Nice work on the overhead. Keep it going.
Thanks a lot Vinny!
Since it is kind of fun to edit and upload these, here is the video:
13.03.
So since yesterday I am very sick. Besides cancer and depression I can’t remember being that sick before. I can’t hold any food in me, I have fever and can barely stand up. My weight seems to be dropping by the minute. And obviously I missed saturdays training. If I am very unlucky the dictor might send me to the hospital. I am extremely frustrated that this happens right now, so close to competition and I am not sure if I will be able to participate at all. The question here is, just in case I feel a little better the next days, should I do another training session?
14.03.
Lost over 3 kg in 2 days so far. All muscle I suppose because of the large deficit and the lack of protein. I just can’t believe that shit…
sorry to hear you are sick was looking forward to your comp videos maybe still on?
weight loss, do not think it was all muscle,sick not eating
Glycogen stores become depleted water loss goes with it some fat
muscle tends to take little longer to lose
muscle weakness tends to go with being sick
hope it works out okay
Nor should you. It’s not possible to lose that much muscle in that short of a time, barring having a limb amputated. Like Sam said, it’s just fluid. You’ll put it back on quickly, once you can start holding down fluids again. It sucks, but you’ll make it through dude.
Of course it is dumb to say that I lost 3 kg of muscle, I believe I wrote this out of frustration. Thanks for your encouragement guys! Right now I feel like my clean and press max might be a broomstick but even with everything against me I can not let go of the competition in my mind. I don’t even know why but I want to participate badly. My health is getting a bit better from all the pills I am taking and I was able to consume a lot of fluids and at least a more decent amount of food today.
Still my question is: Should I lift on wednesday? Just given that this upwards trend continues and I feel better. I need to know if I will be able to perform but on the other side to lift this close to competition could hinder my preparedness.
But all in all I just have to wait and see what the rest of the week brings…
Everyone gets a little crazy before a competition. Read some logs, andLook at some of the strange stuff guys come up with to worry about.
Just relax and recover. You’ve done the hard work. Now relax, and enjoy the fun of competing.
Visualize successful lifts. Imagine the events in your mind. Get your food and drinks and equipment in order. Plan your meals and warm ups for the competition. Don’t be nervous. Be prepared.
@FlatsFarmer : Thanks for your encouragement! Good thing I film quite a lot of mys lifts so I can actually visualize them 
15.03.
Things are continuing to get better! Did lose only about 300 g of weight in comparison to yesterday, all in all I lost about 4 kg/ 8,8 lbs. Fever is going down, stomach is a lot better! My body is craving fluids like I lived in the Sahara the past 10 years and I slept for 12 hours. Can’t remember when I slept so long the last time. My body seems to come back. I am trying to eat as much as possible now that I can hold food in. I am not feeling too strong today but I can move around all right and my hopes are rising to still be able to compete. I hope this trend continues. Right now I plan to return to work on Thursday.
7 days ago, you were stronger than you have EVER BEEN in your life.
A few days from now you’ll be a Strongman Champion.
This is just the shceisse in between.
@FlatsFarmer : I like that write up, thank you man!
16.03.
Feeling tired and sweating like crazy but other than that I feel healthy again. Will return to work tomorrow.
To rest my nerves I lifted a small bit today
Axle Deadlifts
56 kg x 5
98 kg x 1
136 kg x 1
146 kg x 1
151 kg x 1
Notes:
- 151 felt heavier and slower than it has before but that is to be expected. If I wanted I think 161 kg would have been there but I didn’t want to really lift, just see how my body reacts. It reacted quite okay. It wasn’t happy about this but I am fine. My hopes are rising to not completely perform under my abilities on Saturday.
19.03.
Despite being ill half the week and not being able to regain my lost body weight I decided to compete today. I am glad I did.
Competition started roughly 11.15 am.
First event was axle clean and press for maximum repetitions in 75 seconds. You could chose between a 75 kg axle and a 55 kg standard barbell
I ended up getting 6 reps but only 5 of these 6 reps did count. On my first rep I did not hold the weight, look at my judge and wait for him to blow the whistle (like he told me to do 30 seconds before). A beginner mistake that won’t happen again. Otherwise everything did go as expected. 6 reps would have been a PR, 5 reps is a tie. I did not get more reps because I was out of breath and couldn’t do another rep. Pressing was very easy.
The next event was deadlifts and it came with two big surprises. You could chose between 200 kg and 160 kg. The 200 kg would be on an axle but the 160 kg would be on a standard barbell. The second unexpected change was the deadlift height. The bar was set on two thick mats. This bar height actually is a disadvantage for me because it is right at my weak point and I have a hard time developing power at this height.
I ended up getting two reps. On the second rep I strained my back a little and I think that prevented me from getting a better result. But even if I didn’t hurt myself, this just wasn’t my event.
Onto Farmer’s walks. The weight for this was set at 90 kg per hand for a 40 m distance with one turn where you had to set the implement down, turn yourself around and lift it up again. Now this was an event I was very nervous about beforehand. I trained for this using a trap bar and I could not lift close to 180 kg, let alone walk with it. Adding to this my back locked up pretty hard after deadlifts (pretty sure I got some SI-joint issues because I misgrooved on my second rep).
The event went amazing! I picked it up pretty quick for my first 20 m lane. I wasn’t exactly fast but it was alright and I didn’t have to drop it. After the turn it was very hard for me to pick the implements up again. I was happy to have the head organizer behind me, screaming at me to stand up again. It was a grinder to pick up again but once I got to full standing position I got going again. I am happy to happy to have completed this without any drops.
After Farmer’s my body was shutting down. Like really down. I was feeling very tired, thought I have to puke, I felt finished.
Onto Loading. For the loading event we had to carry a 70 kg keg and a 100 kg keg for 7 meters and load it onto a 1,20 m platform. Additionally we had to load an 100 kg atlas stone which was placed right beneath the platform.
On my first run with the 70 kg keg the weight in the keg shifted around, I started tripping and ran straight into the platform (which was pretty hilarious) but I still loaded it without a struggle. The 100 kg keg wasn’t hard to carry but I had some problems loading it. I still got it up on the platform. Which brings us to the atlas stone. The judge was handing me tacky which I wanted to apply to my hands but when I touched it I didn’t get enough of it out of the container and couldn’t divide it between my hands. Instead of asking for more I said fuck it. I gave the stone several shots but couldn’t get it. I got it to right about the point where I fail my deadlifts ( approximately 20 cm off the ground). After the second or third attempt I threw my belt away and gave it another shot but lost my grip and landed on my arse.
After that there was only the award ceremony left. I ended up placing 23rd out of 25 competitors. Doesn’t sound good, does it? I couldn’t care less!
On a finishing note:
The contest was very well run.
The atmosphere was AMAZING. Everyone was very kind and I met some great people.
Of course I am a little disappointed because I got sick this close to competition and I am sure my results would have been better otherwise but hey, that is life!
For everyone reading this who is a beginner, unsure about whether to enter a competition or not: Do it! Nobody will look down at you for maybe not being as strong as everybody else, actually the opposite was the case. Whenever someone struggled everybody got behind him. Screaming at him and cheering him on. As long as you give everything you got, your best shot, no one will look down at you. I feel like this is what counts in this community, giving YOUR best and doing everything YOU can. Everybody respects someone who fights and puts his heart into it.
Video of the competition (including me and my training partner): Strongman Cup 19 03 - YouTube
1 Like
Hey man, glad you had fun! I was smiling reading through it as it reminded me so much of my first show. I also got my butt whooped, but I came back for more, and that’s what counts. In the video, it looked like an amazing atmosphere.
Also, I bet if that stone at the end was larger diameter, you’d have gotten it. Being pretty tall and dropping your hips like that with a smaller stone is simply a pain in the ass. Makes for a hard lift for sure. Anyway, awesome work!
Thanks Vinny, I really had a blast! Of course I didn’t place well but all in all I am pretty happy with my performance as I was able to perform all of the events, which was my goal. The atmosphere was truly amazing! Everyone cheered the other competitors on and was very supportive.
Yeah the stone was really hard. Actually quite a lot of the guys couldn’t lift that thing. I think leverages play a big role there. For example my training partner is of exact same height as me but his arms are significantly longer and his hands are huge. He came really close to loading the stone and lifting it was actually not a big problem for him.
Awesome performance dude! You’re officially a strongman now. I was excited to see your work on the farmer’s. I knew you had been sweating the pick up on it for a while, and you just totally blasted it off the floor. No shame in your showing either; you didn’t come dead last, and you didn’t zero any events. That’s a great day.
Great work, pushing through obstacles.
25 athletes is a HUGE field. You must have picked a pretty serious contest for your first time.
@T3hPwnisher : Thank you man! I personally loved the farmer’s event! It was a great challenge and I begin to see why heavy farmer’s are valued that greatly by a lot of people. But it is also a very draining event, definitely something I wouldn’t do that heavy weekly. I am extremely happy I didn’t zero at any event, that was one of my biggest goals for this contest. Actually looking back I think it is pretty stupid to think you could be too weak to participate in a contest. Now that I have gone through with it I can’t recommend competing enough. I surprised myself with a good result besides all obstacles and prepping for this made me infinitely stronger. Even though I didn’t even have a solid plan and very little time to train.
@FlatsFarmer : Thanks man, I appreciate your support! The field was indeed maxed out for the men. The women division also had 11 competitors which isn’t bad either I think. There were some serious monsters there. One guy who borrowed my wrist wraps was pulling mid 600s and did the whole competition without a belt. Funnily we equaled on the axle c&p. Some very good athletes had a showing there. Some of them were already competing in powerlifting and crossfit.
20.03.
I am fucking sore today. My back is not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. It actually feels like it isn’t injured at all, just the erectors are sore and stiff as hell. I now also get why strongman train their arms, my biceps has never been this sore before!
So after I have reached my goal of becoming a strongman by participating in a contest it is time to lay out my goals for the near future.
For general goals I want to lose weight. I want to go from about 115 kg to 105 kg. I think that would be a good weight for me. My training will stay performance oriented but it sure would be nice to look a little more jacked. Other than that I want to become more conditioned. This goes very well with improving about every performance aspect I think.
For strength goals I want to:
- squat 150 kg in belt and wraps
- deadlift 180 kg (preferably conventional)
- log clean and press 100 kg
Secondary strength goals will be:
- push press 105 - 110 kg
- strict press 80 kg
- bench press 120+ kg
- trap bar deadlift 190-200 kg
21.03
Deload training this week. Body was shocked from the sensation of lifting weights when I started bench pressing and told me to deload this week.
1 paused bench press
4 x 6 with 80 kg
2 feet up bench
x10 with 60 kg
3 OHP
some sets with about 30 kg
Awesome write up man. I love hearing about people’s experiences at events like this. Sounds like a great time!