After a few weeks of easier training and coming down from the peak of my first strongman contest, I have decided to ramp up my training in preparation for another competition. The next competition I will be doing is on May 2nd. It is called "Beast Of Bloomsburg" in Bloomsburg, PA. I have chosen this contest based on timing. It is the right distance out for me to have a solid 10 weeks of prep to practice the events and get into shape.
This contest is a Level 1 NAS sanctioned competition, and I will be competing in the 265-300 lbs open division. I have moved up to the open class because I placed first in the Novice division in my last contest. If there are not at least 5 competitors in my weight class, I will be bumped up to the super-heavyweight (SHW) division. That is okay, though, because the contest weights are exactly the same for the 265-300 lbs class and the SHW class.
The events are:
1. Max Log Clean & Press: Unlimited attempts with increasing weight until missed lift or forfeit.
2. Sports Car Deadlift: 60 second time limit.
3. I-Beam Farmers Walk: 305 lbs per hand - 80 feet, fastest time wins.
4. Circus Dumbbell Clean & Press: 150 lb dumbbell - 60 second time limit, clean and press every rep. Most reps wins.
5. Fire Engine Pull: Pull a fire truck 80 feet for time with a harness and rope.
These events are exciting to me, and I am looking forward to doing my best. My biggest concern will be my Overhead Press. However, since the first lift is a max attempt, I will be going into that event looking to complete a personal best lift, and not worry about my overall placing. All I can do is try to improve my overhead strength as much as possible. I have competed in car deadlift before, and although it was very tough and each set-up can be different, I have a general understanding of that event. Farmer's Walk is an event that is fun to train and very taxing on the grip. I have practiced it a few times in training and will try to hone in on my form and strength leading up to this contest. The Circus Dumbbell Press is an event I have very little practice with. Although it is an overhead event in which you press one heavy dumbbell to lockout, it is a lot about explosiveness and technique. Hopefully, I can get some good practice in for that event as well. Finally, the Fire Engine Pull. I have zero frame of reference for this, but it looks like a lot of fun! I am sure it is going to be brutal, but I am actually excited about pulling a truck. I picked up a cool log from a used sporting goods seller on craigslist (pictured below), a harness for truck pull, some fat gripz for circus dumbbell training, and my gym has farmer's walk handles. I should be good to go.
With that being said, here is my current training plan to improve for each event:
Day 1: Upper Body
Log Clean & Press: 5/3/1 (For those of you not familiar with 5/3/1, it is a rep range that is based off a percentage of your one rep max. The reps for week 1 are 3 sets of 5 at 65, 75 and 85% of your one rep max for that lift. Week 2 is 3 sets of 3 at 70, 80 and 90% of your one rep max. The third week is 1 set of 5, 1 set of 3 and 1 set of 1 reps at 75, 85 and 95% respectively. The 4th week is a deload, and then you repeat with the first week set and reps to start the cycle over again, while adjusting your max weight.) Prep for max log clean and press event.
High Pulls Superset with Pullups: 4 x 3 / 3 x 5-8
Z-Press Superset with Seated Cable Row: 2 x 8 / 3 x 12-15
Triceps Lockout Exercise Superset with Face Pulls: 3 x 8 / 3 x 15
Triceps Extension Superset with Light Hammer Curls: 3 x 10-15 / 3 x 15-20
Day 2: Lower Body
Front Squat: 5/3/1
Deadlift: 5/3/1 Prep for car deadlift event.
Farmers Walk: I will being doing this in three different styles. Week 1 will be relatively light for a longer distance, about 120 feet. Week 2 will be moderate weight for medium distance, about 80 feet. Finally, week 3 will be the heaviest weight for shortest distance, about 50 feet. Prep for farmers walk event.
Dumbbell Stiff Leg Deadlift: 3 x 8-12
Cable Rope Pull-through Superset with Seated Calf Raises: 3 x 10-12 / 3 x 20
Day 3: Jumps, Mobility and Active Recovery
Dynamic Warmup: This is a series of non-weighted movements to get my blood flowing.
Dynamic Stretching: This will be some active stretches to get loosened up.
Box Jumps: 5 x 3 - Increasing height each week.
HIIT Cardio: 10 minutes of interval cardio on the treadmill, bike, rower or a combination. This will improve my conditioning for strongman and help my body recover from the previous leg training.
Foam Rolling and Static Stretches: Spending about 20 minutes to foam roll and statically stretch.
Day 4: Upper Body
Close Grip Bench Press Superset with Chin-Ups: 5/3/1 / 3 x 8-10
Strict Barbell Overhead Press 3 x 15+. I'm going to be working higher reps here to try to really get the shoulders to strengthen with strict form.
Flys Superset with Dumbbell Row: 3 x 8-12 / 3 x 8-15
Barbell Curl Superset with Face Pulls: 3 x 6-8 / 3 x 15
Dumbbell Curl Superset with Light Band Triceps Pushdown: 3 x 8-12 / 3 x 20+
Day 5: Off
Day 6: Truck Pull / Circus Dumbbell
On this day, I will be doing heavy sled drags with a harness. Hopefully, I will be able to get some good work in that will translate to pulling the fire engine. I will also try to get in a couple sessions of pulling Joel's '69 Chevy Truck!
For the circus dumbbell, I am going to focus on form and trying to get in plenty of volume with good technique. I will likely do a top set and a few volume sets afterwards with less weight. I will only be training these every other week, because they can be taxing and I have a lot of other overhead work in my program.
On days I do not train the circus dumbbell, I may sprint or do lighter, faster sled drags to work on explosiveness. That will be going by feel.
In general, this program has a lot of supersets to increase my work capacity and some explosive training to increase my athleticism. I will be pushing hard to improve and get stronger. I am also spreading the events out throughout the week so I can give them each more time, as opposed to 1 event day per week. We'll see how this plan goes.
I will continue to keep you updated on my training via the Strongman Nick page on our website. Also look for updates on our Facebook page and our Twitter page. I will also keep the videos coming on our YouTube channel. If you have any comments or feedback, I would be happy to hear them. Thank you for reading.
Train Hard!
