Reddit mentions of STONELIFTING: An Ancient Test Of Strength Revived

/u/stronklikebear let's update the post with Jancsics'/Crawford's book from last October. Has anyone on here read it? A book review would make for a quality front-page post.

If promoters/venues aren't going to allow tacky on atlas stones, I'd rather just see them switch to atlas stones. Tacky atlas stones are more competitor-friendly, because people can train on roughly similar conditions, but I think natural stones are more spectator-friendly because people in the audience can get the brute strength required to move heavy rocks. Tackyless atlas stones are a lose-lose.

This seems to be the case with two shows I've done so far. One show got in trouble with the venue because someone left a tacky towel on the carpet, so we did natural stones for the next year. Another show was an outdoor show on grass, and whether that was their driving reason or not, that was a natural stones one too.

For both of these events, I didn't do much actual stone training. I also didn't win, but my opinion is that this is due to brute strength more than any specific stone-lifting technique. I did find a granite block to press for the second show, and did that a few times in training to get the hang of it. I did mostly sandbag and keg carrying and loading. I used the keg for overload, and the sandbag for under-load. The keg challenged my overall strength and musculature, while the sandbag mostly challenged my grip. I found them both useful for training the general loading motion without worrying about the specific grips of my home stones that won't be the same on contest stones. I will go out in my field and find some home stones to train on later this year, hopefully in the sweet spot between "holy foliage" and "snow as far as you can see."

I have also done some stone shouldering, which was a good time on a crispy BC morning, and would like to do this more.