Recent Competition Recap

Training Powerlifting
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I hesitated to make this thread because it is already in another thread of mine, but it is deeply embedded in a pharma thread, and the Strongman section is pretty dead most of the time, so hopefully this will liven it up just a little. This is copied and pasted from my other thread.

Well here is a competition recap:

I took 3rd in my weight class out of 10 guys, not because I did poorly, but the other 2 guys that beat me were animals. Even if I had executed perfectly, I still would’ve ended up in 3rd.

Event 1, Viking press 300 lbs:

I hit 14 reps here and took second. First place got 15 reps. I was consistenly hitting 15-20 reps in training, but our viking press was A LOT more stable than the one used at the competition, and that instability ate up 6-8 reps for me.

Event 2, yoke run 700 lbs for 100 ft:

By far my weakest event, however, I crushed it compared to how I normally perform with the yoke. I hit 100 feet (the farthest I have ever taken 700 was 25 ft) in 42 seconds. However this was still only good enough for a 5th place finish. I had two drops which cost me about 4-5 seconds, but I was 6 seconds behind 4th place, so even a perfect run would’ve had me in 5th place. This was probably my most surprising event

Event 3, max axle deadlift:

I hit 615 on axle at like RPE 7.5-8, which put me in a 4 way tie for 3rd. First place tie was at 665. I attempted 665 and got it 2-3 inches off the ground but after blowing my load on the yoke, 665 just wasn’t there. If there had been no yoke run before hand, I may have hit 665. Hopefully by the end of the year I’ll be a 700 lb deadlifter on a power bar or DL bar.

Event 4, sandbag/keg/sandbag medley:

Took 2nd on this event at 32 seconds. 2 last minute changes in weight. we ended up with a 265 bag, 225 keg, 308 bag instead of 220 bag, 250 keg and 308 bag. First place guy CRUSHED this event at 27 seconds. 3rd place finished in 56 seconds. Unfortunately I tweaked my bicep when lapping the 308 bag, which didn’t affect me during the medley, but greatly impacted my stone loading.

Event 5, 320 lb stone over 50" bar:

Took 3rd in this event in 30 seconds (everyone got 60s but I cut it short). I was 4 points behind 2nd place at this point and short of him zeroing the stones I knew I wouldn’t catch him. I was one point ahead of 4th place, so I knew if I tied him I would keep my one point lead. I could feel a small tweak in my bicep going into this but on the very first rep I felt a sharp, tearing pain in my left bicep, so I did as many reps as I needed to keep 3rd place (4 reps) and called it there. I could’ve easily taken first with 8-10 reps had I not had a bad bicep (winner got 7 reps), but that still wouldn’t have moved me up enough in points to get into 2nd place.

Overall I did really well and hit pretty much all of the numbers I expected to outside of the viking press. Even if I had won stones and viking press and not had two drops on yoke, I still would’ve taken third. I would’ve been 1 point behind 2nd instead of 6.5, but 3rd is 3rd. I was expecting more like 23s on the medley, but the weight change on the first sandbag, combined with the fact that our 300 lb sandbag is actually only about 270 (I learned this about a week before the competition) really slowed me down a lot compared to what I thought I would do. I took top 3 in 4 out of 5 events and my weakest event killed my point total about as much as I expected it to. Hit PRs in 3 out of 5 events too so I can’t be upset about that.

With all of that said, you’ll never hear me make an excuse for losing, I got beat fair and square by two really solid competitors.

Now time to heal the bicep and start prepping for nationals in October. I’ll have another shot at an Arnold bid then.

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Nice man. Good recap. Get that recovery in and get those guns better! Nationals isn’t far away.

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So all but 1 event you were in the top 3. That’s pretty solid.

Especially considering ypu had more reps in there for the stone.

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Realistically, I could’ve taken 1st in Viking press and stones. I was only one rep out of first and had I played it better I could’ve gotten that 1 rep. I got 11 reps in 30 seconds and 3 in the other 30 seconds because I just wasn’t thinking. And with stones, I was ready to crush 10 reps until the bicep stuff happened. Yoke is definitely my Achilles heel and not sucking so bad at that would’ve helped a lot.

I love finding weaknesses and overcoming them to become a more well rounded athlete. My first competition ever (October 2019) I had a 600 lb yoke for 50 ft. In training I never hit more than 525 lbs for about 20 feet and thought I was going to die. Well I managed to hit the yoke on comp day in 50 feet in 24 seconds. Again, I was the last place finisher there too. I also weighed about 260 then.

I have made incredible strides on the yoke, but I still have a long way to go as well. If I was really good at yoke I would hit 700 lbs for 100 feet in sub 30s. If I was elite it would be sub 20s. I have every intention of being in that elite class one day.

Also keep in mind these are all middle weight weights. I had one guy ask if I was a heavy weight moving those kinds of weights. I took that as a compliment haha

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It’s a testimony to you that you see finding a weakness as a good thing. So many people bury their heads int eh sand and ignore it.
700lb over 100ft is long and hard. I just about managed 575lb 60ft return.

This is at least something to work on. My games manship is a bit crap also. I like to win everything. And I’ve been told that making sure I have enough energy to be competitive in everything might be better. There is no point straining to earn 1 extra point in event 4 if you are then too tired to compete in event 5.
Sorry - no 100% in everything.

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I have to respectfully disagree with you here. I believe if your conditioning is good enough, you should be able to go all out in every event. Yea, strongman is hard and heavy, but you really only need enough energy to go all out for about 5 minutes, MAX, during a competition. If there are 5 events and you’re given 60s to do each event, then that’s 5 minutes IF it takes you 60s to complete each event.

(This is obviously not including last man standing or other types of events with no time limit)

I do believe that, generally, few people give 100% on all 5 events, but I believe you should be able to if necessary.

There’s a reason it takes me 2-3 weeks to feel back to normal most times. It’s been 15 days now and I am finally starting to feel like I might be able to lift heavy again (I almost passed out on a 485 deadlift on a DL bar about a week ago)

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that’s really accurate. The show I just won, I didn’t truly have to max any event, because of turn order in my weight class and stuff. I went last all day, after I hit the top deadlift in the first event (which also wasn’t a true max). But I COULD have pushed more across the board if I had needed to for more points. And I have had a show here and there where I needed to be at 100% on every single event. Nationals a couple years ago, I left EVERYTHING out there across 5 events. I don’t think I had a single rep or pound more I could have done.

I will always conserve energy when I can. I don’t do anything extra for showmanship. I won my axle press for reps last week at 6 reps after 30 seconds. I could have kept going for the next 30 seconds, but… why?

Anyway. Remind me what weight class you’re in? I’m assuming heavyweight or shw if you can load a 320 stone for potentially 10 reps, lol. That’s really damn good. If you’re a middleweight or lower, holy shit haha.

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I’ll take that as a compliment! I am a middle weight competitor. I won’t say what show it was, but it was a platinum plus show, and if you know anything about SC, you know those are NOT easy or light shows. In fact I would argue they are the heaviest amateur shows outside of nationals and Arnold.

I am “OK” to slightly above average at most events, Atlas stones are the one event I can (humbly) say I am excellent. And on a good day I’d put my stone loading abilities up against ANY amateur and even some pros.

I hit 4 reps in 30s and stopped there, and I was taking it slow and easy because of my bicep, which is well on its way to healing at this point.

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You don’t have to say what show it was, I figured it out haha. Plat Plus is definitely a big show. We have had a few plat plus shows come through here over the last few years. I was supposed to compete in one last spring before the world blew up.

If you can really hit 320 for 10 reps, absolutely. I know what the top guys hit at the Clash show a few weeks ago, and that would have definitely put you in the mix for a top spot on the trump stone event. I know there are a few middleweights out there talking about trying to hit a 500 stone later this year, which is goddamn insane. I haven’t seen a middleweight go much over 450.

Great work dude! I’m gonna try to qualify for the Arnold 2022, should be able to manage it now that I’m back to training hard. Hoping to find a plat plus to do later this year.

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The Ronnie Coleman Classic? I had a good buddy that competed there in the MWO class. I couldn’t believe how stupid light it was for a plat+ show.

My goal now is to take that nationals bid and turn it into an Arnold bid for 2022

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I forgot to mention, Our gym has a 300 lb stone and a 340 lb stone. I was training with both but on heavy days I’d do the 340. I did hit 10 reps at 340 one day, not in a minute, but it was a 5x2 with 30 seconds rest between sets, so it was in about 4 minutes time. For me personally, this is actually a harder way of doing stones because, being asthmatic, it’s harder to keep up my heart rate and breathing for 4 minutes than it is for 1 minute.

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