@mortdk @duketheslaya @alex44938 @danteism @darkcop Thanks everyone!
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First, the video
Time for another write-up. Bottom line is that I took second overall, and my training cycle worked out well. Hit some goals on the circus dumbbell, had a blast on some natural stones, and got to do a coin box deadlift, which was on my strongman bucket list. Oh yeah, also, I got to meet Bill Kazmaier and he gave me a trophy
so that’s pretty awesome. And he’s STILL huge
Showed up to the competition feeling strong. Didn’t deload the week of, did no weight cutting, and just treated it like an events day. Really trying to avoid peaking at this point. Without further ado, the write-up.
- Event 1: 450lb Coin Box Deadlift (axle, no straps)
As per usual with deadlift events, I did absolutely zero specific training for this event. I’m a solid deadlifter, I train ROM progression so I’m good at a variety of heights, and I have to spend so much time getting better at other things in strongman that, when I can find something to relax on, I take it.
This was a lot different than I expected it to be. The “axle” was really just a pipe fitting that went inside the coin box sleeve, and as a result it was incredibly whippy and rotated in your hands. Pretty much the opposite of an axle. In turn, the difficulty wasn’t going to be the grip, or the stiffness of the bar, but more that the coin boxes were going to sway with every rep and try to knock you on your ass. This happened to me around rep 3, and I found myself falling forward with the rep.
Beyond that though, I was able to execute my gameplan of “go deadlift”. The judge was getting on me to lock my shoulders back, and I made sure to exaggerate it a ton to avoid missing reps. Jacked up my left shoulder a touch, but it healed before the next event. I needed to beat 22 reps, I was trying to keep count, lost it, yelled “REP” and then “HOW MANY REPS?!” and still got nothing, so I just kept pulling until I ended up with 25 or 26. Good enough for first in the event.
- Event 2: 175lb Keg/200lb keg/200lb sandbag carry and over bar medley
I have 2 kegs and 1 sandbag at home, but the weights are 100, 182 and 250+ respectively, so I got creative training for this event. I have a 45lb weight vest, so first I got good with running the 100lb keg, then I got good with the 182lb keg, and then I focused on doing runs with the 182lb keg while wearing the vest. All my sandbag training was built around just working on the pick up of my heavy sandbag, and that was honestly to get me better at stones.
This strategy DID work, and I was very fast with the kegs, but in retrospect I shoulda practice my loading more, because that is where I ended up being weak. I manhandled the kegs, but I had a poor starting grip on the sandbag, and trying to muscle it over the bar was no go. Had to reset and re-attempt. Slight consolidation is that I missed first place by 9 seconds, so I still wouldn’t have made it even without the fumble, but I know how to do it better.
For one of those “game day” factors you never consider; while training picking up the sandbag, I always did it on a level floor. At the show, they had stacked the sandbag all the way on the end of a horse stall mat, which made it so that the sandbag was on one level while my feet were on another. Just something I never thought to worry about. I’ll probably practice some “poor placement picks” in the future.
- Event 3: 225lb Log clean and press once, 125lb Circus Dumbbell clean and press each rep
This is the event I had the most anxiety over, because I’m awful with the circus dumbbell. I spent a lot of time drilling the technique with it to get better, and got as many tips as I could from @Alpha 's video. For the log, my secret strategy was to get strong/good enough to viper press the log, so that I’d have more time to work on the dumbbell.
My log strategy sorta worked. The log at this competition was a BEAST. Lots of folks failed to press it, and when I tried to viper a weight I had hit for multiple reps in training first thing in the morning, it was ugly. Couldn’t tell you what made this log suck so much; must be some sort of balance issue.
That said, I still got the fastest rep on the log in my weight class, and so I took my time when I approached the circus dumbbell. I was the only one to press the log at this point, so I was already ahead in my field, but I also knew that the guy currently in first place was a monster at the circus dumbbell, so I had to get set up well but also move quickly enough to get in some reps. The first rep I was set up very solid and it moved smoothly. Set it down, went for a second, not as good a set-up but still got it down. It hit the floor, I heard “10 seconds left” and figured “f**k it”, grabbed it, got an awful set-up and just brute forced it up into lockout. It was like a combination dumbbell and side press, but right before time ran out I got the rep. I still got beat in the end, but I was super amped about this performance. Last year, I only managed 1, and it was by pure luck. With more time, I coulda gotten even more reps today. The training cycle paid off.
- Event 4: Natural stone medley (215, 225, 265, 285)
Here was another even I was amped about. I don’t have natural stones to train on, so I spent all my time picking up my sandbag and training my stone of steel, figuring that the two of those would combine into something worthwhile.
I had no strategy with these particular stones, and just sorta figured it out as I went. The weights weren’t bad, but you had to figure out where they were heavy and how they wanted to get picked up. Each time I’d grab the stone, I’d have to take a few seconds to sorta “learn” it and then try to set it up. The third stone was a mankiller among the field, as it was very long and flat compared to the others. The final stone did NOT want to get picked up, and you had to sorta roll it into your lap, turn it around, sweep in from the stop and lay it on the platform. I did well for myself with only one fumble, and missed first place by 3 seconds, which was painful. I DID take pride in the fact that I didn’t need wide receiver gloves to pull this off, nor did I need to complain to the promoter when he said “no wide receiver gloves” until he eventually reversed his decision. Come on folks; gloves on a natural stone? What the hell is the point?
- Event 5: Power Stairs 300lbs/350lbs/375lbs
I trained for this one a little bit with my swing handle, but eventually I just got fed up with it and figured what would happen would happen. This really wasn’t a technical show, and I figured being strong would get me pretty far.
I handled this better than last year, and did a solid job of letting my quads push the implement forward. I had a stumble at the end that sucked, bruised up my thumb and opened up a callous in my hand, but otherwise I did about as well as I expected. Something in the realm of 22 seconds, which was good enough for second.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
This went well. The guy who took first is a solid dude, trained by his pro-strongman dad and part of a group of awesome strongman competitors. Being able to beat him in 1 event was awesome, and coming close on a few others was solid. I overcame the circus dumbbell, and plan to never do it again until they next time I have to. The time on the log paid off. I need to work on my loading, but lapping is solid. With a new competition coming up in July, I’m going to keep up the momentum I have established.
