Do Strongman Squat?

Strongman are known for their abilities to do massive feats of strength that challenges most of the muscles in their bodies, but do strongman have a squat routine? While you don’t see many training videos of strongman training squats, some events they compete in require a good compound movement that squats provide.

Squats targets most muscles of the body, especially the lower body and core. Depending on the type of squat you do, it can also work the muscles in shoulders, arms, chest, and back. For strongman, this sounds perfect, but why don’t they include this more in their routine?

To put it simply, deadlifts are the king of lifts for strongman and squats are rarely in events. Squats are for reps, so strongman do train them but it is not a prioritised movement like deadlift. Despite this, squatting are part of their routine as it has great carryovers to other events like stones and log pressing.

Strongman Squat Events

Fun fact, the squat was actually one of the original events in the first World’s Strongest Man contest! The last time squats were seen on the main stage was back in 2019. The strongman competitors had to lift a whopping 340kg for as many repetitions as possible in a 75 second time limit. Martin Licis came in first place with 9 repetitions, later winning the World’s Strongest Man 2019.

Squats is not a common event in the main circuit and therefore is not an exercise that strongman prioritise. Despite this, the benefits that come from the squat doesn’t mean it isn’t in their routine. Any event that has squats is all about repetitions rather than max weight, as seen in powerlifting. Tom Stoltman, the winner of the 2021 and 2022 World’s Strongest Man, has been seen doing squats in his training regime on the Stoltman Brothers Youtube channel.

To take away, strongman need to be confident in squats in the chance of it appearing in the finals. Coach Dan, the trainer of Luke and Tom Stoltman, explained to MyProtein.com;

“Squatting for strongmen isn’t necessarily a priority movement so it’s something we want to tick over in case it turns up at Worlds”

He also mentioned that their stances are close to their deadlift, which brings into the discussion of why some strongman ‘squat their deadlifts’.

Strongman Squatting Deadlifts

The deadlift is considered to be the king of all lifts for strongman. In competition, the highest weight wins the event, so a good deadlift is a must for all strongman. Though, it can be said that some stances and techniques strongman adopt, they may be seem to squatting their deadlift. With the article focusing on squats, lets dive into this.

In Eddie Hall’s 500kg deadlift, many assumed he squatted his deadlift. If you pay close attention to his form, his engagement is far from it. Some may assume that they need to get their hips as low as possible to do a conventional deadlift but hips start higher!

Strongman do not squat their deadlifts because it puts additional pressure on their lumbar spine. While they may be in a lifting suit, have more than one belt attached, they need lumbar spine for other events! Squatting deadlifts are not efficient for strongman, as it puts their hamstrings on a slack. With this in mind, squatting their deadlifts would put them at a high risk of injury that will highly affect other events.

What Squats Do Strongman Do?

There are many different variations of squats, but some strongman have particular squat styles that accommodates their large frame. There is a misconception of strongman not being very agile and have low stamina, but if you look at the events they compete in, both are needed! As mentioned earlier, any squat events require the highest amount of repetitions, so stamina, form, and strength are all required!

Regular Squats High Bar

As seen in this video by the Stoltman brothers, they do a regular squat with a high bar. Their weight and intensity is dependent on how close they are from a competition. The Stoltmans’ primarily focus is the form and the explosive motion. Their coach mentions that they usually do 5x5s on ‘fairly easy weights’ just to keep them ticking over. This will change 3-4 weeks prior to a competition, with the reps coming down and the weights going up.

Now lets briefly touch on high bar and low bar. Low bar can utilize more core muscles and can generally lift more weight. In powerlifting, low bar is popular because of their one max repetition. For strongman, they need to be able to handle whatever the starting weight is set by the event and it is totally unknown of how the setup is. Powerlifting has the same setup, same bar, whereas strongman can be totally random. It is also known in the strongman community that high bar squats has better carryover for other events like log pressing.

Bulgarian Split Squats Hold

A type of squat that the Stoltman brothers also adopt are the Bulgarian Split Squats Holds, which can be deemed as a harder lift as they need to hold for three 30 seconds on each leg. This sounds horrific but there is a method to the madness, as it for knee health. When lifting heavy weights the body can be dry and stiff because of low blood flow, the isometric movement of the Bulgarian Split Squats can help get blood into tendons really quickly.

Hack Squats

A popular squat variation is the hack squat for strongman, especially in the off season and focusing on recovery. The hack squat is a great exercise focusing on the range of motion to get as close as full depth, which is great for healing any injuries and putting on muscle mass.

Box Squats

Box squats are used by Eddie Hall after his strongman days but they have great benefits to your strongman training.

It puts less stress on the knees, something a strongman needs to be wary of because of their heavy compound lifts.
It can work the posterior chain, helping to activate muscle groups across the lower body including the lower back muscles, hamstrings, glutes, hip flexors, and spinal erectors.

How Much Can A Strongman Squat?

Now this is a hard question to answer, cause strongman rarely go for one rep maxes especially for squats. In one of the most impressive videos on Youtube, Nick Best managed to squat 380kg (837lbs) at the age of 50 as well!

With all the videos that are on Youtube and in the World’s Strongest Man events, many are focusing on reps at a relatively high weight rather than their max. Despite this, a strongman can normally squat between the 300kg – 400kg range for numerous repetitions. Have a look at any of the squats in the World’s Strongest Man, with the most recent years in 2017 and 2019.

Final Thoughts

Strongman do incorporate squats in their routine but it is not prioritised. It rarely comes up in on the main stage of World’s Strongest Man but training squats has many benefits, including improving their core, lower body and stamina. For those who are training to become a strongman, squats can have a great carryover for top events such as atlas stones and log press, so don’t neglect squats but don’t go for max weight like powerlifters! Good form and repetitions as seen in the competitions.