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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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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After a LOT of consideration, I have decided to try Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 training program. It took a lot of thinking because, after 4-5 months of Faleev's 5x5 training (5 sets of 5: if you succeed, put the weight up 5kg next week), Wendler's approach seems ludicrously light. You see, traditiona...
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The Good News My powerlifting raining is progressing slowly, but surely. At the end of week eight of dedicated training, my lifts currently stand somewhere around: Squat: 170kg (based on a 7 rep max of 140kg) Bench: 120kg (based on a 4 rep max of 110kg) Deadlift: 215kg (based on a 7 rep max of...
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I've never really been into powerlifting as a sport. It's presented as test of strength, but I've always felt like strength should imply the ability to perform a variety of physical feats - not just three highly practised movements (squat, bench press and deadlift). I mean, if a man can bench pr...
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