Body Power 2011. Mark II.

So, it's a full year on from when i first had a taste of strongman at last years body power. After a day of sampling free shakes and bars and taking part in all the challenges, i managed to sneak into the Strongman arena and have a go on the log. After a bit of coaching by Mark Felix himself i managed a couple of reps shoulder press. This was my first taster, however it would still be another 6 months before the strongman bug took hold properly.

The prep for this comp wasn't ideal and the events training i was doing was focussed on the Welsh Strongman Comp in June. I had suffered with my lower back for a month before and my eating had gone to pot due to my placement, but then again, this is real life and overall i felt good coming into this competition, especially as a load of people had come down in support. Namely, a whole crew from Dave's gym, my parents, my brother and his mate and my girlfriend and her housemate.

The Dave's Gym Crew centre stage...

Without futher ado:

Log Press - 110kg in 60seconds
I was quite keen to improve on my effort from the Cheshire comp where i did 4 reps but missed 2 cos i couldn't lock out. The weight was slightly lighter but as i've said before, in most strongman comps the weight is quite rough. It's just what's in front of you. I've heard quoted that it was 117.5kg but it makes no difference. Heres the video:



I'm the guy at the back and you can see the dave's gym contingent in the stands in front of me. I manage 7 reps and only stumble on one of them briefly This put me in joint 3rd place i believe which out of 30 people i was really pleased with. A lot of people got 5 reps and this split the leader board, luckily this time i was at the right end of the split unlike cheshire where i got stuck with 4 reps.

Deadlifts - 250kg in 60seconds
I was dreading this event. My deadlifts are shocking. Long story short, it wasn't too bad. I managed 10 reps but kind of didn't back myself during the event so slowed down a lot towards the end, if i'd had the confidence to go all out full i may have got 1 or 2 more reps which would have made no difference overall but still....

You may have noticed in the video that that was Andy Bolton who was reffing my deadlift. This is probably the reason i exceeded my expectations on them. I placed mid-ish table on deads...a few people got 15/16 reps.

Sack Medley -95kg, 100kg, 110kg loaded onto platform
I'm good at medleys, they are my 'thing' so i went into this event positive with the thought that i had got two horrible events (log and deads) behind me... However as you can see in the video, it didn't go great and i fumbled the bags quite a bit. This left me with a time of 28 seconds. The leader got 20 seconds and i was mid to low table again. I was thouroughly gutted as i'm normally good at this kind of thing but i suppose this is pay back for exceeding all my expectations on the deads ;).



Car Deadlift hold - for time
This is another event that i fancied my odds on. I had a practice in training and held for 25seconds with plenty left in the tank and i predicted a high 30seconds which would have placed me third. However just before we did it, we were told that cos the car was so heavy we would be allowed to use wraps. I was a bit gutted about this as i feel i have a pretty decent grip so i thought my advantage had disappeared but when i got to it i realized why wraps were allowed. The car was heavy. And i had practiced on farmers walk handles so it was a totally different beast. It was totally indescribable but i was thoroughly destroyed by it. Basically i had my wraps on tight and my grip was strong. The body was locked, leaning backwards. I felt pretty good but at about 20 seconds my biceps felt like they were going to tear of the bone. It didn't hurt but they felt like they were stretching. I don't know if i was just numb from the exertion but i put the car down and was instantly pissed off. The second of doubt in my mind had ended the event for me. I was annoyed but then again it was my first time on that kind of thing. I placed mid table again on this. At this point i was feeling a bit down as the last two events had been my 'good' ones and i'd balls'ed them up. I had wanted to get into the top 10 which would have qualified me for a go on the stones but it wasn't looking great for me. I'd need to pull it out of the bag in the next event:



Overhead medley - 120kg fat grip axle, 110kg keg, 95kg sack and 75kg dumbbell (single arm)
I was a bit apprehensive about this event. I've been training the medley for a couple of weeks but: the dumbbell was different, i'd never done a sack before and EVERYONE struggled with the axle. I should have been confident but after 2 poor performances i was cautious.


As you can see it turned out very well and for the first time everything went right. Phew, won that event with a time of around 30 seconds. A lot of people didn't complete the all the implements.

Stones - 140kg over 56" for reps
Phew. I was 8th at this point. I was pleasantly surprised. I had made it into the top 10 off the back of my overhead medley. Top 3 was set at this point so all i could do was scrounge a couple of places. Then again this was one of my favorite events so i wanted to give it a good stab for prides sake. Simon, who i trained with up in Rhyl was currently in 3rd place and this was also his favorite event so we both wanted to give it a good go. As it turned out we came joint first with 8 stones in 54seconds. We both had the 9th stone ready to go but ran out of time. Two other guys got 8 stones (the people who ended up winning and coming second overall) but they did them in 59 seconds.


OVERALL
There we have it. After placing mid to low table after 4 events i managed to pull back a top 10 by winning the last two (I came 5th overall.... well, 2 people came joint 4th so i suppose i was 6th officially??). I was pretty pissed off about half way through the comp but after winning the overhead medley i was really quite happy and then was even more happy to get to the stones and the joint winning those made my day. To cap it all off i managed to get a photo with the big man himself Brian Shawe. This man is on another level. His forearm is like my torso, and he's probably the most chilled guy in the world. The smile on my face says it all.

Me being dwarfed by the big man himself.

In terms of learning points there's not much i can say apart from get back to training, keep enjoying the competitions and stick with it. I did badly on some events that i shouldn't have (sack medley), i did well on some events that i shouldn't have (deads) and i just plain did well on a few events (overhead medley), so overall it was great. Also met some really good people and it's the reason i'm sticking with strongman despite all the pressures of 'real life'.  Luke Fullbrooke won over all (he also won the cheshire that i competed in) and he deserved the win as he performed awesomely. Wayne Tunstell who also competed and tore his bicep at the cheshire comp made an appearance just 7 weeks after surgery and helped me out with some tips and advice which was much appreciated. Also met a couple of guys who were also quite new to the sport and performed really well and hopefully i'll see them again in the future! There were also a few old faces who i'd trained with or competed with before and it was good to catch up. Next comp is in 3 weeks and i'm back to the drawing board in terms of training to try and improve again for this one. Southern Natural Qualifiers, here i come.

Apologies

Long time no post. Busy with exams etc etc As promised a few videos and a brief update.

Update
Had my final medical written exams earlier this week. At one point after the 1st exam i figured i'd probably failed and would have to become a professional strongman earlier then i'd anticipated however the 2nd exam was a lot better and there's a small chance i will actually be a doctor come August.

The rehab has been going well. I've had a number of sports massages and i've been using foam rollers and some new age techniques to aid recovery (they call it 'stretching' and 'warming up' <- fuck knows) but despite my doubts there seems to be something to it and my back is slowly improving.

In my next comp i've got a sack press and the technical aspects of this were shitting me up. So i had a few goes with a sack in the gym and it turns out it wasnt too bad. The sack in the comp is a bit heavier but the pressing isnt a problem, it was just the technique.... It'll still be different on the day and if possible i'll try and have a few goes with the actual sack before the event but you can only do so much.




Apart from that i've been squatting a lot to let my back recover and deadlifts can go to hell for a bit. Again i've dropped the depth and am going wide stance again to see if i can push through my previous 1RM. The main focus of the next few weeks for me is fitness and technique as my timetable at the moment is:

2 weeks
Body expo comp
3 weeks
Southern natural qualifiers
2 weeks
Welsh National Open Comp.

So realistically i'm not gonna improve my strength. Fitness and technique however can improve drastically in this time and have less chance of injuring me in the process. On top of this i've hitting the rehab hard to avoid any further injury and ensure i can perform at the next 3 comps....

In other news, Dave of Daves gym has recently started doing a Westside barbell routine and as this involves specialist equipment (bands and chains) and he owns a gym, he bought bands and chains. Now it would be rude not to have a go so i joined him for a workout and we did some reverse band bench press.



The basic idea behind this is that at the bottom of the rep (which is the hardest) the band will help you the most as it's most stretched. As you lift, the band releases more weight and you have to work harder. This reverses the normal strength curve as you can see from the video (i slow down at the top instead of the bottom). It's good for getting more weight on the bar and working your triceps hard. We did it cos it looked cool. I apoligise for my 'ab' in the video. It's a result of the massive back arch i was using during the rep (and nothing at all to do with the masses of macdonalds i consume). Also notice the powerlifting 2 second pause at the bottom of the rep :) (easy when you have band taking the weight!!!).

I went on from this to do 220kg for a single with an even bigger band helping me.

I've also had a go with the bands the other way round (i.e. attatched to the floor) with squats. This means that the hardest part of the rep (the bottom) is 'normal' and the top of the rep which is usually easier becomes harder as the band stretches. This allows you to work on your acceleration and speed. I combined this with 'rehab' and 'conditioning' and did 3 circuits of:

6 front squats (with bands), 6 good mornings (with bands), 6 romanian deadlifts (with axle) and 6 dead rows (with axle). I did all those back to back and took a minute off between each round.  It was brutal and afterwards i was broken but it was fun and i'll probably include something similar to finish each workout from now on.

Another event at the upcoming comp is a 340kg side deadlift hold.... thats 170kg in each hand.... for maximum time i.e. you just pick up the weight and hold it up for as long as possible. I decided to have a go at this and loaded up our farmers handles with the weight. I had a good go with plenty in the tank, i didn't want to max out but i just wanted a feel of the weight....and it felt good.

After the workout i had a really nailed my post workout nutrition:

Boom, it's ok, i had a cheese burger as well (don't panic).

Sorry for the sporadic post but it's covering about 4 workouts since i last posted and i can't remember the intricacies, just the big stuff. It's all a bit disjointed but now that i've finished my written exams hopefully i can post a bit more consistently...