So Monday I traveled up to Bob Wanamaker’s place to train with some of the strongman implements that I don’t currently have. For me this was going to be a big test to see close I was to the competition requirements. I am not going to lie, I was a little nervous, was afraid I would find out I am farther away from competition shape then I thought.

I thought I was on my way to being ready, but it’s hard to tell when I don’t have all the equipment that I will be using. So until I tried it i would always have some self doubt.

Alright, so this is how the day progressed:

Incline Log Press:

We started with this to get a feel for the log and get warmed up. I am not sure how many sets we did, but we did quite a few of these. We did sets of 10 reps working up in weight. We did this until could only do 6-7 reps.

I was surprised how strong I felt with these. Definitely felt good!

Log Clean & Press: 1 clean and then press for reps

We started with high reps to get a feel for technique. Again we worked up in weight until we got to 210-ish. By this time my shoulder were fried, so I was only able to get some partials. Then we dropped in weight and concentrated on technique, to get my form down.

Overall feel confident with this event. The clean part at 210 was easy for me. I think my shoulders just gave out from during the press from being fatigued with all the work we did up to that point. With more work on my technique, I believe I will do well with this.

Farmers Walk: around 100 feet with 1 turn

We started with about 135# in each hand and worked on technique. Especially worked on proper grip, getting the feet moving fast, and proper way to approach the turns. We did  several sets at this weight.

We moved up to around 185# in each hand. At this weight, I had a little trouble at first picking it up. Don’t think I was set good enough. Once up and moving, it felt good all the way through. On the second round, I did better picking up the implements. Though after making the turn my left hand grip gave out a couple times.

After doing this event, I feel a little more confident. This was one of the ones I was worried about. However, for my first day trying it and feeling decent at close to comp weight, I feel pretty good about it now.

Log Rows:

To finish us off, we did a few sets of bent over rows with the log. Mainly did this to work on tightening the upper back.

Thoughts:

The day was super hot and humid, so this worked on me a little. Also we trained from around 10am to 1pm or so. I am not used to such long training sessions, so this wore me out quite a bit. It’s something I need to get used to though, as most competitions are all day events.

I feel so much more confident about things after this training session. It has allowed me to gauge better where I am and what I need to work on. At about 10 weeks out, I think I am closer to were I need to be then I thought. I need to work on my mid and upper back strength, deadlift/pulling ability, as well as technique. This is all stuff I think I can pull together by the comp.

It’s amazing how much more confident and how good I feel about things now!

I want to publicly THANK Bob for all his help and encouragement!

He has been so helpful and willing to give me advice and incite on things, it’s just amazing. This is someone I have only known for a short time and he is willing to bend over backwards to help me succeed.  He is truly a great guy.

To top it off, he helped me load my new 255# atlas stone into my jeep. I was not looking forward to this after our long training session

More updates to come!