I made a prediction that July would be a more eventful month than June, and I was correct. I would say there's been more progress, but if you are continuing to train then you're making progress, it's just a question of whether that progress is manifesting itself on whatever you use to track that progress.
After hitting a new Log 1RM of 145kg, the plan for Joe is now to end his training cycle and move to something lighter that will allow him to recover from some of the niggles that are piling up. It's been a great training cycle with some huge PBs with some numbers that flirt with the elite on the Natural Strongman Scene. The hope was that we could continue on to August 24th for the end of his season to coincide with the end of the Natural Strongman season, but with Joe not competing this year, that was largely just an exercise to help with the periodisation of his program and it's time to cut things and allow him to recover.
Our resident Golfer Sam has had a nice month hitting a few PBs in the Squat and adding 12kg to his max in July. Sam squatted 130kg, 135kg and 140kg to finish the run of PBs. He also Benched 87.5kg adding 2.5kg to his max Bench. With his 272.5kg Deadlift that gives Sam a 400kg total in the Squat, Bench & Deadlift which was a goal we had set a couple of months ago! Going forward we've set the target of 180kg in the Deadlift and 90kg in the Bench as the numbers we'd like to work towards.
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James is currently in his offseason but that doesn't necessarily mean lighter work, The offseason is a time to work on weaknesses and for James that means we build his Deadlift and Sandbags. A precursor to this is the Deficit Snatch Grip Stiff Leg Deadlift to which we've built James up to a new 1RM of 170kg. We've finished our phase on that movement now and will be moving towards some more specific work on sandbags to build James skill and confidence.
Deficit Snatch Grip Stiff Leg Deadlift
Thats a mouthful of a name isn't it! I love this movement for building Sandbag Pickup Strength. It's so similar, especially if you match your grip to a sandbag size that is big for you and keep the bar a little way away from the legs. The benefit of doing this over just picking up sandbags is that is's so much more loadable in terms of how high you can take it and the increments you can jump in giving you many more options and routes for progress.
Big Jo is in the thick end of his prep for Natural Strongman Worlds on August 24th & 25th in Galway, Ireland and his numbers are starting to creep up. Jo has hit 230kg for a 5RM Kratos Bar Deadlift and has been flying on the Husafell Stone taking 130kg for 80m and then competition weight of 140kg for 70m. I expect him to do well in the Husafell carry and it will be interesting to see how he stacks up against international competition after two second place finishes at national level.
Marie has had a great month... I just wish she would video her lifts. Yes she trains with me there the majority of the time, but sometimes it's nice for content to just be handed to you. Anyway, here's a list!
Snatch - 43kg x5
Snatch - 44kg x4
Muscle Clean - 42kg
Clean pull - 60kg x5
Low Ceiling Snatch Balance - 34kg x1
Snatch - 44kg x5
BTN + Split Jerk - 50kg x2+1
Squat - 78kg x4
Squat - 78kg x5 (up 5kg woops)
Low Ceiling Snatch Balance - 35kg x1
Muscle Clean - 43kg x1
C&J - 52kg x2
Snatch Pull - 60kg x4
The most notable PBs are the Squat and Snatch 5RMs and the 2RM C&J, that tells up we're moving in the right direction and that we're making progress in the Sport of Weightlifting.
Olivia is having a great time prepping for her first Strongwoman competition in October. That leaves us a little way out from competition so a lot of our work is on what I'd call 'raw' strength and the rest is skill work and learning the event's because it's still all pretty new. In terms of raw strength Olivia has hit new 5RMs in the Deadlift of 122.5kg and 124kg, Push Press of 57kg & a new 1RM Power Clean, which was a little bit of a surprise considering we're just ticking over with it. In terms of skill based movements Olivia has hit a 60kg Log and a 32.5kg Monster DB both for new 1RMs.
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In our Online contingency, Joanne has been making progress in her snatch taking 40kg for a new 2RM and 42kg for a new 1RM. This was all done during an accumulation phase where the majority of the work was 5x5 between 70% and 80%. As Joanne is new to the sport, I may just repeat that phase again back to back with the new numbers and continue to do that until it stops working. Who says you can't run two accumulation phases back to back?
Scott went on holiday and found some nice rocks to play with, one of them being the 102kg Dalwhinnie Stone which he took to his chest.
Natural Stones
Natural stones are a tricky one to train.They come in all different shapes, sizes and different types of rock that gives various levels of grip. So how do you train them? Atlas stones would be the obvious choice because they're made of largely the same stuff, but that would be a wrong assumption. While atlas stones can help with Natural Stone training (and is an option), they're all a uniform shape and very predictable once you know what you're doing with them. The only way to truly get good at natural stones is to pick up lots of natural stones because each one will have it's own specific difficulties depending on it's shape. In lieu of that, my advice would be to train on sandbags, alot! Pick them up, carry them, get them to your shoulder and sometimes... Press them! Outside of being a little more difficult than stones and being a little more similar to natural stones in terms of not being able to just roll them up your body, you also develop an ability to just manhandle and maul things. Which is always a good trait to have in the back pocket.
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Our Savage Strength School kids are still working hard on their pull ups and press ups and Ella, Megatron and Pennyare all making progress and lowering the tension they have their bands set at while also increasing their dead hang and top hold times.
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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In Savage Strength Olympic Weightlifting Club, Jack is making good progress recently hitting a new 5RM Clean of 100kg. Jack is now heading into a competition on Sunday and this will be the first competition where he's had to watch the board himself and time his lifts. I'll be making sure i'mon the end of a text to answer any questions, but it's the first time in a good while i've not been able to be at a competition. This week, Jack looks to recover ready for Sunday and also learns how to read the competition board.
Self sufficiency
Whether it's in training or competition, it's important to be some what self sufficient with your lifting. That doesn't mean you have to be able write your own program or understanding the intricacies of every movement (If it did i'd be out of a job) but means that you should be autonomous on some things. Things like making adjustments when your coach isn't available, knowing what you like when you warm up and understanding the basics of technique and how to identify and fix basic issues. In terms of making adjustments to the program in training or knowing how much to increase or decrease the weight by, i give all my guys a framework to make their own decisions and the green light to use it. In terms of competition, I can be as hands on or hands off as needed, but generally i'll just look to say very little and keep the things I say to technical feedback in the warm up room and making sure they know how long they have until they lift. The best lifters are autonomous and don't need permission or the go ahead for every detail. They need the overview and the plan. The best lifters provide the details and can fill in the gaps themselves. If you're not there yet, thats what you should be striving to attain.
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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Cori has been making great progress in our Savage Strength Strongman Club and at 16 year old is making great progress! Recently he's hit PBs in the Log of 82.5kg and 85kg while also hitting a new 1RM Stone of 120kg to 51in. He also took 170kg in the Deadlift for a set of 7. Cori is a typical 16 year old and want's everything now. He's hungry and want's to be the best... And thats great! I wouldn't want him any other way. It does mean a lot of my job is keeping him reigned in.
A frame work for Cori
Cori is still developing, both mentally and physically and as such, it would be inappropriate to train him the same as the adults in the group... So, how do I give cori what he needs in a group setting? I create a separate framework for Cori to follow that he can apply to the club program. What is that framework? Coris instructions are simple. Whatever the % is, drop it by 10% and add two to 3 reps per set to whatever the prescribed rep count is while keeping the rough total volume the same. This means that instead of 5x5 @80% (25 total reps), Cori might end up doing 3x8 (24 total reps) or 4x7 (28 total reps) @70%. It also means his peak programmed % would be around 85% for doubles or triples if it's a week where the club are hitting singles at 95%. Those lower percentages are much more appropriate for Cori and he'll make great progress with them while building his muscular endurance, work capacity and technique to do that kind of heavier work further down the line. How does he make progress then? Through rep max tests and the odd time I let him loose if things are looking good. The rule on heavy singles and PB attempts though is 'little to no grinding'. Could Cori do more right now? Yes. But at 16 years old, it's not about where he is now, it's about building the potential to increase where he could be at 26 or 36.
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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Karen had a nice build in our Online Weightlifting Team hitting 43kg x5 in the Snatch for a new 5RM. That was the end of a big 5x5 phase in the Snatch and Clean (which I know everyone loves) where I told them to go hit something big on there last set of 5x5 @80%. Turns out she hit about 85% under some heavy fatigue which is ridiculous work!
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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Our Online Strongman Team is heading for two competitions both on the same weekend. The first being the Natural Strongman World Championships on the 24th & 25th August where Jonny is competing and hoping to retain his podium spot from last year. Jonny is coming in hot this year and looking strong, especially in the Log Press where he is truly world class! The second is Ashingtons Strongest on the 24th August where Stephen joins our Strongman Club member George C in what should be a great competition.
In other Online Team news, George F did George F things and mauled a 150kg Sandbag for a 20m carry. I look forward to getting him competing in the Nattys again next year and hopefully build on his 2023 performance which qualified him for British finals that year.
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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And finally, in our Get Big Get Strong Online Team, Callum has been making great progress taking 60kg x5 and 70kg x3 in the SSB Squat. Callum recently transitioned over to our GBGS Online Team after initially starting sessions with me in person. His fist Squat session was an eye opener as he couldn't even perform a quarter squat without falling over if he didn't hold onto something. So this is great progress and there's plenty to come!
Our Get Big Get Strong Online Team was created for those who class themselves as the average gym goer. For those that want to get stronger in the big barbell movements, who want world class coaching with a world class program, but who have no aspirations to compete in a strength sport and want a life outside of the gym.
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I don't feel like I wrote much extra today outside of the PBs, but as it happens you have 4 extra little snippets from my brain to accompany the specific information about our guys, so hopefully thats enough and you can take something from it. If you can't i'll spell it out for you...
Coach adolescence at lower percentages than you would adults
Learn to be somewhat self sufficient with your training if you want best results
Natural Stones are hard to train but sandbags can help (ALOT)
Deficit Snatch Grip Stiff Leg Deadlifts are a mouthful and even more so when you put a slow eccentric on it.
Get good at doing various things with sandbags
Seriously, if there's one conclusion I've came to this month, sandbags are the most underutilised tool in strength training and being able to absolutely maul something big and awkward with aggression and brute force is a skill worth having. I'll be exploring sandbags more in my own training going forwards... My clients can look forward to experiencing the best bits of my explorations.
Until Next Time
Adam