Atlas Stone Training

[Firehawk]

This question is for any strongman competitor or strongman lifter who has done Atlas stones.

I just attempted the Stones for the first time last week and I was pretty surprised at how tough of a time I had with them. My gym has stones from 115lbs up to 280lbs.

After working up to 3 x 3 near max triples on squatting, i attempted the Stones.

I did the following:
135 x 3 lifts
155 x 3 lifts
180 x 3 lifts
205 x 0 tried it but coudln't get past the knees. Not sure if because i was burnt out or what. My form wasn't that great either, i was just trying to get it up any way i could.

I'm looking for any advice on what I could do to improve on the stones and also the grip training for stones. I didn't have a problem holding the rocks, but obviously I didn't get too far anyways to really test my grip.

PS. My forearms are all torn up. Didn't really realize that woudl happen until it started stinging!

[Dan C]

As far as your technique is concerned, you should begin the lift standing almost directly over the stone. With a semi-wide stance you'll bend down and take either a slightly staggered grip, or with your hands at 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock. You need to get your hands under the stone as much as possible; it helps if you actually roll the stone onto your finger tips a bit (suck it up!).

Lapping the stone will most resemble a zercher deadlift. This is a round back lift, don't worry. Once you get the stone to the knees, bring it in close by rolling it into your gut and narrow your stance at the same time. These are two VERY important points. Narrowing your stance will bring the stone 3-4" up, making it that much closer to the platform. And rolling the stone in will bring it closer to your center of gravity, giving you better leverage and also enabling you to roll it up your belly when you go to load it.

From here wrap your hands around the stone and interlace your fingers. (You should be able to do this up until a 19-20" diameter stone, at which point you may need to take more of an "over the stone" grip.)

When going from lap to load, personally, I like to lean forward and sorta rock back and utilize whatever momentum I can generate (although this technique is used more for heavier/limit stones). From here you're just standing erect, shooting the hips forward and straitening the back out.

As far as exercises are concerned, I think the best thing you can do is to load stones to get better at stones, however, I do think plate curls are a good accessory exercise for developing wrist and open hand strength. Cheat curls are probably another good one. Some people like round back good mornings, but I'd caution against them and stick with zerchers. Hang cleans are also something you might want to invest a little bit of time in.

Keep us updated on your progress!

[Firehawk]

Thanks for the help. I will work on my form and keep this thread posted on progress. I never thought to interlace and essentially lock my hands after getting it to my knees.

What I did last time was basically stand with legs slightly bent at a medium stance, used my back to lift the rock up to my knees, didn't really set it on my thighs in a sitting position, but more kinda stayed bent over while trying to get my hands over the top of the rock as I stood up and rolled it up my chest. Obviously this can be done with the light ones but I'm sure this doesn't work when I get to a challenging rock.

What's a plate curl?

[maverick]

Originally Posted by Firehawk

What's a plate curl?

grab a plate with your thumb on the top side and your fingers extended on the bottom side and do a strict one hand curl. Prepare to be humbled. My knuckles felt like they were going to burst the first tiem I did them so take it slow.

[Firehawk]

Oh i gotcha.

[F_Mac]

So u gonna change your title to "Strongman" now?

......though I think both words in that title would be debatable.

[LiftGirl]

Originally Posted by maverick

grab a plate with your thumb on the top side and your fingers extended on the bottom side and do a strict one hand curl. Prepare to be humbled. My knuckles felt like they were going to burst the first tiem I did them so take it slow.

Sorry to hijack your thread FH. But would this be a good exercise for developing grip strength? I'm looking to develop enough grip strength to hold my DL with no straps.

[Firehawk]

Originally Posted by F-Mac

So u gonna change your title to "Strongman" now?

......though I think both words in that title would be debatable.

Hahaha, no i am just bored of doing the same 3 lifts all the time. Also when you get nowhere for a couple years because of heavy dieting, it tends to wear on you. If i don't change my routines i'll quit lifting, becasue right now it's very boring. I'm interested also in getting stronger functionally.

[maverick]

I wouldn't really use it for that reason. Its more for wrist and finger strength. The more I learned about it, the more I found that the different aspects of grip don't necessarily translate to others very well (for example, pinching plates probably won't help your deadlift grip much), at least past the beginner level. For the deadlift grip, I'd focus on heavy static holds and to a lesser degree, crush grippers. Be sure to use double overhand for all but your most difficult sets.

If I have any little secret, its copious amounts of thick bar work. After Dan was kind enough to lone me a copy of "Dinosaur Training" I went a little nuts. I did thickbar, or wrapped a towel around the bar, for EVERYTHING. Everything got harder, weights went down for a while, my forearms and palms of my hands were constantly throbbing, but my grip sky-rocketed. I went from having to mix my grip on anything over 300 to double over-handing the mid 400's for reps in below the knee rack deadlifts.

Oh, and the rolling thunder rocks.

[Firehawk]

Try spiders. Put 135 on the bar (or whatever that equates to for a woman, maybe 95), hold it like a static hold with alternating grip, and then alternate your hands as you try to hold onto the bar (flip left hand, flip right hand, flip left hand, flip right hand...etc).

[LiftGirl]

Originally Posted by Firehawk

Try spiders. Put 135 on the bar (or whatever that equates to for a woman, maybe 95), hold it like a static hold with alternating grip, and then alternate your hands as you try to hold onto the bar (flip left hand, flip right hand, flip left hand, flip right hand...etc).

Hmmm, interesting idea, FH.

[Firehawk]

Update:

I got the 205 Rock today. It went up surprisingly easy. I tried 220 and got it past my knees, coudln't lock out my back with it in a bear hug though. I woulda been able to load it on a 5 foot table most likely, but not a 6 foot table or something tall.

I'll get that next week, then I plan to get the next biggest rock at the gym, which i think is a 235.

Get that 235 next week big guy and I'll start calling you Rocky!

[Firehawk]

Tore the F out of my forearms. Those rocks are rough. YOU don't realize it until you set it back down .

[Dan C]

Stones giving you some love, eh?

Some guys wear sleeves, but personally I kinda like the battle wounds.

Are you using tacky? If you are, I'd recommend saving that for competitions or at least the weeks leading up to a comp.