You look like a goddam comic book character with all that vascularity!! (Pardon my language)
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Beautiful triple extension!
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Congratulations! Personally, I completely expected such a performance and a prize ranking.
Ho, I guess this female voice is from your wife, who was constantly supporting you and must have been shooting the video.
Now you can celebrate it 
In fact, I wonāt be surprised if you wake up early this morning and go to workout
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So good to wake up to this. Loved the little snippets as you went along and the photos and video are amazing. Watching someone you consider a friend (even if it is a virtual one) compete is such a good feeling. Looks like you did a great job mate and looks like a well set up and fun comp. Canāt wait for the write up. Well done Pwn. Quality
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ācan you believe I have no professional training?ā 
Great to see you compete again, beast as always!
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Canāt decide if I like this moreā¦
Or this.
Awesome job, dude.
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And the feast to celebrate
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That entire video was so awesome. Your wife cheering you on, you crushing the events, the pizza to top it all off! So awesome
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Write up is gonna have to wait a bit, as Iām doing some traveling soon, but wanted to get some individual responses going, because yaāll have been awesome.
@simo74 Really appreciate your support all the way though, and absolutely appreciate not wishing luck. You get me.
@tlgains Victory comes from being more trouble than Iām worth, haha. And thanks for the compliment! Comic book/cartoon is definitely the goal.
@hillbillyk Thanks man!
@SvenG Hell yeah man: thank you for recognizing! This was the day I needed
@boilerman I only know one way through life, haha. Really means a lot having you in my corner, and glad you could follow along through it all. That pizza and those onions rings gotta be what they serve in Valhalla.
@jwlake06 Hell yeah dude!
@FlatsFarmer Dude, that is SUCH high praise from you: thanks for that!
@deyan Iām glad you wonāt be surprised, because thatās exactly the plan, haha. I travel tomorrow, so gotta get those ABCs in early. Thatās the Mrs in the video: my #1 fan.
@alex_uk So glad to see you back dude! Thanks for swinging by.
@creative_name Thanks man! Iām such a fan of your work, and having you around has been awesome.
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Jesus Christ, that was awesome. You hardly ever see a strongman guy, even in the lower weight classes, come in just freaking shredded like that, you look like you could hope onto a bodybuilding comp tomorrow. Combine that with the insane weights, and the skin testing vascularity, itās just a clear visible sign of ādangerous manā.
Hell of a showing
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Yer other competitors would have been like.. WTF.
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Great work! And you look insane, man!
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Awesome work man! Just catching this from the weekend. Love your cheer squad, I noticed the new voice that may have been absent from your older videos if memory serves me right.
Iām surprised you got as many reps on the press as you did, considering the continental took about that whole minute, haha.
@atlas13 Hell yeah dude! Your comments mean a lot to me. Watching you absolutely crush it on your end, I know you and are are from the same tribe. Really appreciate that: was definitely trying to channel my inner Andersen/Poundstone there. Absolutely showcasing danger.
@simo74 Iāll cover it in my write-up, but we had a vote amongst competitors about ābest strongmanā at the event based purely on style, and I had a LOT of dudes pulling for me, haha. Iām sure the look set me apart. And again: nutty considering Iām not counting calories or training for physique. Iām actually traveling right now, writing from an airport, and had some stranger approach me and say āDude, you have great arms!ā Itās weird, haha.
@Panopticum Thanks man! Iām going to interpret that to mean both I look awesome AND like I belong in an asylum, haha.
@mr.v3lv3t Thanks dude! No new voices, but louder than before. Theyāre becoming a great fan. I took that event VERY gingerly because of how my elbow has been acting. The first press hurt just a little, but after that it was solid. That was the theme for the early part: spare the elbow long enough to get through. But after a while, I could just cut loose.
Got up at 0610 and did
5 minutes of ABCs w/24kbg bells (25 total)
Straight into
5 minutes of burpee chins (27 total)
Notes:
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I feel amazing post strongman competition. Iām sure daily training is a big part of that. This was phase II of my goals: I wanted to treat a competition just like a normal workout and get back on with my life, vs having to build elaborate rituals around it.
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Those 25 ABCs were awesome because of how it broke down. Got 2 rounds of 5, 2 rounds of 4, then finished with 7 unbroken ABCs for the 5th round. Knowing I have that in me coming into it so fatigued is a good sign. Iām going to be away from my specific bells for a bit, but my hotel may have some dumbbells I can wing this with, and then I have those 20kg bells I ordered at my folks. I can still get a solid amount of hurt in with those.
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Packed my traditional canned chicken, tuna packs, and other travel goodies. As much as I disliked traveling so much, I appreciate how good Iāve gotten at not breaking stride during it. No living off of airport food or anything like that, which is cool as I hear them announce to a long line of hangry folks that theyāre out of a lot of food.
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Nice profile pic dude!
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I donāt swing by logs very much anymore, but that was awesome. Looking forward to the full write up.
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Nice work! Despite your impressive accomplishments at the competition, itās really all about those onion rings. They look to have just the right ratio of breading/onion. You did make the tactical error of dipping them into ketchup, but thatās forgivable given your showing at the event. Congrats!
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Making it as simple as A B C here sir. Love it.
Great vid, pics and sublime display of strength.
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@tlgains Thanks man!
@dagill2 It means a lot you took the time to come on by. Youāve definitely had your hands full. Very much appreciated dude!
@antiquity Those who are more trouble than they are worth never have to apologize for eating what they want when they are celebrating Havenāt had ketchup in years: enjoyed every bit of it. But the onion rings were also great without it, so I enjoyed them like that too. And thanks!
@raven78 Thanks dude! Always appreciate when you swing by.
So first, the PM workout.
Did this
Total time was 25:32. Took about 4:30 to get through the Devil Presses, then 11 minutes for the thrusters, and finished total time at 25:32. Immediately after, I did 5 EMOM rounds of sets of 3 of DB Armor Building Complexes w/50lb DBs to help learn the movement and finish off the workout. Iām in a hotel right now with limited fitness equipment, but 50lb dumbbells are awesome, and this means I can keep up my streak of ABCs.
Iāve always wanted to do the full Gut Check workout, and always chickened out because of the thrusters. Could never figure them out with the dumbbells. It took some doing, but shouldering them like a circus dumbbell seemed to do the trick.
Going to break up the write-up into 2 parts: the pre-write up and the write-up itself.
PART 1
2022 TESTIFY STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING SUMMER STRONGMAN SHOWDOWN WRITE UP
INTRO
Itās been about 3 years since my last strongman competition. I competed in Oct 2019 after moving to my new location in Nebraska, found myself developing a bit of ennui with the sport, signed up for a comp in Apr of 2020 that originally featured a 275lb keg press that got me REALLY excited, only to have it bumped down to a 250lb press that got me really pissed off and upset with the sport again, only to end up canceled anyway as the world shut down for 2 weeks to flatten the curve for 3 years.
During THAT time, I had a blood lipid test come back that had my blood type listed as āRaguā, so I had to turn the ship around healthwise. In chasing that 275lb keg press, I had made the right decisions nutritionally for that goal, but now that health became the priority, I had to do a total 180. And speak of 180: thatās how much I weighed when it was over (177 technically), dropping over 30lbs of bodyweight in the process. Iām fairly certain I crashed my hormones too, but I was stupid lean and jacked, and now needed to find a way to eat that allowed me to perform AND be healthy. It was a fun time of discovery and exploration.
Training emphasis shifted away from max weights and more into my own version of Crosssfit. Lots of focus on longer duration consistent workouts, like Kalsu, Murph, and other evil stuff I wrote up in my E-book, with some occasional burst first stuff like Fran and Grace. Got super into kettlebells too. My conditioning is the best itās ever been, and my strength stayed ok.
Eventually, the world seemed to have figured itself out and I found myself wanting to compete again. I found a competition that was stupidly closeby AND all the events were a mystery until the week of the competition, which meant I could just keep training the way I wanted to. This was going to be a good test to see if I still even liked strongman anymore. On that note, here is now I trained.
THE TRAINING
Prior to my current training phase, I had finished my second run of my 26 week gaining block (BBB Beefcake into 5/3/1 Building the Monolith into Deep Water Beginner into Deep Water Intermediate). I experimented with a 7 week diet break/intensification phase in between Beefcake and Monolith and found it so effective that I decided to do it again before moving back into gaining, and it timed out perfectly that Iād finish the final week the week of the competition, be able to compete, then deload and get back to it.
As an overview, Iām doing Zeno Squats on my squat day (from my book: take a weight you can squat for 6 reps comfortably, squat it, rack it, 12 deep breaths, half as many reps, round up, repeat until you get to 1, strip either a 25lb or 45lb plate per side, repeat process again, get to 1, strip plates, go for a widowmaker, add 1 rep to the topset next week and repeat), ROM progression deads on my deadlift day, and then one press day where I work up to a topset of 5, 3 or 1 on the log clean and strict press away, then another press day where I take the weight I hit for the log and use it for axle continental and push press. Lift weights 4x a week.
Day 1 is squat day
Day 2 is log press day
Day 3 is axle press day
Day 4 is ROM progression deadlift.
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On each of the press days, after I hit the topset, I take 70% of the weight used and do a set of strict presses. On the log day, I clean once and strict press away, with 2 rest pauses (so something like 15+4+4). On the axle push press day, I clean each rep and get as many total reps as I did on the clean once day. Iāll set a timer and try to beat the previous weekās time.
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From there, on those press days, my supplemental work is that shoulder superset Iāve written about that goes some sort of press or weighted dip into bodyweight dips into lateral raises into band pull aparts. For pressing exercises, I rotate between BtN presses, trap bar presses, incline DB bench and axle flat bench. One of the press days will also include Poundstone curls (current record is 207 reps, I add 1 each workout).
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On the squat day, for this training cycle, Iāve taken to following the squat workout with a 10 minute EMOM workout where I do pick up and extensions with my 250+lb sandbag. Itās helping me prep for a loading medley by getting good at lapping and moving a bag in short order. After THAT workout, Iāll do a set of 40 reverse hypers and 30 standing ab wheels and 30 GHRs, then follow it up with some more small assistance work until I run into my time to do a 10-20 minute conditioning workout.
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After the mat pulls, I have an EVIL EMOM workout I do where I spend 12 minutes alternating between deficit deadlfts and SSB squats. I started it by going for 8 reps each movement, then 7, 6, 5, etc. Then, each week, I add a rep to the back end. I finished my last workout doing 3x8 and 3x7. It was BRUTAL.
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After THAT is done, Iāll do an unbroken circuit of one set of: Axle shrugs against bands, KB kelso shrugs, 50 band pull aparts, neck work, 40 reverse hypers, 30 standing ab wheels, and 50 dips. Iāll get in 30 GHRs somewhere in there, and then finish off the day with a 10-20 minute conditioning workout.
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The workout in the video is done the day after the mat pull workout, as something to get in some fresh blood. In between the two press workouts is my prowler workout. Every day I do 5 minutes of KB armor building complexes with 24kbg bells, and then there is just little stuff along the way.
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Between my 2 press days, Iād pull a prowler with a harness as part of a circuit that included KB walking lunges. I also was still doing Tang Soo Do twice a week and other conditioning.
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On Saturdays, the day after my deadlift workout, Iād do āMonument to Non-Existence IIā. It was a whole bunch of things for a while, but I settled on: Max front squats of 225, take that rep number and match it for squats of 225, SSB squats of 225 and deadlifts of 225. Keep time between movements as short as possible
- Oh yeah, and every day I would do 5 minutes of Dan Johnās āArmor Building Complexā with 24kg kettlebells, once again because Dan thought that was a terrible idea. I went for max pain, no other real goal in them. My best over the training cycle was 26 in 5 minutes.
NUTRITION
My diet is all kinds of screwy, so Iām just gonna hit the wavetops and say that I kept it low carb, focused on quality fats, and actually went beyond a diet break and focused on fat loss. I was competing in the 185lb class for the first time ever, and I didnāt want to do a water cut to get there, so I leaned out a ton and got myself to the point that I was 181.0 the week of the competition. I could have been stronger if I was heavier, but whatever. It was nice to NOT have my life revolve around food for a while: I was eating less, which meant less cooking and cleaning too.
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PART II: THE WRITE-UP FOR THE ACTUAL COMP
The whole week, I had been consistently weighing in at about 187lbs first thing in the morning, before any bathroom functions, training, etc. By the time Iād use the bathroom, eat a light breakfast, train and shower, I would clock in at 181-183. For some reason, 2 days before the comp I gained 3lbs and it wasnāt going away. I woke up the morning of the comp post bathroom at 185.5, so I wasnāt in a bad spot. I put on my winter gear (thermal base layers, sweats and a beanie), did 23 of Dan Johnās āArmor Building Complexesā with 24kg kettlebells in 5 minutes and then paced in the garage for 30 minutes to get down to 184.5. I pre-made breakfast, drove to the comp site and weighed in at exactly 185.0 with clothes on. I have legit made weight at the exact ounce for the majority of my competitions: Itās become a talent.
On the subject of pre-making breakfast, this competition marked a while departure from my previous nutritional approaches and, ultimately, a sign Iāve grown up. I cooked up 2 whole eggs, 1 egg white, 2oz of lean meat (combination of chicken and pork), some sauteed peppers and onions and 50g of avocado on a low carb tortilla wrap with some fat free cheese and sour cream into a baller breakfast burrito that I eat pretty much every morning, sticking with the whole ādonāt eat differently on comp day compared to normal daysā approach. I also had a slice of keto bread with some sunflower butter on itā¦and, of course, an energy drink, because you canāt take that out of me. Back in the day, this would have been pop-tarts or mini-donuts or some other sugary junk. Through out the competition, I was eating celery with Nuts n More or sunflower butter on it, occasional bites of just plain Sunflower butter, and I made my way through 1 Biotest Finibar, eaten bits and pieces at a time. I HAD junk food packed: a whole box of girlscout peanut butter patties and a 2-pack of cherry pop-tarts, but just never felt the need to eat them. I used to eat an entire box of Pop-tarts at a competition: 2 in between each event. I though I āneededā it. The things we tell ourselves. I DID drink like a gallon of sugar free Gatorade, so thereās that.
WARM UP
To warm-up for the competition, I did 3 reps of an unloaded axle for clean and press, then 1 rep with 95lbs before the first event, and then, before the deadlift event at the end, I did 1 rep of 225lbs.
EVENT 1: Axle clean and press away (205lbs for Lightweight men)
This was one of several events I was cautious about. At the start of my 7 week intensification block that led into this comp, I brought up my 250+lb Ironmind sandbag to practice some loading. I hadnāt touched this thing in about a year, and of course I just gripped and ripped it and borked something in my elbow tendon. I kept doing that weekly and the elbow kept not getting better, until one day when Iām fairly certain I tore something inside of it. That was about a month before the competition. At that point, I dealt with pain outside of the sandbag, and continentaling and pressing the axle really drove it crazy. The last few training days saw the elbow getting better and better each time, but I also knew that a bad day was possible.
Whistle blew and I gingerly got the axle into place. Wasted a fair bit of energy in doing so, but my elbow felt good, and thatās what mattered. Went double overhand because I still refuse to use mixed grip on a continental. After that, I pressed out 6 of the ugliest reps Iād ever done in my life. Watching the video, these werenāt even close to push presses. Itās not too shocking: Push pressing was making my elbow hurt, because I was effectively ācatchingā the weight on my tricep, so a slower/smoother press suited me better. The dude I beat in the other lane (who would eventually be the dude to chase the whole comp) was hitting some beautiful split-snatches, which made for an entertaining āstyle vs styleā head to head: the brute vs the technician. He managed 4. I thought he got 5, so I got the 6th to seal it, then dumped the 7th.
Walked away feeling good and healthy, so that boded well. Next was the one I was most concerned about: loading.
EVENT 2: LOADING MEDLEY: 140lb stone, 200lb stone (both natural), 150lb sandbag, 200lb sandbag
All events were a mystery leading up to this, and I was training primarily for heavy loading at first and then light loading afterwards to let the elbow heal. However, what I wasnāt training was transitions, and that came to bite me, as watching the video I was clumsy and slow between implements. I also bobbled the second stone and wasted a bunch of energy recovering it. In general, I was sleep-walking through the event, just trying to play nice with the elbow.
I was a little miffed by an admin error: I should have gone last, since I won the first event. Instead, I went second. In turn, I had no appreciation for just how technical and fast the dude that followed me was. He blew away my time by 4 seconds. Part of me thinks I woulda tried harder knowing the thread he was, but it is what it is.
At this point, of the 3 of us, me and one dude are tied for first, with 1 win each.
EVENT 3: 50lb Bag over Bar
The only prep I did for this was kettlebell swings and snatches. I hate throwing events, and part of my deal for this comp was to not train things I didnāt like. It was rising bar, last man standing, take whatever attempts you want, starting at 8ā. I took every attempt, because I knew it was going to just be luck at this point.
8ā barely cleared, as did 9 and 10. I did a throwing event in 2018 where I launched stuff, but I trained for it. Amazing x-factor. The other dude missed 11ā the first time but barely cleared it on his second go, so he took this event.
EVENT 4: 100ā Pick-up Truck Harness Pull
I never cared for truck pulls, but this event was at least moving quick. I had my āsecret weaponā of rock climbing shoes, which I think only 1 other athlete had. They helped: I had a good grip on the floor for this, but I struggled to break the inertia of the truck at the start. I tried a technique I had been using in training of pulling on the harness to start and get low, but, in retrospect, a better approach would be have a 4 point stance/bear crawl. I threw my arms forward, which, again, was something I was using in my training to get my bodyweight moving froward and hips down. I finished around 25 seconds and some change. Guy I needed to beat was 1.5 seconds faster. Heart break that one. But I at least enjoyed this more than any other truck pull. Not having the pull rope helps, and training for it showed me how awesome pulling a prowler with a harness is. My conditioning also shined through: I was winded at the end and recovered by the time I walked back to my family. Great to be in such awesome shape.
EVENT 5: 515lb tire deadlift for 1, 395lb (combined) farmerās handles deadlift for 2, AMRAP axle deadlift of 335lbs (no straps for any lift)
More admin frustration in times never being announced for any competitors that, at this point, I had no idea if I had won the truck pull or not, but I also didnāt care about winning: I was there to be more trouble than I was worth. This was absolutely my event for that, because I was going to pull deadlifts until the other dude caught rhabado. I used an old trick of wrist wraps. When you canāt use straps, wraps can help, because theyāll force your hands to naturally close. Every little trick you can use.
Pulling without straps always sucks, but I managed to get 515 moving with a little effort. Once that was done, I used a trick I had employed before and jumped into the farmers handles to save some time, which put me slightly ahead of the other dude. From there, got to the axle and use a thumbless grip. It seems counter-intuitive, but taking the thumb out REMOVES a weakpoint. Now you only have your 4 fingers to fail vs 1 thumb. We were told touch and go was good AND I saw the judges were allowing bouncing, so I went full tilt and just banged out rep after rep.
I got called on āsoft kneesā on a few reps. Ever since my ACL reconstruction, I canāt fully extend my left knee. I may need to let judges know about that in the future.
The way they scored reps on this was by total, so we got 1 rep for the tire, 2 for the farmerās, and however many after that. I was credited with 16 reps total, the other dude got 14. I still pulled the 17th rep, despite being told many times the event was over, because f**k you: Iām getting that rep.
This event went great, and was really the one that re-lit the fire in me. Being able to just go out and give it my all like that was a blast, and the challenge was exactly where it needed to be. My conditioning held up real well, and despite no real grip training, I had zero issues on the axle.
RESULTS AND WAY FORWARD
As youāve been following along, this was a second place showing. Could I have done things differently and gotten first? Yeah. Do I regret that? Not at all: I met my goal of training the way I wanted to train and just treating this like another workout. I trained the morning of, and I trained the next day (5 minutes of ABCs for 23 total, straight into 5 minutes of burpee chins, and then the āGut Checkā WOD later). I ate the way I wanted to eat, made weight the way I wanted to make it, and, through all that, found out I do still enjoy this sport and can still have fun with it. Trying to ābe a strongmanā just wasnāt fun: ādoing strongmanā is much more enjoyable. I donāt care about winning or nationals or anything; I want fun shows that push me hard and are a blast, and Iām gonna keep training and eating āmy wayā for them.
And in that regard: Iāve never felt better the day after a competition. Still able to train hard and move well.
Reference my previous manifesto: I got to live being more trouble than I was worth that day. I showed up, I set the pace for the first event, I kept on the heels the whole time, I made the last event suck for the guy ahead, and I was absolutely positively yoked out of my absolute mind, having achieved that physique with no counting of calories or macros or martyrdom to speak of. If I can walk into a strongman competition without training for it, having trained twice+ a day up until the morning of the competition, put up a good showing, and do it all again the next morning, I am absolutely more trouble than Iām worth.
And thatās the plan moving forward. This timed out perfectly with a deload week after my intensification block. Iām traveling right now, doing a few nights in a hotel before coming home for a day and then heading to San Diego to visit family. Iām going to make due with dumbbells and kettlebells, keep up my daily ABCs, and then come back and get back to gaining with 5/3/1 BBB Beefcake. I plan to do another long gaining block with diet breaks: Beefcake into 5/3/1 for Hardgainers into a 7 week diet break/intensification block, then Beefcake into Monolith into 7 week intensification, then Deep Water Beginner and Deep Water intermediate. Should be pretty nuts.
Game on.
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