While it's been shown that injuries largely can't really be predicted, people hang their hat on that it's bad movement patterns largely causing injury.
However research has shown that a bigger predictor of injury when it comes to training is lack of sleep, stress and being under fed...
Now, if you play video games, in of Zelda terms, I'm basically a walking the Tri-force of injury risk. I'm currently very stressed, very under slept and i'm months into a big weight cut that has left me feeling very depleted and with the strength of a new born kitten.
It's no wonder some historical back issues have arisen in the past couple of weeks really, but the show must go on and I've been adapting my own training since to fit what I CAN achieve.
Sometimes thats just the way it goes and not every training cycle is a monster in terms of progression. But thats my current situation and my clients have had way more success than me in the past month, so lets take a look at what they've been up to.
Joe made some great progress in the movements we've targeted over the past training cycle taking the Log, one of his weak events, for a new max at 140kg and hitting PBs in the Squat of 240kg x3 and 265kg x1. Joe hasn't been competing recently, despite my nagging, however I still base his training cycles off the Natural Strongman competition season to give us a timeline to achieve things in.
Goals & timelines
It's great just being able to meander around training, taking as long as it needs for things to happen and the idea of giving yourself less time to achieve something may be daunting, but having a goal that is time restricted is often great for progress.
SMART goals are a common way to measure if a goal is a 'good' goal or not, and the last letter 'T' for time-bound is an important one. In Joes case, he is a Natural Strongman so using the main competitions within the Natural Strongman competition season (whether he is competing or not) to tick the time-bound box just seems logical.
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-bound
Some of those are more important than others, but if you're not ticking those boxes when setting your targets, you're probably going to struggle to get to where you want.
Paul, yes Paul, I know we have gone our separate ways, but there's a crossover in the last week between writing this and the end of the month, so he hit a final couple of PBs after I wrote the last blog before he left. The Squat is the big one taking 145kg x1 for a new 1RM and to perfect depth which was a great way to sign off. He also hit an RDL PB of 130kg x5.
Sam hit a PB i the Football Bar Shoulder Press of 67.5kg x1, more about that below.
The right movement
I'll start off with, if you do a strength sport, unfortunately you're going to have to perform the movements required to competition standard whether they fit you or not, however if you don't, you shouldn't feel bound by the Barbell.
Sam is a golfer and came to me to improve his strength as there's a correlation between how far you can hit the ball and how good a golfer you are. Historically Sam had numerous shoulder dislocations in the past and was always apprehensive about shoulder pressing. The Barbell always caused problems at lockout for Sam, but just because traditional tools cause issues, that doesn't mean we can't find a way.
Pressing heavy over head is valuable in terms of function and for me it was important we found a press that Sam could use to drive overhead strength. Enter the Football Bar!
We coupled the neutral grip that allowed Sam to press more comfortably with a seated position to make the movement more stable and in time we've been building his overhead strength to levels he's not been to before.
Magically Sam is now confident in his shoulder and can press good weight overhead!
In situations like Sams, it's rarely that you can't and it's about finding the implements that are both loadable and that allow you to get into good positions to drive strength.
Taj seems to have a natural aptitude in the Jerk, it's by far his best lift, even while owning the longest arms on earth. Taj hit 2 PBs in the Jerk off Blocks. One at 68kg and one at 70kg, which we'll call a training make.
Training makes
Taj is not like Sam, Taj is a weightlifter and as such must Snatch, Clean & Jerk on a barbell, this also means he has to be held to a certain standard when lifting.
Taj had a slight re-bend in his arms when he caught the 70kg Jerk. Not enough to discount it, but enough to question if it would pass in competition and it's often beneficial to make notes on things like that as it saves disappointment when competition comes round and you don't hit what you did in training.
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I forgot to chat about a couple of competitions last month so I have everyones UKNS performance to catch up on too, James' is the first. First off James has hit PBs in the C&J of 80kg and 90kg. A little long term side quest for James is to learn Olympic Weightlifting and apply it to his strongman and he's well on the way.
In January James competed in UKNS Englands Strongest Junior weighing in at around 112kg. He did great, put on a clinic on the Axle breaking out the Power Jerk for the first time in competition while also qualifying for UKNS UK Finals...
6 weeks later, James competed at BNSF Englands in the U90s category (His goal, not mine). That was no easy task and he was very depleted which lead to a disappointing performance, however there are silver linings.
In 18 months James has dropped from around 130 / 135kg down to around a bout 93 to 94kg walking round weight making him a much more health person, we've also hit Push Press and Deadlift PBs in that time which is a miracle given the weight-loss, but now it's time for James to pick a weight category and stick to it to allow us to make some real progress.
Managing a decline
When you're dealing with severe weight-loss to make weight for a competition, you're essentially managing a decline where progress is unlikely and the goal is to minimise any strength loss, it also makes quantifying progress difficult because inevitably you're probably going to lose some strength.
In my view, unless you're a high level athlete dropping weight to increase overall competitiveness, the best thing to do is to pick a weight category and stick to it and around it when out of competition.
It'll make training and competition performance more predictable while also allowing you to more effectively track progress. A 5kg increase in the deadlift at the same bodyweight is a great metric for progress. Your deadlift being up and down after a yo-yoing up and down in weight for different competitions isn't.
Big Jo also competed at UKNS Englands Strongest Junior in January taking 2nd place and booking his place in the UK Finals. Jo put in a stellar performance and while we still identified areas to improve on, Jo was ultimately beaten to first by 1 second on the frame hold, thats how close it was...Jo will be looking for redemption at UK Finals in May. Speaking of UK Finals, Jo took the first steps to dominating the Stone Over Yoke event taking 140kg for a set of 5 and a new 5RM.
Marie hit PBs now on just about everything except the Snatch & Clean and thats what we're turning our attention too now that the Yorkshire Open and Nixon Rowell is in our sights. In the meantime, Marie hit an all time PB in the Block Jerk at 66kg, the most she's ever put overhead while also hitting PBs in the Muscle Snatch of 33kg and 34kg. I wanted to increase Maries weightlifting frequency without increasing fatigue, which is why the muscle snatch is in her program now. It's limited in the load you can use so you can take it to a max basically weekly. It also promotes a vertical extension of the legs and keeping the bar close, two vital parts of weightlifting, while going relatively heavy, but without to much additional fatigue... Win, win, win.
Xena is still managing the knee but the good days seem to outweigh the bad days now which is a big positive. A Below the Knee Muscle Snatch double at 34kg and a BTN Snatch Grip Press 1RM at 30kg are the PBs Xena was blessed with this month. Both are movements I identified that were not knee dependant so we have been able to push them every session regardless of the state of the knee.
Little Jo, who is very different to Big Jo, has had a stormer of a month! hitting rep PBs in all of her targeted lifts! In the Bench Press Jo hit a 5RM of 41kg and a 3RM of 44kg. In the Deadlift she hit a 5RM of 68kg and a 4RM of 70kg. And in the Squat she has hit 5RMs of 53kg, 55kg and a 3RM of 57kg. Lovely work and all very positive in terms of hitting new 1RMs!
Liam P is prepping, like me for the ABPU Newcastle Qualifier in April and it's all looking very promising in terms of hitting some PBs. Liam has hit rep PBs in both the Bench Press and the Deadlift, taking 110kg x3 and 115kg x2 in the Bench Press and 220kg and 225kg x3 in the Deadlift. Liams max Bench and Deadlift are 122.5 and 232.5 respectively and we'll be looking to beat those on 6th April.
Wil has had a great month of training hitting rep maxes in the Bench Press of 85kg x3, Squat of 155kg and 162kg x3 and Deadlift of 165kg x5. Wil is on for some great new 1RMs and we do this with very reduced training sessions due to the time constraints of Wils job. How do we do this?
Training with time constraints
Now, i'll start by saying that everyone will look different based on their training preference or sport and their own specific challenges, but for Wil I built his personal program like this.
Wil used to train 4 times a week but currently only has time to train 3 days a week because of work, so that is constraint number 1 and my personal preference for programming 3 training sessions a week is full body sessions.
Constraint number 2 was that he only has around 75mins to train, not a lot of time for full body sessions, but doable.
So that was our starting point. 3 full body sessions per week that took no more than 75mins to complete.
So, how did I break it down?
In each full body session we'd be looking to Squat, Push & Pull some way, but performing compounds take time and a traditional 5x5 style program would probably take too long, so that was out. With 75mins we probably did have space in there for 1 compound per session though.
So I approached it the way I would usually select movements in a program after I've selected the main compound...
Main Compound
Assistance compound that builds the main compound
Isolation movement that builds the assistance compound
I did that for all 3 of Wils main compounds, those being the Squat, Bench & Deadlift and then I split them off and put one on each of his 3 days.
For example Day 1 became:
Main Compound - Squat
Assistance Compound for the Bench - Incline DB Press
Isolation Compound for the Deadlift - Nordic Curls
Quick bit of cardio
Then I rinsed and repeated for the other 2 days with the other movements and viola,It ticks the boxes while also providing great progress and gives us somewhere to go.
If the session was too long, those 3 movements would be giant set-ed with slightly reduced loads. If we found we had plenty of time left we could add some extra isolation movements in the form of a giant set for movement number 3. But it provided a start point.
Is it optimal? No, but sub optimal doesn't mean no progress and as a coach, you're always better off giving somebody something thats less than optimal, but very achievable rather than an unachievable gold standard.
And as you'll see in my monthly email this month, 80% or results will often come from around 20% of the work if you buy into Paretos law.
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I've not been tracking maxes in Savage Strength School as it largely doesn't matter for kids as long as they're moving well and enjoying it. The kids were introduced to and did perform some brilliant Power Jerks on Friday just gone though as part of a Pressing complex.
Tuesdays are Olympic Weightlifting and Fridays are Strength & Conditioning based.
Our Kids sessions runs two nights per week out of Stag Fitness Strength Centre and it's focus is to introduce kids to lifting in a safe, supportive and educative environment.
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Nixon Rowell prep is fully underway in our Olympic Weightlifting Club, everyone has basically hit new volume PBs in the Snatch, Clean & Jerk (5x5 @80% in those movements will do that) and we're now moving to some heavy lifts in the coming block of work!
Our Weightlifting Club runs multiple nights per week out of Stag Fitness Strength Centre and it's focus is to introduce people to the sport of Olympic Weightlifting while giving them the opportunity to compete if they wish to do that.
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In our Strongman Club, Cori has been flying hitting new 1RMs in the Squat at 130kg, Log Press at 78kg, Deadlift at 175kg. I've also pushed the 15 year old on stones this month and he's taken 100kg x5 and 110kg x3 for new rep maxes (both to 51 inches).
George F competed at BNSF Englands Strongest Man on the 17th March and came 8th. George put in his usual stellar performance on the Deadlift and moving events but a zero Log let him down costing him about 8 points and a bump up to 3rd or 4th place. Many people zeroed that log, about half the field in fact, but a zero is a zero in terms of points and in strongman that can be disastrous in terms of placings. Silver linings though, George is back to full health following his back issues at UKNS Brits last year and now that he's settled into his new roll as a father too, we can push on.
Our Strongman Club runs multiple nights a week out of Stag Fitness Strength Centre and has a history of taking people from the level of complete beginner to British Finalist.
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In our Online Weightlifting Team, Karen has been flying hitting 3RMs in the Low Hang Snatch of 45kg and Low Hang C&J of 53kg x3+1 with both only being around 3 or 4 kg below her maxes off the floor. That strength work we put so much time into is now paying off!
Our Online Weightlifting Team follows the British Weightlifting competition calendar with a focus on the bigger national competitions and the regional ones in the North East of England and is perfect for those competing in that area and for those looking for guidance and a periodised and focussed program.
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And finally, in our Online Strongman Team, Jonny has been flying in prep for UKNS UK Finals. Jonny has hit plenty of volume PBs on the Deadlift, but the most impressive was the 290kg double he took on the sly. He also smoked a 145kg double in the Axle Push Press, a number that is 5kg above his '1RM'.
Lastly we get to Oli, who I should have spoke about last month. In January Oli, like Jo and James, competed at UKNS Englands Strongest Man and qualified for UK Finals in May. He did all this with a back that he put out while sneezing in bed and that was less than healthy and very painful. He even took a win in the frame hold. Olis performance in that competition was inspiring, the grit he showed during each event and the smiles he cracked despite the pain he was in. What a competitor!
Our Online Strongman Team follows the UK Natural Competition Calendar with room to stop off and compete through a few other competitions too. It’s perfect for those competing on the circuit and for beginners who don’t plan to compete yet but want a coaches guidance and a periodised plan.
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Reet! Thats it, I'm onto 3 hours on this now and I'm done typing. Hopefully there's some value for you to take away from this outside blog of just the PBs i've written.
Until next time
Adam
