F
ROM THE MOMENT
I returned from the 2016
World’s Strongest Man to the
moment I set off for the 2017
event, I gave 100%. I didn’t miss
one training session, one meal,
or one physical therapy or cardio
session. I was obsessed.
I trained at my usual gym, Strength
Asylum in Stoke, England, with my
usual training partner, Luke Fulbrook.
We didn’t periodse or back off at any
point. We just trained heavy all year.
The way I train hasn’t changed much
over the years. I consistently train
heavy but never one-rep max. I work
at 80 to 90% of my one-rep max for
up to six reps. If I can do more than
six reps, I add more weight next time.
I’ve followed this six-rep rule since
I started training. If I feel good at a
weight, I might do more than six reps,
but in general, you’ll never see me do
more than six.
The only thing I changed was that I
cut down on assistance exercises for
smaller muscles like biceps, calves,
and abs. I just didn’t feel they were
making any difference. I was putting
nergy and recovery into
too much e
repairing those muscles when
I needed to be focusing on the big,
key muscles, like quads and glutes,
that do the brunt of the work.
Some strongmen have separate
days for gym and event training, but
I find it more effective to combine the
two. If you are going to train yoke, you
want to thrash your legs first to get
them burned out. You are not
only warming up properly but also
simulating a competition scenario
because it’s highly unlikely you will
start an event fresh.
Here’s how a typical week broke
down. As you’ll see, it’s pretty
basic—it’s what I did out of the gym
to recover that gave me an edge
over my rivals.
Something else I changed from last
year, which was very expensive, was
that when I trained a muscle group,
I had it worked on the next morning by
my physical therapist, Richard Sale,
for 1½ hours. For example, after
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FLEX | JANUARY 2018
MONDAY //// LEGS
I just did squats, leg
press, and yoke. Simple.
But to do those three
exercises could take four
hours. That may be hard
to believe, but when
you’re doing stupid-heavy
sets you need lots of
rest. Remember, I could
be squatting 350 kg-plus
[772 lbs], so I needed a
good 10 to 15 minutes to
recover between sets.
Doing three or four sets
at that weight can easily
take an hour when
you’re resting that much.
I did the same on leg
press, working up to
huge amounts of
weight and having plenty
of rest between sets.
That could take another
hour, then I’d spend
an hour or so on the
yoke.
TUESDAY //// CHEST
This day was about building my pressing
power. There is always a pressing event at the
World’s Strongest Man. Again, I kept it simple
and had long rests between sets. I’d do flat
bench and incline bench, then do triceps. I took
it nice and easy, working up to a mega heavy
weight on the presses and then just doing one
set on triceps.