Having accidentally won South England's strongest natural man (under 80kg) back in April, I found myself in the national finals, against all the champions and qualifiers from across the land. This was to be my first ever two-day competition and my hardest to date. So you might think I'd prepare myse...
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08:21, Trojan Fitness, Bristol The dial on the scale slid upwards, heartlessly, to settle with a mocking little bounce at exactly 80.6kg. “That...” I summarised insightfully, “Is not under 80kg”. That was a problem because, one month after running my first marathon (on a frozen lake...
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Yes, you read that correctly. A marathon. On ice. Why? Because I'd never done a marathon before and would probably never do one again, so I might as well make it memorable: by doing it on frozen lake in Norway, as part of the World Ice Running Championships. Thus, the Oarsman! We drove from O...
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For those who don't know, a Spartan Sprint, Super and Beast race all within a single year. Or, if you are a Guildsman: a single weekend. After all, how hard can it be? Preparation Being a man of The Guild, I believe the best preparation is no preparation. That way I am always equally prepa...
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This time next weekend I will run my first, second and third Spartan Race since 2015. It's in Windsor and is the very last Spartan Race of the season and only the second ever trifecta weekend in the UK. It's going to be epic and I’ll be writing up a full review of my suffering for Obstacle Race Ma...
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Ladies and gentlemen, it is with GREAT PLEASURE that I can announce that The Guildsman's Handbook - my very own GUIDE TO LIFE AND ALL THINGS GLORIIOUS - has finally been released and is available for purchase here: https://theguild.bigcartel.com/product/handbook Or it's FREE if you're a Patro...
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Avast me hearties! My strongman training facility is finally OPEN! 'tis called THE STRONGHOLD and has everything you could possibly want and need to become POWERFUL! That isn't to say you need to be strong and mighty to come along: it's designed to increase your power no matter what point you are...
Continue reading ...Last year I took part in (and won) England's Strongest Novice Under 80kg. It was my first ever competiton and it ignited a passsion for strongman in me, especially watching the guys competing in England's Strongest Man Under 80kg, who I decided to take the following year. So it was that this wee...
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This weekend was Ghost Squad's third outing to Mudnificent 7, the OCR Expo. It always holds a special place in our hearts because it was the first race we ever attended outside of Tough Guy, where the sound of five hours of pounding war drums made the OCR community realise there was something not qu...
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This weekend Ghost Squad returned to the summer version of Tough Guy, Nettle Warrior, to do what we do best... ...whatever that is! [gallery type="rectangular" ids="8000,8002,8052,8051,8050,8039,8038,8037,8036,8035,8034,8033,8032,8031,8030,8029,8028"]...
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This Sunday marked exactly one year to the day since I started strength training with a purpose. That sounds odd, I know. Surely the purpose of strength training is always strength? Well yes, but Guildspeople don't really train uni-directionally or for specific purposes. We cultivate an ambient l...
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Thanks to gender equality in the workplace and constant messages of empowerment, women at the Daily Mail believe they can write as big a steaming pile of bullshit as their male colleagues. When Gillian Jones took up a career as a journalist for the Daily Mail, she knew it would be a challenge. S...
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Having completed five tough weeks of strongman training, it was finally time to test my progress at England’s Strongest Man Under 80kg Novice competition. A few weeks before, I learned that my Ghost Squad amigo, Hakon Fram Stokka, was flying from Norway to Edinburgh to do a 50+ km Spartan Ultra...
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I woke up on Sunday 16th of July at 82.5kg. That’s the heaviest I have ever been, I’m usually 79-80g. I know: I’m much smaller in real life than people expect. I don’t really give a crap about my weight. The only thing that interests me about my bodyweight is its implications for my rela...
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After all my rambling about strength training, I decided I should put mine to the test. So I signed up for the novice round at England’s Strongest Man Under 80kg. That weight category is very important. I have loved strongman ever since witnessing Magnus Ver Magnusson conquer all mortals in the...
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After feeling like a combination of wrestling and Westside Barbell was going to kill me, I opted for something a bit more focused on my athleticism as well as my strength. The Juggernaut method is a vast and expansive all around athletic development program. It’s based on the idea that strength...
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Coming out of trying 531, I wanted to get back into heavy weight training, so I looked into Westside. The Westside Barbell program was developed by Louie Simmons, and uses Eastern European principles of weightlifting. Unlike most powerlifting programs that focus purely on moving fairly heavy weights...
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My God, 531. I swear I nearly gave up on life itself whilst reading up on 531. The sheer about of “debate” that exists online concerning the program must be crushing to anybody trying to work out whether or not it is for them. Every possible question has been asked and answered, and every answer...
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This was the first proper lifting program I ever adhered to. Why? Because it was simple. Other programs had dozens of variations of exercises and convoluted combinations of sets, reps and percentages of maximums, to the point that I always felt I spent longer reading and planning than training. ...
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I've just shoved a calendar-style thing on my Facebook page, so you can see where I'm going to be, what I'm going to be doing, and when! Now it's easier than ever to come say hi at Gay Bum gigs, Ghost Squad race hauntings, comic conventions and wrestling shows! Hopefully that means I won't keep ...
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