Highland games training - be a warrior!

[bunchdescendant]

OK All-

This is starting to get me excited to compete.

Alan-when and where? Let me know so we can get to hurting ourselves!!

"No pain, no gain!"

Ray

EDIT

Just noticed-this is my 100th post! Neat!!

[Alan H]

I went by the local big garden supply place after church today and got two nice, reasonably round 16 pound river cobbles. I had to haul about twenty of them across the yard to the hand scale to get two that were close to 16 pounds, but it was worth it. The price?

.....four dollars and 75 cents. A bunch of the guys at the Center we're really interested, we may see some of them at Games next summer.

When we get good at this foolishness I'll go back and get a 22 pounder for a Braemer stone.

Chain weights, Yaish? I can see that...a mess of half inch chain, all linked together would add up to 28 pounds pretty fast.

[Alan H]

OK All-

This is starting to get me excited to compete.

Alan-when and where? Let me know so we can get to hurting ourselves!!

"No pain, no gain!"

Ray

EDIT

Just noticed-this is my 100th post! Neat!!

Tim C is talking to Bill about when he can come over to get us started on the technique. I think we can use the throwing field at one of the high schools I substitute at...will be double-checking tomorrow.

So for this month I'm swimming when I can, working out with my 15 and 25 pound dumbells, doing squat-jumps holding on to both the 25 pounders, and masses of sit-ups. I figure that's a reasonable start.

I'll probably go down to Orchard Supply hardware and get a 50 pound bag of sand in a beefy polypro bag. I can tape that sucker up bigtime with duct tape and hoist that around and throw it like a caber, and it'll cost me all of about six bucks. It also won't chew up the lawn.

[Yaish]

Yeah, you get a length of chain and make it in stone weights (16 lbs). Thread an 1/8 inch cable through the chain to make it a small bundle and connect the weight with some cable clamps.

Now use a quick link (like a chain link with a threaded gate) to connect the cable to a handle (I use one from a cable weight machine). Try to make the whole bundle approximately the same length as the real implement (18 inches for the WOB). Add as many chain bundles as you need to get to the proper weight (28 or 56 lbs).

The chains dont tear up the grass and wont damage asphalt or concrete either, and they feel just like the actual implements.

You can even use one 16 lb chain on a PVC handle with a short metal pipe collar for the hammer.

[Alan H]

I just scored a bunch of weights and stuff off of craigslist for free. The family was moving to Asia and had to get rid of a mess of stuff.

Anyway, I now have all the weights I could ever want for dumbells. I also have two 25 pound plates with a 1" hole in the center, a straight bar and a nifty bench that's in great shape. Guys, does it make sense to turn one of those plates into the "weight for height" and "weight for distance" weight? The shape is all wrong, but it can't matter THAT much, just for practice?

.....or can it?

[Yaish]

I was going to use plates stacked together for the practice implements, but I just dont think they would handle the abuse. Whatever you use to fasten them together (since you'll need to get to 56lbs) is going to take a heck of a beating trying to hold a couple plates together.

Also, if you are using large plates you might also run into problems with the weights being oddly shaped and oversized, which might force you into practicing with bad form.

Chain works nice because it collapses into a compact bundle just about the same size of the real implement. A stack of 10 lb plates welded together might be just about perfect too, but I dont trust the welds to hold over time.

[clancelt]

Here is a 55lb one of our guys made using 1" pipe and butt caps. It is now 2 years old. We have one just like it except the end of the pipe was just drilled and a d-ring slipped through it (i.e., no groovy cool butt cap) and it gets thrown over 35' on a regular basis with no problems. They seem to hold up quite well.



-Eric

[clancelt]

Well, I said 55lb. With the pipe and handle it probably weighs a bit more than 56.

Here is one of our other ugly home made rigs. This one is actually 57.5 but I slap another 5lb plate on it to practice WOB.



Tires also make great weights to throw for distance. What a sport huh?

[Yaish]

Is that a thick rubber gasket on the top of the plates?

[clancelt]

Is that a thick rubber gasket on the top of the plates?

In the top pick, those are 2 tiny 2.5 pound plates. On the bottom pic it's a 5 pound rubber coated olympic plate. I find those rubber coated plates seem to hold up better. I had a cheap iron plate (those ones with the hand holds in it) on top and it shattered after two tosses

This one has held up for a years worth of throws, so I think it will make it a few more