First Strongman Contest

It's about a week out from my first contest up in Pittsburgh. Simply put, I had a great time. I exceeded my expectations on some events, and didn't quite get there on others. A quick breakdown of how things went:

Log - Scratched as planned. Not enough experience, not enough strength.

Stone/Keg Medly: 2nd place here (out of 9). I was quick on the pick, and got good speed on the stone. No complaints here.

Axle DL: Only 5 reps. What gives? 7th place here. I though the rack jerks would have been enough to help me out, but I still was missing the lockout. Could have been 7 or 8 if I has a little stronger. Thought this would have gone better.

Tire Flip: 4th Place here. Took me a minute to get into my groove, but ti felt good once I did. Slightly chipped a tooth after the tire bounced and I already had setup on it.

Stones: Best event. 2nd place (only 2 people finished them). All five stones went up, the 5th was the only troublesome one, but that was a huge PR (310 stone)

That puts me at 5th overall.

I realized my strength level isn't what it needs to be. I already knew this, but it was soundly confirmed. First goal is to work on pressing strength and jerk technique, neither of which is good. At River City there's an axle clean and press at 220, I would be extremely happy to get a rep there. I thought my deadlift was a little better than it really is, but I've been working that pretty hard. Time to ease off on it, and maybe hit a ME lift every other week.

I will however be working back in some squats. I'm taking a shot at a little 7 week periodized program I picked up. So far it's been tough getting back into squats. I'm going off numbers that are a couple of months old. There's some technique flaws, and it just doesn't seem to sit on my back right. i'd rather be front squatting!

Other than that, I'll be working the O-Lifts in preparation for an August 10th meet. I'm hoping to hit 70kg for the snatch at 100kg for the C&J. I've hit 70 before, but my snatches aren't too consistent. My jerk is holding me back on the C&J, but I hit 210, a 3 lbs PR just yesterday.

Of course, I'll be training the events for River City Strongman, mostly the stones, farmer's, and the axle clean. Should be an ok contest for me, I'll be moving up to the 200's, but I'm sure I won't weigh close to that!

Strongman Progress

The class at TWR is all said an done. My progress has been pretty good so far, both in terms of strength and technique.

Here's an overview:

Log Press: I'm not even training it. Why? I'm a wimp. But seriously, the chances of me doing remotely well at my current state are slim. I'll scratch here, and start training my pressing strength soon after the contest.

Stone and Keg Carry: Just tried this out for the first time at Brute Strength. Seems easy. Gotta be quick to lap the stone, but the kegs weren't difficult. I pretty much ran with a 180# keg. So, I know I can complete this, and I should have enough gas to do well. I'll continue to train this occasionally, but I don't really have a set time standard, so measuring progress is difficult. At least I know I won't make an ass out of myself.

Axle Deadlift: I did what I believe was a single at 405# my first time. I've been training my deadlift like crazy lately. I just hit 370x5 this morning, working on a 2 month long linear progression, hit a heavy set of 5 once a week. Yes, once a week deadlifting is a lot for me. But hey, I'm still progressing, so why do more? I may or may not be able to hit 380x5 next week, so at that point I'll move into a ME cycle, working up to a (hopefully) pr 3RM next week or the following, and again hopefully a new 1RM in two weeks or so. I'm shooting for 470, a little ambitious, but I'm feeling strong. What this all adds up to, is that I plan on doing halfway decent on the axle deadlifting, given that the range of motion is limited, and I have decent grip strength.

Tire Flip/Sled Drag: Just hit this last weekend at BS gym (haha). Their 550# tire felt significantly lighter than the one at TWR. Also, I can see how much the implement and the surface matters when it comes to the sled. 300# on their sled felt like 180 on mine. I need to work on my tire speed, and anticipating the bounce. I'm over the whole losing my cool by the 6th or 7th flip, so that's a good sign.

Stones: Man, I don't even know right now. I've lapped the 285, and gotten the 250 up on Chris's platform. I've shouldered up to 217#. The thing is, lifting the lighter stones is still extremely taxing, so while I may be able to get the 4th stone if I was fresh, I might not be able to get the 3rd if I've already picked up a few. I need to start working the stones in series, and get comfortable lifting the 250 and 285.

Generally speaking, I've hit several PR's on my lifts lately, including a 220# Clean, 205# OHS, 335# Back Squat. Nothing monumental, but all PR's all the same.

That's it for now.

A new goal?

As an update on my training progress, I've stopped the Phillipi deadlift program. One, I hurt my back on a jerk. A PR Jerk of 190 lbs., but certainly not worth the pain I've been in for the past two weeks. After a good drive and getting under the bar, my position wasn't quite stable overhead, and the bar began to fall backwards, I successfully attempted to recover, but not without hyperextending my lower back. More isometric abs work anyone?

I'm continuing to jerk, and add in more abs/back work. I'm working on some Push Jerks right now, they seem to be a bit kinder to my back. Last time I ended up with a max set of 5 at 155 lbs. Not sure if that's a PR for my 5RM, but I'm looking to break that 190 lbs. 1rm foolishness in the next few weeks.

The "big" news is that I've decided to enter into a strongman contest that's going to be up in PA in May. The events are...
1. Log Press @ 210 lbs.
2. Stone and Keg carry @ 200 lbs.
3. Axle Deadlift for reps @ 400 lbs.
4. Tire Flip/Sled Drag. Tire @ 550 lbs., sled
5. Atlas Stones, 200-310 lbs.

I'm taking a 6 week seminar at The Weight Room on Strongman training. Great stuff, and the crossover between CrossFit and strongman is huge, especially concerning the elements of compound movements/odd object lifting and even strength endurance.

My goals are as follows for the contest:
1. Log press - I just want to get the damn thing up. once. Just once! I was playing with a 12" log recently, at just under 150 lbs., and it was tough. Having that log in your face forces you to lean back a good bit, limiting your hip extension. My plan is to get my Jerk/Press/Push Press up substantially, as well as working on handstands/handstand push-ups. I figure, all the overhead work I do can't hurt, as long as I'm not overtraining. of course I'll train with the implement as well.

2. Stone and keg carry. Haven't thought much about this one, I assume it's going to be a medley, in which case I'm hoping my CrossFit conditioning will help me out. I'll be working with stones, heavy sandbags, and hopefully a keg if I can find one.

3. Axle Deadlift. I've got no idea what to expect here. I'll be working on my deadlifts more as soon as I'm able. I'm shooting for 465 before the contest, maybe more, in a standard deadlift with the bar. The axle will be raised higher than normal(14-16"), but grip will be a factor. Thick rope climps, and working with loose sandbags that I can grip the fabric will be most of my "grip" work. Again, I'll try out some axle deadlifts before I go.

4. Tire Flip/Sled drag. I'm hoping to shine here, as much as I can for my first time at least. My tire flips feel solid, though my form breaks down under duress. Sled drags don't feel too bad either. I'm looking at getting a tire of my own to help prepare for the contest.

5. Atlas Stones. God help me. My goal is to get the first 2, maybe three. I've played around with them twice now, and their just about the most frustrating piece of equipment I have ever encountered. I've gotten halfway decent at picking the 175. There isn't a 200 at TWR. The 230 I can lap and get up to about 50"(maybe) at the moment. I'm sure I'll be able to lap the 250 by contest time, but my problem is extending my back far enough to get the stone up my body and onto the platform. Again, I feel like sandbag work will help me here... can you guess what I just got a few of?

I'll update my progress a few times before the contest. Other than working the implements and training as I've already stated, I'll be doing CrossFit regularly, as well as working in some ME work on Front Squats, Press/Push Press/Push jerk, and deadlifts once I heal up.

Until next time.

Getting back into the swing of things

Well, it's been awhile since I have updated this. Turns out, that when you start a gym, you train less. Who would have figured?

I had the CrossFit Level 1 cert a couple weeks ago. It was a great time. Heard a lot that I was already familiar with, but seeing qualified coaches teach movements as well as Greg Glassman explaining CrossFit was very informative. I took some time off from regular lifting to prepare for the cert, didn't want to go in terrible condition.

I'm about to start a new cycle. I'll be doing CrossFit, with one out of every 3 training days being a lifting day. This is a little less than what I have been doing, but I'm trying to balance things out a little better; my metcon and muscle endurance have been suffering lately. First 8-10 weeks I will be working on the Deadlift and Jerk. The deadlift program will be following Mark Phillipi's deadlift cycle, Jerks will be a simple periodization. I'll be including a lot more supplementary work to help improve muscle endurance in the bodyweight movements. That's all for now, more details later!

Post-Black Box

I just finished my last lift of my first 3 weeks of the ME Black box accompanied by the "heavy" CrossFit workouts. I'll go ahead and restate my program for the first 3 weeks.

Day 1: ME Front Squat
Day 2:XF
Day 3:ME Deadlift
Day 4:XF
Day 5:ME Press
Day 6:XF

Myrecovery has been excellent, even with school and not the best eating. Doing one lift on the BB days is hardly a stress. The CrossFit takes a little more to recover from, but given that I have hit PR's in all the lifts this month, it looks like it wasn't too much to recover from in a day or two.

It looks like my goal of continuing to increase in absolute strength while CrossFitting is working very well. I hit 430# on the deadlift, an increase in 25 lbs over my last PR, a 270# (15# increase) Front Squat, and a 150#(5# increase) Press. I don't know if this says my program wasn't good before, or if the ME Black Box is just a really good program. My thoughts are that I was overtraining before, looking back I realize I was working around 85-90% most of the time, and at high volumes. I once did a 295# backsquat for five reps. My 1RM is 305#, so there's a problem there somewhere. I'm also hoping that by constantly working with the XF workouts using heavier weights, I'm contributing to my absolute strength, even if the intensity is fairly low compared to my 1RM.

For now, I'm going to take a week for some lighter work, incorporating some abs/back and push/pull circuits. I'll lay off the lifting for one week, and then onto another 3 week BB cycle, repeating Fran, Diane, and Elizabeth during that time, while trying some other strength-oriented CrossFit workouts. My lifts for next time will be:

-Clean
-Push-Press
-Back Squat

My overhead strength is a major concern, so I will be using the push-press this time, even if it means I will have two "total body" movements on this cycle. I'll also be slipping in some weighted pull-up work, but it will be irregular.


The experiment continues.

Nobody said this was going to be easy

I've gotten a few weeks of CrossFit under my belt, and it's still tough. Really tough. My metabolic conditioning is still so sad that the strength I have gained can even be put to use. Nothing ever feels "heavy", even loads of 225# deadlifts or 135# cleans. I just run out of energy and my muscles burn like the fire of 1,000 suns. Here's some scores I've racked up lately:

Diane: 5:23
Elizabeth: 14:50

The difference right there is pretty telling. While a Diane should be shorter for just about anyone, my Diane time is semi-respectable. With a little HSPU work, I'll be doing pretty well. But when faced with a movement like the full squat clean, requiring a much greater range of motion and a higher work capacity, I was quickly incapacitated. I got through the first 8 or 9 reps ok, but after that it was a struggle. Each rep turned me into a wheezing, coughing, shell of a man. Maybe it wasn't quite that bad, but it will be a long ways coming before I can manage a workout like "Elizabeth" in any sort of decent time.

I'll be updating shortly; within 3-4 weeks I will have repeated the workouts, and if I'm doing anything right, my times should be much-improved. Like I did with the Fran, I'll take a guess at scores to be. Diane: 4:30. Elizabeth: 12:00.

Nothing's wrong with having some goals. (Except when you don't get anywhere near them!)

Back in the saddle again.

This is the first day of my new cycle. As I alluded to in my last post, I'm doing a combination of the "heaviest", most strength-oriented CrossFit WODs in addition to the ME Blackbox. The schedule will be a 6-on-1, alternating blackbox lifting days (generally one lift per day, 5x5 first week, 5x3 second, 5x1 third, repeat; weights increased each set) with CrossFit. The lifts I chose were the front squat, the overhead squat, and the press, in addition to a little deadlift work. I went with the front squat because it really hasn't gone up any, even since all of my strength work over the past 6 months or so. I did primarily back squats, but I thought I would see a little improvement for the fronts! I will be doing deadlifts and OHS on the same day. I'm so close to my deadlift goal, so there's not reason not to lock down on it, and the OHS will help with my midline stabilization (here is a short blurb from CrossFit Oakland on midline stabilization), which will in turn help my CrossFit and hopefully my other lifts. Lastly, my press still sucks, so I will blackbox it until I'm where I want to be!

As I said, today was my first day of the new cycle. Last week, I messed around and did "JT" @ 19:07 (suck!) and another workout, not of importance. I just got done doing "Fran". Literally, I'm sitting in a broken down sweaty heap trying to type this out. My time was 6:17, which is actually 1:13 faster than my last Fran, which was during my 100% CrossFit phase. Very interesting, eh? The issue this time was clearly metcon and muscle endurance, but sheer strength was never a problem. While workouts like Fran play to my strengths after my long lifting cycle, it's pretty clear that strength is a huge factor in CrossFit workouts. If you don't come from some sort of strength training background, or make strength work a part of your routine, you'll find yourself wanting one day. So, I'll go ahead and make myself a little bet, and experiment, a goal of sorts. I'm going to have a 5:00 Fran in one month, and a 4:00 Fran in 3 months.

I'll let you know how it goes.