Q&A with ASC Pro Strongman Derek Poundstone

[GameofInches]

What does your training split look like? What days do you train what body parts? Thanks!

[Kev]

Unbelievable at the Arnold Derek, congratulations.
Any tips for bringing up benchpress?, secret/unique exercises?
Do you plan on making a training dvd?
thanks

[Kenny Kola]

Hi Derek,

Greetings from across the pond, over here in 'Little Olde England'.

Congratulations on your Arnold Victory..... WOW!

What type of spinal surgery did you have to alleviate your disc prolapse....?
(Spinal fusion...? And at which level L4/L5...?)

How long after surgery was it before you got back into training....?

Does the injury still hinder you in any way......?
(Any lifting tips or stretches for the back pain sufferers amongst us...)

I wish you continued success for the future,

Cheers,

MM

[tjoe]

Derek - You've explained it to me in the past but I think it would be worth going over a bit here as well. Could you explain your thoughts/training as far as cardiovascular work is concerned?

[Derek Poundstone]

I want to apologize for the delay in getting back to you guys with the answers to your questions. Here goes;

Derek i did see those events on Marunde Muscle

how do you feel about 2 pressing events in one comp?

Great question, I’m actually a fan of having two types of pressing events in a competition. I think that’s what always fascinated me with strongman, we press some serious weight overhead in addition to the odd objects like huge logs and dumbbells!! To some of the nay-sayers that criticized the Mohegan Sun competition for doing this and also think that I influenced the events, I have to say that this was the way several competitions were when I was up and coming in the armature and pro competitions and the reason I brought up my OHP from being mediocre to one of the best pressers in the world. With the volume of training I do, the Mohegan Sun will be like another day of training for me. I love the fast passed competitions with six events I a day. For more info about this, see the answer to Joe’s question on the bottom.

how do you normally train your squat and deadlift?

what type of routine really helped you increase them, do you follow a powerlifting cycle for those two lifts.
thanks

I’m not too sure what you mean by powerlifting cycle but here’s my approach. I train squats and deadlifts in the same day to allow more recovery for my lower back during the week. I will focus on deadlifts as my first lift about 75 – 80% of the time. Usually I don’t to over 8 reps or so with deadlifts as this is what starts to aggravate my injury (for more info, check out the reply to MUSCLEMEISTER’s question). I tend to do a cycle of raw deadlifting, followed by a few weeks of squatting first then pulling with a suit for several weeks before I go back to deadlifting first again, this time with a suit. I like to keep my training fresh and keep my body guessing! As far as squats, if I’m deadlifting heavy then I do high rep squats (either front of rear) and vice versa. I occasionally use a squat suit when I have a desire to increase my squat or if I have an event where I will need to either squat or where squatting will be beneficial.

What does your training split look like? What days do you train what body parts? Thanks!

Monday is shoulders and traps consisting of pressing various strongman implements; Tuesday is arm, abs and Cardio; Wednesday is an off day; Thursday I train Squats and Deadlifts with cardio; Friday is Chest and back with cardio and Saturday is strongman event training.

Any tips for bringing up benchpress?, secret/unique exercises?
Do you plan on making a training dvd?
thanks

I don’t think I’m the best guy to tell ya about increasing your bench. I bench more for the carryover work in my triceps for OHPing. I use a moderate grip with a flat back on the bench. I’m sure if I trained for a larger arch and for a max press, I could press much more but I feel no need to work on big bench numbers, same reason for nor trying to work on pulling well into the nines, it would be too detrimental to what I feel makes me a great strongman, being agile, explosive and all around well rounded and athletic.

Right now I don’t have any plans to make a training DVD but am interested in doing one in the future.

Greetings from across the pond, over here in 'Little Olde England'.

Congratulations on your Arnold Victory..... WOW!

What type of spinal surgery did you have to alleviate your disc prolapse....?
(Spinal fusion...? And at which level L4/L5...?)

How long after surgery was it before you got back into training....?

Does the injury still hinder you in any way......?
(Any lifting tips or stretches for the back pain sufferers amongst us...)

I wish you continued success for the future,

Cheers,

MM

MM, I had no surgery, I was scheduled to have a procedure where my Dr wanted to use a needle to suck out the hematoma that developed from the herniation/prolapse. In addition to pulling out the blood, my dr wanted to go in and deposit a medication for pain management. Its been quite a few years so I don’t recall the exact medications but I do recall the procedures required a live x-ray to watch the needle as the Dr maneuvered it near my spinal cord. The risk for the procedure was paralysis. At this point I decided not to get the procedures done with the support of my GP but against the wished of my neurosurgeon. A year ago my neurosurgeon wanted to do a study on me to find out home I was able to recover to the level I did after he was sure I’d never be able to continue with training at the level I did, let alone be competitive at the top of the sport. All in all I don’t know what factors are responsible to my recovery, I can only surmise. I know that after I injured my back while preparing for the 06 IFSA Worlds, I didn’t feel sorry for myself, I was in the gym a week later benching and preparing for a bench press competition held the week I was due to do IFSA worlds. I had to have help getting the 45 lb plates on the bar. I ended up winning the competition BTW. As far as training, within three weeks I was deadlifting with a trap bar out of the rack. I was in a lot of pain for months but couldn’t live with not training. At this point in my life I purchased a truck that I began to race to keep my mind off the “what ifs” surrounding my injury http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6vIlT3Xyf4 . In then end I was able to come back stronger but I still live with pain. Usually two to three times a year I’ll end up having a relapse of the injury. IT feels almost like when I originally injured my back but will last a day of two. I don’t know what causes this but it usually requires me to do nothing but rest for a day or two then I’m fine. I don’t know what causes this, my Dr feels its inflammation from re-aggrivating the injured disk. Funny thing to note, deadlifting doesn’t bother my back as much as squats. This is the reason I will deadlift heavy more often then squats. The problem with injuring my back is now I have another hobby, I never kicked the racing bug and now have a Viper I cant help but put stupid amounts of money into!!

Derek - You've explained it to me in the past but I think it would be worth going over a bit here as well. Could you explain your thoughts/training as far as cardiovascular work is concerned?

I’m a big fan of cardio, more specifically interval training which consists of anywhere from 30 seconds to two minutes of all out exertion followed by a recovery period where the resistance is only cut by about 50%. I feel this has the best carryover for strongman, its aids in overall condition, specifically getting used to pushing yourself 100% for the time frame we usually do in strongman and recovering quickly.

[robert da strongman]

hey Derek!
ever pressed any stones?

what do you use for the cardio? treadmill, elliptical....

[Joeb23]

Hey Derek,

I just watching you again on ESPN during the 08' Strongman and I was blown away at how dominate you truly are. During the truck pull your arms look like they were gonna explode they are so big! What do they measure? Please don't tell me you never measure them, you got to have some of the biggest guns on the planet!
Good Luck in all your future events this year! Bring the WSM title back to the U.S.A.!

[Derek Poundstone]

hey Derek!
ever pressed any stones?

what do you use for the cardio? treadmill, elliptical....

robert, I've pressed the "alcan" aluminum blocks from IFSA and have a tombstone I press on occasion. AS far as the cardio, I stay away from treadmills, its a bit hard an my knees and also isn't really difficult enough unless you increase the incline to a rediculouse level. In that case when I'm finished with the interval, the tradmill takes forever to lower just a few notches. I prefer ellipticals and stair steppers as the resistrance can be quickly adjusted. I specifically run a speed program under the "hills plus" button.

Hey Derek,

I just watching you again on ESPN during the 08' Strongman and I was blown away at how dominate you truly are. During the truck pull your arms look like they were gonna explode they are so big! What do they measure? Please don't tell me you never measure them, you got to have some of the biggest guns on the planet!
Good Luck in all your future events this year! Bring the WSM title back to the U.S.A.!

Thanks bro but I have far from the "biggest guns on the planet". I'm slightly ashamed to admit that I actually measured my arms about a week ago out of curiosity! Untill last week, I hadn't measured my them for about 3 years or so as I really dont care what they measure. I've been asked this several times and I prefer to say "I dont know", but since that would be a lie, I'll just tell ya that they are over 20". Being a strength athlete, I've been criticized quite a bit for training arms and having arm development so its a bit of a soar subject hence the reason for the vague answer. I will ahve to admit that I have never had any trouble putting size on my arms and am sure if I trained them a bit more specifically I could add mores size. As I've alwas said about all the things I "could" improve", this would come at a cost that would upset the balance I've created that I believe makes me what you would refer to as a "dominant strognman". I appreciate your interest though!

[tjoe]

Derek - I am curious as to what company makes the Yoke aparatus that you used at the Arnold. I was talking with one of the Justins you train with on occasion and he was saying that it is multi functional. I'd like to learn more about it... what other events it can be used for, who makes it, if we can buy one etc. Thanks in advance and have some FUN on that vaca!! 320-325 when you get back right??

[Derek Poundstone]

Derek - I am curious as to what company makes the Yoke aparatus that you used at the Arnold. I was talking with one of the Justins you train with on occasion and he was saying that it is multi functional. I'd like to learn more about it... what other events it can be used for, who makes it, if we can buy one etc. Thanks in advance and have some FUN on that vaca!! 320-325 when you get back right??

Sorinex makes the yoke, here's their website with all the equipment they make http://store.sorinex.com/ and heres the link to a variation of the yoke Juston was talking to you about http://store.sorinex.com/The_Base_St...gen_p/yk-1.htm the video on the page pretty much sums it up. THis is the evolution of the yoke used at the arnold which is a one of a kind. Once I finish building my monster garage, I'm going to purchase one of them for the garage so I can do my training at wither the gym or my house!

[tjoe]

Thanks for the info Derek.

[New2thegame]

When you decided to do this sport were you lucky to have a gym/group near you or did you seek them out? If so, what did you look for nice group of people or competitors?

[Derek Poundstone]

When you decided to do this sport were you lucky to have a gym/group near you or did you seek them out? If so, what did you look for nice group of people or competitors?

When I first started competing, I never trained the events. I got my procard having only trained specific events twice by driving up to Art McDeermots house up in Wilmington, Mass. After becoming a cop and taking a 2 year hiatus (I nearly gave up the sport), I started training with Tom and April C in CT. THere I trianined untill abouta year ago when the owner of the gy, I train at allowed me to put some equipment at his place. SInce then I've aquired one of the largest private collections of equipment around. As far as the CT Strength group I originally trained with, I didn't seek out any type of specific group, just one that was in CT that had equipment. We all now train at my friends gym and we get along very well. They remember when I just started back with the sport and was struggaling and have been there through all the injuries. Plus after all the years, they are hard to impress and expect a lot out of me. This is a huge driving force for me. We've all improved and gotten better. Thats what makes the countless hours killing yourself worth it. I addition to the CT strength crew I also train with a few Powerlifters during the week

[robert da strongman]

dang!!
i wanna come up there and train.

[STRENGTH-TRAINING]

hi Derek
do you think doing deep narrow stance squats help strongman better or wide power squats, or do you do both,
thanks