Stone loading has become one of my more favorite things to do.  They help you build some serious strength due to the oddness of the movement.

I know not everyone is as lucky as me and has their own atlas stones to play around with nor does everyone have the luxury of having their own gym.

There are other ways to adding in stone loading into your training.

For one, you can replace the stone with a super heavy sandbag and do sandbag loading instead.

Two, you can just use a heavy rock or heavy anvil to do loads with.

Or, if you’re really all about looking to eliminate excuses, simply grab something heavy and odd.

Heck, you could even use a human being (170-200lbs) if you really wanted to. ***Video to come soon!

Odd object loading and lifting is super powerful and effective at building more usable strength.

It really forces your body to work a little bit harder than it normally would with a balanced load such as what you would have with a barbell or set of dumbbells.

Now, I was using a 3 and a half foot tall plyo box to load my stone on.  If you don’t have one of these, all you need to do is lift your odd object up to your chest and drop it from there.   Pretty simple and basic.

Even if you don’t have a box, you can still get your loading in.

Now the second movement I threw in with the stone loads was a basic box jump.  These are great for building explosive power.

If you don’t have a plyo box for these, you could do a vertical leap or broad jump.  Pretty basic on those.

Now, what I was doing was performing 4 quick stone loads then immediately going into my box jumps for 2 reps.

This is a great “complex” superset for building up more strength and power!  You go heavier with the first movement, then go explosive for the second.

The heaviness of the first movement activates a lot of your muscles.  This is good for when you go into the explosive box jumps.  More of your muscles are switched on which will then help you be more explosive for your jumps!

The heavy stone loads are sort of like a “primer” for your box jumps.

Over time, as you use this type of “complex’ superset method, you’ll build more strength and power!

For these, the main focus is: HEAVY movement first for low reps (1-4 reps total).

Then immediately go into an EXPLOSIVE movement for a few reps (2-6).

It’s a great combination for even greater results!  Definatly a complex you need to add into your training!

Enjoy the video!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un6MbBg7G8I[/youtube]

Live Aggressive and Get Strong!