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 have spent the last six weeks in the novice phases of learning to powerlift. That may seem odd, given that my last post declared (self-righteously and with no real grounds for doing so) that powerlifting isn't a great test of strength because the ability to perform those movements doesn't necessar...
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Aaaaaaaand, we're off! My 2014 training has started and, thus far, it isn't going too badly. After a trial run of DDP Yoga at Christmas, Vikki and I did our first 'official' session on Sunday: the Diamond Dozen followed by Energy. Honestly, it is excellent. I already feel more limber after doi...
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Alongside the deadlift, there can be no argument that the squat is the King of Exercises (in weight lifting, anyway). Some even rate the squat higher than the deadlift, but that's a matter of much discussion. Simply put, squats rock. They ravage the majority of muscles in your entire body, burn...
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Today was nothing special - just a standard chest session at Immortals Gym in Sheffield. It is taking me a while to recover my chest strength, but this is nothing unusual - I tend to overcompensate using my arms and shoulders, which are disproportionately strong compared to my chest. The big lif...
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Today was my first dedicated leg session at Immortals Gym in Sheffield. I didn't go too overboard, however, because I have a gig later this week and I need my legs in order to leap around as pictured. With squats being my main big exercise for the day, I decided to go for a few sets at 100kg. At...
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In an attempt to get marginally stronger again, I have considered following this Guildsman's Strength routine. The problem, however, is that is starts out quite easy. Three sets of eight reps at 60% of my one-rep maximum doesn't feel like it is doing anything. I know it is, I know that I will w...
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I have not been squatting as I should. In fact, since I went travelling in March I may have only done two squat sessions... So it was that, after a mighty Volbeat gig the night before, I awoke in the same house as fellow Guildsman Simon Lowe and thus resolved to lift mightily after a fine breakf...
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What's the first thing that pops to mind when you think "triathlon"? How about when you think "Adventurethon"? How about when you think about the individual sports of kayaking, mountain biking and off-road running? It's probably brute strength, right? Right. That's why, in preparation for my fo...
Continue reading ...[caption id="attachment_1541" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Squatting in the name of the Lord...[/caption]...
Continue reading ...Pancakes be praised! It's FINALLY the end of the working week and, therefore, time for my final installment of "This is more or less how I like to train"; a guide for anybody bored enough to be interested. So, here is Friday. Or Frīġedæġ, in Old English - so named after Frigg, wife of Odin. ...
Continue reading ...I'm nearly there!. This is installment three of four in my "I kinda try to train along these lines" guide for anybody interested in how I train. If anybody out there is actually interested, I will eat my own hat. As a man who owns no hats, I'll also have to go out and purchase a hat. This I fear...
Continue reading ...It's the mid-week entry of my "This is a good way to train...I think" diary. I call it Wednesday, which comes from the Old English Wōdnesdæg or 'Day of Wodanaz'. Wodanaz also goes by the name of Odin (O'din't you know? <--- that's a joke.) Being Odin's day, Wednesday is a blessed day ...
Continue reading ...I've decided I need to get back into shape. The next wrestling show is on the 28th of July and I've lost around 5kg of good weight and seem to have collected some bad along the way. I'm not happy with the trade off...I must have been drunk when I agreed to it. So I shot down to Apollo Gym in Hig...
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