Bulgarian Strongman Training: Move, Look, and Feel Like a Man

Equipment is one of the least important elements of fitness training. You can train for all of the movements with many types of equipment, and I proved this point to myself this weekend creating a new training program for my dad. I called it Bulgarian Strongman Training.

If you've ever watched The World's Strongest Man competition, you've seen that they carry, throw, push, pull, and lift all sorts of objects. It's obvious that a lot of their training is done with barbells, but they also have to train with logs, barrels, kegs, stones, bags, etc. So strongman training needs to include using odd objects for  major movement training. My goal was to give my dad training that mimicked the the strongman training with one piece of equipment.

(the finished bag has full duct-tape handles)

First, we made a Bulgarian Training Bag (or Goat Bag). We bought a size 13 car tire inner tube and some duct tape (because I ran out)--$20. Then we tied and taped one end, filled it with sand, and tied and taped the other end. We finished with a 30 lbs bag roughly in the shape of a goat lying on the ground.

I walked him through a number of exercises that he can do with it--a couple of variations for each of the main 5 movements (swings, squats, presses, rows, rotations). And then I wrote a 4 day a week plan focusing on lifting heavy 2 days a week and doing conditioning exercises 2 days a week.

The point was to create a simple workout with one piece of equipment that was fun, effective, and with real-world function.

It's the kind of training that will give a man a lean stomach, popeye forearms, broad shoulders and chest, and stone pillars for legs. He will be able to lift, carry, run, jump, and rotate with ease. He will be a Bulgarian Strongman.