Well…
Its the end of another month so I’m once again here to tell you all about what’s happened with Savage Strength this month…
And in all honesty it’s been a quiet one.
Between taking a well needed week off and my guys being in a short prep for Tyne & Wears the training PB’s haven’t been abundant… Mainly because we’re saving them for competition.
You’ll find that though. On short preps its more about putting in the work and putting yourself in as good a place as possible ready for competition over gunning for training PB’s.
Nevertheless, there have been some, so here they are below…
George has been an animal on the stones this month, as has Dan, which makes sense as we’ve trained stones a certain way for a while and now with Tyne and Wears having ‘Max Stone’ in competition rather than the usual stone run we’ve approached it differently (More like the way you’d approach a max deadlift) so its provided a novel stimulus that they’ve adapted to.
Anyway… George finally got the 160kg stone, a stone he’d been after a while, to 48ins and not long after that he loaded it to the middle platform too which is around 56ins. He also took the 145kg stone to the 56in platform for a triple and a rep PB, then the 145kg stone to the ridiculous heights of 62ish and 68ish inches too.
And in true fashion, Dan Tonge also hit the 160kg, and i’m sure he’d enjoy it if I make it clear that he did it before George 😂. He also loaded the 145kg stone to the 56in platform for a double and a rep PB.
Dan L hit a 115kg log for a Double and a PB and Hit a PB deadlift of 235kg which puts him in good stead to hit the 240kg deadlift on the day. In honesty Dan’s struggled this prep, 3 competitions within 12 or so weeks of each other is tough, but his came in, got the work done and it’ll pay off come comp day.
Sean hit a PB log of 120kg, he’s only been using the log for around 7 weeks which is phenomenal, and he’s now also tapering and in a good place to do well for tyne and wears.
The weightlifters have been a little quiet this month, but they won’t be by next. Sometimes its just about putting in the work.
So I always try to add value to these blogs and not just make it a list of victories (When I have time), so back to Sean, 120kg log in only seven weeks of using it is quite remarkable. Yes, he had a decent press on a barbell before touching the log, but that 120kg log matches his max on a barbell… So what did we do to achieve this?
Now i’m not going to give you a program here, just more of an approach.
To put it simple, Sean trains 4 time per week… And we had the log in his hands 3 times a week… Essentially approaching it like an Olympic Weightlifter would the Snatch or the Clean.
Remember, strength is the application of force and to do that you need motor patterns and skill… So to get him strong on the log we first had to build a competent motor pattern that would allow him to then apply his force.
Did we max him every session? No
We worked him hard, but we varied the focus and the load and did plenty to keep his shoulders healthy outside of the pressing.
And for the guys who think you can only press once or twice a week and anything more is unsustainable…
Sorry, but you’re wrong.
Vary the load, vary the volume, vary the focus and do enough other stuff to keep the shoulders functioning and you can do it indefinitely.
If you want a rough out of the pressing…
Day 1: Log Press Strength (Volume) & Push Press Skill work
Day 2: Cleans Practice & Strict Press Strength
Day 3: Log Press Strength - Competition Practice (Load)
I’d of had no problem putting the log in his hands all 4 days either if i’d of had too, it just would have taken away from something else at that point and we managed to stay away from that.
Thats me done, hope that helps and if you have any questions just leave them in the comments section.
Until next time.
Adam
