Articles (August 2010)

Big Mikes Blog #14
Competitive Strongman, Certified Sports Performance Coach

Hey everyone hope training has been strong. Before I get started talking about last weekend’s events I just want to say GREAT EFFORT to all our athletes with this being our max out week, we had a lot of personal records. Thursday night started with weigh ins and ended with a trip to Red Robin. Friday night started the first 2 events which were the log clean and press for reps in 60 secs and 307 pound Husafelt stone carry for max distance.

In the first event the log was 280 and I hit 4 reps missing out on two easy reps. Next was the Husafelt carry which I carried for 185 ft. Afterwards a trip to Black Eyed Sally’s for some soul food was a great post strongman meal. The next 4 events took place Saturday morning leading off with 150lb circus dumbbell press for reps in 60 seconds and I hit 3 reps but missed out on a few reps. I came to realize I need to work my technique a little better on the dumbbell. The 4^th event overall was the car deadlift for reps where I hit 15 reps in a minute. The funny thing here is the hardest part of the lift was putting the straps on because I never use them. I need to get more comfortable with the straps, but I will still be doing most of my pulling without them. Next was an 880 yoke into a 650 frame. I started moving the yoke at a good speed but lost my footing and had to re-pick to finish. Then I moved onto the frame but did not finish the frame carry which I never did before so it was cool to work on that implement. Finally, the last event was stones ranging from 240 to 405. I loaded the 240 and 280 stone on a 62 inch platform and I was the first one to load the 310 stone. Afterwards I was able to lap the 335 but was unable to load the stone on the platform, I still felt the stones were my best event of the competition.

I learned a lot from this competition and even though this is one of the heaviest shows of the year I felt comfortable with all of the events. I had a lot of missed opportunities on some events so I just have to keep working and becoming a better strongman. Going forward New Jersey Strongest Man is in the future as well as possibly Nationals which I qualified for by winning Clash of the Titans. Right now I’m just focusing on getting stronger and improving on all my lifts. This upcoming program I will be working on percentages on my major lifts from 75% to 95% while adding some max rep work as well as spending some more time on my flexibility and doing some footwork drills. I want to thank everyone for all the support that I get from all you guys at the gym, it means a lot to me and I’ll continue to keep working hard. So, check back and see how my training is going, until then keep training hard!!