Hell yea! Hope this brings in more people to your gym! Congratulations Man!!
Congrats! You worked hard enough for it. Iâm really stoked about the write up!
Keep kicking ass,
Pano
Congrats again big man! Well deserved with the effort you have put in!
Congrats man!! Well done.
Just saw the video, amazing work man. Pretty sure my prediction of a pro card before next yearâs nationals will be coming true.
Badger: Thanks for the ideas brother, i think you are right about all of it. I started an instagram account and now that i won MDâs Strongest, i am trying to put some stuff on it. I am going to keep working at it, i know it will succeed if I work hard enough.
Pano: Yea, the fact that i am not a hot chick in a sports bra and spandex or a douche with a huge personality, doesnât help me. But I truly believe that if I stick to who I am and what i do, i will make it. i will try to stretch those lines as close as my stomach can handle, but hard work has to count for something still. If it does, i will make it. Iâm not worried at all. Please letâs stop talking about my business in this log.
Betabill: Well it depends on when this was posted, but if it was early yesterday then no, I wasnât. But if it was after 10 AM then, yep, I was doing my best!
Vinny: No lie man, when we got there it was like 60 degrees and sunny and I never felt so fortunate. By the end of first warm-ups it was pouring and the temp was dropping! I had fun, but Iâm not gonna lie, I was feeling a little sorry for myself during the first event. But Iâll look back on it favorably just like all compsâŠYou know how that goes.
OTH Steve: Thanks brother!!!
gvaldez: Thanks so much brother! i really appreciate that, but please, letâs stop talking about my business in hereâŠ
Pano: Thanks man! The write-up will hopefully be coming in a day or two while my feelings are still sharp!
IronWarrior: Thanks man, i know you can appreciate it, it means a lot coming from you!
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So here is the link to yesterdayâs comp: It was a horribly rainy day where everyone had to suck it up, but we all did and it was an amazing experience.
Please hit like and subscribe if you havenât already. It would help me out tremendously!
The contest footage gave me goosebumps, man. That was some seriously awesome shit.
It was so easy to see that you gave it your 110% and definitely had that win coming.
Your car squat effort was heroic, and what a video! Congratulations, what an amazing showing!
Great log man, Canât wait to get on your level, as someone looking to get into strongman trainingâŠany advice for a noob?
You did great man! The car squat seems intense as fuck haha
Again, great job man.
Letâs focus on you getting the strongest man above the equator again.
My stomach flips over a bit at the car squat!
Again, great work.
Regev: Thanks brother and yea, it was more of the more intense 60 Seconds of my training career! I am glad that i went through it though.
Knox: Man, i hope you are right! That is my main goal for this year! We will see if it happens!
Vinny: I think that is one of the best compliments I could have received. I know you have ben in similar situations so you can appreciate what times like that feel like. Your goosebumps comment made my day!
Roran: Thanks brother! You will be doing one yourself in the not too far future! I canât wait to see how you take to this sport! And that is an awesome complement about the car squat, thank you very much for that!
biedec: Well man, I think the most important thing is to get your hands on the implements. You can do a lot of things that mimic the strongman moments, but noting really compares to the real thing. I got into he sport very late in my training career and get by on a lot of brute strength that i have built over the years. I have only been involved in strongman for a little over a year so I am still trying to learn technique. If you can, find someone with some experience that can help show you the proper way to do things and it will save you a lot of time/injuries.
In strongman it is really important to be good at everything. It is kind of like crossfit competitions in that way. If you are a great deadlifted, but a horrible overhead presser, you will not go very far. It is better to be well rounded than a specialist in anything, so i think full body training is more important than breaking it up into body part splits. Upper back strength and posterior chain development are absolutely crucial, so i would hammer those. Front squats, rows and weighted carries should be a big part of your focus.
I could honestly write about the stuff for days, but I think that should get you started. If you have more questions, please ask them because i love answering them!
Pano: Yep, my stomach flips even when I watch it! It was definitely one of those things you donât forget for a while!
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"Many adults are fearful of failure, while children have to be familiar with it. What is growing up except failing over and over again - at walking, at tying your shoes, at reading, at riding a bike, at doing math, or writing a sentence?
If youâre growing, youâre likely failing. In youâre not failing, youâre likely not growing. Are you still willing to fail?
As time passes, some people become especially fearful of failure. They seek to protect what theyâve accumulated. They lose the hunger and daring of their early days. Comfortable in a cocoon, they experiment less. They try fewer things. They embrace fewer adventures. Adults can come to stake their identity on the success they have attained, while losing the very spirit and character that made success possible in the first place.
The prospect of a new adventure promises a confrontation with our inadequacies and failings. Adventure can throw our comfortable sense of self into doubt. No wonder, then, that too many people only have one or two or zero adventures in their lives. Too often we see people, by the end of their lives, balancing atop an ever narrower set of experiences and teetering like an elephant on a stick.
We can make a different choice. We can choose, at any age, to have adventures and growth and happiness. We can begin again. We can have all of this, as long as we are still willing to fail." --Eric Greitens, Resilience
MONDAY, 09NOVEMBER2015 - Work For Today
Wave 1/Week 2/Day 1
MORNING WORKOUT
STRENGTH - 5 Rounds
3 Weighted Pull-Ups: 90, 90, 115, 155, 135, 135
3 Axle Strict Presses: 185, 205, 225, 245, 275x1, 245x3
2 SSB Squats: 160, 250, 340, 430, 520, 580x1, 600xnope
5 Kettebell Windmills (Each Side): 35, 44, 53, 53, 53, 53
ACCESSORY - 16 Rounds (8:00 Minutes)
:20 Seconds ?Z? Presses @ 135lbs
:10 Seconds Rest
:20 Seconds Single Arm Farmer?s Carry @ 155lbs
:10 Seconds Rest
NOTES:
- I am still very, very beat up from the competition but I am so excited to get back to a normal lifting schedule. Between Nationals and MDâs Strongest man, it has ben months since i could actually stick to a normal program!
- I went for the 600 on the SSB because I am an idiot and sometimes cannot help myself. I lowered it and for some reason my brain thought it would be a good idea to touch my elbows to my kneesâŠThis isnât something that i normally do and it rounded my shoulders a little bit. You can get away with doing some nonsense like that on a normal squat but the SSB bar immediately punishes youâŠI got about half way back up and the stress on my lower back was too great so i put it back down on the pins. Dumb move, but I know I have the strength to get itâŠ
- My shoulders are pretty shot and everything felt heaver than normal. Just slower and more grindy. The Accessory stuff went well and single arm farmerâs walks definitely light up your core and grip.
- Iâll hit my normal prescribed speed squats this afternoon. But right now i am going to work hard at getting the contest write-up done for you guys. Hopefully it will only take me a few hours and I will get it out by the end of the Day.
Just posted my 2015 Marylandâs Strongest Man write-up and thoughts. Check it out if you like reading such things
Brilliant work man, WELL DONE! Iâd love to see you get a cheeky powerlifting meet in before your next run at the strongman pro card / National title! Whatever you do I wish you well and Iâll be following along. Again, great work.
Great job Alpha! You really turned it up, and finished strong. Well-earned
halcj: Thank you so much for the kind words man! And itâs funny you mentioned a powerlifting competition. I was just talking to my sponsor about that tonight. it may be a fun thing to train for between strongman stuff, plus it will help build my resume for other sponsors. Thanks again man!
MattyG35: Thanks so much man! Looking back it was an amazing experience!
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MONDAY, 09NOVEMBER2105 - Work For Today
EVENING WORKOUT
SPEED - At the top of every minute for 10 Minutes
3 SSB Spped squats @ 340lbs
Max effort Burpees for the remainder of the minute
ACCESSORY/CONDITIONING
Set a clock for 8 minutes and completed as many rounds as I could of:
10 Glute Ham Raises
10 Wide Grip Pull-Ups
âŠI completed 6 Rounds plus 10 GHRs and 3 Pull-Ups
NOTES:
-
I have to keep moving with workouts or my soreness gets to me. Definitely creaky when I start out, but I loosen up once I get going.
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As you may have guessed from my last post above, the link to my site got edited out by the MODs againâŠWell played T-NationâŠ
But if you want to read my contest write-up and thoughts during the comp you can head over there and check it out.
HINT: My website name rhymes with NEVERdate and you can find it tons of places throughout this log as well as at the beginning and end of all of my videos.
I really appreciate all of the kind words and the support on all of my social media, you guys are awesome!
Good work man, always inspiring
neverDATE LOL!
dagill2: Thanks brother, i really appreciate that!
Matty: Hahahaha yea man, I was wondering if people would pick up on that.
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âHe who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.â --Friedrich Nietzsche
TUESDAY, 10NOVEMBER2015 - Work For Today
Wave 1/Week 2/Day 2
So Andy Ruse who came in 3rd for the 231âs at Marylandâs Strongest man came by my gym today to train and I gotta say, he is a super nice and incredibly strong guy! He is getting ready for another contest in a few weeks so we did some event training.
He brought with him a rolling thunder and some other grip handles for us to mess around withâŠI seriously can not believe how tough they are to do any real weight with! We did that off and on while working some keg clean & press stuff then worked on the keg over bar event coming up in his next contest.
He and I went back and fourth hitting as many reps as possible in :60 seconds with a 210lbs keg over a 52" bar for 3 rounds. Both of us are still pretty beat up from saturday and this definitely woke us up. I can honestly say that I probably wouldnât have worked as hard if he hadnât come to train. He definitely pushed me.
After that I was short on time so we just went back and fourth hitting about 7-8 Rounds of
5 Bent over rows @ 315-365lbs
5 Handstand Push-Ups
That doesnât sound like much but it definitely had both of our traps screamingâŠAll and all, it was a good day. I made a new friend and got a little work in. All positives!
Hey man, I brought my T-Nation account out of retirement to comment on your journal. Oh look, my avatar is Fat Andy. Sweet.
It was a great experience to train with you! If any of you guys are any kind of reasonable driving distance to him, or if youâre visiting the Baltimore/Washington area, you owe it to yourselves to come train at Alphaâs gym at least once. He has vast training knowledge, actually cares about people, and is freaking strong! Heâs also one of the realest people Iâve ever met. Bullshit is not part of his repertory.
We are definitely going to be training together again soon!