Diary of a novice strongman

Charlts

Having spoken with a few people on here before Christmas and more recently I've decided to start a log on here of the training I'm doing in the build up to a couple of Novice/First Timer strongman competitions I'm planning to do this summer.

A little bit about me, I'm 31 and have been training for 18 months after becoming hugely overweight following a 6 year period of eating/drinking/smoking too much after breaking my back playing Rugby. My training at the start was all about losing weight, when I started in August 2012 I was 21st , in summer 2013 I was around 15st10 through a combination of decent nutrition and weight training - Hate cardio. Everyone would ask me if I felt better and to be honest the standard response was "no cold and hungry"!! My training buddy did a transformation picture thing for me which is below, I'm glad to say I'm no longer pregnant!

Since summer 2013 I've been strength training and trying to get bigger/stronger, from July to December my strength has gone up quite quickly - Love those newbie gains!

Squat 160 - 185
Bench - 125 - 150
Deadlift - 180 - 210
Log press 80 - 112

My favourite thing I've done so far in the gym is a 110kg log press, at the time it was bodyweight overhead and I'd been really struggling with cleaning the log.

                               
Most of it has been down to diet, whilst losing weight/bodyfat my calories would be limited to around 2300 per day with very few cheat days, whilst "bulking" it was 3000  with cheat days seeing that trebled and then some! Overall my diet is clean, haven't smoked for two and half years and booze intake is fairly low, even at the Rugby! I'll cover my daily food intake at a later point as I'd like to take a photo of the volume of food that goes into clean calories.

Training is 4 days per week, varies a bit but is built around Squats, Deadlifts, Overhead Pressing and Benching, we do a separate events session on Saturday mornings which will involve lots of moving type stuff. The sessions tend to involve a warm up to get huffing and puffing, then onto the main thing.

It's a really long first post, if anybody wants to know anything specific let me know and I'll add it in, I'm pretty rubbish at talking about myself as don't think it's that interesting a subject. Will try to get all the videos we have onto here as well.

Charlts

Here's a copy and paste of the last 7 days training.

Wed 8th

Prowler   40kg - 2 lengths, 4, 6, 4, 4
Deadlift - Bar x lots, 60x15, 100x10, 140x10, 140x10, 140x10
Fast Deficit deadlift (feet on 20kg plates) - 140x3, 140x3, 140x3, 140x3, 140x3 - Continuous rotation
Sumo dead (fast) - 100x5, 100x5, 100x5
Bent over rows - 60x10, 70x10, 80x10, 90x10
Lat pull down and chin up super set 77x10   5, 84x10   5, 91x10   5
Seated row - 80x10, 90x10, 100x10

Fri 10th

I got involved with a 100kg reps challenge with some power lifters on Facebook, so rushed through this before starting the main session.

Bench - Bar x 20, 60 x 15, 80 x 8, 100 x 9 (Sadly only 5 count for the challenge as the pauses weren't long enough on some)

Then we went back on plan!

Tyre flipping (220kg tyre) - 5 flips, flips for time 17 flips in 70secs.
Bench - 105 x 5, 105 x 5, 105 x 5, 105 x 5, 105 x 4
Rope pull down - 10 plates x 10, 12 x 10, 13 x 9
Cable cross over - 3 plates x 10, 4 x 10, 5 x 10
Lateral Raise machine - 35 x 10, 45 x 10, 55 x 10
O'head tri extension - 4 plates x 10, 10 x 10, 12 x 10
Pec deck - 15 plates x 10, 16 x 10, 16 x 10

Sat 11th

Axle C&P - Barbell x 10, Axle bar (35kg) x 10, 55 x 5, 75 x 3, 85 x 1
Arm over arm, into sled drag 20m - 70, 70, 150, 150, 70.
Farmers - Handles only (25kg) x 60m, 65 x 60m, 105 x 30m

First go with an axle so a mate filmed it

                               
Mon 13th

Got some great advice from a decent strongman on axle man handling so that formed the basis of my warm up. I need to get it from the floor to my chest in one movement or it'll be disallowed in the comps, discovered I can snatch 75kg from the floor to overhead on an axle which I'll film next time as it looks really cool!

Strict press - barbell x lots x 2, 60 x 10
Axle clean - 55 x 5, 75 x 3, 85 x 3
Axle snatch - 75 x 2, 85 fail, 75 x 2
Axle clean and press - 85 x 3

Then onto legs day, it seems like everyone in the gym had the same idea as well, never seen it so busy! Luckily I remembered everything I went through with the coach last week and squatted better than I've ever done before, really good movement pattern.

Squats - bar x 10 x 2, 100 x 10, 120 x 8, 130 x 6, 140 x 5, 140 x 4
Calf raise - 106 x 15 (feet II), 106 x 15 (feet V), 106 x 15 (^)
Leg press (Fast) - 220 x 5, 260 x 5, 300 x 5
Trap bar dead lift (Fast) - 135 x 5, 175 x 5, 85 with double green bands really fast x 3

As I spent some time with a coach last week, he'd asked me to record the last set of squats, so we can see what happens when I'm tired. Pleased to say they were as bad as all the others so at least I'm consistent - Which is the main objective at the moment as I really struggle with getting a decent movement sorted for squats, they're something I really struggle with and another weakness I'm changing into less of a weakness along with deadlifts!

Arcam_boy

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shodan

Impressive stuff mate! Well done on recovering from such a bad injury, losing loads of weight, being motivated enough to do this and for all your strongman achievements so far! Sometimes I find it's a struggle just to get out  of bed!

On a side note, watch out when doing those squats, there's is some Big Armed Alien Creature thing what creeps up behind you...

Charlts

Cheers guys, the back injury seems to be as good as it's going to get and since I've been training it's not given me any stick, it's always in the back of my mind though. One of the things I notice most now is how much my posture has improved.

silent ninja

Big transformation! Big lifts!

I love the Strongman stuff. Wish I had a prowler or sledge.

First comp must be so.exciting. it'll certainly motivate you to break new ground in your lifts.

Charlts

It adds a certain edge and focus to each session, especially the ones where I'm weak like deads and squatting, all I keep thinking is how much stronger the other guys are and it gets me through the grinders at the end of each set! What really helps is that my training buddy has entered Northamptonshire's Strongest novice with me in June, we compete against each other constantly anyway so this has taken it up a level.

Wardy257

You need to keep working on these, it will help all your lifts:

Charlts

Cheers @Wardy257 they're something I do on and off if I'm the first one at the gym! Need more consistency with them as you say, they're very helpful.

Wardy257

I get some funny looks when I do them, the only other person who does them regularly is a woman who can nearly do her body weight on the bar.  I wont be happy until I can do 150 kg ish.