The Origins of Strength and Conditioning

by Scott Reid

Strength and Conditioning is a word so widely used these days. With Crossfit and alike taking over the world it is easy to forget where it all started. Most of today’s training systems take influence from an age old recipe for building strength and power beyond belief and that was the sport of Strongman!

Jón Páll Sigmarsson the great Icelandic winner of many Worlds Strongest Man titles in the 1980’s and Britain’s Geoff Capes were maybe this first example of Athlete’s to have all round functional mind blowing power in many disciplines and this was due to the long hours they spent strongman training. Athletes such as this paved the way for generations to come and the foundation for strength & conditioning as we know it today.

This method of training uses basic primal pattern movements such as pushing, pulling, pressing, swinging, lifting, twisting etc to build functional stability and strength.

Jón Páll Sigmarsson

Although it may be in a slightly modified fashion many strength coaches and personal trainers have adopted strongman training as a way to improve their clients conditioning and performance. The reason for this is when supplemented by a solid gym program it is far superior to the average training system and can be tailored to be very sports specific.

Using unorthodox equipment such as tractor tyre’s, sand bags, logs, chains, sledges, atlas stones, farmers walk canisters etc to perform explosive exercises through multiple plains of movement you can build tremendous power and strength, this in contrast to say the strength you build when training like a body builder which can sometimes be static and not very functional is usable functional strength and can be carried over into everyday life or high level sport.

Worlds Strongest Man

When I first started training for strongman I was also training in Mixed Martial Arts, as my training progressed in strongman which is essentially caveman training I noticed a huge shift for the better in my MMA performance, I was stronger faster and fitter as a result of my move into strongman.

This personal experience made me study this in more detail and as I gained knowledge and qualifications in Strength coaching and Personal training I cemented these principles into my workouts and passed them onto my clients.

Over the next few weeks I will post workouts and tips that helped me win two Britain’s Strongest Man U105kg Titles and various Caveman circuits that will boost your performance to the next level and beyond.