Comp Prep etc

Today was my second events session and it was a little more focused than the last. Where as last week I was just toying with the weights and getting a feel for the gear, this felt more like a proper structured workout and I had a blast. First on my list to do was to sort out my retarded log clean technique and get it to the point where I could one motion press it. After figuring out the starting position and a lovely bit of advice from jt (hug it to your chest), I reckon I've pretty much got it. Worked my way up to 77kg strict and then decided to go for pushes too. 87kg went up fine, 97kg was fairly close but wouldn't budge. The floor was a bit wet and slippery also which didn't help, I'd have quite liked to give split jerking a go on a log as it's my preferred method of pushing out a bar. Ah well. Only one other guy managed the 97kg, but failed the 99.5kg (sorry I never got your name!). Good effort from everyone though.

'That other guy' (It says 92 but I think this was only 87... he smashed 97kg though too).

Next up were the stones and I was fairly confident due to my relatively strong legs and back. Turns out it's a shit ton of bicep work too, and while I managed to rep 80kg, 105kg only went up the once. It's weird, I didn't exactly push myself to the limit with it, yet I could only get it up once. It definitely needs some working on, once it's lapped I'm all good but once again it's the starting position technique that's letting me down.

But overall a good session. 97kg log nearly went up, and I have a 100kg rep challenge in 8 weeks. A 105kg stone went up, and that's slap bang in the middle of Mazda classic stone weights (80-120kg). Things are looking good, even though I may be cutting it a little fine...

Oh yeah! Another comp lined up, coming roughly a month after Dartford and it's in Newark. It's completely for charity so no prizes/shirts/whatever but in all honesty, I'm happy to be giving another comp a go full stop. It's good competitive practice, relatively local and the weights look really tasty.

85kg log for reps
180 deadlifts for reps (head 2 head)
250kg yoke over 20 metres
80kg sand bag carry for 20m followed by a van drag for 20m
100k farmers walk 40m

Minus the sandbag/van medley, I'm definitely confident to rep these weights. Unfortunately, that means everybody else will be but at least no one will fail a lift, which is good for competition and obviously good for the audience. I'm really looking forward to this one.

Event Training

Long time no post. I've been back in Nottingham for a whole week without uni (I forgot about all the bank holidays), and so I've literally been eating, training, eating and watching tv shows for the majority of my days. Hard life. I'm still on the Wendler's 5/3/1 and have seen progress in my overhead and bench already. I've not tried a 1RM in squat or dead cos I can't stand increasing by 2.5 or 5kg, I'll wait til I feel I have another 10kg in me lol.

Anyway, I went to The Cauldron today for my first strongman events sesh. Using my epic Google Maps skills, I left my house at half 6 to travel to Leicestershire by public transport. Yeah, fuck. To be honest there was only an hour of travelling in total, but as these were desolate lands, I had hour long waits in between buses.

Finally I arrived at JT's shed and as I was the first there, decided I'd get the log out of the way first. My cleaning technique was completely blagged and terrible, but when I eventually got it up (lol) I managed 67kg in strict presses for reps. When I moved on to push presses, bizarrely I actually couldn't get any more than 10kg on there before the sheer size and awkwardness started to take effect. I managed 77kg for reps but failed miserably on 87kg. A good start, but I've got a 100kg log for reps in June. Already I have a glaring weakness, so I really need to work on my technique I think.

Next up was the yoke. Now I was pretty confident with this as it involved my legs, but when I got under it I realised I had severely underestimated how much punishment my lower back would take too. I managed 220kg for 20m and did that twice which was pretty fun, but absolutely shattering. Still, I felt this was a good weight for my experience, and with a bit of practice I reckon I can get another 40kg. Not next week though, it's comp prep only after today!

Anyway, soon after this I tried the farmer's walk; the event I was dreading due my poor grip. Surprisingly, I managed 50kg, 70kg and 100kg in each arm fairly quickly, though the turning was by far the hardest part. (I think I was worried about grip due to the revolving Olympic bars in the gym, where I can never get a decent hold under it). Anyway, the best thing about this is that my comp in June is only 10kg heavier and I essentially nailed this first try. Shockingly what I thought would be my weakest event may actually be my strongest come comp day.

Finally, we went on to the thick handled dumbbell press where we played around with 30kg and 40kg for reps, til we bust out the circus dumbbells. Now I was confident with a 51kg lift as I managed a 50kg, albeit with a thinner handle, back in Deeping around Christmas time. Sadly, I couldn't quite get the last few inches of height for what felt like a ten second lockout. A second attempt only aggravated the situation as it fell backwards tweaking my elbow and making it feel all weird. A third attempt, even sleeved, wrapped and belted still couldn't budge it. I'm gonna partially blame the farmers on this, my shoulders felt utterly destroyed by this point. What's cool was the other lads went on to do this for reps, and one even pressed a 64kg, which was pretty sick.

Unfortunately, with my arm feeling like ass, I didn't fancy taking on the stones at the risk of broken toes and so decided to call it a day. It was mad fun and I learned a lot, and spent the two hour journey home thinking about what to do next week. And speaking of which, thinking is a lot nicer when the pubs next door to the bus stops are open, a pint of London Pride really does go down well after a good 3 hour workout.

Above is a nice little vid showing some of the toys I got to play with today. Sorry, no actual pics or vids from today unfortunately. Next week, perhaps.


More event training next week, but for now, I'll be sticking to a nice light week this week so I can recover from today. Feel like death.

30 Years of Pain

Novice comp!

So the other day I signed up for my first ever strongman comp and I'm just gonna be realistic here, I don't have massive hopes for anything above last place! ...But that's not the point, and it shouldn't really matter at this stage anyway as it's just gaining that valuable experience and learning to perform in the competitive scene. It's the Crayford Mazda Classic in Dartford (opposite a lovely curry place according to Big Tel lol) where the events are as follows:

100kg log for reps

110kg farmers walk 20m

220kg car deadlift for reps

Car and weight arm over arm pull 20m

80, 90, 100, 110 and 120kg atlas stones

To be honest, I'm not bricking it too much as I can do those weights on a good day ...once ...ish. I can push press (a bar) for 100kg, I can pull 220kg off the floor. Obviously a log is quite different to a bar, but I'm confident with the deadlift as it's a good 3-5" higher than an olympic bar, meaning perhaps two reps if I'm feeling lucky!

I've never touched any strongman equip before; Logs, farmers, arm-over-arm or stones, but as soon as I get back to Nottingham I'm heading down to JT's Cauldron for some crash course event training. I give that 6-8 weeks of solid weekly events training in order to get used to the equipment (and give room for y'know, my second year exams etc), but hopefully that'll be enough to let me at least attempt each event!

As you can imagine, I'm super psyched for this and I totally aim to give it my all. This is my first real step out of the gym and into proper strongman training, so technically, this is just where the training begins. Wish me luck!

In other news, turns out my Dad's been a professional welder for a good 20+ years, meaning I should be getting some farmers handles and a yoke pretty cheaply. Result! I know what I'm playing with this summer...