Major Strongman Strategy and Tactics

Episode III: Event Order and Energy Management

In Strongman, a competition is not a collection of independent events. It is a system in which every event changes the resources available for the next one. Event order can turn the same list of disciplines into a favorable or extremely demanding contest for the same athlete.

An athlete may possess enough strength for every event and still lose because resources were spent too early. Energy, repeat-effort capacity, grip, posterior-chain tolerance, cardiovascular capacity, concentration and competitive arousal must be managed as a budget. Strongman-specific research remains limited, but biomechanical research and competition-day preparation data support the idea that events impose different demands and preparation must be context-specific. [1,2]

1. Event Order Is a Strategic Variable

When a competition is announced, most athletes look first at the weights. A tactical athlete also looks at the sequence. It is not enough to know that you have a deadlift, farmer’s walk, log lift and sandbag. You need to know what comes before and after each one.

The same event can have a different practical difficulty depending on where it appears in the contest. A farmer’s walk early in the day may primarily test speed and strength. The same farmer’s walk after a hard deadlift may become primarily a grip and recovery problem.

2. The Competition Must Be Viewed as a Chain, Not Ten Separate Events

Isolated analysis asks, “How much can I do in Event X?” Tactical analysis asks, “How much can I do in X after spending resources on the previous events, and how much do I need to preserve for what comes next?”

This change in perspective is fundamental. A multi-event contest creates cumulative effects. Even if each event is performed only once, mechanical and metabolic stress do not completely reset between events.

3. There Is More Than One Form of Energy

When we say “energy,” we should be more precise. A Strongman contest involves several relevant resources: neuromuscular capacity, energy availability, metabolic tolerance, grip capacity, tissue tolerance, technical control and cognitive resources.

Your legs may still be strong while your grip is compromised. You may have enough absolute strength while movement speed has fallen. You may still be physically capable but have reduced concentration. Therefore, “I am tired” is too crude a description for competition energy management.

4. The First Event Should Not Consume Everything You Have

A common tactical error is treating the first event as an opportunity to immediately demonstrate maximum capacity. If the first points do not require a near-maximal effort, it may be smarter to secure a strong result at a lower cost.

This does not mean being passive. It means understanding that the first event is not the end of the contest. If you achieve a strong result while preserving resources for four, five or six remaining events, the strategic value may exceed winning one event at a disproportionate cost.

5. Max-Strength Events Have a Different Cost from Locomotion Events

A max deadlift, a heavy log lift and a long carry do not stress the body in the same way. Strongman biomechanical research demonstrates meaningful differences between exercises in mechanical demands and performance determinants. [2]

Tactically, this means you should not estimate only how much energy an event consumes, but which resource it consumes. One event may leave cardiovascular capacity relatively intact while heavily taxing the back. Another may preserve maximal strength but heavily compromise grip.

6. Grip Is a Resource That Must Be Budgeted

Farmer’s walk, axle, deadlift, Hercules Hold, sandbag and other events can compete for the same resource: the ability to produce and maintain force through the hands and forearms. When two high-grip-demand events are close together, the overlap must be considered.

This creates a recovery debt. You do not need to be completely recovered to perform well, but you need to understand which resource you borrowed in the previous event and how much it may affect the next one.

7. The Posterior Chain Can Become the Hidden Limiter

Deadlift, stones, sandbag, loading, yoke and many forms of carries can stress the spinal extensors, hips and posterior chain to different degrees. When several of these events are grouped, the issue becomes not only performance in each event but accumulated stress.

An athlete may enter Event Four with enough absolute strength but with degraded technical output because fatigue has accumulated. At this point, energy management becomes technique management.

8. Fatigue Can Change Technique Before It Eliminates Strength

A mistake is to wait until an athlete cannot lift the load before considering him fatigued. Technical changes often appear earlier: less stable positions, longer movement paths, altered tempo, compensations and loss of rhythm.

In Strongman, these changes matter because implements and events have specific biomechanical demands. The existing biomechanical literature is still relatively small and often uses simplified methods, so broad generalization should be cautious. [3]

9. Pacing Is a Form of Energy Conservation

In timed or distance events, pacing is one of the strongest tools for conserving resources. A start that is too aggressive can produce a spectacular first few seconds followed by a major reduction in speed.

The correct strategy depends on the event. Over a very short distance, aggression may be justified. In a long carry, repeated loading event or multi-object discipline, the goal is to minimize unnecessary pauses while preserving the ability to continue.

10. The Recovery Period Between Events Is Part of the Event

Many athletes treat the time between events as neutral. It is not. It is a recovery window in which hydration, nutrition, body temperature, mobility, activation, breathing and psychological state must be managed.

In a study of 132 Strongman athletes, 94% reported using competition warm-ups, while the perceived optimal rest before an event averaged about 8.5 minutes. These are descriptive data, not a universal prescription, but they show that between-event preparation is part of real Strongman competition behavior. [1]

11. Do Not Warm Up the Same Resource Twice

A warm-up should prepare rather than compete with the event. Before a heavy event, it should be sufficient for temperature, mobility and activation without turning the pre-event period into a miniature training session.

The Strongman competition-day study found that athletes monitored warm-up intensity using RPE, perceived movement speed and percentages of 1RM. This supports an individualized approach: the objective is not a certain number of exercises, but optimal readiness at minimal cost. [1]

12. Nutrition and Hydration Are the Infrastructure of Competition

Energy management cannot be separated from fluid and carbohydrate intake. In a long competition, intake should be planned around total duration, temperature, sweat losses, gastrointestinal tolerance and actual access to food and fluids.

Winwood and colleagues reported frequent use of electrolyte drinks and other competition-day nutrition strategies among Strongman athletes. However, common practice is not automatically proof of optimal practice for every athlete. [1]

13. Caffeine Can Be a Strategic Resource, Not a Panic Button

If used and tolerated, caffeine can be integrated into a competition plan, but timing matters. In a multi-event contest, aggressive stimulation early in the day may be a poor choice if the goal is to maintain performance across many hours.

A simple tactical principle is not to use a resource merely because it is available. Every intervention should have a purpose: increasing alertness, supporting a critical event or maintaining performance during a decisive phase.

14. Event Order Should Be Analyzed Through Overlapping Demands

A professional way to analyze the schedule is to build a resource map. For every event, identify its dominant demands: maximal strength, speed, grip, posterior chain, legs, cardiovascular system, technique, concentration and effort tolerance.

Then look for clusters. Two consecutive high-grip events represent a different risk from two events that primarily stress different resources. This analysis can completely change the objectives you set for each event.

15. Event Order Can Favor or Punish an Athlete Profile

An athlete with exceptional maximal strength may benefit when max-strength events appear early, before fatigue accumulates. An athlete who excels at volume and locomotion events may become more competitive when those events appear after others have accumulated fatigue.

Therefore, the ranking after the first event should not be treated as a prediction of the final ranking. Event order can redistribute advantages as the competition progresses.

16. When You Lead, Manage. When You Trail, Redistribute Risk

If you lead after the early events, the objective is not to win every event at any cost. You can accept a more conservative result in an event that consumes a critical resource if your lead is sufficient.

If you are behind, the problem changes. You must identify the events in which points can realistically be recovered and avoid spending excessive energy in events where the probability of changing the standings is small.

17. Psychological Energy Must Be Managed Seriously

Strongman is cognitively demanding. Each event requires reading the implement, regulating arousal, remembering judging standards, controlling technique and making decisions under pressure. Winwood’s study identified the use of cognitive strategies and the need to manage arousal on competition day. [1]

An athlete who spends all psychological energy before a critical event may arrive at the next event with a problem that cannot be seen on a scoreboard. Attention management, routines and emotional regulation are part of energy management.

18. You Do Not Need to Live Every Event at Maximum Intensity

One of the most mature Strongman strategies is separating physical intensity from emotional intensity. You can execute an event with complete commitment without entering an unnecessarily high arousal state before the start.

If every event is treated as an absolute final, psychological cost accumulates. The contest should be divided into execution windows and recovery windows. Activation should rise when needed and fall once the event is finished.

19. Practical Example: Four Consecutive Events

Imagine the following sequence: heavy deadlift, farmer’s walk, log lift and sandbag loading. An athlete who treats each event separately may attack the deadlift maximally, move aggressively in the farmer’s walk and then discover that grip and back capacity are no longer at the desired level for the log and loading.

A tactical athlete would analyze the sequence before the competition. He would identify deadlift and farmer’s walk as major sources of posterior-chain and grip demand, then decide where maximizing the result is worth the cost and where strong points can be earned more economically.

20. The Competition Energy Map

Before competition, answer five questions for every event: what resource does it consume most, what resource must be preserved afterward, how important is it for the standings, how likely am I to perform well, and what comes immediately after it?

From these answers you can build a simple map: attack events, securing events and conservation events. Not every event must be won. The competition must be won as a whole.

21. The Energy Failure Point: When You Spend More Than the Event Is Worth

The most important Failure Point of this episode appears when an athlete spends a disproportionate amount of resources for a small number of points and then pays the bill in later events.

An extraordinary result in one event can become a poor decision if it turns an athlete capable of producing seven very strong results into an athlete who produces one exceptional result and three weak ones.

22. Conclusion: You Are Not Just Managing Energy, You Are Managing the Ability to Keep Being Strong

Event order is one of the variables that makes Strongman a strategic sport. Absolute strength remains fundamental, but in a multi-event contest, victory also depends on how that strength is distributed over time.

A strong athlete asks, “How much can I do in this event?” A tactical athlete asks, “How much do I need to do here to maximize the whole contest, and what must I preserve for what comes next?”

True energy management does not mean saving yourself permanently. It means investing aggressively where the competitive return is high and remaining disciplined where additional expenditure does not meaningfully change the standings.

Ultimately, a Strongman contest is not won by the athlete who was strongest for a few minutes. It is won by the athlete who preserved enough strength, energy, technique, concentration and decision-making capacity for all the moments that mattered.

Scientific References and Technical Sources

1. Winwood PW, Pritchard HJ, Wilson D, Dudson M, Keogh JWL. The Competition-Day Preparation Strategies of Strongman Athletes. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2019;33(9):2308-2320. doi:10.1519/JSC.0000000000003267. PMID:31343547.

2. Hindle BR, Lorimer A, Winwood PW, Keogh JWL. The Biomechanics and Applications of Strongman Exercises: a Systematic Review. Sports Medicine - Open. 2019;5:49. doi:10.1186/s40798-019-0222-z. PMID:31820223.

3. Hindle BR, Lorimer A, Winwood PW, Keogh JWL. A systematic review of the biomechanical research methods used in strongman studies. Sports Biomechanics. 2020;19(1):90-119. doi:10.1080/14763141.2019.1598480. PMID:31132028.

4. Winwood PW, Keogh JWL, Harris NK. The Strength and Conditioning Practices of Strongman Competitors. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2014;28(2):405-414.

5. Suchomel TJ, Nimphius S, Stone MH. The Importance of Muscular Strength in Athletic Performance. Sports Medicine. 2016;46:1419-1449.

6. Mujika I, Halson S, Burke LM, Balagué G, Farrow D. An Integrated, Multifactorial Approach to Periodization for Optimal Performance. Sports Medicine. 2018;48:1823-1838.