It's currently 7:30am on Tuesday 27th of February as I start to write this blog and I'm currently very tired. In fact, I can't remember the last day I had off from training. I lift weights 4 times a week and play Basketball the other 3 thats on top of dieting down to 110kg, a weight I've not been since Sunday 15th March 2020 according to My Fitness Pal.
But J.J. Watt once said 'Success is not owned, it is rented and that rent is due everyday.' and thats the stance I'm taking. I'm just here paying my rent daily.
And thats exactly what the guys below have been doing, they've been paying their rent daily and because of that they've been making progress, so without further ado, I'll start with Paul.
I've coached Paul since the 1st September 2020, he's a long time client, but as life moves forward, it's unfortunately it's time to go our separate ways. Thats means since January our goal has been to finish strong... And strong Paul has finished. I'll leave this as a list, but Paul has hit PBs in just about everything, the highlight being the Deadlift which, from a technical level, we've worked so hard on, often to much frustration.
Front Squat - 110kg x2 (Matches 1RM)
Axle Push Press - 90kg x3
Bench - 120kg x3
Deadlift 180kg x3
Front Squat - 112kg x1
Deadlift - 185 x3
Front Squat - 115kg x1
Front Squat - 118kg x1
Axle Push Press - 95kg x1
Squat - 142.5kg x1
Push Press - 100kg x1
Deadlift - 205kg x1
Deadlift 210kg x1
Bench Press - 130kg x1
Front Squat - 111kg x2
I wish Paul the best of luck going forwards while he saves to buy a house and get away to Australia to see some family and who knows, in the future hopefully our paths will meet again.
We'll move on to Sam, who is in fact Paul’s friend and was introduced to me by Paul around 3 months ago. Maybe Sam was Paul’s parting gift to me... or maybe it was motivation for Paul because it certainly seems like they've been competing because Sam is also getting his PBs in list form 😂.
RDL - 110kg x8
Zombie Front Squat - 65kg x5
Deadlift (Hookgrip) - 135kg x3
Deadlift - 163kg x1
Deadlift 165kg x1
Squat - 113kg x1
Bench Press - 80kg x1
Deadlift - 167.5kg x1
Zombie Front Squat - 73kg x3
Squat - 120kg x1
Bench Press - 82.5kg x1
Deadlift - 170kg x1
Sam is a great Golfer who lifts because he wan't to be better at golf and struggled to buy into some of the 'sport specific' movements that other coaches had him do, and he's made great progress in his first 3 months with me. He's hit all time PBs in the Squat, Deadlift and Bench Press while we also discovered a way for him to finally press, pain free and with decent load after years of nagging shoulder issues.
My take on 'sport specific'
So, first off, when you lift because your sport is lifting, then you have to lift the way you would in competition. That’s your training and your specificity. That should go without saying.
But when you're lifting to enrich the sport that you do, thats different and while a lot of coaches get caught up in trying to replicate the movements of the sport in the gym (in the name of being specific), for the most part I feel like thats a fools errand and time wasted that could be used doing something more productive that will actually move the needle.
Nothing is as specific as the sport you play, that in itself makes everything in the gym general. If you get generally strong and play your sport often enough with intent, guess what… that extra strength or explosively will start to crossover.
Now, this whole piece lacks a load of nuance that is outside the scope of this blog. There are points of diminishing returns when it comes to levels of strength and that’s different for each sport. Muscles firing fast matters and I'm not poo pooing using more specific exercises to develop specific physical qualities, but don't miss the wood for the trees when it comes to getting strong for a sport.
Squat, Press, Hinge, Lunge, Pull, Rotate and Carry. Do some olympic lifts if you have the skill. Look to move the weight fast and do SOME supplemental work that you might call more specific if there's a definite hole you need to fill.
I could go on, but I'll stop there… you get the idea.
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Jenesis hit some nice PBs in the Front Squat of 57kg and 60kg. The goal for Jenesis recently has been to improve posture (she does A LOT of sitting at work) and we've used the Pause Front Squat to do that. As a by product, her Front Squat has gone up.
Marie is still making great progress with her overhead game and has hit a new 3RM on Push Press of 49kg, 2RMs on the Jerk of 61kg and 62kg and has also hit a Back Squat PB of 98kg. It's getting to about the time where we're going to look to put it all together.
Work your weaknesses or double down on your strengths?.. Do Both!
Working your weaknesses is a well known thing in lifting, bring up the weak link and you bring up the whole system.
Where people often fall short though is they only focus on the weakness and end up forgetting what actually makes them good at what they do, and as the saying goes, ‘use it or lose it’.
If you forget to work on your strengths in lieu of working on your weakness, the thing that makes you good can diminish and where does that leave you. In Marie’s case her Jerk was weak, but she had great leg strength in the Squat. We've continued working the Squat while bringing up the Jerk and now she's in a great place to put everything together.
I said this the other day, I can't remember who too...
'You can't train everything, but if you work on your weaknesses while also continuing to train your strengths you'll not be in a bad spot. The stuff in the middle will generally take care of itself.'
While there's the usual ups and downs of recovery, Xena’s knee is largely getting better. We're lowering the box on her box squats and the bad days are currently outweighed by the good! I know she's frustrated, but it's progress! Xena has hit 3 & 2RMs in The BTN Snatch Grip Press of 28kg and 29kg and in the Below the Knee Muscle Snatch of 32kg and 33kg.
The reason we're using those two movements is because they require no or limited knee bend so we can be consistent and push them regardless of the day Xenas knee is having while also treating some goals of improving overall upper body strength while improving how her ability to keep the bar close in the turnover and how she navigates the bar around the knee in the pull.
Little Jo has been flying recently maintaining a low bodyweight while also hitting PBs in just about everything. Bench Press is flying with 5RMs of 39kg x5 and 40kg x6 (she took the extra rep just because. The Squat is flying with 5RMs at 48.5kg and 51kg and the Deadlift is flying with 5RMs of 64kg and 66kg. Everything has clicked for Jo this training cycle and we're going to capitalise on it. Happy days!
Liam is prepping for his second Powerlifting competition and looking to build on the numbers he hit last time and honestly, I'm very optimistic! We've hit all time 5RMs in all the Powerlifting movements and to comp standard. On his way to a 475kg 5RM total Liam has hit a 160kg x5 Squat and then built on it and hit a 165kg x3 to match his 3RM. He's also hit 105kg x5 Pause Bench Press along with a 107.5kg x5 TAG Bench Press which we'll be looking to take Paused soon along with big 5RMs in the Deadlift of 205kg followed by 210kg a week later.
These numbers give us plenty reasons to be optimistic for Liam’s upcoming competition and estimate his competition 1RM total at 549kg. Liam has already qualified for the Powerlifting Games and will likely not qualify for Brits this year, but I'm exited to see what he does on the platform in five and a half weeks time and move the needle on his competition total.
The fallacy of estimated maxes
While I've used estimated 1RMs based off Liams 5RMs above to illustrate his progress, I'm always wary of using them in training or adjusting the maxes used for percentage work based on them.
Yes, they're great to get a general idea of what you could do, but they're not always accurate and the further away you get from a 1RM, the less accurate they are. I find I perpetually underperform based off my 5RMs and I have people who over perform based off them. Everyones slightly different.
I guess what I'm saying is, even if you've taken your 1RM for a double or a triple, if thats the most you've ever done, then use that number as your max for percentage work until you actually beat it. Undershooting for a couple of weeks is better than grinding yourself into the ground based on a number you've not hit yet.
On his way to Competing in his first Strongman competition, Scott hit PBs in the Push Press of 70kg x3 and Log Press of 70kg and 75kg x1.
West Coast’s Strongest was a learning curve for Scott, amongst a great experience were some disappointments, but thats the point of the early competitions, to learn and it's usually the disappointments that teach you the most. The next one is a Mcgregor stone competition in April and we'll be looking to put some of our learnings into that.
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The days that Savage Strength School runs are changing and our Monday session is moving to a Tuesday. That means the sessions will run on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4pm, so if your children think it would be cool to get a little more athletic while learning to lift a barbell, booking them onto a session might be something you want to do.
Our Kids sessions runs two nights per week out of Stag Fitness Strength Centre and it's focus is to introduce kids to lifting in a safe, supportive and educative environment.
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In our Weightlifting Club it's goodbye to Jen too. Jen is another long term client who I've coached since October 2020. Again it's life circumstances that mean that Jen is going in a different direction and her fair well gift was a new 1RM Push Press at 55kg.
Saying goodbye and moving on
At first I found it odd that in the same month, my two longest term clients are saying farewell.
Both have been with me for around 3 and a half years and to say goodbye to both of them in the same month feels a little surreal. They've been mainstays of Savage Strength and in many many videos, but that’s life and sometimes the way it falls.
Saying goodbye on good terms is important to me, as a coach I will sometimes say things people don't want to hear, but ultimately I'm there to enrich their lives, so I'm pleased to be saying goodbye to Jen and Paul on good terms, with great some progress made, some things learned and with some great memories.
They're welcome back anytime so who knows, if I've done a good enough job they may come back when their circumstance allows.
Our Weightlifting Club runs multiple nights per week out of Stag Fitness Strength Centre and it's focus is to introduce people to the sport of Olympic Weightlifting while giving them the opportunity to compete if they wish to do that.
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In the Strongman Club Cori hit some nice PBs taking the 110kg Stone for a ride to the 51in platform while hitting a rep PB of 9 reps at 152.5kg on the Deadlift. Not bad for a 15 year old.
George Forster is prepping for BNSF Englands Qualifier and hit a nice Beltless Deadlift PB of 280kg in the run up. Most of the events in BNSF are for reps so it was nice to get an opportunity to move the needle on something heavy.
The problem with maxes in Strongman
People put so much stock into maxes in strongman, and if you're just starting out getting stronger and moving the needle on those 1RMs is the way forward, but often once you're at a high level the events in up coming competitions may not be heavy enough to warrant training them for a max. This means you're often at the mercy of the competition and getting stronger may not benefit you as much as improving specific energy systems specific to the event so you often have to be patient and take your opportunities. I'll talk about this more when I get too Jonny but the general rule is, if the event is 80% or less of your max, you need to train the other aspects outside of just strength. If it is 82.5% of your max or high, then just getting stronger is probably the best route.
Our Strongman Club runs multiple nights a week out of Stag Fitness Strength Centre and has a history of taking people from the level of complete beginner to British Finalist.
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In our Online Weightlifting Team Karen has had a great month hitting PBs in the Front Squat of 60kg x3, 63kg x2 & 68kg x1 while also hitting PBs in the Snatch of 47kg followed by 48kg and finishing off with a new 1RM C&J of 56kg after making a breakthrough in the Jerk.
The right cue
First off I'll start with ‘a cue is nothing without the correct lesson attached to it’. But often there are multiple cues the same lesson can be attached too and it's about finding the wording or phrasing that resonates with the athlete.
For Karen that phrasing was 'heave and drop.'
A deficiency that Karen often deals with is an inactive upper body which contributes to a lot of lifts crashing on her. I feel like using 'heave' instead of 'drive' was the difference and got the idea of using the upper body earlier in the lift.
Our Online Weightlifting Team follows the British Weightlifting competition calendar with a focus on the bigger national competitions and the regional ones in the North East of England and is perfect for those competing in that area and for those looking for guidance and a periodised and focussed program.
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Our Online Strongman Team are prepping for a few competitions including BNSF Scotlands on the 10th March, BNSF Englands on the 17th March as well as Englands Strongest U105 on the 7th of April. As such, that makes programming for a group program tricky... but I'm canny good and there's still plenty of PBs been had.
Couple Dean & Gillian got a pair of PBs between them with Dean taking a PB Front Squat of 150kg & Gillian taking a new 1RM Axle Clean and Press of 70kg.
Jonny has had a nice January and a great off season increasing his strict log to 125kg for a new 1RM, taking a 140kg Push Press for a triple and matching his 1RM in the process, The big one for Jonny was finally getting that 300kg Stiff Bar Deadlift ticked off, and in true Jonny fashion he did it by taking 302.5kg.
I told you I'd chat more about maxes and Strongman
Like I said, the 300kg has been along time coming for Jonny and something we've wanted to tick off for a while. We've known he's capable, we just needed the right time to go for it. Either in competition, or at a time when it wouldn't get in the way of any competition prep.
Jonny is a high level strongman who finished 3rd in the U105 category at last years worlds, with that comes higher prioritisation of training and taking personal goals often has to be timed right.
Mark is Prepping for BNSF Scotlands and we're looking for a god showing and more progress to build on his performance at UKNS Scotlands.
Our Online Strongman Team follows the UK Natural Competition Calendar with room to stop off and compete through a few other competitions too. It’s perfect for those competing on the circuit and for beginners who don’t plan to compete yet but want a coaches guidance and a periodised plan.
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Ernest Hemingway once said…
'There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.'
Until next time
Adam
