So…
Its been a hot January…
A very hot January in fact…
And training’s been harder because of it…
But that hasn’t stopped my guys hitting PB’s…
So onto the usual start!
Jack had a fantastic month finishing one mesocycle with some PB triples and starting another with some PB doubles that just happened to match his 1RM’s
84kg Snatch x3, 90kg x2
105kg C&J 3+1, 110kg x2+1
Jacks going to hit new 1RM’s for doubles before he hits actual new 1RM’s… So i’ll probably talk about that and how that affects training when it happens!
Lucy mirrored Jack…
It makes sense…
They’re part of the same Weightlifting Club so are largely on the same training cycle with a few subtle personalised differences.
42kg Snatch x3, 43kg x2
50kg C&J 1+3, 54kg x1+2
Sean of the strongman club hit a new PB on the Axle of 115kg then hit it for a double a week later, this all bodes very well for a PB at Newcastles Strongest on August 8th.
Online Athlete and once a week Strongman Club members Jo’s pressing is flying hitting a 93kg Push Press for a PB and a 90kg Axle FTOH for another PB. He also hit a 170kg Squat for a double followed by a 172.5kg Squat double a week later. We just need to pull that car now and we’re set up well for Newcastles!
Lastly Dan Liddle (Our second Dan) hit a 210kg Deadlift for a 5kg PB while warming up to pull the car for reps. This went out as a post not long ago… Today actually if you take it as the time i’m writing this… The text from that post is below… It’s why the title of this months blog is ‘Context is everything’ which seems to be the story of my month.
‘It's mentally and physically hard going from competition to competition with minimal down time but Dan's doing it brilliantly and hitting PB's on the way.
Here's a 210kg Deadlift for a PB with more in the tank!
The focus is firmly on the car deadlift but we took this because it was there and would cause minimal excess fatigue while not effecting the Car Deadlift.
Dan's very early into his weight training and strongman career (only around 12 weeks) and is making excellent progress so we're able to do things like this and take impromptu easy PB's...
But as he gets stronger and more experienced we'll be able to take PB's in this manor less and less.’
We also had two of our guys get on the FSI top dogs board:
Lucy - 93kg Squat
George - 242.5kg Deadlift
George has pulled 265kg before and will pull more than this to bump his deadlift higher on the board… We’ve just not needed to pull that weight yet and Lucy’s squat takes her only 2kg away from her all time best… all while in the middle of a volume filled training block…
It’s all very encouraging.
I talked a little about competitions last month in terms of delaying gratification but as results go…
Dan Tonge came 14th at UKs Strongest Novice, he was originally disappointed at the placing (I wasn’t) which is fine, you have to hold yourself to high standards and always want more, but when you hit PB’s in every event it’s hard to be disappointed in terms of placing for much longer than the initial results.
George came 7th at UKs Novice taking home an event win and hitting PB’s on the way again… Another big win.
Dan Liddle came 2nd in a First Timers again hitting PB’s in basically every event and after only 8 weeks training.
The PB’s are kind of my point to this title…
At the time of writing…
Unless you are Lasha Talakhadze, hope I spelt that correct, or Tom Stoltman or anyone who is number one in their field, you have no reason to think you’re going to walk in and win and even then you can’t take it for granted.
What I say to my athletes is that your placing is irrelevant as long as you’ve made progress, hit PB’s and performed well. Yes it’s nice to place, but if you hit PB’s and perform well for long enough, the podiums and placings will come.
Ultimately, placings are contextual unless you are at the top of your field as you can’t control who else enters a competition.
I was going to get into the context of coaching and why it matters for technique cueing, exercise selection, goal setting and basically everything else to do with how you would coach…
But i’m tired and i’ll save it for next time or a different post.
Thats the end of this months ramblings.
Until next time!
Adam
