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541

I’m going to be competing in a Strongman Show at the end of February. I made it Facebook official yesterday, so I’m making it T Nation official today. This will be my second Strongman Show. It’s gonna be in Oklahoma City.

The events are as follows: Axle clean and press 205 lbs for max reps. Only 1 clean is required.
Keg medley, 90 ft. Kegs are 160 and 225.
Max Deadlift. Straps allowed.
Farmers walk - 215 lbs. 90ft. unlimited drops.
Atlas Stone over bar - 230 lbs stone, 50" bar.

I will spend some time with stones prior to the competition. At least a few sessions. I built an axle yesterday and practiced with it for about an hour. MUCH harder than a bar. Fortunately, I won’t need to do a continental clean. I can currently clean 185 in one motion without much problem, and 2 months is enough time to be ready for 205. Farmers walks should be fine. As the axle indicates, grip is a strong point for me. I also don’t see how the keg medley could be difficult… maybe I’m underestimating it? It seems like I should be able to fly through that. My max deadlift may be a weak point. I hope to be around 600 by the competition. Currently I can hit 565 any day of the week, and on a good day 585. Have yet to break 600.

542

Deadlift PR last night. I hit a rep PR at 545x2. Probably could have gotten 3, but I felt a bit of a pec strain on the 2nd rep. Started a new youtube channel yesterday, and posted the video on it. 545x2 Deadlift - YouTube

After that, I did 2 sets of 505x2. on the 2nd set, I had hurt my back. Had to drop the weight, and I went home. Heating pad for most of the evening. I could barely move. Fortunately it’s improved quite a bit today. Hoping I will be good as new within a week or so.

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543

That’s a great show for you for sure. Nothing too complicated and a lot of static strength.

You’re not underestimating it so much as this is a “light” show. What this is going to mean is that it’s not necessarily the strongest guy that wins, but the fastest guy that makes the fewest mistakes. Granted, 90’ is a little on the longish side, but for the most part

-Axle will probably boil down to conditioning. The clean once is nice, but holding an axle on your chest for a minute can get exhausting. Strength is a factor too of course, but you’re most likely not hurting too bad in that department. Having a strong strict press helps, because fatigue can sap leg drive, especially if they switch events around.

-The farmer’s are going to be about who gets of the starting line the fastest/with a staggered stance, performs no drops, and has the fastest footspeed.

-Keg medley is going to be about getting the kegs set-up correctly at the starting line, along with who can sprint back to the kegs the fastest. Also, as soon as you are done with the final keg, rip your hands off of it, because the clock doesn’t stop until your hands are off. LOTS of guys get too dramatic and collapse on the keg at the end and lose TONS of time. At the start, I find it’s better to have the handles of the keg pointing at the finish line rather than parallel to it. This means you can run to the side of the keg, pick it up and move toward the finish line at the same time, rather than getting behind it, picking it up and trying to run forward. However, practice your pick-ups and find which way you like. Most folks never train this, and on comp day they lose a ton of time just picking up the damn keg.

-You know how to deadlift.

-Stones will most likely boil down to who wants it more. I tend to do well on stone over bar even though I don’t train it, and that’s not a very heavy stone for you. Tacky helps. If the stone is too dirty, don’t be afraid to get it cleaned before your run.

I’m excited for you dude. Looks like a great show.

544

Dude, thanks A LOT for the advice!!! That’s a lot of good stuff I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have considered.

So earlier this week, I found out that there is a gym about 30 minutes from me with several guys who are competing in this show. The gym has all of the strongman implements that will be in the competition, and the guys are training every Sunday at noon for these specific events. Drop in rate is 10 bucks, so I could go there for the next 5 weeks, get a ton of work in, learn a lot, for 50 bucks. Very excited about this.

545

A couple sessions to log:

Saturday I benched. Got a really solid 315x5. Feeling great on bench right now, it’s continually moving in the right direction. It’s too bad bench is completely unrelated to strongman, lol. It’s probably my current best lift.

Sunday I did my strongman training. Here’s a synopsis of the events…

Started with some tire flips. No prob here, tire was light.

Stone was next. This was my first time lifting stones. They had a 240 stone, so that’s what I worked up to. The first time I tried it, I didn’t move it off the ground. Backed off, then tried it again. Much better. Lapped it well, got my arms on top of it, rolled it up and extended. Then brought it back down. No platform or bar to go over, but the movement felt good, and I’m fairly sure I got it high enough. I only did 1 rep. Trying not to push anything too hard since my back strain earlier this week. I think I can make solid strides in this event over the next few weeks. Hoping I can get to 4 or 5 reps. That may be wishful thinking, but who knows.

Next was log press. Worked up to 195. In my last competition, I hit either 185 or 195 for a max single. Yesterday I got this weight for 8 reps, after hitting several other sets of 8, with little rest. My press has improved tremendously.

Finished with a heavy bag carry, keg carry, farmers walk medley, for about 40 feet on each. Heavy bag wasn’t very heavy. The first time I did the keg, I ran way too fast, water moved around in the keg, and I nearly face planted. Had to drop the keg… by which I mean I tossed it about 10 feet in front of me. Good learning experience. Second set was a heavier keg (probably 190ish) and farmers walks were 180ish. Neither were as heavy as what I’ll be doing in competition, but neither presented any sort of problem either. Next week I’ll do both of these with competition weight.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with things. I’ll be able to get at least 1 rep/finish each event, and hopefully be quite competitive. A much more favorable show for me than my last one.

546

Also worth noting: morning bodyweight is still low 190’s. So I have a ton of room to grow if I can push myself to eat enough. I’d be comfortable with pushing my weight as high as 210, although I don’t actually see that happening. Just not enough time. My guess is I’ll be waking up right at 200 by showtime. Will be the first time I don’t have to cut water if that’s the case.

547

A couple things to note. AM bodyweight is 195-196 now. Over 200 at night consistently over the past week. Also, looks like I missed logging 3 training sessions.

Tuesday I deadlifted and did squats on the hack squat machine. I deadlifted to get an idea of how my back was feeling. I really can’t feel it anymore, but on Tuesday I still could. Didn’t affect my DL though. I took some videos, and decided I’m going to make a better effort at keeping a flat back, particularly as I initiate the movement. It seemed to help quite a bit with positioning. I took it all the way up to a rep at 495 just to see if there was any pain. None.

Saturday I bench pressed and axle overhead pressed. Worked up to a bench PR at 345x2… but I feel like there were fingers on the bar from my spotter. Really didn’t like it. Both reps felt easy, like I had 2 more in the tank. That definitely makes me think I had help. He swears he didn’t, but who knows. Regardless, I’ll take it. I definitely felt strong on the lift. After that, did a set of 10 at 225, then axle press. Worked up to 205x5 without the clean. Feeling much better about this now that I’ve practiced it a few times.

Sunday I did axle press again, this time with the clean. Worked up to competition weight (205) again. Still got 5 reps. 205 axle clean and press - YouTube
After this set, I did several more cleans at 205 for practice. I want to make sure there’s no way I miss my first attempt at the clean in competition. I hit about 5/7 tries. I’ve decided nose tork is a good idea for this event, as it seems to help me a great deal with the clean.

548

Impressive log. I’m enjoying following along. How tall are you, flip? In your pictures you look damn solid for 190.

549

Good to see the progress coming along on the strongman training. Seems like you’re getting a feel for the events.

I saw the video of the clean and press on the starting strongman group, and it looks like you got the right feedback on it. You and I are similar in that we both tend to press in front of the face rather than straight up. The best way to convince a judge that the weight is over your head rather than in front of your face is to make eye contact with them at the top of the rep. Even if the weight is still a little forward, you being able to look them in the eye convinces them that your head is forward enough, and they’ll usually give you the rep. This also makes it easier to receive the down command.

With some leg drive, you’ll really rack up some decent reps.

550

David: I’m 5’10. And thanks!

Pwnisher: Yea with my mobility, I don’t think I can physically get the bar more overhead than that, lol. Something I’ll be working on after this competition for sure. And I’ll definitely do that.

I’ll be working with the axle again this weekend, and I’m going to try to implement what I’ve read/seen on leg drive. I know that needs a ton of work. If I can make some improvement, I’ll post another video.

551

One of the biggest things that helped me was something Alpha explained to me when it came to the circus dumbbell. The term “leg drive” is really something of a misnomer, as it’s honestly more “body drive”. Yes, you use your legs to bend down, but what you want to do is have the bar racked against your torso so that you can throw your body into the bar. I used to hold the bar in my hands rather than racked on my shoulders/collarbone, and it really muffled the effect of the leg drive, as basically my elbows would act as shock absorbers and lose all the power of my legs. Once the bar is pressed against your skeleton, it’ll launch.

552

that’s a great tip, and not one I had come across. But it makes sense, especially since I do the same thing.

553

strongman training yesterday. lots of good stuff. practiced axle, deadlift, farmers walks, and stones.

axle is feeling so much better. I’m really controlling it well now. Racking the bar on my shoulders rather than hands made a HUGE difference. I can really explode with it. Unfortunately, the clean is really bothering my wrist. I can’t pick up a glass today without pain, lol. So since that movement is doing just fine for me, I’ll skip it for a couple weeks, hit it one time around mid-month, and hopefully be ready to go!

deadlift was on a real deadlift bar. Makes such a difference. Worked up to 495x2, and 545x1. Felt like cake. Really fast, no stress. Didn’t feel any need to push this one farther.

stones were better than last time. I was more aggressive pulling off the ground, more confident, and it helped a lot. I wish I had a bar to practice putting these over, but I still feel decent about this event. Tacky will help a ton, from what I’ve been told. The guy I was working with (the gym owner, who is competing with me), was pretty surprised I could lift the stone without tacky, as it’s pretty smooth.

This was the first time I loaded the farmers handles to the weight I’ll be competing at. Grip was difficult, but not a limiting factor. Getting off the line was tough though. Need to keep working on this. Traps are killing me today.

554

squats last night. 405x10. Felt great. Then dropped to 315 for a few sets. That’s all I did.

555

bench press is moving in the right direction so fast right now. elbows and chest were hurting going into my workout last night, but once I got warm, things felt pretty good. Anyway, I ended up doing 345x4 for my top set last night, without a spotter. That was a PR by 2 reps. Hit 2 reps at that weight just 2 weeks ago, and that was with an overzealous spotter who kept his hands on the bar. Crazy stuff.

Also did pull ups. That’s all I had time for. My gym sessions, outside of my weekend strongman training, have been very simple, but it’s working for me. With the way lifting is going right now, I believe I’m capable of something around a 1550 total unwrapped. Which means I probably need to schedule a PL meet soon.

556

Haven’t been following your training log much since the change in format of the forums but can’t wait to see how you do in your strongman show, good luck!

557

Hey Ben! I wasn’t pleased with the new format initially, and to be honest, I still don’t prefer it, but I do plan to keep my log here. Glad to see it’s still being followed :slightly_smiling: I’ll definitely post all about the show, including videos.

Squatted last night, hit a new 1RM PR. 545, unwrapped, for a 20 lbs PR. I worked up to 495 for a single, and it felt like I could have gotten 2 or 3 reps, so I thought might as well shoot for a big PR, and just made the 50 lbs jump for the next rep. Very pleased I did this. It wasn’t even that much of a grinder from what it felt like. Not only that, I did it on a shitty bar, in a shitty rack that took 5 steps to walk out of. Since squat hasn’t been a real priority recently, this was very cool. Based on my gym lifts, it looks like the next time I step on the platform I’ll be looking for a 1560 total at least. I could reasonably add 100+ lbs to my total from last summer. My bodyweight has only gone up about 5 lbs from what it was then.

558

Had my last practice session with the implements yesterday. Practiced with kegs, farmers walks, and axle. Not a particularly productive session, lol. My wrist isn’t ready to clean 215, so I worked up to 195. Got a few reps at that. I’ll practice the press once more before comp. I feel good enough on this lift.

I’m definitely best at the events where I stand in one place. Farmers walks and kegs are hell for me. I’m so goddamn slow. I don’t know what it is, but my best guess is just that I haven’t practiced enough to be super comfortable with loaded carries. I’ve never had loaded carries in my programming, and it definitely shows. That being said, I believe I can get through both loaded carry events without dropping the implements, so there’s something to be said for that.

559

I was in the same boat with moving events versus static. The big thing that helped was learning how to move fast with light weights first, then onto heavy.

Footspeed is a quality in and of itself unrelated to the weight you’re moving. Unless you actually train your feet to move quickly, they’ll just clomp about at whatever speed is natural for you. This is where agility drills and all that stuff comes into play. For me, I learned that I couldn’t just shut off my brain and go on auto-pilot during moving events. Instead, the entire time my feet are moving, I have to literally think the words “quick-feet-quick-feet”. In fact, the faster I can think the words, the faster I seem to be able to move my feet.

The other part of it too is that it’s less of a run and more of a controlled fall. You’re basically crashing past the finish line with the yoke/farmer’s/keg/whatever, and letting the weight carry YOU rather than the other way around. If you can use the implement’s weight to your advantage, you’ll be in a better place versus the guy actually trying to carry the weight.

It all takes practice. It wasn’t until my 5th show that I finally felt like I got a handle on moving events.

560

thanks for this. I’ve been thinking a lot about this over the past few days, and I think I’m trying to take steps that are too long, and not focusing on the quick feet aspect nearly enough. And I’m definitely not getting a good feel for using the implements correctly. My last farmers walk with the competition weight, I felt like I was all over the place with weight distribution. It was so uneven and shitty. I never got my momentum right and it absolutely sucked.

On the bright side, I’ve practiced farmers walks exactly 3 times now. I’ll be able to do them often moving forward, so progress should happen.