Have a look at the latest news post on the gfsa homepage. Reading it for a second time, it does look a little less optimistic than I thought it was initially…
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Deadlifted today, and I tried to shift my weight back and keep my shins more vertical than I usually do. Looking at the video, the difference to my usual style is absolutely minimal and seems to go away as the sets go on, but it felt good so I’ll keep focussing on that. Usually, my back is almost completely horizontal when deadlifting, which can’t be really efficient. Also, I’ve started wearing a belt on deadlifts after a long period of deadlifting beltless. Still doesn’t feel like it really helps, but at least it no longer feels like a hinderance. Note that I get a lot out of a belt on squats.
Anyway, here’s the first of three working sets with 140kg from today, if anyone reading this has any input, go right ahead:
Shoutout to one of my feline training partners in the video!
Rest of the session consisted of paused front squats (3x12), a medley of farmer’s walk and sandbag carries (4 run thoughs) and nordic hamstring curls supersetted with weighted crunches.
Had a good pressing session today, hit 75kg on the Log and 60kg x 11 on strict Axle press. Two days ago I managed to get 11 reps at 155kg on deadlift, so things are still moving up slowly but surely. I’ve rotated Dicks Press (I like the name) for higher reps into the program to get a lot of time under tension in for the triceps before I eventually bring the JM Press back.
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So, last week wrapped up 10’s phase of this new training cycle. I did not get more than the required ten reps on bench though (95kg x 10, paused), so TM on bench stays the same.
Today was the first deadlift day of 8’s phase:
Deadlift:
Worked up to four sets of eight at 135kg, then one set of 12 at the same weight.
Paused Front Squats:
Three sets of ten, 75kg.
Farmers (70kg per hand) & Sandbag (90kg) medley: three runs
Plus three sets of ten nordic hamstring curls supersetted with weighted crunches.
I changed up the programming for moving events at the beginning of this training cycle. Used to rotate through light & heavy days of farmers and yoke on lower body days and do sandbag carries on upper body days. Now I combine them into farmers & sandbag medleys on deadlift days and yoke & sandbag medleys on squat days to emphasize conditioning a bit more while staying used to the movements. I stick with the same weight for three weeks while increasing run-throughs from three to five, then increase weight and start over again.
So, just to assure anyone who might stumble across this log: I might not have updated this in the past two and a half months, but I’ve continued to train throughout this time and am now in the middle of the final week of this latest run-through of the Juggernaut Method. The summer holidays have just ended and I’ve gained a bit of weight (intentionally). At about 94kg I’m now as heavy as I’ve ever been.
Here’s some stuff from saturday and today:
Happy with how easy this went up, as I’ve said in the August check-in thread, I’ll propably try 95kg next week.
Wanted to get six, but still, I’ve got a deadlift PB in the bag in the coming weeks.
Here’s the first of three sets of seven at 100kg on front squats, done after the deadlifts. Decent progress on these, had a problem with almost blacking out after the unrack on these in the past weeks, today was fine.
Some further thoughts:
- I’m a bit anxious about possible opportunities to do a competition this year. I’d like to say I’ll do any comp that gets announced, but I’ll be a dad in october, so around that time longer trips are sort of out of the question.
- God, standing ab wheel roll outs are SO much harder than when done from the knees.
- Actively thinking about what kind of equipment I might invest in next. As I store all my stuff in the little shed you can see in the videos and train outside, footprint and maneuverability are an issue. Even though they don’t really carry over into other events, somehow I really want a circus dumbell.
- Since I’ve had a decent amount of free time, I’ve started going on very short runs (20 minutes) on days without weight training. These don’t cut into my recovery at all. They also propably don’t do much for me but I like em.
- Some new movements I’ve used for the first time in recent weeks were pendlay rows and overhead press from pins set at about forehead height, slightly below my sticking point. I think I’m onto something with the latter, they’ll definitely make a reappearance.
- Did 70kg for a set of five on strict Axle press this week, which I was quite happy with.
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Strong lifting dude. Congratulations on becoming a father!
Comps are tough to find this year. Ismaning comes at a very bad time for you and I don’t really think there’s gonna be that much past october.
What do you currently have?
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Thanks!
Yeah, I still have a little hope though. I reckon there’s at least going to be a 3rd league comp at that place in Berlin Heinz wrote about on the gfsa page. If (and that’s a big if) that comes late enough in the year, say November, that’d be an option.
Let’s see.
Yoke
Barbell
Axle
Log
Farmer’s
Sandbag
Adjustable DBs
Bench
I guess the obvious thing for strongman purposes would be a stone or two, but those are not really an option right now because of storage and noise when lifting over the yoke’s crossbar (I have to lift very close to my neighbours’ house, I get the feeling they’re a bit annoyed with me as it is, even though they’ve never said anything).
Yeah I reckon that could happen, although usually there are no comps in November. This year might be different though.
That’s a great list of equipment already. Other things that would be a great addition would be a keg and a sled/ prowler.
I’d love a sled, but it would make too much noise to use in my yard, plus I don’t have that much space, would have to turn around every few meters. And I’m just too lazy to put it in the car and use it somewhere else when I can do everything else right outside my door. A keg is definitely on the shortlist of things I’m considering.
This is a set from yesterday’s squat workout (145kg/320lbs x4). I’ve struggled with squats for a long time now, for some time I actually got weaker on the lift. By now I’ve recovered those losses, making sure I don’t go deeper than my mobility allows has helped. But you can see in the vid that technique is still not where it could be.
Bottom line for this training cycle: The main lifts (Squat, Bench, Deadlift, Strict Axle OHP) have crept up slightly. I’ve seen more significant progress on Front Squats, Continental Cleans and Overhead with leg drive. While I like Juggernaut (maybe I’m a bit too comfortable with it) and submaximal training has worked quite well for me in the past I think it’s time to start working at some higher intensities more regularly going forward.
So, after I got 90kg on the Axle Clean & Press without too much trouble two weeks or so ago I tried for 95kg a week later but hit some sort of mental block on the clean. I failed my last warm-up at 85kg (something I’ve gotten more than once before, 5kg under PR) 5 times, by then it was obvious that 95kg was out of the question on that day, but wanted to get that 85kg anyway, just to get that mental block out of the way. Got it up to my chest no problem, but somehow I couldn’t get myself to get under the axle on the final part of the continental. I got it on the sixth try, goes to show that cleans can be finicky. I also think I should invest in some wrist wraps.
Yesterday I got a 10kg deadlift PR at 210kg, which was nice. Now it’s time to drop the weight back a little bit again and make sure my back stays in a better position.
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Congrats on the PR. Looked like you had a good bit more in the tank.
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Thanks, don’t know about a good bit more, but a bit more would definetely have gone up as well. But in training that is about the amount of technique breakdown I’m willing to accept, it was close enough to 100% for me to be able to gauge to what degree strength has increased since the last test, so I called it there.
Had a decent bench/upper body assistance session today, now it’s off to cologne to meet some friends I haven’t seen in a good long while!
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It’s been a good long while since I’ve posted in my log. Since I’ve last posted here my kid was born in October, so priorities shifted a bit. I still trained regularly though. For the first several weeks, basically from the second week of October to the end of December I didn’t really follow any strict programming but just tried to get in three sessions a week, trying to cram as much work into pretty short sessions as possible, so lots of drop sets, myo reps, and absolutely nasty 8x5 emom sets for deadlifts that were just so much harder than I anticipated.
Since the last week of december, I’ve been following a template from Dain Wallis’ Programming for the Unbreakable Strongman book that I mentioned in the strongman subforum. Chose a three day per week template with one day focussing on deadlift and lower body accessories, one day for log pressing and upper body accessories and one day with more pressing (alternating log and axle), squatting and medleys (mostly farmer’s or yoke with sandbag carries).
Last saturday was that third day of the week and I decided to jump on the bandwaggon and try axle Grace instead of my usual axle work. Was tough but I was happy with the effort. Turns out my camera didn’t record so I don’t know what time I did it in, so I’ll have to do that again…
Yesterday was deadlift day, this is what I did, warmups not included:
Deadlift:
150kg x 7
165kg x 5
177,5 kg for three sets of three
Paused Front Squats: Three sets of eight at 80kg.
As a giant set:
Latteral Lunges: 3x8
Reverse Lunges 3x8 holding a 24kg kettlebell
Nordic Hamstring Curls 3x14
I really like front squats and nordic ham curls as accessory work after deadlifts, I feel like it hits every part of the lower body and the upper back while giving the lower back a bit of a break. The program calls for deadlift and log press PRs in seven or eight weeks, looking forward to it.
Good to see you are still around. Congratulations on the birth of your kid man!
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Thanks!
It’s quite a ride so far. Makes me twice grateful for the home gym, even if gyms were open right now I couldn’t really imagine taking several trips a week there at the moment.
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Posted it in the February check-in threat as well, but for future reference: Axle Grace in 05:16. I’ll come back to this and improve that time.
Competition report:
It’s been more than a week, so I might finally write down some thoughts on my first strongman competiton. I competed in the 105kg class in the newly introduced third league here in Germany. Weighed in at 93kg with shoes and clothes, so just over the cutoff to the next weightclass, but since all classes use the same weights here it doesn’t really matter.
Training before the comp:
I signed up about 6 weeks out. I was just finishing up a hypertrophy block based on Alex Bromley’s Base Strength Ebook, training three days a week: One day for deadlifts, one for overhead and one whole body hypertrophy day with squats, bench and rows. When the events were released I transitioned into a short intensification phase, dropped squat and bench and instead used that third day to practice the events as closely as possible.
Event one: Log Clean and Press for reps: 80kg or 100kg in 60 seconds.
I really got into my own head on this one beforehand. I’m quite a bit weaker on the Log than on Axle but still, I’ve pressed 80kg before and I know I can do it, but I was nervous beforehand anyway. The 100kg Log was way out of my league, so I was one of the relatively few competitors who chose the lighter one. Got it for two reps, then failed twice relatively narrowly before the time was up. Objectively, I could have expected more on that event, in the moment I was happy to get those two reps. In terms of points, this was my weakest event. Best overall got 100kg x 10, best in my class 100 x 8.
Event two: 120kg Stone over 120cm Yoke for reps in 60 seconds.
This one I was looking forward to because I’ve never had the chance to play with a heavier stone. Didn’t know what to expect at all. I practiced by loading sandbags over a yoke, the heaviest I loaded my bigger sack to was ~115kg. Turned out well, got the stone for four reps which I was happy with. Best overall got it for 10, best in my class for 9.
Event three: 2x20m Farmer’s Walk, 100kg per hand:
The implements had pretty agressive knurling so grip wasn’t an issue, didn’t drop. 24,69 seconds meant that this was the only event where I sort of came middle of the pack, my best event in terms of points. Best overall and my class did it in 16,81 seconds.
Bavarian Stonelifting: Max weight for 60cm
The starting weigth for 200kg felt relatively easy and I remember telling someone else I was confident about 225kg. Well, didn’t quite work out that way. On my first attempt at 225, I couldn’t lock out. For my second attempt I stood a little more forward and had them set the pick height slightly higher. This time I did lock out, but couldn’t reach the 60cm mark, highest I got was 56cm. Best overall did 300kg for 52cm, best in my class did 300 for 39,5.
So, as expected I finished in the bottom third but this was a learning experience and I had a lot of fun. The events that need the most work are the static ones. The standard at this comp was surprisingly high, I think originally it was planned to have one or two competiors per comp go up to the next league, and then a few more at the end of the season. Well, after this one it was announced that the first eight ere now qualified for the second league, so watch out @Koestrizer , I think those guys can do some damage! 
By the way, thank you for the tips beforehand, without you I propably wouldn’t have taped my arms for the stone and then I would’ve been in even more pain the days after…
Anyway, I’ve got my sights set on one more comp that’s supposed to happen in early October, then it’s time for a long offseason to get that static strength up for 2022.
Here’s some pics:
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Great showing man! Those are some really good results (especially on the stones) and you can be proud of yourself for stepping up.
I have seen some of the results of that comp and I am almost shocked at how high the standard was. I guess it shouldn’t be such a surprise with the growing interest in strongman but still… I was actually surprised that some of the athletes I knew beforehand were handed down the ranks.
I think that all will also mean that the second league will up their standards and we’ll have to use heavier weights.
What comp are you looking at in October?
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Thanks!
I agree absolutely! I’m looking forward to seeing the results from this weekends comp, if things continue like this you might have more than a dozen competetive new guys in the second league in 2022.
Walldürn, which is closest to me out of all the 3rd league cups that are scheduled for now.
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