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Home This was an exercise that I devised back in 1997 to help with the oncoming trip to Scotland to lift many of the famous stones of strength, particularly the Blue Stones of Old Dailly, and the Inver Stone. Although the Inver Stone weighs 265lb and is near round, the difficult stones have to be the stones at Old Dailly as these are rounded and very smooth, in fact almost like glass. This exercise would be ideal training for any type of stone lifting; especially round ones like the Atlas and Maglashan stones featured on the T.V strongman contests. With this exercise you are not limited to the weight of whatever stone you have been lucky enough to get to train on, or have made up yourself. The set-up for this exercise consists of using a short length of bar that fits the disc’s hole, some 15” – 18” long, depending on how many discs you are going to be lifting on it. The middle discs want to be of the same dimensions, i.e. 20k, or 15k discs, and of metal composition, not rubber discs. The short length of bar goes through the discs and is fastened tightly together by collars on both ends. See diagram. For official rules on this lift, the row of discs have to be lifted from the floor and not a slightly raised platform, which would enable your hands to go under, and the only thing allowed on your forearms is chalk to aid with the grip. The block of discs resembles a stone, and to lift this you must adopt a straddle position as shown in the illustration. Try to get your hands as far down each side as possible, and once you are happy with your position, squeeze inwards with the strength of your fingers, wrists and arms; this will hopefully ‘fix’ the weight. For official purposes, deadlift the weight till the height of the centre bar is above the height of the middle of you knee. This lift definitely helped Nick McKinless, Lee Morrison and myself to hoist those stones up in Scotland. The best performances by either sex have been 163k lifted by Nick McKinless at the 1998 British Grip Championships, and 98k lifted by 17-year-old Elizabeth Talbot in preparation for the World’s Strongest Woman qualifier in Scotland. Of course for training, you can do very heavy clearances off the floor, or various lighter poundage lifts to chest and waist height. For these try to make sure that not much of the bar extends beyond the discs, because too great a length of bar may cause injury. To lift the weight to the height of the strongman platforms featured on the TV strongman contests; it is done in a few movements. Firstly lift it onto your knee, then change your hand grip to a forward bear hug round the lower part of the middle, then squat this up till it’s at chest/stomach height, then lean back and go onto your toes for the final lift. I haven’t got any platforms and would either lift heavy weights to my knee, or ones to chest/stomach height. Both are very effective, and tough for repetitions. The lift to chest height is particular fatiguing for repetitions. The Bear hug lift in any style is particularly good for developing smearing grip strength, ideal for the strongman, and the rock climber. A problem a rock climber may encounter is not having enough back and leg strength to lift the weight. Maybe a chin style apparatus could be made where the ‘chin’ bar is some 12” plus wide, made of strong metal tubing, and the chins or holds were performed bear hug style. You could add resistance by attaching more weight to a belt fastened around your waist. If anyone tries these please tell me how you fare. Copyright David Horne 2006

This was an exercise that I devised back in 1997 to help with the oncoming trip to Scotland to lift many of the famous stones of strength, particularly the Blue Stones of Old Dailly, and the Inver Stone. Although the Inver Stone weighs 265lb and is near round, the difficult stones have to be the stones at Old Dailly as these are rounded and very smooth, in fact almost like glass. This exercise would be ideal training for any type of stone lifting; especially round ones like the Atlas and Maglashan stones featured on the T.V strongman contests. With this exercise you are not limited to the weight of whatever stone you have been lucky enough to get to train on, or have made up yourself.
The set-up for this exercise consists of using a short length of bar that fits the disc’s hole, some 15” – 18” long, depending on how many discs you are going to be lifting on it. The middle discs want to be of the same dimensions, i.e. 20k, or 15k discs, and of metal composition, not rubber discs. The short length of bar goes through the discs and is fastened tightly together by collars on both ends. See diagram. For official rules on this lift, the row of discs have to be lifted from the floor and not a slightly raised platform, which would enable your hands to go under, and the only thing allowed on your forearms is chalk to aid with the grip.
The block of discs resembles a stone, and to lift this you must adopt a straddle position as shown in the illustration. Try to get your hands as far down each side as possible, and once you are happy with your position, squeeze inwards with the strength of your fingers, wrists and arms; this will hopefully ‘fix’ the weight. For official purposes, deadlift the weight till the height of the centre bar is above the height of the middle of you knee. This lift definitely helped Nick McKinless, Lee Morrison and myself to hoist those stones up in Scotland. The best performances by either sex have been 163k lifted by Nick McKinless at the 1998 British Grip Championships, and 98k lifted by 17-year-old Elizabeth Talbot in preparation for the World’s Strongest Woman qualifier in Scotland.

Of course for training, you can do very heavy clearances off the floor, or various lighter poundage lifts to chest and waist height. For these try to make sure that not much of the bar extends beyond the discs, because too great a length of bar may cause injury. To lift the weight to the height of the strongman platforms featured on the TV strongman contests; it is done in a few movements. Firstly lift it onto your knee, then change your hand grip to a forward bear hug round the lower part of the middle, then squat this up till it’s at chest/stomach height, then lean back and go onto your toes for the final lift. I haven’t got any platforms and would either lift heavy weights to my knee, or ones to chest/stomach height. Both are very effective, and tough for repetitions. The lift to chest height is particular fatiguing for repetitions. The Bear hug lift in any style is particularly good for developing smearing grip strength, ideal for the strongman, and the rock climber. A problem a rock climber may encounter is not having enough back and leg strength to lift the weight. Maybe a chin style apparatus could be made where the ‘chin’ bar is some 12” plus wide, made of strong metal tubing, and the chins or holds were performed bear hug style. You could add resistance by attaching more weight to a belt fastened around your waist. If anyone tries these please tell me how you fare.