That’s awesome man, I’m glad they have helped you out. Sometimes I wonder if I’m just yelling things into a wall, so it’s great to know that some people are reading and appreciating the things I’ve learned.
I was so absorbed into the dogma of how you have to certain movements certain ways in order to make progress, and it held me back for so long. Learning how to do what it takes to make things work for you is huge.
Hey brother, I just wanted to say that you for all of the input and questions you patiently answer in these forums. I am in a similar boat where I will give some advice and then never heard about how it went. I really respect your training and who you are as a man. I also enjoy your blog posts and (doing all of the writing for my website as well) know how much time and emotion it takes into writing them.
You dedicate a lot of your free time and energy here and I didn’t want you to believe that it doesn’t go unnoticed. You are doing great man, keep it up. And I would wish you luck on the upcoming competition, but you don’t need anyone one else’s luck. You will earn every lift you get. Proud of you brother and and am happy to be able to call you my friend.
[quote]Alpha wrote:
Hey brother, I just wanted to say that you for all of the input and questions you patiently answer in these forums. I am in a similar boat where I will give some advice and then never heard about how it went. I really respect your training and who you are as a man. I also enjoy your blog posts and (doing all of the writing for my website as well) know how much time and emotion it takes into writing them.
You dedicate a lot of your free time and energy here and I didn’t want you to believe that it doesn’t go unnoticed. You are doing great man, keep it up. And I would wish you luck on the upcoming competition, but you don’t need anyone one else’s luck. You will earn every lift you get. Proud of you brother and and am happy to be able to call you my friend. [/quote]
Thanks Alpha. It means a lot coming from you. You’ve been a big help on my transition to strongman, and as long as I keep getting from the community, I want to keep paying it forward as well.
I’ve spent a lot of time on the net, and I realized just how unbeneficial it is to be an asshole to random strangers. There is so much snarkiness and condescension out there that it makes dialogue unproductive. I dig your approach to answering any/all questions that come your way, and try to do the same as well. Sometimes, I need to come back to a question after I’ve had some time to cool down, or hit the delete key a few times, or just walk away from a topic, but I feel like maintaining a positive environment is worthwhile.
(13) Chain Suspended Safety Squat Bar Squats
2x435+chains
8x345+chains
Notes: Last heavy week, holding off on pushing things too hard. Still, noticed that I’ve been relying primarily on my upperback to complete the SSB squats, and this time really tried to drive the hips forward. Will have to work on that post comp.
Reverse hyper 360
2x12
1x15
Abs
Notes: Just various ab work here. Went out and shot a bow for the first time yesterday, and my right elbow is pretty pissed off at me, so it made the ab wheel suck. Did some of that, did some ab wheel holds, and some planks.
Neck harness 45lbs
1x50
[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
[quote]Alpha wrote:
Hey brother, I just wanted to say that you for all of the input and questions you patiently answer in these forums. I am in a similar boat where I will give some advice and then never heard about how it went. I really respect your training and who you are as a man. I also enjoy your blog posts and (doing all of the writing for my website as well) know how much time and emotion it takes into writing them.
You dedicate a lot of your free time and energy here and I didn’t want you to believe that it doesn’t go unnoticed. You are doing great man, keep it up. And I would wish you luck on the upcoming competition, but you don’t need anyone one else’s luck. You will earn every lift you get. Proud of you brother and and am happy to be able to call you my friend. [/quote]
Thanks Alpha. It means a lot coming from you. You’ve been a big help on my transition to strongman, and as long as I keep getting from the community, I want to keep paying it forward as well.
I’ve spent a lot of time on the net, and I realized just how unbeneficial it is to be an asshole to random strangers. There is so much snarkiness and condescension out there that it makes dialogue unproductive. I dig your approach to answering any/all questions that come your way, and try to do the same as well. Sometimes, I need to come back to a question after I’ve had some time to cool down, or hit the delete key a few times, or just walk away from a topic, but I feel like maintaining a positive environment is worthwhile.
[/quote]
I feel like posters like the two of you are exactly what make this site worthwhile. Posters who focus on the important, and on the positive. Thank you for your input.
And yes, I will be getting back to you how the ROM progression works for me, once the cycle is finished (2.5 more weeks).
[quote]dagill2 wrote:
[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
[quote]Alpha wrote:
Hey brother, I just wanted to say that you for all of the input and questions you patiently answer in these forums. I am in a similar boat where I will give some advice and then never heard about how it went. I really respect your training and who you are as a man. I also enjoy your blog posts and (doing all of the writing for my website as well) know how much time and emotion it takes into writing them.
You dedicate a lot of your free time and energy here and I didn’t want you to believe that it doesn’t go unnoticed. You are doing great man, keep it up. And I would wish you luck on the upcoming competition, but you don’t need anyone one else’s luck. You will earn every lift you get. Proud of you brother and and am happy to be able to call you my friend. [/quote]
Thanks Alpha. It means a lot coming from you. You’ve been a big help on my transition to strongman, and as long as I keep getting from the community, I want to keep paying it forward as well.
I’ve spent a lot of time on the net, and I realized just how unbeneficial it is to be an asshole to random strangers. There is so much snarkiness and condescension out there that it makes dialogue unproductive. I dig your approach to answering any/all questions that come your way, and try to do the same as well. Sometimes, I need to come back to a question after I’ve had some time to cool down, or hit the delete key a few times, or just walk away from a topic, but I feel like maintaining a positive environment is worthwhile.
[/quote]
I feel like posters like the two of you are exactly what make this site worthwhile. Posters who focus on the important, and on the positive. Thank you for your input.
And yes, I will be getting back to you how the ROM progression works for me, once the cycle is finished (2.5 more weeks).
[/quote]
100% agree with this. You two guys are extremely generous with your time and hard earned wisdom. As someone who is very new to the strength game, after a life time in conditioning based sport, it is a big deal to be able to read your thoughts on training, and ask questions from experienced lifters and get detailed, constructive feedback in return. It’d be pretty easy to get overwhelmed and frustrated if left to our own devices, so to have people who can cut through the crap and help us find our own way - you’re adding a lot of value to a lot of people’s lives, both you and Alpha.
Thanks both of you. Always happy to lend my experience, and it’s awesome to know that it’s had a positive impact. Dagil: Looking forward to hearing about your experiences with ROM progression.
Log clean and press (clean once) 190
1x9
1x5
Notes: Press technique was pretty sound. Ran out of air at one point, but the mechanics are where I want them to be. 95% comp weight, don’t have any worries come day of.
Log cleans 190
1x4
Notes: Was going to go for 10, but felt my right forearm acting up around rep 4 so shut it down. I’m ok with blowing out the forearm day of, but want to at least have a few solid reps before it happens.
Band pull aparts
50
Notes: From here, it’s going to be pretty light. Might take the yoke for a super light run one more time, but otherwise it’s just going to be pump work to stay fresh.
Spent the past 3 days walking 13 miles a day through Disneyland while carrying a squirming 1 year old for the majority of those miles. Probably the greatest back workout of my life. Mrs was running a race, and had the in-laws with us. They have very different appetites than the wife and I, so ended up eating little food and lost about 4lbs. Still, not the worse way to spend some down time, and I got to take my traditional sword in the stone pic, so that’s a plus.
Will hit heavy bench tomorrow, and then maybe light events on Tues.
Had a chance to mess around with a log today - was at my girlfriend’s gym up in Michigan, warming up with some dumbbells and trying to figure out what, exactly, I wanted to do for my workout, when I noticed it hidden away behind the leg press machine. Very random thing for a gym to have (her gym is a cheap 24-hour place, not exactly catering to the Strongman crowd!) but I was sure glad they did. It was labeled 145 pounds. I didn’t add any weight, just did a bunch of clean and presses with the empty log in between bench sets, but man it was fun. Perhaps I will get one of my own one day.
Good luck in your upcoming competition.
[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
Thanks both of you. Always happy to lend my experience, and it’s awesome to know that it’s had a positive impact. Dagil: Looking forward to hearing about your experiences with ROM progression.[/quote]
I think I’m probably close enough to finishing the cycle to be able to comment at this point, just a quick recap of what I did:
5/3/1 Deadlift sets followed by 3x3 “mat pulls” and some high rep squats.
I set the weight for the mat pulls at the same weight as the final working set of my 5/3/1 deads. I’m 2 workouts and approximately 2 inches from the floor at this point and well on track to push up to 10 on my + set in the final workout, which is absolutely unheard of for me, and way ahead of any of my other lifts.
Looking back, I think I missed the point of ROM progression in that I could probably have pulled from the floor even in my first workout, but it’s worked so well I can’t knock it.
Cliff notes: This has turned out to be better than any other method I’ve used by a country mile to improve my deads and however badly it sucks halfway through the cycle (and it does suck balls), it’s definitely going to be used a lot in future. Thank you again for your input.
Activities Guy: Great find on the log. You can find some of the craziest things tucked away in corners of gyms, haha. Glad you got a feel for the implement for your considerations on future purchases. It’s definitely a fun movement to train.
Dagill: That’s awesome to hear. I’m always happy to find out that other folks are succeeding with the method. I had a similar experience to yours, where it just blew away everything else I ever did. That said, the first time is always the most significant, and future cycles will probably be a little more tame, but still, great gains regardless.
Lat pulldown 90
5x12
Bench press 325
4x2
superset w/
band pull aparts
4x20
Notes: Last heavy workout before comp, kept the volume low. Bench is feeling very secure and strong. Paused the first rep of each set.
Lost another pound after spending a day eating ribs and junk. Going to try to regain some quality weight as fast as possible without eating junk.
Picked up an annoying cold. Hoping it will clear up before comp, since these tend to sap my cardio. Hitting a lot of Cold and Sinus and upping my calories a huge amount. This is a first for me, as usually week of the comp I’m eating pretty light, and dinner the night before is small. Going to be interesting to see how “dieting up” to a weightclass works out.
Sorry to hear about the cold dude thats sucks, rest up. Also, thanks for the great articles you keep writing in your blog.
Thanks man. The cold isn’t the biggest deal in the world, more an annoyance than anything else. More than likely caught it from one of the many disease carriers at Disneyland. I’ll just feel bad if I start slinging phlegm all over the contest equipment, haha.
Thanks for reading the blog. It’s honestly a pretty selfish work, as getting my thoughts out there like that helps me figure out what I’m really thinking and understand what I’ve learned from this process, but it’s always great to know that some other folks are getting something out of my work.
I went and watched my first strongman on Sat, my manager Brandon is nationally ranked amateur BBer, who decided to try this strongman event, mainly because I was co-sponsoring it. Long winded way of saying I gained allot of respect for strongman on Sat. Brandon’s a brute 240 of lean test fueld beef, up against some big sloppy looking guys, haha, anyway we had alot of fun.
The yoke especially he struggled with, it was 550, but he couldn’t get very far without it swinging wildly, he had to keep setting it down which hurt his time. They also pulled a 30 thousand pound dump truck with a harness, some of this stuff I think you need to have done before, or train for at home, raw strength can only make up for so much. Fun stuff, and we’re planning on getting some of this gear ( yoke axle ) at my club ( anytime fitness ) to work with in the parking lot, and will be hopefully picking your brain bro,
[quote]AnytimeJake wrote:
I went and watched my first strongman on Sat, my manager Brandon is nationally ranked amateur BBer, who decided to try this strongman event, mainly because I was co-sponsoring it. Long winded way of saying I gained allot of respect for strongman on Sat. Brandon’s a brute 240 of lean test fueld beef, up against some big sloppy looking guys, haha, anyway we had alot of fun.
The yoke especially he struggled with, it was 550, but he couldn’t get very far without it swinging wildly, he had to keep setting it down which hurt his time. They also pulled a 30 thousand pound dump truck with a harness, some of this stuff I think you need to have done before, or train for at home, raw strength can only make up for so much. Fun stuff, and we’re planning on getting some of this gear ( yoke axle ) at my club ( anytime fitness ) to work with in the parking lot, and will be hopefully picking your brain bro, [/quote]
Awesome man, always happy to lend my experience. Strongman is a blast, I’m glad you got to witness it.
The yoke is always such an eye opener for a first experience. The weight doesn’t seem all that heavy, but as soon as you try to walk with it you realize just how much skill is needed to move a heavy weight quickly. Same with that truck pull.
Glad you’re going to throw some strongman gear into your gym. The yoke is huge to train with, and a lot of other strongman stuff can be pretty DIY, which makes it fun to grab bits and pieces of stuff.
Who knows, maybe you’ll get bit by the bug after enough time, haha.
Good luck with the competition man
Just finished my 6th strongman competition, Alan Thrall?s ?Back to the Basics? at Untamed Strength. Took 4th out of 14 in the 231 class, having weighed in at 203 in full sweats and eating a donut. Most fun I have had at a contest. Wanted to get some thoughts down. Going to go into a lot of history, if you just want to read about the contest, scroll down to ?competition?.
BACKGROUND
Prior to this competition, I had already met my goal of placing in a comp (Took 2nd out of 7 in January and 1st out of 3 in February) along with qualifying for nationals (reference the first place finish). Additionally, I walk around at about 198, and there was no 200lb class for this contest, so I was competing as a 231. I had no interest in attempting to gain 30lbs for the contest, so this was going to be ?just for fun?, which meant that a lot of pressure was off. Ultimately, I signed up for this contest because it had a car deadlift, which has been on my strongman bucketlist ever since I started competing.
Because of the lack of concern of weigh in, I had been a lot more free with my diet leading up to this contest, and honestly I am pretty sick of eating junk. I plan to dial things in a bit more after this, but at least I got the junk food binge out of my system. Additionally, I picked up a slight cold prior to the contest, which was more of an annoyance than anything else. In general though, this was a different experience for me to care so little about my diet prior to a contest. I never ?cut weight? to make the 200s, but I do spend about a day or 2 eating a little lighter than normal just to make sure I can walk onto the scale comfortably at 200lbs. This time, I was able to really ease off the breaks and eat big before the contest.
TRAINING
Events for the show were
-200lb log press for reps (clean each rep)
-550lb yoke walk, 100? (turn at 50?)
-225lb farmer?s walk/heavy frame carry (80? each way)
-Car deadlift
-240lb stone over bar
The log I had at home was a 9? dual handle CFF log, and the contest was going to be a 12? log, so I modified the center of my log to be a larger diameter. I may have gone too big with it, but it at least got me to train the mechanics with a larger log. Huge difference trying to press it.
This was a first for me to be able to train the yoke before a show. Normally, I just have to wing it, but I finally broke down and bought a pitbull economy yoke and got to do a few runs with it beforehand. Yoke weight was billed at 550, I worked up to 600 and still moved pretty quickly. Additionally, the economy design of the pitbull yoke gives it a slight wobble to deal with, so my hope was that using a sturdier piece of equipment would make things pan out better for me.
I had farmer?s handles to train with, but no frame, and even then not enough weight plates to perform a good ?farmer to frame? medley, so I just stuck with farmer?s walks with a turn. Comp weight was 225 per hand, I trained with 245 per hand. Used straps as well, because grip is never my issue, more footspeed. Honestly didn?t feel like I was moving too fast in training, but the yoke kept improving, so there is that.
I trained car deadlift with 2 barbells jammed in the corner of my power rack. Highest weight I could work up to was 5 plates per side before I ran out of space, so I threw some chains on as well. Hope was that the accommodating resistance would match the weird design of the car deadlift frame.
Did no training for stones whatsoever. Don?t have any stones at home, and though it would?ve been a good idea to at least do some sandbag or keg loading over the yoke, it just wasn?t a big priority for me.
COMPETITION
Weighed in at 203 wearing full sweats and eating a donut (as in, I was eating a donut on the scale). Breakfast was 3 bowls of fruity pebbles w/milk and a zero carb Rockstar w/240 mg of caffeine. Was feeling good. Stomach was a little twitchy, but nothing distracting.
Warmed up by cleaning and pressing the empty log twice. It felt so much smoother and better than my ghetto log at home. Also picked up the frame one time, so I could confirm that it sucked. That was it for warm-ups.
Log Clean and Press (clean each rep) 200lbs
Training had gone well for this event, and I had a goal of hitting 6 reps before needing a breather, as that?s what I managed at home. However, once I found out that we could bounce the log off the tires, I changed my gameplan on the spot. Usually a dumb choice, but it paid off. The first clean and press went amazingly smooth. The log I was training with at home was covered in tape, so it stuck to my chest something fierce when trying to clean it. Not having to deal with that made the log fly up. Also, fairly certain I was training with a much larger diameter than 12?, so the press was nothing on this.
Bounced as many reps as I could off the tires. Doing this was awesome, as it made the clean incredibly fast and easy. This in turn meant that I well surpassed my goal of 6, and was able to clean 9 reps without needing a break. I unfortunately ran out of time to press the 9th, but 8 was good enough for second place.
Kalle was judging for my lane, and he was very quick with the down command, which was awesome, and something I learned to look for. My 8th rep looked touchy, but he gave it to me, so that was awesome.
Things that went well: Very short transition time between clean and press. Something I?ve been working on.
Thinks I could improve: Looked like some random stalls for no reason I could really determine. Lost my balance once or twice, which cost me some time.
All in all, this was the event I was the most surprised by. I figured I would go middle of the pack, tied for 2nd out of 14 was awesome.
Car Deadlift
This was the event I was looking forward to the most. I also had zero frame of reference for how I would do. Everyone says it?s nothing like a deadlift at all, and though I did the deadlift simulator, I had never touched a car before.
The number to beat when I was up was 28 reps, and it was set by the guy who took first in the log, so I figured that was a high number. I chalked up, set my straps, put on my super heavy duty knee sleeves got ready, and just embraced the suck.
No technique whatsoever here, just standing up as many times as I could and gutting it out. Once I hit 25 and heard I had 30 seconds left, it dawned on me that I might be pretty decent at this. Unfortunately, I also had the thought that, since I was so far ahead, I probably didn?t need to kill myself, and that I should just go for 35 for pride.
I got 35, and crushed the previous number, but one other competitor managed 37 to bump me into second. However, no one else came close to my number, so I take solace in that. Lesson learned: I will never not give 100% on an event.
What WAS awesome though was that, due to my second place on the first 2 events, I was now first overall in my weight class. I did NOT expect that to happen after having given up so much weight. Pretty awesome.
550lb yoke, 100? (50? each way)
Finally broke down and bought a yoke to train with, and it paid off. It was taking me 40ish seconds to make my runs back home, but it was with a more shaky yoke and a slightly further distance.
Not a whole lot to write about here. Sturdier yoke felt smoother. Once I started thinking ?fast feet?, things moved better. Big takeaway is that I can?t try to autopilot movement events like I do static ones. I need to be thinking the whole time ?quick feet?. You can actually see when I start thinking it in the video, as my foot speed changes pretty radically.
Only other thing I?d change is my transition at the turn. Took too long setting back up, and it?s time I could?ve spent moving. Took 7th overall in this event with a time of about 20 seconds, but I was a second away from the next placing, and first was only 14 seconds. This is huge for me, as prior to this I was taking around 40-50 seconds in competition at this distance. Marked improvement. After this event, I had dropped to third overall. Still placing way outside my weight class, very happy with that.
225lb farmers/heavy frame carry, 80? each way
Another event I wasn?t too psyched about, but willing to give me all. Did zero training with a frame, only used farmers with a turn, and that?s with straps, because I want to watch the world burn.
Everyone was getting psyched out over the frame. Don?t get me wrong, it sucked; the pick up was like a snatch grip pick, and it had zero knurling, but you can?t let the equipment beat you. I just figured I?d deal with it when I got there.
Same as the yoke, I need to think ?fast feet? from the start. I did better this time at least, and you can see it in the video. Also, I tucked a small block of chalk in my elbow sleeve in case I would need it for the frame, but when I got there and grabbed it, I felt fine, so I just moved as quick as I could. A lot of folks were dropping it, which was good for me, as even though I had a slolwish run, I had zero errors.
Finished with a time of around 29 seconds, which was good for 6th place, keeping me in third place overall. 4th place was 1.5 points behind me, so it was going to come down to stones if I wanted to place.
240lb stone over 52? bar
I never train stones, so my gameplan here was just to give it my all.
4th place got 11 reps, so that was what I wanted. At 5?9, the bar was high, but nothing you can do. I tried to one motion it as much as I could, and was actually on pace to make 11, but a missed pick up on the third rep and a lot of hang time on the 8th killed me. Got 9 over the bar, and wiffed on the 10th. Happy with it all things considered, but a little bittersweet knowing I might?ve been able to place.
Moving forward
This was the most fun I ever had in a contest. Alan Thrall put on a great show, the volunteers were awesome, and judging was fair. At this point, I tired of eating so much garbage, and want to clean up my diet a bit. If this means dropping weight, I?m fine with that, but bodycomp is less the concern. It?s more about less fast food, more veggies, etc.
Trainingwise, speed is still my weakness, but it?s getting to be less so. Going to keep the yoke in rotation, as it will be in my next contest, and do some farmers for speed on occasion.
Great. Job. Bother! I a proud of you man! Just wait until they start adding 180 -270 xtra pounds into that corolla and then you can enjoy the vomitoriumn the show will turn into.
Terrific job! Sight on anything coming up next?
