OK, Let's Lift! And 1 and 2 and 1 and 2

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, I guess.

Tell her I’m sending some positive vibes her way

Hey Flip, just wanna say stay safe man! I’m not sure where in Texas you stay, but hopefully you’re doing okay! It’s complete crap over here where we are.

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Are you down near Houston? I live in Dallas, nothing at all has hit us. My girlfriend lives in Galveston, and she’s also been fine. They had plenty of high water, but the island is well equipped to handle flooding.

Thanks for checking in! Stay safe!

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Training on Saturday was EXCELLENT. One of the best sessions I’ve had in awhile.

Deadlifted 1000 lbs with a partner. That was fun. Got an easy 3 reps. Before that I did a barbell/trap bar/ frame medley for max reps in a minute. 2 reps on the bar, 2 on the trap bar, and max on the frame. weights were 450/475/525. I think I got 10 on the frame. And it GASSED me.

Also got a 235 axle continental clean and strict press. Huge number for me because I’ve struggled so much with the continental clean. It felt great though. Still the limiting factor on that lift, since I can strict press that weight, lol.

Did some hussafel carries, at comp weight and just above. Really focused on a quick pick and first step, while still making sure grip was solid. This stone was larger than the one I’ll be using in comp, and since the comp stone is concrete, grip will be super easy. I can get a shitty grip, fast pick, and just push through the event.

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Yea I’m in between Cypresswood and downtown Houston.

our sister neighborhood is completely underwater. And the major highways: 288, 610, 45, I-10 and Beltway 8 are flooded on multiple exits.

San Jacinto River has overflowed, and Cypress creek has overflowed.

Downtown looks very very bad, and the water has gone well over most flood gauges.

They’ve opened 3 major reservoirs and it’s causing more flooding. And the levees around cypresswood are about to burst as well.

Parts around Austin had a twister from the resulting weather too.

We haven’t left yet because there’s no water here, but if we see any of the Police force or the fire department we are going to leave. They’re telling most of us to stay put though.

I have tons of pictures on my log if you want to check it out.

I won Texas Strongest Man in the Lightweight division! Torched the competition, winning every event.

I came in to the week weighing in the mid 190’s. Cut water weight down to 181 for the show.

First event was axle press. Prior to a couple months ago, I couldn’t continental clean. At all. I consistently missed numbers as low as like 215 on the clean. But I learned the lift, and Saturday I hit 265, nearly strict pressing it. 20 lbs PR. Just a week before I missed 245 once before hitting it. Everything just finally came together for me. Another guy tied for the win on that event. Also a PR for him.

Second event was the deadlift medley. 2 reps on a bar, 2 reps on a trap bar, max on a frame. I ended up with 26 total reps. They gave up AND down commands on the frame, so the pace was set at what the judge’s speed. I was as fast as I could have possibly been, my first rep and last rep looked the same. Won by like 7 or 8 reps. The guy who came in 3rd had posted on IG earlier in the week that ‘I’m calling it now, deadlift is MINE’. I more than doubled his score.

3rd event was a grenade hold. Basically, you hold a metal ball with a weight hanging from it for time. I got to go last, which was a huge advantage. I only had to go over 32 seconds. Went for 40, had more in me if I had needed it.

Hussafel stone… So, going into this event, my goal was to just take 2nd. I knew another guy in my class was very fast, and if he didn’t make any mistakes I couldn’t beat him. But again, I was going last, so I got to see what the mark was. Turns out, nobody in my class finished the run. So all I had to do was finish to take 1st. Which I did with 20 seconds to spare. So again, smoked the competition. This was my first time EVER winning a moving event, and it felt good to do it in such a fashion.

The last event was one I felt good about, max stone. Everyone in my class tapped out at 265, nobody else got 280. 280 is a really easy stone for me. So I took that one, then did 300 with zero issue. I was the best stone lifter pound for pound at the show, and probably top 3 or 4, period. I was going to attempt 340 just for fun after this, but right after I did the 300 stone, there was a terrible injury that halted the show for about an hour. Don’t want to go into details, grossest thing I’ve seen in my life in person. Fortunately he will be ok, he’s already out of the hospital. Anyway, after I saw that, I did not have the heart to continue lifting just for the sake of ego. I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t already wrapped up first place.

So many things went right for me. This was really my first mistake-free show.

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nice work, Charlie!

This is why social media strongman are just so silly. And why let your competition know what your weaknesses are?

Great showing dude. You really got to play with some competition experience and growth on this.

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Congrats! Those are some mighty impressive achievements.

What was it that made the continental clean click for you? I have no experience with the lift but I’ll need to learn it someday.

Excellent work, great job bringing up weak points. Congratulations, Champ!

What’s next?

Also, glad to hear that the guy who was injured is already back on track.

a few things.

one thing i switched to was going over/under on my initial grip. This helped me get a little more speed off the ground. I started doing the hand flip to over/over mid hair at the top of the high pull. That seems to work for me, so by the time the bar is resting on my stomach, I have the right grip. I also switched to a false grip for the entire movement. Thumb around didn’t work for me, I feel like I can flip under it better without having my thumb around.

The hardest part of the movement before I really got comfortable with it was the transition from bar on the belly to the rack position. The key there was getting my hips into the movement rather than just trying to brute force it up. For awhile I was relying on speed off the ground, which was why I could power clean more than I could continental clean. I was having trouble generating any force from that awkward position of the bar on the stomach. It’s just something I had to learn with practice. Confidence was very important there. Not thinking so much about the weight and trusting the movement.

I also started wearing a soft belt under my hard belt. That helped.

what’s funny about this is the guy fucking trains with me. He should have known better than to think he could beat me on a deadlift event. I think he got a big head about a max frame deadlift he hit in a show a couple months ago.

I responded on his IG asking ‘really? not even giving me an outside shot here?’

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Next is a show in Galveston in 3 weeks. Then there is a world Log and Deadlift max event at my gym I’m considering end of October. I would basically just do the deadlift, my log is not internationally competitive. My deadlift potentially is. If I feel like I can hit something in the mid 600’s in the 181 class, I’ll give that a shot.

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Very cool, thanks for the info!

Aug 30, 2016:

About 1 year later:

Like, I’m not really sure what you’re training’s been like in the interim, but that’s just pretty awesome. Great work overall, man.

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thanks for finding that quote, that’s pretty great. I’ve put a ton of effort into my moving events, particularly in the last 6 months or so. It’s been mostly about practicing them more. Just getting my body adapted to moving with heavy things, since I neglected that for essentially my entire training life before last year. Working on mentally forcing myself to take steps that don’t necessarily feel comfortable, and just pushing for faster and faster foot speed. And foot speed still is a problem. I only won this particular event because the other competitors had shitty grip on the implement. I used a better grip technique. But yea, not nearly as slow as I was.

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You did good Flip!

hey y’all.

Competed this weekend in Galveston, Tx. I weighed in at like 194. The show combined the 181, 198 and 220 classes. I didn’t really train for this one at all and ended up taking 2nd. Had a couple things not go my way that could have. First was well within my reach.

First event was axle clean and press for reps at 215. I actually missed my first clean, then got my head back in it and got 6 reps. That was good for a 2nd place tie. I maybe could have gotten 7 reps, as I left 20 seconds on the clock, but I was feeling realllllly bad. I’ve been sick for the past week, and really wanted to avoid taxing my lungs too much in the first event.
2nd event was axle deadlift. I went way conservative on this as well. Took 2nd with 545. Training had been hit or miss, and my previous 2 attempts weren’t particularly smooth. So 545 was fine with me. Just keeping myself in it.
3rd event was yoke at 550. I picked it up, walked a few steps, hated life, and quit. Took last.
4th event was soul crushing. I took 3rd in it. keg carry, 225 for 60 feet. I finished in 9.18. Got beat by 9.16. Stop watch timed, so obviously well within margin of human error. Super lame.
Similar thing happened on event 5. It was a frame hold for time. I finished with 52.55, and got beat by 1 guy who had 52.61. Damn.

So in 4/5 of the events, you could say I left a point on the table. Overall I’m good with my performance though. As bad as I felt going in, and as unprepared as I was, I can’t complain about my finish.

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lil’ update y’all.

I hit a 585 deadlift the other day, and I really haven’t been training my deadlift at all recently. So that’s good. 245 log press felt easy this weekend. So that’s good. Static strength across the board is solid. And I’ve been ‘off’ for about a month now.

So I’m taking an off-season right now. I’m not going to compete again until January 20. And potentially not again after that until Nationals. I have a few goals in mind during this time. One thing I’m doing is staying ‘clean’ for at least a couple months. Haven’t done that in awhile. Probably won’t get back on until mid December. While I’m off, I’m doing my best to eat as much as possible. I feel like if I want to retain the strength I’ve built, I’ll probably have to maintain a slightly higher bodyweight. I have a goal of 210 lbs bw by the time I actually get back on cycle. I’ve never been at that weight naturally. I’ve already put on 7-8 lbs in the last 2-3 weeks. So I’m waking up just under 200 right now.

I need to get healthy. I want to start my competition season next year feeling good everywhere. Main problem is my left knee right now. I’ve had patellar tendinitis since April or May. I need to take care of that.

I’m going to get good at carries. All of them. I have a few like keg carry and sandbag that I’m already better than average at. I’m not terrible with a frame or farmers handles, or hussafel. I am AWFUL with a yoke and conans wheel. So I’ll be working to get yoke and conan to a level where I can at least finish middle of the pack. And I want to be competitive for top 3 finishes with farmers and frame.

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Will your next competition be in Galveston or somewhere near there again? I’d absolutely enjoy going to one and seeing you kill the competition. I also want to be able to say I met Flipcollar in person lol, for bragging rights lol. Been thinking about possibly doing something in the women’s division after a while.

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