Functional Strength Training
Functional Strength training is something much more specific than weight lifting in so much as it uses more natural and practical exercises targeting the body and muscles as a whole rather than your typical weight training routine that focuses on individual muscle groups. Many of the items and equipment we make and sell in this section are used in Strongman competitions e.g. Farmers Walk Handles, Log Bars, Axle Bars, Atlas Stones, Battling Ropes and so on. These exercises are the sort of exercises that would have been performed before the days of mechanical labour, long before health and safety nannies decided what could and couldn't be lifted during the course of day to day work. These are the exercises of our forefathers, equipment rural and industrial by design, made to replicate the workloads and strength conditioning of life. The strength that man required in order to survive. These days strength training still helps man survive however it's survival on the rugby pitch or in Strongman contests that have become the challenge.
Bulgarian Bags
Bulgarian Bags and Bulgarian-Style bags are a slightly different take on regular Power-Bars. The design has certainly been around for many years, nvented by Ivan Ivanov at around 2005 (A former Bulgarian Olympic athlete). As with Kettle-Bells the dynamics of swinging a weight creates significantly greater muscular loading than lifting the same weight through a static lift, it also allows muscles (especially core muscles) to be worked through a whole new range of angles and loads providing significantly greater sports-specific training for sports such as Judo, Wrestling, etc where opponent throws and balance are a key part of technique perfection.
Other products have followed the Bulgarian Bag design but "Bulgarian Bag" is a trademarked name so the likes of PowerWave although similar in design and use can't actually be called a Bulgarian Bag
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Fat Bars,Thick Bars, Poliquin Bars
Our range of Standard & Olympic Fat Bars, Thick Bars and Specialist weight training bars designed for increasing strength and power lifting exercises. Custom built in the UK of Watson Gym Equipment to exacting specifications make our range of specialist bars not only very unique but also unbeatable value without any compromise in quality. Accept no substitutes... We don't!
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Rope Training and Accessories
Credit where credits due. Using thick ropes for strength training is a system devised by John Brookfield in America which seems to have taken of as rapidly as Kettlebell training and subsequently named "Battling Ropes". Shipping rope from the US to the UK was prohibitively expensive so we have sourced equivalent Manila rope in both 1.5" (36mm) and 2" (48mm) which we cut to length either 15m or 30m (the metric equivalent to 50' and 100' and whip the ends off to prevent fraying. Even though it's sourced in the UK rope of this diameter is still not cheap, but we've tried to make it as affordable as possible. To go along with the 30m Ropes we have a portable pulling post or rope pole which can be used in the absence of a round section Rugby Post. We'll be adding more rope training accessories as we come up with them, but in the meantime, get a rope and start battling and pulling!
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Powerbags
Only stocking the best, here, we have the original tried-and-tested Powerbags from 3kg all the way up to 50kg, as well as the new Powerbag Dual Fuel (water/ sand). Check out our range of Powerbags and browse our other functional training accessories.
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Strength Training Misc.
This miscellaneous Power and Strength Training equipment section is for all those wonderful bits of equipment that are just as at home in a car-park or field as they are in a gym. This is the strongman and strength equipment that falls outside the general classification of gym equipment but has proven to be extremely beneficial for practical strength training for contact sports and team games such as Rugby and American Football etc.
Take a look, the range is expanding all the time. NOTE: If you are an Abs, Chest and Biceps boy this stuff is way too hard-core for you however we will be adding tight-fit black Tee's and lose fit baggies later in the year just for you guys!
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TRX style Suspension Training
Suspension Trainers and the whole suspension training fitness and exercise industry has been growing significantly over the recent years. Bodyweight training is cheap and effective while appealing to a whole new generation of gym enthusiast. While it will never replace true weight training in terms of strength and muscle building it certainly has a place in the hearts of many and is an excellent complement to traditional resistance training.
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