Christmas is done and the New Year just started and currently i’m onto day 10 of my time off. I still don’t feel rested, but starting your time off with a toddlers birthday 2 days before Christmas will do that to you.
Anyway, and i’m sure I say this every time I write this blog, I’m going to make this a quick one… So client PB’s as follows:
Lucy hit a couple of PB’s in the Snatch taking 48kg for a new 2rm and 50kg for a new 1rm adding 3kilos to her max Snatch. She actually beat her 1RM for a double first which is why we took 50kg after. There’s plenty more in the tank for Lucy to progress too as we continue to progress technique. We just need to stay out of the heels! Lucy also got on the FSI Board with 14 Pull-ups which frankly is phenomenal!
Jo hit multiple PB’s this month taking the log for 95kg for a new 1rm then shortly afterwards take 100kg for a new 1rm. He also doubled 95kg. The more traditional measures of strength went up too and Joe took 230 for a new 1rm adding 10 or so kilos to his Deadlift and also added a whopping 25kg to his Squat taking 200kg for a single. Next on the agenda for Jo is competing at Kaos strongest teen. We’re also looking to add speed to his back squat. The goal of that is to just make him more explosive overall when standing up with things. Its a very general goal, but means more power on the push press, quicker times on farmers, yoke and stones.
Dan T has had a great month an continues to progress on the Nichol walking stones and hit the full weight of 138kg & 114kg for 5 metres. All good preparation for next year!
Sean hit a nice Yoke PB of 350kg x15m with no drops, next we’ll be looking to add speed.
David Wildes been working hard on his log clean and has improved technique exponentially which has allowed him to hit a really nice 107kg clean. This should help his press as the improved technique will take less out of him on heavier cleans allowing more energy to put heavier weights over head. This could be said for all two part lifts. The easier you make part one, the easier part two will be, so don’t just focus on the press or the full movement. Olympic Weightlifters break the Clean and Jerk down into separate parts, there’s no reason strongmen can’t.
Jen hit a new 2rm block snatch at 32kg which is the same as her max and hit a new max 3+1 in the Block Clean and Jerk at 46kg. Blocks are great for many things, for Jen we’re using them to build confidence in the turnover without the variable of the first pull and without the added fatigue of the hang.
Xena has made great progress with her weightlifting and is regularly going off the floor now in both the Snatch & C&J. She also hit a new 5RM of 63kg in the Squat. When Xena first came to the Weightlifting club she couldn’t squat even near parallel, now she’s burying her squats confidently and for good weight. It’s a slow process and I wish I had her more than once a week, but we’re making great progress even on the limited contact.
Liam has a big month and hit PB’sof 140kg in the Squat, 190kg in the Deadlift, 75kg in the Strict Press 75kg in the Log Press and hit a PB in the Push Press of 90kg. Everything is trending up nicely and we’re no prepping for his first strongman competition.
Ash has had a tough couple of months rehabbing a thumb injury (torn scaphoid tendon). This means anything that included gripping was out the question. No deadlifts, no pressing, no barbells, stones, farmers, sandbag or even yoke… I think you get the idea. Not ideal for a strongman, there is always something you can do though so we focussed in on the squat and used a bar that didn’t put pressure on the wrist. Low and behold we hit a PB SSB Squat of 160kg which is 40kg up on her max SSB but more importantly, only 10kg lower than her best ever straight bar squat in wraps. When we can we’ll transition her to a straight bar and smoke a new PB without wraps.
Thats about it…
Usually i’d focus in on something to talk about after all the PB’s, maybe Davids cleans and why we broke them down and specifically practiced just cleans, or maybe why we’re looking to include Jo’s squat speed, maybe something completely unrelated to the rest of the post, but I tried to expand on each person in their own piece so I’m not sure talking about it again is necessary.
What I will say is, you might have noticed I mentioned a lot of new rep maxes for my clients above. The reason is pretty simple… Rep maxes feed into each other.
A new 10rm puts you in a good place for a new 8rm, a new 5rm puts you in a good place for a new 3rm. A new 3rm… Well, you get the picture.
Obviously there are caveats and its not as simple as just beating rep maxes every week until you hit a new 1RM, although that would probably work for beginners.
But they do all feed into each other and, like Lucy, you can pretty much guarantee if you hit or beat your current 1rm for a double, you’re going to hit a new 1rm shortly after… and probably a pretty big one.
Lastly, i’ll give you s a little programming tip for rep maxes before I leave.
As with any strength sport than requires maximal strength over 1 rep, the further away from that 1 rep, the less specific you get. So i’d usually focus on 8rm and below for main movements. 10rm and above I save for more assistance based stuff where its appropriate.
Obviously there are deviations from that general rule with a rep event in strongman being one possibility for deviation if the athlete is expected to get lots of reps.
Weightlifting is the other where I generally work with 3, 2 and 1rms for the classic lifts and their derivatives while sometimes sneaking up to 5rms on some movements that are further away from the close variations.
This wasn’t as quick to write as I first made out, but hopefully you find some value here for your own programming.
Any questions pop them in the comments.
I hope you had a great Christmas and a happy New Year.
Here’s to smashing some goals in 2022.
Until next time
Adam
