England’s Strongest Man Under 80kg 2018
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 weekend I went head to head with the strongest men in the country, after just eight weeks of training. Long story short, I stopped training in strongman around November 2017 due to a lack of anywhere to train. Eventually I decided enough was enough, so I set up my own strongman gym – The Stronghold – and recommenced my training just a couple of months before the competiton. I basically had to learn everthing from scratch…and it showed.
Even so, come the day I set personal bests in all three events I’d done before and tackled two events I’d never ever tried. It didn’t help that I injured my back in the very first event, which made the rest of the day a somewhat groggy affair of head rushes and trying not to be sick.
[Edit: a month later and my back still hasn’t fully healed. God knows what I did to it.]
The order of the day was as follows:
Event One: Max Log Press
This event gave us three nominated lifts in which heft your heaviest possible log. When it comes to log press, the diameter of the log is everything. The thicker the log, the further out from your chest it sits and the more off your centre of gravity becomes. The competition log is 13 inches across which, for relatively small strongmen, is bloody massive.
When training with a log that size, I could hit 90kg 100% of the time, 100kg around 75% of the time, 102.5kg around 20% of the time and had never quite managed to lift 105kg. Wisdom would dictate three nominated lifts like this:
Lift 1: 90kg
Lift 2: 100 or 102.5kg
Lift 3: 102.5 or 105kg
Not being a wise man, however, I went straight in at 100kg – not wanting to waste my intial lift on a weight I knew for a fact I could crush. Of course, that’s the point of an opening lift: destroy it without over-taxing yourself in order to set yourself up mentally for the next lifts. That strategy is all well and good, but it is far for Guildy. In the Guild, we go for broke.
And broke we got, because after 100kg flew up I jumped straight into a second lift of 105kg – which went up so easily that I actually fucked it up and dropped it. Luckily I had a few seconds left for a second attempt. Now…let me clarify this. I had a few seconds left to re-attempt a personal best lift – something that I’d normally wait at least 5 minutes before trying. It’s not really possible, as evidenced by the fact that nobody else who failed a lift that day managed their second attempt. You just expend all your energy on your first attempt, so of course the second one isn’t going to work…
But mine did. I was so fucking angry that I’d screwed up that I threw that log into myself like it was my nemesis (indeed log press had been my weakness for the two months building up to this comp, primarily because I don’t have a coach to show my how to actually do it…) Incredibly, it flew up as fast as before and went overhead to lockout…but not without causing a noise like crrmmppop from the middle of my back, where I over-extended like crazy to get the weight overhead.
So that was my back fucked for the rest of the day, which meant I wasn’t even close to my third attempt of 107kg. It didn’t even move off my chest.
Event 2: 300kg Yoke Carry Over 18m
There is no way to describe the feeling of putting over a quarter of a ton on your back and then trying to walk with it, as fast as possible. That’s true even before you’ve just popped something major in your back and feel like you’re full of glass.
When it came to the yoke carry, however, my main mistake was rushing. Just like last year…apparently I don’t learn. I got so focused on moving as fast as possible that, although I covered the first 10m in the fastest time, I then lost my balance and dropped the yoke. Getting going again took valuable time, and the resulting effort caused me to drop it again – twice. I still placed third, but it was a mistake that cost me dearly for the rest of the day.
Event Three: Car Deadlift Max Reps in a Minute
This event I had never done before, and it showed. It turns out it’s almost nothing like an actual deadlift: this particular setup was more like a two-phased movement: a hinge to your knees then a sit-back.
Just before the event started, we swapped cars and added some weight. I’m not entirely sure why: the guy who won the Masters competition tested the event and declared he could maybe achieve a single rep…which seemed like fair warning that it might be a tad heavy for a max reps event. Even so, on we went…and it kicked the shit out of us. Me in particular.
I managed one rep. After that, there was no possible way it was moving above me knees: I just didn’t know how to pull it! Having never tried or practised the movement, I had no idea how to lean, what to fire – or anything. I’ve never felt as hopeless or confused in an event and, honestly, I thought about just giving in.
This was a bit of a disappointment for me, because I felt like a Max Reps in a Minute event should be a real grinder and test of endurance. I was expecting sets of 10 or 15+. As it was, nobody managed more than five – and he has the best deadlift of anyone I know. In my opinion it was too heavy, but we all had to do the same event – so it’s equally fair either way. It just didn’t play towards my strength quite as much.
Event Four: Truck Pull
Another event I’d never done before and, therefore, another event I lost. It’s hard to be disappointed because there is so much techniuqe that goes into events like this that it is almost impossible to do well in your first efforts. I should have practised pulling my car more in training, that’s all I can say.
The most interesting part about pulling a truck is that I had absolutely no sense of movement. It was only the sounds of the audience that let me know I was moving anywhere at all! Next time I’ll do better at this.
Event 5: 120kg Atlas Stone As Many Times As Possible In 75 Seconds
There’s a reason they call me stone man. Unsurprisingly, it’s because I fucking love lifting stones. Two months before this competition, however, I hadn’t lifted any stones in about a year – and it was all I could do to manage a few reps at 80kg. The next biggest stone I had was 105kg and I couldn’t barely get that off the ground when it arrived. Two weeks before this competition, I could still barely move the competition 120kg stone off the floor
The reason I love lifting stones so much is that it’s primal. There’s something utterly fascinating to me about pitting yourself against a lump of rock and knowing that only by giving it every ounce of strength and concentration in your body will you succeed in lifting it. When it came to event day and it was just me against That Fucking Stone, nothing was going to slow me down.
At England’s Strongest Man Under 80kg 2017, one person lifted the stone seven times, one person did it six times and only two other people mananged to get it up once or twice. This year nobody did fewer than five reps and even my set of eight was only enough to tie me in first place. This was by far my best event, and I hope it will continue to me…once my back has healed enough for me to train again.
All in all, I was proud of what I achieved on the day, but alarmed by how badly I failed at the events I had never tried before. I suppose that shouldn’t be a surprise, but for some reason it was anyway.
Onwards to the next challenge!