The Garage Gym Online

I must admit, I’ve really enjoyed the last 6 months or so that I’ve been playing around with strongman-type workouts and equipment.

Admittedly, it’s been much harder in the winter to keep the motivation to go outside and lift a sandbag but the satisfaction to be gained is enormous and the possibilities are endless. 

And not only has it been a great experience for me, training wise, it’s produced some fun blog posts too, including:

• how to make simple farmers’ walk bars;
• how to make (more complicated) farmer’s walk bars;
• how to make a cheap sandbag;
• training with sandbags (lifting and loading);
• how to make a fat bar (for axle deadlifts, cleans and presses).

And there’s more to come

And I’ve got some more ideas lined up for this summer in the same vein.  So far, I’ve been:

• making some enquires about getting hold of a tractor tyre;
• studying the writings of Corey St. Clair on how to build your own yoke;
• inspired by Craig Pfisterer and Adam T Glass to invest more time in Zercher squats;
• looking for ways to incorporate some dragging and pulling into my workouts as “strength cardio”, which will probably lead to…
• thinking about how I’m going to make a sled for dragging and pulling.

Enough chat! Get to the links already!

OK, OK! Relax, here they are…

1. Sugden Barbell - a fantastic, if daunting site and the source of many training journals for amateur strongmen in the UK.  Sugden Barbell also has a number of articles and a forum for asking questions.  Be careful, though, as they don’t suffer fools gladly.
2. Just Get Strong - this is the home of amateur strongman Craig Pfisterer’s training journal.  You’ll quickly notice Craig’s huge work ethic, which is reflected both in his workouts and his documenting of his workouts, which include daily video footage.  He does full meet write ups, also with edited video, and analysis of where he did well and where he feels he did badly.  A great resource and a wonderful opportunity to see behind the curtain of a successful athlete.
3. Marunde Muscle - similar to Sugden Barbell but based in the US, Marunde Muscle is named after the famous American strongman Jesse Marunde, who died at the tragically early age of 27.  Marunde Muscle has many training and diet articles, as well as a forum for asking questions and many training journals.
4. Chasing Kaz - this is/was a great site that I can’t seem to get working at the moment.  If anyone has an update on whether it is coming back online, I’d love to hear from them.  It’s a site run by two (currently) amateur strongmen (Mike Gill and Ben Hanson) looking to become professional as soon as possible.  For a brief review, you can see this reference on Straight to the Bar.  I really enjoyed reading their commentaries on World’s Strongest Man in 2009 as it was happening.
5. Corey St. Clair on Bodybuilding.com - this is a deceptively low-profile page on Bodybuilding.com with many great articles on it.  Learn how to make a yoke on the cheap, find out what happened when Corey took on the Inch dumbbell and see one of Corey’s own workout programmes.  In short, it’s full of really useful information from someone who has actually been there and done it.
6. Samson Power - for news and coverage of most of the high profile strongman competitions held in the USA, check out Samson Power.
7. Diesel Crew - more famous as the home of all things grip-related, Diesel Crew have been branching out into strongman territory of late and their inventiveness and creativity are certainly very welcome for those of us who have to make do with the equipment we have already or what we can make out of what is lying around.
8. Ontario Strongman - this is a great site with plenty of resources, including training articles that talk about which lifts correspond best to which events and (my favourite) plenty of articles and links about making your own equipment! 
9. Strongman Chris Rider - for good old-fashioned phone book tearing and horseshoe bending, check out Chris Rider’s blog. 
10. Mike “The Machine” Bruce - for massive amounts of enthusiasm as well as strongman feats and workouts, see what happens in the Machine Shop.

For a bonus item, you may find that the new strongman forums on T-Nation and Catalyst Athletics are useful places to gather information about strongman but they don’t seem to be very active places just yet.

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