Stone Loading

On Saturdays I train strongman events in a garage. And I always get some of the best training sessions ever in that garage. It's dirty, the music is loud, the place is full of primitive strength tools. It's a place where great strength is built and tested.

One of the mainstays of saturday garage training is Stone Loading. My training group is lucky enough to have atlas stones. Atlas stones are the concrete spheres you may have seen on TV while watching Worlds Strongest Man.
We have a set of atlas stones that ranges from 188lbs to 385lbs. We load them to platforms ranging in height from 51" to 72".

Loading 265lbs stone to 72" at Canada's Strongest Man 2008

Stone loading is very taxing on many different parts of the body. It tests your arm and grip, upper back, lower back, legs, hips, abs and most importantly your mental toughness. I have never loaded stones and not been sore all over. (and I'm not talking about the scrapes on my chest and arms) This past Saturday was no exception. I had a really hard time getting out of bed on sunday.

Here's what I did: (After log press and farmers walk)
320lb stone to 54" X2
320lb stone to 54"X3
320lb stone to 54"X3
320lb stone to 54"X3
320lb stone shouldered to 56" + 350lb stone to 51"
320lb stone shouldered to 56" + 350lb stone to 54"
350lb stone to 54"

I did try to shoulder the 320 one last time but I was out of steam. I got a bit frustrated with myself for missing lifts near the end of the sets, but it wasn't until I wrote out my training log that I noticed the large volume of heavy stones I did.



This is one of my training partners, Peter Wagner, he is the owner of the garage I train at. He is also one hell of a stone loader. Peter is almost 50 years old. What's your excuse?