Events Training Guide: Atlas Stones
Introduction
This post is meant for the strongman beginner or intermediate, who has signed up for their next Strongman Competition with an Atlas Stone event in it. The idea is to give you what you need to be dangerous on the day of the show. I touch on the different events you might see, some quick aspects of the technique that you’ll want to be aware of, some of the common faults, then I get into some of my favorite variations of stone loading.
Lastly I’ll show you some ways that you can organize these protocols into a training program so that you can be prepared to compete. At the end you can snag a PDF full of workouts and protocols that you can use to guide you.
Summary of Events
Promoters have a lot of flexibility when they design competitions, and that means that you never really know what an event is going to be like until you’re in the middle of it. That said, the vast majority of competitions that feature Atlas Stones are going to have the event set up in one of the following formats, so you should be familiar with them as you start training with stones.
Atlas Stone Max Reps
In this format the promoter will set a timer and you’ll be tasked with getting a stone loaded as many times as you can before the time is done. This is usually done over a bar, but that doesn’t always have to be the case. This is the most common stone event you’ll see because it is very easy on the promoter. They’ll only need one stone per division at the most, and then they can bring an empty yoke to the competition to load over.
Trump Stone
In a trump stone event, there are two implements in front of the athlete. One is going to be heavy, and the other is going to be stupid heavy. What makes these events fun is that (usually) a single rep on the heavier implement will trump any number of reps performed on the smaller implement. In one of my first competitions there was a trump stone event with a 400lb stone and a 350lb stone. I hit two reps at the 400lb stone, and that put me ahead of another athlete that hit 5 reps with the 350. The athlete that ultimately won the event (and the competition) got 3 reps with the 400lb stone.
Where these events can get tricky is when the promoter starts making rules transitioning between the stones. Sometimes you can go heavier but not lighter, or lighter but not heavier. Sometimes they don’t care and you can bounce around between the weights at your leisure.
Loading Series
While the load for reps is the most common, the load series is the most iconic. The promoter will select anywhere between 3 and 10 stones for you to lift in a row, each getting incrementally heavier. Usually this event has you loading to a platform, and the platforms start tall and get shorter as the stones get heavier. I have seen shows where they load over a bar or a post, and in those events the loading height stays the same.
For these events, you want to get the stones you can as fast as possible. Usually the promoter will take split times, meaning that if two athletes tie on the third stone of a 5-stone series, the speed at which they finished the third stone will tell them who placed better in the event. You’re motivated to hit each stone as fast as manageable in the series.
Last Man Standing
In a last man standing event, athletes take turns loading the atlas stone back and forth across the bar until an athelte reaches failure. The two athletes with the fewest points will start the event and whenever an athlete fails, the next athlete in the lineup comes out to continue. The event goes until everyone has failed, and the total reps achieved is your score. When there is only one athlete remaning, they will usually have a round-timer that governs when they have to have initiated their next rep. This simulates having a partner on the other side of the bar.
What makes these events unique is the inherent rest time between reps. In the other events you’re trying to get your reps as fast as possible, but in a Last Man Standing event, it is a test of will to see who can just keep getting the Atlas Stone over the bar.
Summary of Technical Points
Before we dive into training, I want to cover a little bit of vocabulary terms so that we’re all on the same page as you roll into your stone training. These are the positions and transitions that you need to know for a typical Atlas Stone Lift.
The Setup
Everything that you do before you start creating force to lift the stone is part of the setup. That means getting your feet set, getting your hands set, and squeezing into the stone. Getting the setup right is going to be key having a successful pick and getting the stone to the lap position as efficiently as possible.
The Pick
The Pick is what we call it when someone lifts the implement off the ground. It’s a sort of half deadlift that you’re doing with the objective of successfully getting the stone into the lap position. This is the transition between the setup position and the lap position.
The Lap
The Lap position is where you arrive after the pick, when you’ve gotten the stone over your knees and have it on your thighs as you hold a squat. This position lets you use your legs like a jack stand to get the bar elevated high on your chest. You can remove your hands and replace them on the stone from this position as well to get a better grip on the stone as you ready yourself for the final motion of the rep.
The Extension
The extension describes the action you take as you elevate the stone out of the lap position and hopefully over a bar or onto a platform. Ideally you’re keeping the stone high on the chest, and extending your ankles, knees, hips, and upper back to get the stone as high as possible. This is the final portion of the lift, and the transition out of the lap position.
Key Variations
These are some of the most common variations that I prescribed in my training programs to get athletes better at Atlas Stone Events. Here’s what they are, and why you need to know them.
Atlas Stone Pick
This is pretty self-explanatory after the last section, but this is an exercise variation where all you’re doing is breaking the stone off the ground and elevating it to the height where you’d otherwise transition to the lap position. Then you either drop the stone, or lower it back to the floor under control to start the next rep.
For athletes that tend to see their stones roll forward or backward on them as they create lift, training just the Pick can be a helpful tool. We’ll offer them a couple of cues to help make sure that they’re getting more consistent off the ground, then prescribed a few sets of picks to give them practice.
I’ll also prescribed this with other variations as part of a complex to give the athlete a little more practice at getting setup and initiating the rep from the ground.
Atlas Stone Squat
The Atlas Stone Squat is an exercise where we change the objective of the extension portion of the lift. Instead of extending the ankles and upper back along with the knees and hips to create as much height as possible, we’re just extending the knees and hips to stand up with the stone.
For athletes that struggle to keep the stone in position as they come up out of the lap, I love to prescribe the Atlas Stone Squat to force them to practice. The key is to keep tension as you hit the bottom of the rep and initiate the next. Keeping your friction force on the stone high as you transition from the eccentric to the concentric is added stress that brings out a big adaptation.
Atlas Stone Extension
The Atlas Stone Extension is just a variation where instead of loading to a bar or platform, you’re getting the stone as high into the air as possible and then letting it fall to the ground. This is my bread and butter exercise for Atlas Stone Training because there’s nothing to stop the range of motion. Athletes end up extending all the way through as far as their bodies can and it creates a lot of power.
This is also a great corrective exercise for athletes that have a tendency to want to keep their eyes on whatever they’re loading to. If they do, they’re likely to cut their extension shy and lose height on the load. That’ll cause missed reps and lose points in a competition.
Atlas Stone Isometrics
I always break Atlas Stone Loading technique into two parts. The first is the extension of the legs and hips to create lift, but the second is the upper body’s ability to create friction force and hold the stone elevated above the ground. When the stone slips down the torso or just flies out of the hands completely, this second portion of the technique is the one that needs attention, and Atlas Stone Isometrics are a great way to target that issue.
I program these holds into two places. The first is just off the ground in the pick, and the second is at the top of an Atlas Stone Squat. If I know an athlete has access to a platform, I might prescribe isometric holds at the standing position without the squat. You’d just suspend the stone a couple of inches above the platform.
These Isometrics should be performed on a Stone of Steel, or at least without tacky. You’re trying to develop your ability to create friction, so using something that artificially increases the friction defeats the purpose. There is an exception to this rule: If the isometric is at the end of a complex. If you’re adding holds to a set where you needed tacky, then it would be impractical to try to clean it off or something. Just keep in mind that what you’re probably fatiguing as you perform that hold isn’t your ability to create friction, but the rest of your body as it holds up the stone.
Key Faults
In this section I want to cover some of the most common faults that I see in the Atlas Stone Load. If you’re going to know how to make yourself better, you have to know how what mistakes you might be making first.
Missed Pick
Missing the pick can describe a number of different issues, each with their own cause and solution:
The Stone is Rolling Forward or Backward: Your lining up with your hands in the wrong place. Either too far forward or back. You need to figure out a technique that ensures your hands are in the center of the stone every time, and then practice that technique enough that it becomes second nature.
The Stone is stuck at the knees. This means that you’re trying to transition to the lap too early. If you’re strong enough to lift the stone higher before you transition to the lap, you should! If you’re not, then you need to start training that aspect of the lift. Hitting Atlas Stone Picks in training, but exaggerating the height as you perform them, can be helpful in overcoming this problem.
The stone doesn’t break off the floor. It is possible that you’re just not strong enough. If that is the case then you might consider incoporating deadlift variations that force you into a similar degree of hip flexion to initiate the lift. You could also be running into tacky issues, where either there is tacky on the floor that is holding the stone down, or there is tacky on the stone that is sticking to the floor. If this happens, consider moving the stone before you lift it to reduce that added resistance.
Atlas Stone Slips on Torso
When an athlete is coming out of the lap, a common fault you’ll see is the athlete standing up but the stone stays in place effectively falling down the torso. One of two different things can cause this problem:
The athlete is trying to explode out of the lap position. If the athlete tries to explode out of the lap, they can create more upward force at the hips than their torso can control by creating friction at the torso. If that happens, the stone will slip down instead of coming up with the athlete.
The athlete is not strong enough to create the required friction force to secure the stone to the torso. If you’re just not strong enough to squeeze the stone into you, then it is going to fall. Tacky and grip shirts can be helpful in the moment, but training to overcome the issue with Atlas Stone Squats and Isometric Holds is a better long term strategy.
Eyes on Loading Target
It’s natural for an athlete to want to keep their eyes on the bar or platform that they’re loading to. The problem is that keeping eyes on it means the Atlas Stone has to stay low enough that a person can see over it. This inherently limits the height that the athlete will lift to, and that will be a problem for taller loading events.
The Atlas Stone Extension is a great solution to this, because it removes the bar or platform and just leaves you having to extend the stone as high into space as possible. If you can make this your natural motor pattern, it will be easier to throw your head back and reach max height in the competition environment.
Phase Potentiation
Phase Potentiation means to order your training such that the training you’re doing now benefits from the training you were doing in the last phase, and that the training you’re doing now will compliment the training you’ll be doing in the next phases. It is designing your training in a planned sequence to make the training more effective. Most training programs are designed to progress in this fasion so I listed some of the most common blocks you’ll see, the exercise variations best for the phases, and then some ideas for protocols that might work in those phases.
GPP Phase
GPP stands for General Physical Preparedness. When I think of a GPP phase of training, I think of the strength qualities that a person needs to thrive in a training program. This is the phase of training where we get the athlete in shape to train. You don’t want to go into a training program and get smashed by the first week. A good GPP phase ensures that when you get to the program, you’re ready to do more than survive. You’re ready to thrive.
For the GPP Phase of a stone program, I will try to use variations that don’t involve loading Atlas Stones. I’ll try to run volume density protocols that utilize kegs or sandbags, training the hip extension and making sure that the body is ready for the energy system demands of a good hypertrophy phase. If I have to use stones, I’ll choose variations that utilize a Stone of Steel or hit take the stone all the way to the shoulder.
When you’re done with the GPP phase you want to be ready to perform 40-60 seconds of hard work in a set as part of a protocol with just a couple of minutes of rest between sets. That hard work should be with compound exercises, and if you want to be ready for the Atlas Stones then you want to make sure that the hard work you’re able to do involves squatting and hip extension.
Hypertrophy Phase
In the hypertrophy phase, we’re trying to develop muscle tissue. That means volume accumulation with time under tension. The intent of this phase of training usually manifests in other protocols in other parts of the program, but I try to make the event training compliment the training phase.
For Atlas Stones, this is where I’ll build complexes that combine Atlas Stone Picks, Atlas Stone Squats, and Atlas Stone Holds. The protocols will try to aim for workloads that keep tension on the system for 40-60 seconds without relief, ideally with RPE’s in the 7-8 range. That means silent touch and go tempo Atlas Stone Picks, sets of 6-10 Atlas stone squats, and isometric holds at the top for 6-7 seconds.
Your goal here is to build up enough work capacity that when you start the next phase, fatigue doesn’t limit your training volumes. You can get in there and wrestle heavy stones without a second thought.
Strength Phase
In this phase of training, you’re going to start working on your ability to move heavy rocks. A big portion of this phase focuses on technique so bringing up weaknesses is a high priority. If you struggle with one of the faults from before, then this should be your focus for the block and dictate the exercises you do.
If you’re competition is going to have a stone that is likely to push you to test a new 1RM, then it is also time to get specific in your training. That means you need to start incorporating some loads that simulate the event in your contest. Whether its a platform or a bar, whether it’s high or low, you need to start bringing that in.
For the athletes that demonstrate a lot of technical proficiency, and that will likely be getting multiple reps at competition weight, I’ll start running a volume density protocol. That means EMOM’s or High Volume Clusters with 80+% of competition weight. This will start exposing the athlete to the heavy stones and get to developing the strength that they’ll need to win the competition.
Absolute Strength
Some athletes will look at the competition weight and hope that they don’t zero the event. For those athletes, the goal in this phase of training is pushing their max stone as far as possible. Heavy singles, with a competition setting are best. If you don’t have enough stones to make small incremental jumps, then you’re forced to use other exercises to push the top end strength.
Chase personal records in the stones, and as long as you’re making progress (lifting the stone higher each week), then keep at it even if you’re failing reps. Just don’t compromise technique. You don’t want bad habits to float to the surface on competition day.
Strength Endurance
For athletes that are likely to hit multiple reps with their competition weight, the name of the game is strength endurance. You want the strength that you demonstrate on the first rep of the event to last as long as possible, ideally all the way to the end of the alotted time.
For those athletes I keep the volume density protocols going until they’re practically hitting reps back to back. I try to keep some time between reps during training because it keeps the training organized and redcuces the likelihood of technical errors. When athletes are cut loose at the competition you see the atmosphere do its job and they fly through the event.
Sample Workouts
I built some sample workouts into a PDF for you to download free. Even if you don’t use this content exactly as it’s written, you should be able to use it to inspire event days or stone workouts of your own. In that way you’ll be better equipped to tackle the next competition you come across with a stone event.