16: Peak and Event Rehearsal
Goal: Replicate competition conditions, manage fatigue, and mentally prepare.
Training Ratio: 100% strongman event training
No fluff. No extra. Just strongman. Focus on maximal effort with full recovery. Replicate the event order and rest periods. Wear your contest gear. Practice weigh-ins and warm-up timing.
Weekly Layout Example:
Week 1: Heavy Yoke, Axle Deadlifts for Speed
Week 2: Yoke for Speed Runs at 60%, Heavy Axle Deadlifts
Week 3: Heavy yoke and Heavy Axle Deadlifts
Week 4: MEET WEEK DELOAD
Taper during the final two weeks. Drop the volume, maintain intensity. By Week 16, you should be confident, sharp, and healthy. No new PRs. Just efficient execution.
What if you don’t want to compete yet?
Train for the common denominators:
Overhead Pressing: Log, Axle, Circus DB
Deadlifting: Axle, frame, elevated
Carries: Yoke, frame, sandbag
Loads: Atlas stones, kegs, sandbags
These staples show up in 90% of contests. If your competition swaps a keg for a sandbag or an axle for a log, you're already 80% there.
Condition yourself for transitions and fatigue. Do multiple events in one session. Mix in EMOMs and density blocks. Train chaos.
Final Tips from a Coach
Train What You Suck At If you’re bad at stones or frame carries, don’t avoid them—double down. START THESE EARLIER IN TRAINING
Don’t Skip Conditioning Carry medleys and sled drags build the lungs and grit you’ll need when your heart rate spikes.
Fix Your Grip Weak hands mean failed events. Use axle bars, fat grips, farmer handles OR A THUMBLESS GRIP WHEN POSSIBLE!
Use Implements Early Don’t wait to get good with equipment. Introduce it as early as possible. ESPECIALLY THE EVENTS YOU SUCK AT.
Treat Training Like Competition Time your events. Limit warm-ups. Wear your gear. Practice like it matters.
Still trying to figure out your first strongman competition? If so, click here to learn more about Harvesting Strength!
Conclusion
Preparing for your first strongman competition is a process of transformation. It's not just strength. It’s about adaptability, grit, and execution. This 16-week phased approach gives you the structure to build base strength, transition into event-specific power, and ultimately peak with confidence.
Strongman is unforgiving, but it’s also empowering. It’s where the strongest version of yourself is forged. Show up prepared. Show up relentless. Show up built, not born.