Pol/Fir/Mil NATs '13 - 1 Week Out: Show Goals

No workouts this weekend other than 5 sets on the Rower, to keep the blood moving.

Saturday afternoon it was announced on Facebook that the weight classes would be combined at Brute Strength Gym next weekend due to a lack of heavyweight competitors. Based off of the people who were 'going' on Facebook I thought there were going to be a lot of big guys throwing a lot of big numbers around but I guess I was wrong. With the change, the Open Men are lumped into two categories; 200 pounds and under and 200 pounds and over. What it means for me is that I don't have to worry about cutting down to under 231.4 for weigh-ins, I just need to show up over 200 pounds and smash weights, the same event weight I've been training for all along!!

On one hand, if I had known 13 weeks ago that I'd be competing against a few of the big boys maybe I never would have cut down and maintained a lower body weight. On the other, I'm not ready for a 270 Log Clean 1 / Press for Reps in a show and should I place, I wouldn't be going to Open Nationals as a HVY, I'm far from being ready to go as a LWT, let alone a HVY.

The only drawback I see is that I planned on flying out on Thursday so I could make weight first thing in the morning on Friday. Now that I don't have to make weight, I really don't have a reason to fly out a day early but at this point it's very expensive to change flights, sucks that I'll be away from the family one more night than I really need to.

Show Goals
I've never competed against a Heavyweight Monster (think a top 15 Open NATs placer) in the smaller shows that I’ve done but I have won both times that I competed as a Heavy. Looking at the line up for Brute I recognize a few names from NATs in years past and there's some formidable 200 pounders on the list and the PFM LWT winners from ’10 & ’11, but what I don't see is Previous PFM HWT winners or many of the guys that I see in the Brute vids. I guess, mostly, they show up and help things run smoothly, which I’ve done while injured in my own back yard.


Event Weights List


It’s interesting to think about goals at the show knowing that I won’t have to cut those last 10 pounds and then re-load after getting on the scale. My goal is to win and come home with the PFM above 200 National Champ title and an invite to Open NATs 2013. The question is… Because it’s billed as a combined Middleweight Class, if you win, can you go to NATs as a 231.4 because the class wasn’t offered? At the end of the day, I doesn’t really matter until I come home with it, so what happens, happens next week and the rest will be figured out when all the dust is settled.

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~SAVAGE~

Pol/Fir/Mil NATs '13 - 2 Weeks Out: Last Look & Heavy Liftin'

This weekend was my last chance to get heavy work in before P/F/M Nats. About a year ago I was training heavy for a Dallas Plat Plus show a week out and fucked my back up when pulling my 750 pound 'Doomsday Frame', an injury that haunts me to this day. With the recent 'hard cramp' of two weeks ago, I don't want to take any chances but, I needed a 'last look' before the show.

Failing at 303

DTG: 27JUL2013/1000
LOC: Brownfield Residence
Events: Axle Clean & Press, Arm / Arm Pull, Tire (Chain) Drag, Car Dead Lift

Today was a Team Big Sac extended family reunion at the Brownfield residence. The Barrel Doug Carroll came up from Santa Rosa, Brooks brought a few guys doing the Novice class at Northern Nevada's Strongest Man down from Chico and Fred Larson, Ty-lor Shelgren and Zach rode up with me.

I got some work in on the Axle while everyone else was working with the BiggDogg Logg. I worked up to 303 but I missed it twice. My best good rep was 283, 300+ will sadly have to wait until after VA. I did two sets each of Arm Over Arm Pull / Tire Sled drag with a 220 pound stone in the tire, both times the second go felt better than the first.

My real reason for heading to the Brownfield Residence was to get my hands on his Car Dead setup again. The pick on my Car Dead is about 6" higher than his and the one in VA, and it damn near crippled me last time I used it. I wanted to have another session with it, and be able to walk away from it, before heading out. Today, for my last set, we had a Corolla on the platform w/ 100 pounds of dumbbells in the trunk, with each rep one of the guys threw in a 60 pound sandbag. My 5th rep was my last, with an additional 240 pounds of sand in the trunk... And I walked away from it without cramping or tweaking it. Good training day.

DTG: 28JUL2013/1200
LOC: Fortress of Solitude
Events: Log Press, Keg Press
The sun has been relentless this summer and I was pretty burnt out after my day in Oroville. I decided to omit Frame Dead and 18" Dead today, after the Cad Deads, I didn't want to chance it. I got my whole workout in today in about 45 minutes. I went slightly above event weight on the Log, cleaned it once, pressed it for 4 reps. Not as good as I've done before but I also hadn't done Axel Press / Log Press on back to back days before. I'm going to chalk my weak Log work up to that.

Kegs have been an issue for me lately, mostly because I haven't trained with them enough. Today I worked staggered grip and hit the 207 with the left and right, also the 230 with the left and right. My last rep was a single with the 250, left hand on the top / right hand on the bottom, if that makes sense. Honestly, I was surprised that I hit it today, a 240 is going to be a chore at the end of the push-pull.

Last Two Weeks:
I have 12 full days until the competition. This morning I was 246.8, I have to cut 15.4 pounds. Here's my plans for the final days:

07/29-08/05: Last week of lifting. No max attempts at all. Any static events practice done will be capped at 85% of event weight. Try to hit conditioning every other day first thing in the morning, switching between 20 minute steady state sessions and hi intensity interval training.

08/06-8/08: Rest, rest, rest. Get adjustments and take massages. If any work needs to be done for cutting purposes, keep it very low-impact. Travel day is 08/08, I get in early enough to find a sauna or steam room if needed.

08/09: Wake up, check body weight, cut any final weight that I may need to, head to Brute to weigh-in as early as possible (1100 per entry form) and then hit Waffle House like a wrecking ball, get back to Brute to feel the equipment out, pizza/pasta feed at Regino's with leftovers 3 hours later.

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~SAVAGE~

Pol/Fir/Mil NATs '13 - 4 Weeks Out: F@#K the groceries!!

DTG: 13JUL2013/1830
LOC: Brownfield Residence, Oroville, CA
Events: Log Press, Arm/Arm Pull, Sled Drag, Car Deads

I had National Guard duty and afterwards I went up to Oroville to train with Douglas Brownfield; his Car Dead apparatus pick height is much more close to the one at Brute than the one at my house is and because I've zeroed twice in Car Dead events, I don't want to mess around with prepping for this event. Also, as I said in a previous blog, I've really neglected training for the moving events so those were targets today.

We warmed up with a few set with the log, I think my last set was 210, clean once / press for a triple. I didn't do too much because I hit iBench pretty hard on Friday night. I still don't have an anchor chain but tonight's workout around was a tire loaded with four 45's on a loading pin. First I worked the Arm / Arm Pull with my feet braced against a 250 pound sand bag with the tire sled just over 60' away from me. I was focusing on working a rhythm trying to coordinate the legs and arms, I think I got the hang of it after three sets. I still have a long way to go to match the skills I saw in the Brute Strength Gym Functional Fitness Class videos.

I followed up each set of Arm / Arm Pull with Tire Sled drags, same weight and distance as above. I should have gone a little further but my lungs and legs were burning. Working on the form here, I tried to start off with short choppy steps and stride out towards the end. I have a bad habit of looking back over the shoulder that I need to correct. I feel like the setup at Brute will be much more challenging and I need to put something different together to train for it. After the moving events practice, I was well warmed up for Car Deads.

Brownfield and I started with a 500 pound tire on the platform and pulled it for some reps to warm up. To increase weight we parked the car on it and extended it and added weight to it, leading up to the final set, which was pretty close on contest practice. The Car Dead was loaded with my Honda Civic and 160 pounds of dumbbells in the trunk. Next to the car was a stack of four 60 pound sand bags. After each rep I knocked out, Brownfield threw in a sand bag up, I get all but the last rep, it was heavy.

It's about an hour's drive from Brownfield Residence to the Fortress of Solitude and I stopped off on the way to grab some groceries. About an hour after getting home I was cooking dinner and bringing stuff in from the car, On my last trip I walked in, set my gym bag and groceries on the floor, stood up and pulled a muscle in my lower back hard. It wasn't immediately as bad as when I wrenched my back with the 740 Frame Dead about a year ago. I'm writing this up a few days later and my lower back in still tender. Hopefully I won't have to pull out of P/F/M NATs because of this. I'll give it a few more days rest and then try to hit the weights again. I can't believe that way it all unfolded; fuck the groceries.

Compressed, Depressed Strongman

The Doomsday Frame: System Weight 740-790lbs

A week ago Sunday I blew my back out doing some Frame Deads with my good friend Douglas Brownfield while preparing to go to Dallas, TX for a North American Strongman Pro-Qualifier. I was more prepared for this show than any other show than I've gone to in a long time but I shot myself in the foot five days out from weigh-ins. 

My Frame, which will now be called Doomsday, has a base weight of 350-400lbs, I don't know which is correct, I've never weighed it. It's inventor, Dave Dirks of Dirks Welding in Yuba City, CA, told me it was 400 base on the poundage per inch of the scrap channeling he used to build it. My strongman buddies have ranged the ways it 'feels' anywhere from 375-500, based on how high gravity is cranked up on training day. I've always gone with 350, just to be safe. 

That day we warmed up with Harness / Rope assisted Frame pulls for three sets of 75' with increasing poundage, next I suited up for Doomsday Deads while Douglas flipped the tire. I was wearing my Inzer Advanced Designs Fusion suit - it's a one ply Dead Lift Suit, and my Inzer Forever Lever Belt. I knew I was warm so the goal was five sets of heavy triples, increasing weight with each set, my aim with this was to replicate the Car Dead Lift event that I'd face in Dallas. First set was Doomsday, empty for 3, it was my first time lifting with with the suit / belt and I wanted to get the feel of it. Doomsday alone was too easy, second set was +110 for another easy triple, this was too easy as well. Third set was +200, fourth was +290, and fifth was +340, all for triples. 

I should have stopped at the fifth set, actually, I shouldn't have been lifting at all, I should have been resting, but zeroing on the Car Dead in Tunica in 2011 was on my mind, I didn't want to zero in Dallas and hadn't felt prepared enough in that event to take a rest day. But it didn't... I called for another pair of quarters, dipped my hips, pulled to a sticking point and then wrecked my way to a lockout. It was a good rep, but my last for the workout and since. 12 minutes after the lift I had a feeling I wouldn't be going to Dallas, it was that bad. 

Later that afternoon I went for a hot stone massage, and woke up Monday the 13th having to lay on the floor to get dressed. I've been adjusted twice a day Mon-Fri since by Dr. Dean Ellyson of Ellyson Chiropractic in Marysville, CA. For the most part, I've got full range of motion back and am getting around pain free - for the most part. Still, I was scheduled to compete in Northern Nevada's Strongest Man, hosted by Gary Montoya in Reno, NV on the 25th. There's no way I could come in prepped for that show either. 

In my downtime, I've had a lot of time to reflect and come up with a game plan for the future. I've been looking at my training log for the week before the injury and here's the events I can point to that led to the broken back...

08AUG12:
- Suit / Belt Box Squats 225x5, 275x5, 315x8, 365x8, 405x3, 455x3, 495x3, 545x1
- Suit / Belt Barbell Deads 485x3, 535x3, 600x3, 650xF

11AUG12:
- Tire Flip LWTx5, HWTx11
- Yoke Walk 555x20', 655x20', 855x50'
- Farmer's Walk 200xP, 300x50'

12AUG12:
- Doomsday Pulls 440x70', 530x70', 620x70'
- Doomsday Deads 350x3, 460x3, 550x3, 640x3, 690x3, 740x1

Prior to my injury I was seeing Doc Ellyson weekly right up until July 23, after Tehama's Strongest Man. My work schedule changed to nights and I neglected to schedule appointments after that, stack the back to back heavy on top and it's almost like I was asking to get hurt. 

If I do recover from this I've got a few things in mind from preventing it from happening again:
1. Weekly Adjustments, even when I don't think I need them or have time
2. 2 Deep Tissue Massages a month
3. Heavy Lower Body Work limited to once a week or once every other week

I don't know when I'll start lifting again. I had planned on going to Police/Fire/Military Nationals as a Heavyweight on Sept 8th, it's probably a better idea to go as a lightweight at this point as it'll be a while before I get back to full strength.

There is a silver lining here. At the end of the day, it was a good lockout at somewhere between 740 & 790 pounds on one of the first few times I've trained the lift. Should I recover completely form this, I do see a 700 pound, and perhaps beyond Barbell Dead Lift (Suit & Straps) in my future even though it definitely won't happen this weekend. Someday I'll learn about peaking and periodization, probably for this year's run at Nationals.