COMPETITION UPDATE

I am planning on doing this strongman comp on 9 Aug in Reno

http://www.nastrongman.com/pdf/2014/Northern%20Nevada%20Strongman%20III.pdf

Events for my weight class would be

-Axle Clean and Press: 60 seconds, reps, one clean and press away, no 
resting of axle on belt 

200lbs

-Farmers Walk: 80ft, 60 second time limit, unlimited drops allowed, 

clock stops when entire implement goes 80ft. women handles are plate 

loadable 1 ¼ handle. Men novice will use 220lbs tanks, open men will 

have 2” handles plate loadable handles. 

230lbs (2”) 

-Deadlift reps, barbell 14”ish or a tad lower (exact height will be 

determined as contest gets closer) straps and suits allowed, 60 seconds 

time limit

500lbs 

-Nevada Trucking Association Truck Pull Harness, 80ft with 60 

second time limit, women will pull a Ford truck while men will pull a 

semi. 

-Stones over bar, women over 48”, men over 52”, 60 seconds 

250lbs

This looks like my kind of contest.  Only have to clean the axle once in the overhead, and it's for reps (which I do better overhead than max weight).  Deadlift is light weight, and I train a ton of partials.  I don't train stones, but the one time I did it, it came natural, and I think all my safety squat bar training pays off with that.  Farmers should be easy to train, and I can at least push my minivan uphill to somewhat train for truck pull.

I want to do well this contest.  It seems established, I don't think they're going to cancel it, and the events will most likely stay similar.  That means I'm going to actually train for this, rather than just show up and see what happens.

For my overhead, I'm hanging up the ROM progression for now and stealing some stuff from the Cube Method.  I need practice with the implement and with standing, so I'm going to have a max weight day and a rep day at a minimum, with possibly a speed day to reinforce form.  I'm also going to actually start training my leg drive, so that I can get the most out of my press, even with how uncoordinated I am.  

I am still going to keep benching with ROM progression, as I have not given up on powerlifting, and I think the carryover is still there, but my assistance work is going to be more press oriented.  I'm thinking axle push press on bench day, and maybe close grip axle floor press on press day.  Other possibility is close grip axle incline press.

For farmer's, I'm going to keep training my grip with double overhand holds on my deadlift day, as that had great carryover in my last comp.  However, my biggest issue was never grip, but footspeed.  I've always moved as fast as I could, it just turned out that was really slow.  That means I'm going to spend time with lighter weight on the implement focused more on just motoring and getting coordinated.  Additionally, with the way I built my handles, the actual handle is really small, and heavy weight destroys my hands, whereas whenever I use real farmers, they feel light, so I'm not too concerned with the weight feeling heavy.  I'm thinking of also spending some time working sprints, simply to get used to moving fast. 

Deads will have no change.  I hosed myself in my last comp by jumping the judge's down command, so I'll need some more discipline there, but otherwise, I know how to pull.  It says it's with tires, so I'll see if that changes anything.

Truck pull, I have no idea.  I don't really have the implement.  I may try loading my sled up as heavy as possible sometimes and pushing my minivan uphill some other times.  Biggest skills to develop are breaking inertia and maintaining momentum.  The former is strength and technique, the latter will be conditioning, so definitely keep that strong.

Stones, I'm going to keep up the slam ball tabata work, because that seems like it's right what I need, and ensure that the safety squat bar remains in my rotation.  All this front squatting is probably valuable as well.

I'm sitting at 202-205 these days, so no concerns with hitting the 200 weight class, but I want to cut some of the fluff I'm carrying around, as it's just slowing me down and will give me anxiety come weigh in day.  It's an 8 hour road trip, I don't want to have to worry about cutting weight on the way up.