Newcastles Strongest 2022

So… The dust has settled on Newcastles Strongest 2022 and it was a fantastic performance from the Team taking home 3 first places and a third place across the 4 categories that our 6 athletes were competing in…

There were lots of PBs before that though so lets get into it!

Joe hit a huge 250kg Squat to round out the end of our first training cycle along with a log PB of 122.5kg and some big stone PBs of 175kg to 46in and 145kg x3 to 56in. Its coming together nicely for Joe. He has bags of potential and nothing phases him. Next we turn our eyes on bringing up a lagging Deadlift, a movement he’s self admittedly, struggled with. I’ll leave you with a message I got form Joe after the 250kg Squat.

‘If you were to say to me at the start of training with you . You'll get 250 squat and get the 175 stone up I probally wouldn't have believed you because I remember how hard 205 was when I first done it with josh. I thought that's it I've hit my limit. As flaky as i am training. I love it. Training now and seeing my strength increase is great. I've gained loads of knowledge with you every session I've learnt something new.’

Jenesis has started making some good progress in the Snatch hitting PBs in the Hang Snatch - 21kg x2 and Full Snatch 22kg x1. Jenesis has actually snatched more than this before she came to me, but did it as Powers. When somebody can power more than they can full, it indicates there’s a technique or confidsence issue somewhere. This bodes well that we’re fixing both.

Xenas made a load of PBs this block so i’m just going to list them:

Squat - 70kg x10, 70kg 5x5, 73kg 4x5, 75 3x5

Front squat - 48kg x3

Clean - 35kg x1

Snatch - 33kg x1

C&J - 33kg x1

Snatch DL - 53kg x5, 58kg x5, 60kg x5

The Squat pbs are nice, every time it’s a step closer to 100kg, the real win this month though is the Snatch PB. 30kg has been a road block for Xena for a little while, but we smashed past it last week and all of a sudden technique has clicked and things have fell into place. It’s often frustrating when things don’t feel like they’re moving forwards as quickly as you like, at that point consistency and patience is the goal. Project100 is on!

Jo had a nice run up to Newcastles strongest, hitting PBs this month in the Deadlift at 250kg x1, Farmers at 140kg p/h x15m, Floor Press at 105kg x3 and 120kg x1 and Axle FTOH of 105kg x1+3. Training PBs are lovely and ultimately its what drives progress in competition, but it was his performance at Newcastles that was the big win. 18 year old and competing against some really strong grown men, some of which were on PEDs and Jo came away with 2 event wins in the Farmers & Stones as well as a third place overall. Jo also hit a PB of 115kg in the Axle Clean & Press event. Competitions are great because it allows you to not just pinpoint your weakness relative to your own lifts, but relative to your competition. This competition confirmed that we need to continue to get stronger in the static events like the Push Press and Deadlift and just like that… We have a training focus for the next block. Fucking third in an inters at 18 year old! The boy done good!

Pressing has been coming on nicely for Liam as we’ve been rehabbing the knee as he hit a Seated Backless OHP PB of 50kg x5. I like this version of Press over the Strict Press as it eliminates over extension of the back while adding an extra element of stability to the movement which increases its hypertrophy potential. He also hit a PB in the Box Squat of 132kg x5. Expect to see some rep PBs in the Box Squat next time I write about Liam because it’s been the movement we’ve used to allow him to continue to squat through knee troubles and as we start coming out of them, we’ll be pushing the weight nice and heavy. A great example of a rehab movement becoming a strength movement and integrating seamlessly into the training… Can’t do that with booty bands. Big thanks to Alex at Pro Health Physio for looking after Liam through his rehab period and making pragmatic decisions that still allow him to train.

Olivia had a nice end to the training cycle hitting PBs in the Pendlay Row at 1x10 @55kg, Snatch Deadlift at 82.5kg x5, Clean and Jerk at 67.5kg x1, Snatch at 42.5kg x1, Enderton Front Squat Complex at 60kg, Push Press at 60kg x1 and Squat at 105kg x1. We’ve worked hard for those PBs and it puts us in a good position going into the next training cycle. Olivia now has 3 weeks off after a hard rugby season to give her a little mental break and then it’s back at it. A transitional period is an important part of training at the end of a hard training cycle or season. It gives the athlete a mental break, bit also a physical break to heal any ongoing niggles or injuries.

There were more PBs than this in the Weightlifting Club because both of these guys hit PBs in the Push Press too… I just can’t for the life of me remember what they are. Anyway…

Paul hit a PB squat of 115kg, 120kg is probably there but we’ll save that for another day as this is a 10kg increase on his old max and fatigue was setting in. Paul also mated his max Snatch of 58kg and took it for a double.

Marie has been flying and hit a PB Squat of 83kg. I’m pretty sure there were some new PB doubles from blocks above the knee in the Snatch & C&J too but again… I can’t for the life of me remember them1

George C had a great showing at Newcastles, hitting PBs in the Axle Clean & Press at 100kg x1, Farmers walk and matching his PB Deadlift in the Deadlift medley event. George probably should have been in the beginners category but showed some real balls by jumping straight into novice when there were no spots left in beginners. He took away a 6th place finish.

George F is on a little transitional period too after his 300kg double that proceeded his honeymoon. He did hit a 107.5kg triple on strict log, a 260kg beltless deadlift and a 137.5kg p/h x30m just after the 300kg double that didn’t quite make it into last months Blog though. 300kg for one was the Deadlift goal by the end of the year… thats shifted to 315kg to 320kg now.

Emily, Dale & Stephen did the biz in the Womens and Mens beginners categories coming 1st, 1st & 10th respectively. A real highlight for me was Stephens 105kg Axle Clean & Press… I’d love to see what he could doing out of a rack because its the Clean that he struggles with. Emily and Dale were consistent throughout and once again, in competiton, consistency kills.

Sean, Sean, Sean, what can I say, First place at Newcastles and honestly, the class of the field. He didn’t win an even but was consistently in the top 3 or 4 every event and that was rewarded with a win by a clear 4 points. Sean hit PBs in the Axle Clean and Press at 135kg on the day and was consistent throughout. In training Sean also hit Axle PBs of 125kg x1+3, 127 x1+2, 130kg x1.

Thats me done, I usually write a bit after the PBs, but I think there’s plenty to take away… Here’s a nice picture to celebrate the fantastic results at Newcastles Strongest!

Consistency kills

Until next time

Adam

A Death Sentence for Progress

I’m really not well as I write this, not with anything serious, so don’t worry… I’m just not well in general meaning my concentration levels are low and typing this will probably feel like a slog…

Eitherway, It’s nearing the end of the month so its time to shout loud about the PB’s everyone has hit this month!

Jen has been cruising along nicely adding to her Push Press and taking a 5RM PB of 45kg while focussing on the technical aspects of the Snatch and C&J.

Paul hit a nice PB in the Squat of 125kg which is +5kg on his max. We’re a little disappointed we didn’t add to his Push Press PB but training up to that had been a little spotty with holidays.

Joes main focus right now is the Squat and he’s flying hitting plenty PBs along the way but peaking so far at 225kg x3 beltless. 240kg is incoming this month, I can feel it.

We’re out of Xenas ankle rehab (Running is bad kids) and aren’t limited by it anymore… Although we still have to keep and eye on it, because of that it’s allowed us to go heavier and she’s hit PBs in the Snatch at 30kg, Squat at 68kg x10 and in a Clean variation of .Clean DL + Low Hang C&J at 31kg which is now actually her C&J PB. Xena’s been struggling with the Jerk recently as that was the main movement her ankle wouldn’t allow her to perform, once we get a grasp on technique again, there’s going to be more distance between her Snatch & C&J numbers. In the Squat 70kg x10 will fall equalling her 5RM back squat… I’m very excited for this!

Jo has hit plenty of PBs this week, some of them ‘cheap’ in his words, but i’ll keep it in list form for ease.

Push Press - 97.5 x5

Push Press - 100 x6

Deadlift - 230kg x4

Deadlift - 235kg x3

Farmers - 135kg p/h x15m in 11.7 secs

Farmers - 125p/h x30m in 21.2 secs

Front Squat - 140kg x1

Strict Press - 75kg x3

Strict Press - 80kg x2

Trap Bar DL - 240 x5

Deadlift - 240 x3

He’s ticking along nicely and we’re looking good for some PBs at Newcastles Strongest!

Olivias been making great progress while focussing on upping all of her 5RMs, During which we’ve taken a Squat for 95kg x5, Snatch Deadlift for 75kg x5, the Push Press for 50 x5 and 52.5kg x5 while also PBing the Pendlay row at 52.5kg x10.

Marie hit some 1kg PBs in the Snatch and C&J and for the life of me I can’t remember them and what they were. Since then though, she has been working around some naughty knees, which means we’ve had to change our planned sessions. Thats ok though, because it allowed us to switch some focus and in doing so she hit PBs in the Power Snatch & Power Clean (both off blocks). Niggles don’t have to be a death sentence for progress. Often if you switch your focus to what you can do rather than keeping it on what you can’t, you’ll make progress in other areas that you can then apply to your main goals once you’re back to full strength.

George Forster one and only focus last month? A 300kg Deadlift! And what a deadlift it was… Imagine not just having the physical capacity, but the mental capacity to hit your first 300kg deadlift for a double! Here was the progression through the weeks:

Deadlift - 280kg x3

Deadlift - 285kg x2

Deadlift - 290kg x2

Deadlift - 300kg x2

Nothing fancy, just a solid linear progression from week to week where we drop the reps as needed. He also hit a PB in the Farmers hold too of 147.5 p/h x 20 secs.

Lastly we move onto Sean who has been making good progress overhead taking the axle for 1 clean and 5 press at 115kg for a new 5RM putting him in good shape for Newcastles Strongest.

Thats it!

I’ll not write much more because frankly, i’m struggling to focus…

I will leave you with a nice framework to use if you’re getting niggles and need to change your program.

Step 1: Identify the movement that is setting off the problem.

Step 2: Change the movement to something that doesn’t set off the problem (Different movement / lower load / lower volume) while strengthening the problem area.

Step 3: Once it’s settled, slowly add the movement that was causing problems back in at dosages that don’t cause problems.

Step 4: Look to build this over time, back to normal levels.

Right, thats me done.

Until next time

Adam

Movement Variations

It’s Monday morning and as I write this I’m just coming off a weeks holiday. Forgive me if i’m a little flat.

But there’s been lots of PB’s this month from Team Savage, so lets get at it!

Starting with Jen, Jen just keeps hitting PB’s, and has hit new 5RMs in the Push Press at 44kg, Squat at 76kg as well as new 1RMs of 96kg in the Squat and 34kg in the Snatch. Those new 5RMs aren’t Jens only PB’s there, she’s been hitting them weekly. Who knew that simple linear progression of adding a kilo a week worked.

Paul will be hitting new PBs this week, but at the minute hasn’t hit any new ones in June, I just thought i’d mention it as you can expect to see them in the Squat and Push Press in July.

Joe has been smashing his training recently and hit his first big goal of going belt-less and sleeveless and beating his all time wrapped Squat. He it 205kg x5, beating his best wrapped squat by 2kg and 2 reps. Joe also hit a nice log press PB of 105kg x1 clean & 5 press.

Young Jo flying and nailed his targets in the Squat this month, finishing his Squat cycle with a 220kg Squat adding 20kg to his max back squat while hitting rep PBs on the way there. This allows us now to turn our attention towards the deadlift and front squat going forwards. The Deadlift because it’s a staple of strongman and the Front Squat because it feeds so many things in strongman. Jo also hit PB’s in the Farmers of 122.5kg p/h x20m in sub 11 secs & 130kg p/h x15m in sub 12 secs while taking a Push Press PB of 92.5kg x6 & Axle FTOH PB of 97.5 x1+5.

Olivia had a little 4 week break in her rugby season so it was the perfect time to push some strength work and she hit 90kg x5 in the Squat. She also hit a Snatch PB of 38kg (+1kg) & a C&J PB of (60kg (+10kg) and a new Push Press 5RM of 46kg.

While Wil hit a Strict OHP PB of 57kg (+2kg). Wil often struggles with core stiffness and drives the bar away when it gets heavy overhead. We’ve been treating this with seated, backless strict press and it’s paying off. This movement works great because if you lean back to counteract driving the bar forward, you’ll just fall over, so it’s a great movement for teaching optimal body position.

In the Weightlifting Club Megan hit a PB back Squat of 80kg adding a total of 5kg to her max back squat this training cycle.

Marie also hit some great Squat PB’s of 61 x5 which was 1kg heavier than her 1RM at the time and then went on to hit 82kg x1 (+20kg). This is great because, while a big back squat doesn’t just increase the snatch and C&J on its own, it does increase their potential and gives us some building blocks to progress with.

In the SM Club Dan L hit a Front Squat PB of 140kg (+20kg)…

As did George C who added 5kg to his front squat taking it up to 105kg.

George F has been blistering this block hitting numerous Deadlift PBs on his way to 255kg x5, 270kg x4 & 275kg x3. That 300kg is getting within touching distance now! He also took PB’s in the Sandbag at 140kgx 35m, Farmers hold at 142.5kg x 20 seconds, Front Squat at 155kg x1 and Good Mornings at 180kg x6. I believe the Good Mornings have played a huge part in Georges Deadlift development and in creating a strong hinge and strong erectors which have give him a solid platform to propel off.

And in the Online Clubs Sean W hit a new PB Deadlift of 265kg.

Awesome work by all my guys this month!

You’ll notice a couple of times, mainly with George and Wil, that I mentioned a movement that I used to drive a different ‘core’ movement. This is an important concept to keep in mind when deciding how training is going to look as some times, just doing the full movement isn’t enough too push through problems.

Now, there’s are many ways to approach using a variation and this will depend on phase and your overall training structure, but whether you completely swap out the main movement for the variation, program it on a second day, or have it in as assistance after the main movement…

As long as it works in the situation, there’s no right or wrong answer to how you approach using variations to attack problem areas.

I could go into this deeper but thats not the point of this blog… But if you are struggling with something, you could always comment.

Until next time

Adam

A Marathon

So, as usual its been a big month for our guys here at Savage Strength… So here it goes!

Jen has been burning the candle at both ends when it comes to training, and between running marathons and performing the Olympic Lifts she works nightshift as a nurse. Obviously long distance running and Olympic Lifting don’t necessarily go hand in hand and I told her that progress in the Olympic lifts would be hard to come by as we got deeper into the program and as she performed more longer runs, so to hit a new 5RM Squat of 73kg is a huge win for us. To be clear, I don’t program Jens running, thats not my area of expertise. I program Jens strength work and Weightlifting.

Paul has had a great month hitting a Deadlift PB of 182.5kg (+2.5kg) and a Strict Press PB of 70kg. There’s more to come from Paul as we move deeper into his training cycle. Pauls currently my guinea pig for trying out some new methods (I asked him and he’s happy for me to do so, he’s been with me a while and trusts me) and as we move to an isometric focussed phase i’m excited to see how things progress.

Joe currently has one thing on his mind… To beat his best ever wrapped set of Squats (204kg x4) without wraps and belles. His volume PB in the Squat of 180kg for 5x5 takes him 1 step closer to that goal.

Ash has been smashing it out of the park recently and hit a rep PB in the log press of 65kg x5. We’re also working on her deadlift technique in the background and its coming on leaps and bounds! Better technique means you can harness more strength which ultimately means bigger numbers.

What a month Jo has had, because of that, it’s probably easier for me to just list his PBs

190kg SSB Squat (+10kg)

115kg Push Press (+5kg)

110kg Axle FTOH (+10kg)

240kg Deadlift (+10kg)

110kg Close Grip Larsson

160kg Atlas Stone to 48in

175kg Atlas Stone to 48in

Lots of PB’s there but the one that sticks out is the 175kg Atlas Stone. At 18 years old that is an elite weight and is a testament to the work he puts in. His pressing is also coming on leaps and bounds which at 6ft 5in and with long arms, is no easy feat.

Liam had a great training cycle and finished it off with two all time PBs in the Squat & Deadlift of 160kg (+20kg) in the Squat and 210kg (+10kg) in the Deadlift. Up next we move to improve pressing strength while starting the chase for a 180kg Squat and a 220kg Deadlift.

Wil hit a great all time PB in the Deadlift of 150kg (+20kg). 160kg would be double bodyweight for Will so thats the next goal. Wil’s still in the ‘learning how to train’ phase of his journey. Learning when to push, when not to push. It’s an important phase if you go down the route of Online Coaching where you have to be self sufficient and sometimes make your own decisions and will set you up for making good decisions further down the line.

Megan hit an all time PB in the Back Squat of 78kg which is a 3kg increase! We’ve been working towards this for a while and was a big win!

Olivia hit some great PBs in the Snatch of 37kg (+1kg) and Clean & Jerk - 50kg (+Lots) and is finally getting on top of her Split Jerk technique.

Paul is also hitting plenty of PB’s in the Snatch of 50kg & C&J of 60kg.

Finally Marie hit a big Push Press PB of 43kg (+8kg). Now i’m not going to take credit for that as it was her first or second session with me and she’s been training a while so was obviously strong enough to do it. However, one of my jobs as a coach is to give athletes opportunities to progress their PB’s and to make sure they’re working at the correct intensities… And I think I did that quite well.

George C hit a nice Front Squat rep PB of 90kg x2 and we will continue to increase this as he progresses.

George F (Or George number 1) has been flying. He’s currently working on improving his grip and has hit a PB in the DOH Deadlift of 153kg 5x5 which is up 13kg since week 1 of his program and also hit some new rep maxes in the Deadlift of 240kg x7 (Beltless) and 250kg x5. The 250kg x5 matches his previous 3RM and sets us up nicely in the chase for that 300kg Deadlift. George also hit a nice 3RM on the Log of 120kg matching his previous 1RM.

And finally, after that marathon, Sean hit an nice 5RM on the deadlift of 230kg which was his previous 4RM.

Phew! That was a marathon, but a testament to how hard my guys work!… Speaking of marathons, i’d like to touch a bit more on Jens situation.

As I said, its not ideal to mix two very different modalities with completely different qualities, and while Jen has made a little bit of progress, it has been slow and I look forward to getting her back to weightlifting properly. If you do have to mix modalities and make your training more ‘concurrent’ in style, it is still possible to make progress, as long as you split up your sessions by at least 6 hours and making each session have a specific goal.

This means not mixing the sessions together and keeping lifting as lifting and running as running. If you do that, you can still make progress. The big problems usually arise when you mix the sessions and start with a strength movement then finish with cardio. It’s why CrossFit (as its programmed on a box level) largely doesn’t work past making you feel like you’ve worked hard.

Give each session a specific goal and you can circumnavigate some of the problems that arise with concurrent style training.

Until next time

Adam

Mental Strength

Its the end of the month so lets get down to business and recap what’s been going on with Team Savage!

One to one client Paul has been smashing it this month hitting rep pbs of 78kg x4 in the Push Press and 100kg x4 in the Squat. He’s also smashed new 1RMs in the Bench Press of 115kg and 92.5kg on the Push Press. Paul is working hard in his training sessions and going from strength to strength.

Big Jo hit some big PB’s in the deadlift taking 210kg x5 and then the week after taking 220kg x5. He also came second at the Newcastles Strongest Qualifier in the Novice category after not having the best run in training. In honesty Jo thought about pulling out, but we talked it through and he competed and it paid off. There’s a lesson there and I might touch on that later.

Liam P has been our true high flyer this month (He’s a Basketball player but no pun intended). He hit a post lockdown Bench PB of 92.5kg and then followed it up a couple of weeks later with an all time PB of 105kg. He also hit a pretty comfortable Squat PB of 140kg and a seated OHP PB of 65kg. In the lesser tracked PBs he also PB’d his Bent Over Row taking 80kg x6 which bodes well for hit Deadlift when we switch focus from the squat and a Pull-up PB of 10 reps with an extra 7.5kg hanging from his waist. Liam is smashing it and is one of my most consistent guys online and its showing!

In the Weightlifting Club Lucy hit a PB triple in the Block Snatch of 39kg and a PB 3+1 in the Block C&J - 52kg (2kg). This is big for Lucy as they are movements she struggles with so to hit a PB in these shows progress and will start to cross over to her main lifts. As a general rule, if you focus on what you’re bad it, you’ll probably get better all round.

Xena’s been smashing her Squat recently hitting PB’s of 68kg x5 (+3kg) followed by 70kg x5 (+2kg). Not bad for somebody who couldn’t squat at all when she first started. I’m not doing anything special with Xena, just linear progression alternating between hitting a rep pb one week and building volume the other. We’ll ride that train until it stops.

George C has been doing great work in the Strongman Club hitting his first 200kg Deadlift (a 20kg PB) while also PB-ing his Squat at 130kg for a double. His overhead has been going from strength to strength too Taking PBs of 92.5kg in the Push Press from the Rack and Axle FTOH. Doing 92.5kg on Axle FTOG suggests there’s more there on the Push Press out the rack and we’ll take that at some point in the future.

George F has been making gains in his grip strength which is a current focus in the Strongman Club right now and has progressed his Double overhead Deadlift to 210kg.

Lastly, Sean W who is part of our Online Strongman Club took a deadlift rep PB of 230kg x4, this was meant to be for 5, but Sean over shot. Going forward this means we have to back track a little and his goal now is to hit 230kg x5 at the end of this block.

Lots of PB’s there and this feels like a pretty long blog but I am still going to talk about Jo and his run up to Newcastles… I’ll keep it short.

In the run up to Newcastles, around 7 weeks out, Jo got an irritation in his Biceps tendon that basically stopped him doing everything but SSB Squatting for around 5 weeks. This was the first phase of ‘should I pull out’ but I told Jo to hold off until closer to the time to see how it pans out.

We worked with a great Physio called Darren at Pro Health Physio, look him up and got Jo back to lifting basically at full capacity within 5 weeks (He still has problems with skull crushers). This was the point Jo hit his Deadlift PB’s…

So lesson 1: When you’re injured, still train what you can!

After that stint we were careful for the 2 weeks run up then Jo 3 days before competition got flu which killed his appetite and energy, he thought about pulling out again.

My thoughts are that strongman competitions are around 6 minutes of work across the day, grit in and deal with it.

Long and short of it, Jo competed and came second after not really training the events while ill. He even won the stones which he’d trained once in the 7 week run up.

Lesson 2: Compete anyway and don’t worry about placing, you might surprise yourself.

Jo showed a lot of mental strength in the run up to this competition, especially for an 18 year old and the experience will be something he can remember and use going forward for a long time.

Until next time

Adam

Credentials

As quick as February flew by, March seems to slow to an almighty halt… Does anyone else feel like its been a long month of not much going on?

Anyway, here’s the rundown of what Team Savage have been up to!

Pauls been working hard on his Push Press for a fair few months now, he’s hit multiple rep PB’s out the rack and off the blocks and just hit a PB on Axle Clean and Press of 75kg x3 which is 2.5kg added to his max. Great stuff!

Dan T is also working on his pressing and has hit PB’s in Strict Log of 90kg (+17.5kg) and Push Press out the rack of 105kg (+5kg). Dans pressing is also increasing nicely.

For Dan and Paul, their weak area is pressing, they’re both shaped very differently, but both have long arms in relation to their other proportions which is why pressing is where they lag. It goes to show though, regardless of body type and natural gifts, with a little bit of extra focused work you can get round problems and start turning them into strengths.

The boy wonder Jo has had a few shoulder issues this month caused by an angry bicep tendon attaching at the shoulder, luckily we managed to keep him moving and with the use of a speciality bar, transitioned some of the movements and switched focus to pain free variations meaning we ended up hitting multiple rep PB’s on the SSB Squat with the highlight being a 180kg single. There’s always a work around and while it may not be ideal or optimal, its still possible to make progress!

George C hit a nice PB on Axle FTOH of 90kg in the Strongman club, we’ll add to this in the next couple of weeks as well as adding to his deadlift so watch this space. He’s new and making great progress with his crossfit background. A big win for George is also improving his comfort in the Squat which is something we’ve been working on in and outside of our sessions.

I’m starting to realise everyones pressing wen’t up in March as George F also hit a nice PB on Axle FTOH of 120kg (+5kg), this was competition weight for BNSF so for him to hit it pre competition in the manner he did was a weight off his mind. George also competed in BNSF Northern Englands Strongest Man and did himself proud coming 5th in his first opens competition. After a rocky start on the deadlift medley (strap related and proof we need to bring his mixed grip and hook grip up) he matched his PB on axle and then wen’t on to win the sled medley, take a 2nd or 3rd place in the farmers and complete the stone run finish top 4 on that event too. If it wasn’t for the strap mishap it would have been an almost perfect day and he would have been pretty close to a top 3 spot and qualifying for Britains. You live and learn and this experience has help identify what we need to work on to come back stronger next year.

A quick shoutout to Sean W to finish! He trained for BNSF then got Covid in his last week of training before the taper, completely taking away his lungs and work capacity. Its unfortunate and life happens. He mad the correct call not to compete. He did compete around 3 weeks earlier in Ashingtons Strongest placing a respectable 3rd, hitting a PB of 300kg in the Silver Dollar Deadlift and capping off the performance with an amazing stone run!

Awesome work by all of my guys in March and onto more milestones in April!

Last thing I want to talk about is credentials, I saw a post by a coach with his ‘credentials’, all of which were things he had achieved. Now i’m not playing this down, but in my opinion, you credentials are not what you have achieved, but instead what you have helped others achieve… At least if you’ve been in the game a while.

Just saying.

Over and out until next time

Adam

Track EVERYTHING

Well, February was a much shorter month that January!

That motherfucker flew didn’t it.

Still let plenty of time for new PB’s though so here we go!

Jen smashed it this week and its almost just easier to put her PB’s in a list because of it…

So…

Push Press - 50kg

Block Snatch - 34kg (+2kg)

Block C&J 2+1 - 52kg (+4kg)

Front Squat - 74kg (+6kg)

Snatch - 33kg (+1kg)

Squat - 92kg (+1kg)

Jen worked hard and was at the end of a training cycle so these PB’s make loads of sense and really how much work she put in and how consistent she was. The next thing for Jen is to start prioritising training for a Marathon. This doesn’t mean she’ll stop lifting, but it does mean we’ll prioritise the running and allow the lifting to be tapered back when necessary.

Paul hit some great PB’s adding 2.5kg to his Push Press making it 87.5kg and adding 5kg to his Deadlift taking it to 180kg. Pauls PB’s in the Push press are what i’m most proud of, we’ve really cleaned up his technique allowing us to really utilise his leg strength. A first 4 plate Deadlift is pretty cool too!

Dan T a great month overhead hitting Push Press PB’s of 92.5kg x3 and 100kg x2 for his first triple digit set for reps! He also hit 72.5kg x3 on the Block Press. Dans making great progress overhead and on his big weakness making him a much more well rounded strongman.

Jo also hit PB’s on the Block of 70kg x3 and 60kg x5 along with a Yoke PB if 240kg x 30m in sub 24 secs (15m D&T) a big Squat rep PB of 165kg x4 and a nice rep PB of 190kg x10 on the Deadlift. I’ve recently told Jo to take rep PB’s where he can and to become a little more autonomous in terms of training. What does this mean? What it doesn’t mean is go ham and off program every session. What it does mean is to take a rep PB if its there on the last set and it won’t mess you up later in the training week. People put a lot of stock into 1RM’s but hitting rep PB’s not only feed into your 1rm, they also build momentum within your training.

Liam T had a big month of training, entering his first competition at New Levels First Timers. He finished 11th in a big field, which I know he’ll be disappointed about, everyone want a podium don’t they, but I believe he put in a great performance with a rep PB on the Deadlift - 150kg x16, Rep PB’s in the Overhead Medley and a great yoke run at 200kg that, before he started prepping for this, he could barely pick up 170kg. He also hit a rep PB on Squat to pins at 120kg x16. Obviously the medley and Squat to pins are hard to keep in your pocket as PB’s to drive training as they’re not something you’d usually train if its not in competition, but its a great way to look back and see how far you’ve come during a prep.

George F had a great month hitting the Silver Dollar Deadlift for 290kg x4, a ludicrous Sandbag run of 140kg x 20m, Farmers Pick Ups of 145kg p/h x 20 secs and a nice PB triple on the Deadlift of 250kg x3 after 4x2 at the same weight. George is ticking along nicely to compete in BNSF in March.

David W like Liam also competed at new levels competition in the Novice category coming 4th which is his highest ever placing which hitting a PB in the Deadlift at 200 x12 and Squat to Pins at 160kg x16.

Lastly Sean W has been putting in the graft for a couple of competitions and recently pulled 230 x2 for a rep PB in the Deadlift.

Its great month for the team and to finish I want to touch on something I wrote about Jo. one of Jo’s PB’s was ‘Yoke PB if 240kg x 30m in sub 24 secs (15m D&T)’. Obviously thats a lot of information but its worth it, tracking weights and yoke speed or on any moving event is important, it will let you know at what weight speed drops off while also allowing you to differentiate between weights when it comes to training an event and make decisions on whether you need to get stronger or faster.

I used this for my most recent competition, it was a light yoke at 250kg over 15m, so this event for me was about speed. I didn't go over 250kg once in training and instead focussed my efforts on being as fast as I could be with 250kg on my back. First off this was great for recovery and I believe I ended up with the fastest yoke time in the competition.

Anyways, that leaves the question, how much should your track on moving events…

I’m not going to tell you to track every single possible time and your max weight for that…

In my opinion the best approach and what i track is…

For maximum strength:

10m, 15m & 20m with no drops (untimed).

For speed

20m @sub 12 seconds

40m (D&T) @sub 25 seconds

The speed times aren’t random, 2 metres per second works really well for speed then add on around 2 seconds for each pick up. Track your top weights for these metrics and you’ll not only know where you lie when training for events, but you’ll also know how to approach an event given the set weight as you’ll know where the speed that will give you a good placing drops off.

Until next time

Adam

Deadlift Bar or Stiff Bar?

Januarys a long old and busy month isn’t it.

I’m tired already and its currently only the 25th of January. That means this will be a short one, because as I say… I’m tired…

So, onto the PB’s.

Hannah obviously hasn’t hit any PB’s yet, but she is back and we’re creating consistency in training after 3 months away to have a baby, so lets celebrate that!

Jen has hit a rep PB in both the Front and Back squat taking her 90% for a set of 4 in the Front Squat (62kg) and a set of 3 in the Back Squat (81kg). Thats some awesome work and makes me optimistic for her Snatch and Clean & Jerk too as when the squat goes up, the classic lifts usually follow shortly after.

Paul has smashed it this month, he’s at the business end of this block and hit a huge 10kg Front Squat PB of 100kg along with a rep PB in the Back Squat of 100kg for a double. His strict press went up to 67.5kg for a single and the big win was we got on top of Pauls Push Press technique and took his 1RM to 85kg after struggling with 70kg at the beginning of the training cycle.

Jo competed at Kaos’ strongest teen coming away with an event win and an impressive second place hitting PB’s in the Log at 102.5 (+2.5kg) & 15in Deadlift at 235 x3 (+2 reps) along with taking an event win in the 80, 100, 120kg Sandbag Run. This was Jo’s first run out without me by his side and he did admirably looking after himself at 17.

Liam T also took a PB in training on the Log at 80kg (+5kg) in his prep for his first ever competition on the 20th February. Liam will hit more PB’s on the way to this competition in the next couple of weeks.

In the weightlifting club Lucy came away with a PB Clean of 71kg (+1kg). It was a small PB but sets us up well for the next block of training which starts with a conditioning mesocycle and lots of EMOMs and reps.

David W hit a 10kg Deadlift PB of 250kg, the big difference for Dave being that he spent a lot of time pulling on a stiff bar since he came to me, I literally wouldn’t let him stroke his ego with the Deadlift bar. This made him much stronger off the floor compared to when he used just the Deadlift bar exclusively and that translated into a PB.

Lastly Sean hit a Log PB of 125kg (+5kg). A nice finish to a training cycle that leads us into competition mode for BNSF Northern Qualifiers on the 26th of March.

A quick one on Dave’s PB and a bit of advice to finish.

If you spend all of your time on a Deadlift bar and want a different stimulus, hop onto a stiff bar for a training cycle.

Yes the deadlift bars nice, it bends allowing you to gradually pick up the full weight on the bar and also pick up the full weight higher up the shin, because of that, you can usually pull slightly more on it while it stroking the ego too.

A stiff bar like the Rogue Ohio doesn’t, you get the full weight pretty much straight away. I won’t lie, it’s not as nice to pull on, but it will build starting strength which often helps transfer the the rest of the lift. Its what helped dave put 10kg onto his Deadlift Bar PB without much more than basic linear progression.

He pulled the 250kg on a stiff bar so likelihood is theres more there on the Deadlift bar when we transition him back.

Give it a crack for some easy gains.

Until next time

Adam

I Wrote More Than I Expected Too...

Christmas is done and the New Year just started and currently i’m onto day 10 of my time off. I still don’t feel rested, but starting your time off with a toddlers birthday 2 days before Christmas will do that to you.

Anyway, and i’m sure I say this every time I write this blog, I’m going to make this a quick one… So client PB’s as follows:

Lucy hit a couple of PB’s in the Snatch taking 48kg for a new 2rm and 50kg for a new 1rm adding 3kilos to her max Snatch. She actually beat her 1RM for a double first which is why we took 50kg after. There’s plenty more in the tank for Lucy to progress too as we continue to progress technique. We just need to stay out of the heels! Lucy also got on the FSI Board with 14 Pull-ups which frankly is phenomenal!

Jo hit multiple PB’s this month taking the log for 95kg for a new 1rm then shortly afterwards take 100kg for a new 1rm. He also doubled 95kg. The more traditional measures of strength went up too and Joe took 230 for a new 1rm adding 10 or so kilos to his Deadlift and also added a whopping 25kg to his Squat taking 200kg for a single. Next on the agenda for Jo is competing at Kaos strongest teen. We’re also looking to add speed to his back squat. The goal of that is to just make him more explosive overall when standing up with things. Its a very general goal, but means more power on the push press, quicker times on farmers, yoke and stones.

Dan T has had a great month an continues to progress on the Nichol walking stones and hit the full weight of 138kg & 114kg for 5 metres. All good preparation for next year!

Sean hit a nice Yoke PB of 350kg x15m with no drops, next we’ll be looking to add speed.

David Wildes been working hard on his log clean and has improved technique exponentially which has allowed him to hit a really nice 107kg clean. This should help his press as the improved technique will take less out of him on heavier cleans allowing more energy to put heavier weights over head. This could be said for all two part lifts. The easier you make part one, the easier part two will be, so don’t just focus on the press or the full movement. Olympic Weightlifters break the Clean and Jerk down into separate parts, there’s no reason strongmen can’t.

Jen hit a new 2rm block snatch at 32kg which is the same as her max and hit a new max 3+1 in the Block Clean and Jerk at 46kg. Blocks are great for many things, for Jen we’re using them to build confidence in the turnover without the variable of the first pull and without the added fatigue of the hang.

Xena has made great progress with her weightlifting and is regularly going off the floor now in both the Snatch & C&J. She also hit a new 5RM of 63kg in the Squat. When Xena first came to the Weightlifting club she couldn’t squat even near parallel, now she’s burying her squats confidently and for good weight. It’s a slow process and I wish I had her more than once a week, but we’re making great progress even on the limited contact.

Liam has a big month and hit PB’sof 140kg in the Squat, 190kg in the Deadlift, 75kg in the Strict Press 75kg in the Log Press and hit a PB in the Push Press of 90kg. Everything is trending up nicely and we’re no prepping for his first strongman competition.

Ash has had a tough couple of months rehabbing a thumb injury (torn scaphoid tendon). This means anything that included gripping was out the question. No deadlifts, no pressing, no barbells, stones, farmers, sandbag or even yoke… I think you get the idea. Not ideal for a strongman, there is always something you can do though so we focussed in on the squat and used a bar that didn’t put pressure on the wrist. Low and behold we hit a PB SSB Squat of 160kg which is 40kg up on her max SSB but more importantly, only 10kg lower than her best ever straight bar squat in wraps. When we can we’ll transition her to a straight bar and smoke a new PB without wraps.

Thats about it…

Usually i’d focus in on something to talk about after all the PB’s, maybe Davids cleans and why we broke them down and specifically practiced just cleans, or maybe why we’re looking to include Jo’s squat speed, maybe something completely unrelated to the rest of the post, but I tried to expand on each person in their own piece so I’m not sure talking about it again is necessary.

What I will say is, you might have noticed I mentioned a lot of new rep maxes for my clients above. The reason is pretty simple… Rep maxes feed into each other.

A new 10rm puts you in a good place for a new 8rm, a new 5rm puts you in a good place for a new 3rm. A new 3rm… Well, you get the picture.

Obviously there are caveats and its not as simple as just beating rep maxes every week until you hit a new 1RM, although that would probably work for beginners.

But they do all feed into each other and, like Lucy, you can pretty much guarantee if you hit or beat your current 1rm for a double, you’re going to hit a new 1rm shortly after… and probably a pretty big one.

Lastly, i’ll give you s a little programming tip for rep maxes before I leave.

As with any strength sport than requires maximal strength over 1 rep, the further away from that 1 rep, the less specific you get. So i’d usually focus on 8rm and below for main movements. 10rm and above I save for more assistance based stuff where its appropriate.

Obviously there are deviations from that general rule with a rep event in strongman being one possibility for deviation if the athlete is expected to get lots of reps.

Weightlifting is the other where I generally work with 3, 2 and 1rms for the classic lifts and their derivatives while sometimes sneaking up to 5rms on some movements that are further away from the close variations.

This wasn’t as quick to write as I first made out, but hopefully you find some value here for your own programming.

Any questions pop them in the comments.

I hope you had a great Christmas and a happy New Year.

Here’s to smashing some goals in 2022.

Until next time

Adam

Strapped for time

It’s Monday morning and I’m a little strapped for time as I write this so…

This months been ok for Team Savage everyones ticking along nicely but the only guys who were really in a phase where they’ll hit PB’s were Jo, Jen and Paul… and did they hit PB’s?

Yes they did!

Lucy obviously isn’t ‘Jo, Jen or Paul’ but we had one goal going into this early phase of training… Hit a front Squat PB… Lucy took her Front Squat up by 3kg (about 5%) from 79kg to 82kg. This will give us more space to add to her Clean & Jerk. It should also put us in a good position to chase that 100kg back squat.

Big Jo hit rep PB’s in both the Deadlift (200kg x3) and the Log (87.5kg x1+3) while also hitting a new 1RM Strict Press of 80kg (+5kg). As I write this Jo is on a nice heavy week where he’ll likely hit a PB in the Deadlift alongside hit strict press. Watch this space.

Jen hit a PB Snatch of 32kg (+1kg) and PB C&J of 50kg (+2kg). Considering her max Back Squat is 90kg we still have plenty of room to push these before we run out of the room on the strength aspect of the lifts. More technical work coming up and more strategically placed singles. Because Jens strength levels in the squat far outweigh what she’s lifting in the classic lifts, I give her more singles than I usually would to other athletes who’s ratios are maybe closer together.

Paul hit a PB in the Squat of 115kg (+5kg) and Deadlift of 175kg (+10kg). Not much to say other than Paul’s a hard worker and everything is moving upward nicely.

Finally Xena hit a huge Squat of 58kg for 5 reps. I’m really proud of Xena with this as when she first came to me she couldn’t squat past 45 degrees. now she’s burying heavy squats for sets of 5 and there’s more there. She’s also take her first Snatch’s and Cleans from the floor this past month too.

Everyone else is ticking along nicely and should hit some PB’s around Christmas time… My present to them :).

Now as I said, it’s Monday, I’m a little strapped for time and I have a client in around an hour so no musings and ramblings this month.

As i’m strapped for time i’ll leave you with the link to a research paper on the Minimum Effective Training required for 1RM Strength in Powerlifters.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/354240457_The_Minimum_Effective_Training_Dose_Required_for_1RM_Strength_in_Powerlifters

It seems pretty apt all things considered.

Until next time

Adam

Tyne & Wears Strongest

So, it was a decent month for Savage Strength this with PB’s in the Weightlifting Club, The Strongman Club and some placings at Tyne & Wears Strongest.

So lets get onto the run down:

Jack hit a nice 1kg PB in the C&J at 113kg. In all honesty Jack kind of missed the boat on his peak in the Snatch and Clean & Jerk 3 weeks prior due to a mad work schedule so this was making the best of a bad situation and to sneak a PB was nice.

Lucy also hit some PB’s, taking a 2kg PB in the Snatch at 47kg and while she missed the Jerk on her C&J PB, we continued up to take a 3kg PB in the clean at 70kg. Lucy was in the same situation as Jack in that she missed the boat on the peak 3 weeks prior because of work, but again we salvaged the training cycle and took some PB’s!

George had a great month in the Strongman Club taking a very convincing 1st place in Tyne and Wears Strongest (Inters) while taking a 10kg PB on the Deadlift at 280kg (Narrowly missing 300kg for a 30kg PB) and putting the 160kg stone to 2nd highest platform during the competition which frankly, for me, was the highlight of the competition while also being a PB Stone.

Sean had a good competition too taking 3rd at Tyne & Wears Strongest (Inters) narrowly missing on 2nd via countback. Countbacks can be a shitter and I think there are better ways to do it for podium places if its planned correctly, but as I explained to Sean, thats the way it is and you enter the comp knowing the rules. Sean Took a 10kg PB Deadlift for 260kg and put the 145kg stone to Middle Platform for a PB Stone too.

David Wilde has only been with us for 3 weeks and has already hit a PB Log at 90kg, its amazing what giving someone a little confidence and some decent technical coaching can do.

One to One client Jen had a great month hitting rep PB’s in the Snatch and the C&J which are as follows… +1kg PB Snatch, 3RM at 30kg, +1kg PB Snatch 2RM at 31kg, +3kg PB C&J 1+3 at 45kg, +2kg PB C&J 1+2 at 46kg. Jen also hit a huge PB in the Squat (off program) of +6kg to take her max to 90kg! I never mind people going off program as long as it A, doesn’t have a knock on effect to other sessions, and B, doesn’t cause injury… I stopped writing this after the PB’s section as I had Jen to coach and se only went and hit a 68kg Front Squat in the session for a 3kg PB. So you can add that to her list of PB’s this month too!

And One to One client Paul hit a PB Squat of 110kg adding 5kg to his 1RM Squat and also took 102.5kg for a double for his first Squat for reps over 100kg.

So yea, it’s been a pretty successful month for all my guys and after the PB’s, the Weightlifting Club are straight back into another training cycle focussing on the Front Squat and the Strongmen are into a nice offseason conditioning block… Which is what I’m going to talk about next.

So conditioning for Strongman… It should be so obvious that strongmen need to be conditioned. In a competition of 5 or 6 events you might get one 1RM event. Couple that with the fact that if you look at alot of the top guys now, gone are the days of Glen Ross and huge fat monsters and in are the more athletic strongmen like Novikov and the Stoltmans.

So how should you do it?..

Well, I’m not going to give you a free program via a blog, I am going to give you a framework though.

To be simple, 4 weeks should be enough to see significant improvements and its as simple as this:

Apply these rules every week:

Main Barbell are anywhere between 5x5 & 7x7 with 45 to 60 seconds rest.

Competition lifts are Emoms for 10 to 15 mins and for between 2 to 3 reps.

Moving Events should be focussed on longer durations 40m plus. while keeping the foot speed fast.

Assistance keep it bodybuilding that focuses on weakness’

Then progress the weight through the weeks like this.

Week 1: 40 to 50%

Week 2: 45 to 55%

Week 3: 50 to 60%

Week 4: 55 to 65%

And thats easy really, it doesn’t have to be complex. Once you finish week 4, you could extend it to a 5th week to hit the top range of 65% if you have room to keep going, but mostly i’d get stuck into your usual training block style and feel the improvements in recovery between sets, sessions and in your moving events.

Yes there are caveats to this where you could bend the rules, but thats hard to portray in a short blog, it is a good frame work that works well though.

There will be a conditioning block available in the Online Strongman Club that you can download and run available in a couple of weeks (Probably from November 4th).

Just click here to sign up: https://www.savagestrengthcoaching.co.uk/savage-strength-strongman-club-online

Until next time

Adam

Overhead (Almost) Everyday

Well…

Its the end of another month so I’m once again here to tell you all about what’s happened with Savage Strength this month…

And in all honesty it’s been a quiet one.

Between taking a well needed week off and my guys being in a short prep for Tyne & Wears the training PB’s haven’t been abundant… Mainly because we’re saving them for competition.

You’ll find that though. On short preps its more about putting in the work and putting yourself in as good a place as possible ready for competition over gunning for training PB’s.

Nevertheless, there have been some, so here they are below…

George has been an animal on the stones this month, as has Dan, which makes sense as we’ve trained stones a certain way for a while and now with Tyne and Wears having ‘Max Stone’ in competition rather than the usual stone run we’ve approached it differently (More like the way you’d approach a max deadlift) so its provided a novel stimulus that they’ve adapted to.

Anyway… George finally got the 160kg stone, a stone he’d been after a while, to 48ins and not long after that he loaded it to the middle platform too which is around 56ins. He also took the 145kg stone to the 56in platform for a triple and a rep PB, then the 145kg stone to the ridiculous heights of 62ish and 68ish inches too.

And in true fashion, Dan Tonge also hit the 160kg, and i’m sure he’d enjoy it if I make it clear that he did it before George 😂. He also loaded the 145kg stone to the 56in platform for a double and a rep PB.

Dan L hit a 115kg log for a Double and a PB and Hit a PB deadlift of 235kg which puts him in good stead to hit the 240kg deadlift on the day. In honesty Dan’s struggled this prep, 3 competitions within 12 or so weeks of each other is tough, but his came in, got the work done and it’ll pay off come comp day.

Sean hit a PB log of 120kg, he’s only been using the log for around 7 weeks which is phenomenal, and he’s now also tapering and in a good place to do well for tyne and wears.

The weightlifters have been a little quiet this month, but they won’t be by next. Sometimes its just about putting in the work.

So I always try to add value to these blogs and not just make it a list of victories (When I have time), so back to Sean, 120kg log in only seven weeks of using it is quite remarkable. Yes, he had a decent press on a barbell before touching the log, but that 120kg log matches his max on a barbell… So what did we do to achieve this?

Now i’m not going to give you a program here, just more of an approach.

To put it simple, Sean trains 4 time per week… And we had the log in his hands 3 times a week… Essentially approaching it like an Olympic Weightlifter would the Snatch or the Clean.

Remember, strength is the application of force and to do that you need motor patterns and skill… So to get him strong on the log we first had to build a competent motor pattern that would allow him to then apply his force.

Did we max him every session? No

We worked him hard, but we varied the focus and the load and did plenty to keep his shoulders healthy outside of the pressing.

And for the guys who think you can only press once or twice a week and anything more is unsustainable…

Sorry, but you’re wrong.

Vary the load, vary the volume, vary the focus and do enough other stuff to keep the shoulders functioning and you can do it indefinitely.

If you want a rough out of the pressing…

Day 1: Log Press Strength (Volume) & Push Press Skill work

Day 2: Cleans Practice & Strict Press Strength

Day 3: Log Press Strength - Competition Practice (Load)

I’d of had no problem putting the log in his hands all 4 days either if i’d of had too, it just would have taken away from something else at that point and we managed to stay away from that.

Thats me done, hope that helps and if you have any questions just leave them in the comments section.

Until next time.

Adam

Venison Grillsteaks

I’m short of time and currently cooking Venison Grillsteaks for dinner so its going to be a lazy blog this month… So here are the PB's

Jacks smashed this month and hit a 115kg Block Jerk, 94kg Snatch Double (4kg over his 1rm at the time), 96kg Snatch for a new 1RM, 145kg Front Squat for an all time PB & a 160kg Back Squat for an all time PB and for his first double bodyweight squat!

Lucy hit a 44kg Snatch Double

Wor big 17 year old Jo hit a 95kg Push Press in training and went on to hit PB’s in competition at newcastles strongest of 100kg Axle FTOH, 3 reps Car Deadlift and a full stones taking the event win and also finishing him in a surprise 4th place.

George hit a 270kg Deadlift for a 5kg PB that looked easy, it also got him on the FSI leaders board.

Dan T - 275kg Deadlift (were creeping closer to that magical 300kg). He also competed in the Inters category at Newcastles Strongest and hit PB’s in 4 of 5 events getting 4 Reps Car Deadlift, 105kg Axle FTOH, 130kg Farmers Distance PB, 20kg Front Hold PB. He finished 7th but when you hit PB’s like that its not about the placing.

Dan L hit a 220kg Deadlift for a PB and from out of nowhere came 1st at Newcastles Strongest Novice with a huge PB in the Car Deadlift, a 5kg PB with 110kg Axle FTOH and also took an event win on the farmers carry.

Adam B did awesome at Newcastles strongest hitting 19 Reps Car Deadlift a 120kg Axle FTOH both for PB’s and event wins (Joint 1st on the axle) and ended up 2nd overall at Newcastles Strongest Novice.

Sean W was also phenomenal hitting a PB on the Car and a 5 kg PB of 120kg on the Axle FTOH taking joint 1st in that event and 3rd overall at Newcastles Strongest Novice

Phil Wotner Smith on the same day as Newcastles smashed the UK truck pull in the under 110kg category to take 3rd overall.

And finally Jen Barnes hit a lifetime PB back squat of 84kg a lifetime snatch PB of 31kg and a front squat PB of 65kg.

Phwew! Got through that!

Basically it was a good month for Savage Strength and our clients with august 8th being a particular highlight with Savage Strength athletes doing a 1, 2, 3, 4 at Newcastles strongest novice and Phil taking a podium place at the UK truck pull championships.

4 podiums across 2 competitions is alright I guess.

There’s a lot more I could talk about in terms of each athlete and their comp prep, but those grill steaks are pretty much done.

So I’ll end it there!..

Until next time!

Adam

Context Is Everything!

So…

Its been a hot January…

A very hot January in fact…

And training’s been harder because of it…

But that hasn’t stopped my guys hitting PB’s…

So onto the usual start!

Jack had a fantastic month finishing one mesocycle with some PB triples and starting another with some PB doubles that just happened to match his 1RM’s

84kg Snatch x3, 90kg x2

105kg C&J 3+1, 110kg x2+1

Jacks going to hit new 1RM’s for doubles before he hits actual new 1RM’s… So i’ll probably talk about that and how that affects training when it happens!

Lucy mirrored Jack…

It makes sense…

They’re part of the same Weightlifting Club so are largely on the same training cycle with a few subtle personalised differences.

42kg Snatch x3, 43kg x2

50kg C&J 1+3, 54kg x1+2

Sean of the strongman club hit a new PB on the Axle of 115kg then hit it for a double a week later, this all bodes very well for a PB at Newcastles Strongest on August 8th.

Online Athlete and once a week Strongman Club members Jo’s pressing is flying hitting a 93kg Push Press for a PB and a 90kg Axle FTOH for another PB. He also hit a 170kg Squat for a double followed by a 172.5kg Squat double a week later. We just need to pull that car now and we’re set up well for Newcastles!

Lastly Dan Liddle (Our second Dan) hit a 210kg Deadlift for a 5kg PB while warming up to pull the car for reps. This went out as a post not long ago… Today actually if you take it as the time i’m writing this… The text from that post is below… It’s why the title of this months blog is ‘Context is everything’ which seems to be the story of my month.

‘It's mentally and physically hard going from competition to competition with minimal down time but Dan's doing it brilliantly and hitting PB's on the way.
Here's a 210kg Deadlift for a PB with more in the tank!
The focus is firmly on the car deadlift but we took this because it was there and would cause minimal excess fatigue while not effecting the Car Deadlift.
Dan's very early into his weight training and strongman career (only around 12 weeks) and is making excellent progress so we're able to do things like this and take impromptu easy PB's...
But as he gets stronger and more experienced we'll be able to take PB's in this manor less and less.’

We also had two of our guys get on the FSI top dogs board:

Lucy - 93kg Squat

George - 242.5kg Deadlift

George has pulled 265kg before and will pull more than this to bump his deadlift higher on the board… We’ve just not needed to pull that weight yet and Lucy’s squat takes her only 2kg away from her all time best… all while in the middle of a volume filled training block…

It’s all very encouraging.

I talked a little about competitions last month in terms of delaying gratification but as results go…

Dan Tonge came 14th at UKs Strongest Novice, he was originally disappointed at the placing (I wasn’t) which is fine, you have to hold yourself to high standards and always want more, but when you hit PB’s in every event it’s hard to be disappointed in terms of placing for much longer than the initial results.

George came 7th at UKs Novice taking home an event win and hitting PB’s on the way again… Another big win.

Dan Liddle came 2nd in a First Timers again hitting PB’s in basically every event and after only 8 weeks training.

The PB’s are kind of my point to this title…

At the time of writing…

Unless you are Lasha Talakhadze, hope I spelt that correct, or Tom Stoltman or anyone who is number one in their field, you have no reason to think you’re going to walk in and win and even then you can’t take it for granted.

What I say to my athletes is that your placing is irrelevant as long as you’ve made progress, hit PB’s and performed well. Yes it’s nice to place, but if you hit PB’s and perform well for long enough, the podiums and placings will come.

Ultimately, placings are contextual unless you are at the top of your field as you can’t control who else enters a competition.

I was going to get into the context of coaching and why it matters for technique cueing, exercise selection, goal setting and basically everything else to do with how you would coach…

But i’m tired and i’ll save it for next time or a different post.

Thats the end of this months ramblings.

Until next time!

Adam

Delaying Gratification

So we’ll start with this months PB’s as usual!

It’s been a great month at the weightlifting club with Lucy smashing multiple 1RM PB’s at the end of the last training cycle and some rep PB’s to start this one!

Snatch 46kg (+3kg)

C&J 64 (+2kg)

Clean 67kg (+1kg)

Snatch Triple 38kg

C&J 3+1 48kg

Jack did the same adding to his 1RM at the end of the last training cycle and to his rep based max at the start of the new cycle:

C&J 110 (+1kg)

Snatch Triple 80kg

C&J 3+1 100kg

Lise also did great getting back to full lifting after a dodger shoulder limited what she could do for a while.

In the strongman club Dan Tonge loaded a 140kg Sandbag to 52inches and hit some big PB’s while coming 14th overall in UK’s strongest novice.

140kg Sandbag (Used to train kegs in Lou of having kegs heavy enough)

100kg Log x4 - UK Novice

220kg Axle Deadlift x8 - UK Novice

George also competed and came 7th at UK’s strongest novice and hit some pb’s along the way…

Log - 120kg (+7.5kg)

Log 100kg x7 - UK Novice

Axle Deadlift 220kg x7 - UK Novice

Event Win - UK Novice

Our other Dan (Liddle) in the Strongman Club has been flying with too many PB’s to list he has however hit a notable 205kg Deadlift and 105kg Log on only 7 or 8 weeks strongman training.

Callum is brand new to lifting so he’s still on newbie gains and everything is a PB right now, the thing i’m most proud of is the progression of his movement patterns and his application when he’s here!

Sean been going from strength to strength while prepping for Newcastles too with a rep PB on Axle press and hitting some new weights on stones!

Axle 110kg x3

145kg Stone x2

And lastly, some PB’s from 17 year old Jo who is also prepping for Newcastles. His big task in the run up is to get some reps in on the Car and the Trap Bar & Squat progress will be a big step towards that.

145kg Stone to second platform

230kg Trap Bar

170kg Squat

A lot of my guys are in comp prep right now so the FSI Top Dogs board hasn’t been a priority, however Lucy still got on beating her own score while creeping her Squat back up to 4 kg below all time levels.

Lucy - Squat - 91kg

Last thing I want to talk about is delaying gratification. I’ve had this on my mind a while and didn’t know how to write it until now… Or at least I think I know how to write it now.

Anyway…

Delaying gratifications an important part of training, in my opinion, and especially in the run up to competition.

Too many people hit that PB a week or two out from competition.

The PB they’ve been gunning for over the training cycle.

The PB they were hoping for when they signed up for the competition.

And all too often I see people hit that PB in training and they don’t hit the same weight on the day…

Or worse… It’s not there on the day.

Sometimes its because they max out to close to comp…

Most of the time its because they lose that fire in their belly for that sense of relief.

Take Dan for example.

Dan signed up for UK’s strongest novice with a log for reps that was basically at his max.

He’d hit over that weight once… Ever… By a kilo or two.

So, obviously we trained for it like you would to increase your 1RM.

However, while everyone else was hitting Log PB’s in training, I told him not to go over 95% even if it felt good.

And it was a source of stress that nearly caused him to pull out at one point close to the comp for fear of no repping.

It was all part of the gameplay though.

While I allowed George to hit PB’s (He was doing the same competition) to help with confidence with the reps, I didn’t allow Dan.

And this is where context comes into the game.

George at the time had a 112.5kg log and was hitting comp weight for 3 or 4 reps in training. It would have been non sensical to hold him back. He knew he could rep it, he just didn’t know how many times.

So it was about relaxing him into the event ready for comp to take the stress off.

For Dan it was the opposite…

Even though he was ready for a PB 2 or 3 weeks prior.

I knew it… He didn’t… But we needed that hunger.

Anyway, to cut a long story short Dan repped his max for 4 reps on the day.

I don’t think he would have done it if i’d let him PB in training and hadn’t delayed his gratification on the event.

To put it simply…

Once you get what you want, you’ll often lose that drive.

Hopefully that makes sense.

Until next time.

Adam

Leg Strength & Snatch Botches...

Its a busy time at Savage Strength, especially for the clubs…

The weightlifting club is at the business end of their training cycle and in the strongman club we’re prepping for 3 different competitions across 5 members.

I always say that while the strongman club runs as a group, the programming is individualised to the member and theres no better example than prepping multiple people in a group for different competitions and using the club program structure, but swapping movements in and out depending on what each athlete needs and when for!

Anyway, I always use the first part of this blog as a bit of a showcase for my athletes… and this one will be no different… So…

Jack hit a 143kg Front Squat for an all time pb.

He also hit a 109kg C&J for a 9kg PB

Doubled his Max Snatch then doubled it at 4kg extra…

He also hit a single a week later at 90kg which took his Max Snatch to 90kg for a 7kg PB at 79kg Bodyweight.

Lucy hit a PB Front Squat, a PB 1+2 C&J and a PB Snatch Double and also got on the board at FSI in the back squat…

Frankly she’s dominating the u57 women!!!

And wor Lou did the same as Lucy with a PB Front Squat, a PB Snatch Double and a PB 2+1 C&J.

So I guess the focus on the Front Squat worked for the weightlifting club!

In the strongman club we had new member Dan hit a 95kg Log for a PB…

Probably means he’ll be fine at 75kg for reps at his first timers competition. It also means we’re almost at the point where we can start focussing on getting better at the rep based stuff rather than just looking to get stronger.

If you didn’t know, there’s a great way to determine how to approach strongman rep events…

I also wrote an article on it…

Link here: https://www.savagestrengthcoaching.co.uk/when-is-a-rep-event-not-a-rep-event

But if you want the short version…

If you have a rep event that is above 80% of your max… just getting stronger will serve you best…

If you have one that is below 80% of your max… look to improve your work capacity and your rep based performance.

Lastly i’ve just finished a training cycle… Not an easy one given me and the wife had a baby right at the business end, but even so…

I added 2kg onto my max Snatch…

4kg onto my max C&J…

And 20kg onto my max squat while also matching my Front Squat max beltless.

Going forward i’m going to rinse the squat gainzzz and run the squatting cycle again…

I might even release it to the public at some point…

I’m also going to focus on fixing some of the technical aspects of my weightlifting…

Including the early arm bend i’ve developed in the snatch.

I’ll leave you there, but if you want a laugh, here’s me taking a 107kg Snatch attempt on my back… Should have left it at 105!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CPJbGkGjFoy/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Stay Strong

Adam

'Happy Ingrid Day'

I’m sitting at home writing this around 4 and a half hours after the birth of second daughter.

Seems a weird thing to be doing right now, but now that the wife is out of recovery, due to covid I’m only allowed 2 hours visiting per day until they get discharged…

So yea, may as well do something and doing this along with telling the world about the birth of my child seems as good as anything…

Although I might keep it short.

Anyway, at the time of writing, gyms have been open for 2 weeks now and we’ve had a plethora of PB’s at Savage Strength…

As follows…

Dan - Log 102.5kg, Front Squat 160kg, Deadlift 270kg

George - Front Squat 150kg

Dean - Strict OHP 67.5kg

Lou - C&J 50kg

So yea, one every other day.

It’s a fantastic start back to the gym and a real testament to the hard work the guys put in during their home sessions.

Oh and Jen got heavier through lockdown but improved her body composition while doing so… So that’s a nice little PB too.

There’s a lesson there too.

Don’t just look at scale weight, if we had Jen would have probably just stress about weight gain and want to lose. I doubt any of you have access to a DEXA scan but the primitive techniques of taking measurements and progress pictures can be invaluable in building a more complete picture.

We also have a new Top Dogs board (or so I call it) at FSI and my guys have been getting on there in their various weight classes.

So again, as follows…

Lucy (u57kg) - Pullups x12, Push-ups x35, 1RM Deadlift 105kg

Dan (u120kg) - Pullups x4, 1RM Deadlift x270kg

George (120kg+) - Pullups x4

Lou (u63kg) - Pullups x6, Push-ups x22

Paul (u105kg) - Pull-ups x10

Notice all the pull-ups on there?

Aside from the obvious that i’ve had my guys hammer pull-ups through lockdown it tells you something…

That I value the pull-up.

Whether you’re a 57kg female or a 125kg male, you should be able to do them and if you can’t you should start learning.

They’re a huge bang for your buck exercise that requires minimal equipment. And ontop of the obvious benefits in back strength and size, they’re also a great indicator of general fitness, great for your posture and will hugely improve your grip strength!

They’re also a nice way to decompress the spine after a big barbell session.

So do them and do them often as they’re pretty hard to overtrain.

I’ve got other notes written down that I wanted to speak about…

Mainly on the early arm bend i’ve managed to develop in the snatch as a by product of my movement selection to correct another error… Along with notes on how I plan to get rid of it…

But childbirths got me ready for bed so that’ll have to wait.

The title of this post is what my first daughter Astrid said when she woke up this morning and knew she’d have a little sister by the end of the day.

Until next time

Adam