Many years ago, the logs used for overhead pressing in strongman were actual tree trunks with the handles carved into the log. Now, the technology of logs has moved out of the wood age and into the steel age. Isn't strongman equipment wonderful? Let's hope we don't progress any further. Anyway, these logs will make an ordinary set of overhead presses an extraordinary experience.  Just by their unbalanced nature and the fact that the log squeezes all the air out of your lungs in the down position, you may find big log presses to be similar to pressing a small motor home.  Good times......

Let's work some grip strength, shall we?  Ok, first we need to order some high tech machines and maybe one of those iron grip contraptions they advertise in the middle of the night on TV right after the "x-ray sunglasses" and the "great abs without exercise" thing.  Or we could just break out a piece of steel that is two inches in diameter, load some plates on it and do curls, or presses, or cleans, or deadlifts or just about any exercise.  When you use an axle, any exercise becomes a grip and forearm exercise.  Your forearms will blow up almost immediately with this thing.  Try wrapping your grip around a soda or beer can and you get the idea. And forget about using it with really heavy weights in a strongman contest. Some of the world's best strongmen have cleaned and pressed upward of 300 to 400 pounds overhead on one of these. But I promise if you come in to try ours, we will load it with a lot less weight.

When the plans were first being formulated for The Gateway Wheels, the objective was to build a perfect power clean bar.  Well, not to brag but I think we did. The wheels themselves are of average height putting the bar at a comfortable 14 inches and each wheel weighing 40 pounds. The tires were done by Henry and the crew at Gateway Tire on Bert Kouns in Shreveport.  What makes this rig special is the bar.  Pete Willets at ProMaxima in Houston searched and found us a bar that is 5 feet long and only weighs 27 pounds. This bar also has a very small diameter enabling the lifter to wrap his hands all the way around the bar and feel as though he is squeezing the life out of the bar.  This increases confidence and the bar gives a lot to make the 130 pound power clean feel much easier.  BUT DON'T THINK WE BUILT THIS BAR TO BE EASIER! When we use it, the lifter must do cleans continuously as quickly as possible for 1 minute.  There is no rest, there is no hesitation, there is only the lifter, this bar, and absolute continuous motion. It is definately 1 minute of your life you will never forget, that is if you come to soon enough to remember it!

 
Let me be honest with you. This is a 225 pound axle.  We use it for deadlifting and occasionally cleaning. So your question at this point should be, "a 225 pound axle, that's nothing, I deadlift and clean with more than that all the time!"  This may be true, but this axle is SQUARE.  It's every bit of 2 inches, probably a little more and its square shape makes it a nightmare to grip.  This is not a set of wheels that were put on a lifting bar or a store made axle or a piece of round steel, no this beauty came out of the junkyard exactly this way.  Nerrin's Junk Barn in Lufkin Texas was hiding this gem way in the back, behind the sunken school buses, wrapped up in 2 miles of briars with a big fire ant mound sitting right in the middle.  Well, I dug and pulled her out, deadlifted her and walked her out.  An old axle and wheels for a farm trailer, she is solid and ornery and completely amazed that she is now a strongman implement.  All I can say to her is, "Welcome to my world honey, glad you're home".

What was the most intimidating and frightening thing about the Middle Ages? The Bubonic Plague or The Black Death. And so it is the same at Braveheart Strength Systems.  You may not fear The Black Death Axle but you must respect it as something that can dash your hopes, kill your dreams and break your heart.  This beast consists of two 121 pound tractor wheels on either end of a 2 inch axle made of solid, cold rolled stressproof steel. The axle is six feet long and weighs 64 pounds all by itself.  This axle didn't come from the sporting goods store or the phone number at the end of the fitness infomercial.  No, this axle came straight from the foundry and straight from the fire to Braveheart and it showed up thick and slick and nearly un-grip-able. This beast weighs 323 pounds just like she is and her weight never changes.  We use the Black Death to do maximum deadlift reps in 1 minute. Many of the Braveheart athletes have completed successful 1 minute sets on TBD but their lifting demeanor changed forever afterward. Be warned, you may lift her successfully but once you challenge her and battle her, you are never quite the same.  It is rumored that after she has been lifted and covered by the white chalk handprints of the lifter,  the next morning the chalk has disappeared. Please come to Braveheart and spend 1 minute with The Black Death Axle.   She will leave her mark on you but you will never leave your mark on her.........

Aye, the Scottish Highland Games...A 56lb weight thrown for height, two 56lb weights thrown for distance, a 42 lb throwing weight and a 28lb throwing weight just get us started here. Throw in (no pun intended) a 12lb, 16lb and 22lb Scottish hammer and we are really warming up. The long black pole is a "caber", which is Gaelic for tree trunk and the big bag is a 16lb sheaf with a Highland Games pitchfork stuck in it.  Put simply, we throw  the throwing weights for height and distance, we spin the hammers around over our heads and throw them for distance, we throw and hopefully "turn" the caber and we stick the sheaf with the fork and throw the sheaf over a bar set high in the sky. Is that clear now? I don't have time to go over it again, so come in and you can meet each member of this fine Scottish family personally...might want to bring some band-aids and a little extra skin for your hands though.....just kidding.....well not really...

The farmer's walk came from Scottish Highland Games back in the Middle Ages and has come to be a staple of strongman and highland games competitions.  Basically, the farmer's walk involves picking up the two implements one in each hand and walking with them like you would two suitcases. I will not attempt to explain the absolute euphoria which comes from heavy farmer's walking because you have to do it to understand.  If you think that walking on an aerobic machine for 40 minutes will elevate your heart rate and leave you breathless, you have been deceived.  When you come to Braveheart and pick these up and walk 50 feet with one turn you will experience a serious fitness epithany and you will know for sure how the marriage of cardio fitness and strength really works. And after you hang over a bench for 20 minutes and drink three bottles of water, then we can talk about your experience!

These are kegs filled with gravel that weigh from 20 pounds to 200 pounds. Try doing some cleans or presses with these sometime. At other gyms, they encourage you to do exercises while lying on a fitness ball to "work the stabilizers". Well we have a better idea. Instead of using a bar and plates that are perfectly calibrated and balanced and then having to depend on a ball to work your supporting musculature, use one of these as your implement. They will pull away from you, shift weight from side to side, pull out of your hands and generally work your core and stabilizers like nothing you have ever used. Clients have described doing cleans and presses with the kegs as trying to clean and press a live wild animal.  What a rush!

 

What we have here is an odd collection of generally heavy stuff.  A 251 pound fire hydrant, field stones from 25 pounds to 211 pounds.  12, 16 and 20 pound shots and a solid steel 82 pound steel sphere certainly make an odd collection.  What do we do with these?  Throw em, load em, grip em, carry em and truly love em for the heavy implements they are.