So, the dust has settled on The Battle For Mercia and if you subscribe to my monthly email you’ll be hearing all about how my wife poisoned me with food and my resulting bowel movements in the run up to the competition. I had a couple of my Online Teams athletes compete in that competition too and we’ll get to them further down the blog.
Joe has made good progress this month and after big squat and deadlift PBs in the previous months has hit a new Push Press PB of 145kg. We’re just plugging away with Joe right now with our sights set on the Natural Strongman circuit in 2024.
Pauls about 9 foot tall and at 32, I’m sure he’s grown in the two and a half years I’ve coached him. With height comes long levers and often a harder road to a big press. That doesn’t stop paul though and this month we’ve capitalised on the work we’ve put in earlier in the training cycle and hit 1RMs in both the Bench Press at 122.5kg and Seated OHP at 87.5kg. We’re still chasing that 100kg Push Press, but it will come in time.
Taj has been going from strength to strength and yesterday hit a PB in the Push Press (his least favourite lift). Taj is another long limbed lifter, which generally is sub optimal when it comes to weightlifting, but we’re setting ourselves up well for success by building strength in the right places while focussing on moving correctly in the competition lifts.
It feels like everyone is hitting PBs overhead in August and Jack is no different with a new 5RM in the Push Press of 95kg. Jack lives a hectic life and over the next 3 weeks I have him training at a minimum volume with the goal of keeping sessions short while he moves house. Stress is stress and it’s important to take that into account when writing programs.
James basically destroyed 3 weeks worth of training because he went to Maga for a week. Thats not an issue though and part of being a coach is managing expectations. Generally people don’t live to train and if they want to go on a week long bender thats fine, as long as you manage expectations in the coming weeks. Nothing is unfixable with the right expectations and direction though and 3 or 4 weeks later James hit a new 3RM Push Press of 117.5kg. And just like that we’re back in action!
Jenesis has had a great month hitting PBs in 3 different movements. She hit a Snatch at 26kg, a new 3RM on the Front Squat at 53kg (previously her 1RM), a new 3RM in the Squat at 72.5kg (which again was previously her 1RM) and then a cheap 1RM in the Squat of 75kg because she wasn’t having a great time in JD… If you ask me, a new 1RM Squat is a pretty fucking great time!
Big Jo finished the training cycle from hell last week and even through all the issues hit a new 1RM Log Press at 120kg. This wasn’t the training cycle we particularly hoped for with knee and back issues throughout, but it’s the one we were given and we continued training and made the most of what we can do.
Marie has had a house move on this month and we had to take that into account in her programming and dial back. Still a new 5RM Push Press of 45kg isn’t bad going given the circumstances.
Oh look, another Push Press PB! Xena currently has no competitions on the horizon but is still making good progress and plugging away at her strength work. Hitting 3RMs in the Push Press of 42kg and the Front Squat of 65kg and continuing to build strength in the Snatch Pull + Hang Snatch Pull Complex by hitting a new 1+2 (3RM) PB of 48kg. That Pull complex is something i’ve been experimenting with and building organically with a few people. The hope is they build a strong positions specific to the transition and 2nd pull phase of the lifts which will then carry over into the competition lifts.
That PB Deadlift still alludes Liam P and his current PB is still 220kg for a Double. It’s always frustrating when you can’t actualise a 2RM into a few extra kilos for a 1RM but it will come in time. He has however been hitting PBs in other places and has hit new 1RMs in the Squat at 175kg, Front Squat at 135kg, a new 2RM on Bench Press at 100kg and a new 10RM on Dips of Bodyweight +20kg. Upper body strength is coming on nicely as is leg and postural strength. That deadlift PB will fall, this training cycle or the next. On a separate note, Dips are a movement that, if someone can do them without issue, are in my programs pretty consistently and are a real slow burning thing that we look to build from training cycle to training cycle.
Olivia currently has competing goals right now in getting strong for a rugby season while also training for the Great North Run. It’s not easy to fit everything in and both goals interfere with each other. Luckily thats why i’m here and while I can’t bypass the issues of interference effect, I can structure her week i a way that minimises it. Behold… A new 5RM Front Squat of 70kg and if you see the video, there’s way more in the tank!
Phil W.S. has done very little training recently… He did have a baby girl though! Congratulations dude!
Wil has been making great progress in the Squat hitting 150kg x4 which is 2kg over his 1RM and following it with 152.5kg x1. He also hit 1RMs in the Bench Press of 87.5kg followed by 92.5kg a week later and in the Incline Press of 80kg.
A Quick Pitstop
It’s no secret I like to build 5 and 3 rep maxes but where do you go from there? A 2RM would be logical and it’s where I used to go, however over the course of time I found that the load difference between a 3RM and a 2RM (90 to 92% vs 94 to 96%) was so small you had to get the numbers perfect otherwise your athlete would inevitably fail and at heavy loads that can derail confidence and momentum.
So how would I combat this?
We / I make 1 set of 2 reps become 2 sets of 1 rep with the same planed load. The 2 singles provide the same volume but are much less taxing than a double and on a psychological level, build the athletes confidence for the 1RM attempt the week or two after.
Obviously this all theoretical and can be bent and broken where appropriate within the progressions I use if things are going unbelievably, but is a good rule of thumb.
If you’re wondering how that might look like:
Phase 1: Build straight 5s
Phase 2: Build 5RMs until you run out of room to progress
Phase 3: Build 3RMs until you run out of room to progress
Phase 4: 2x1 at something heavier than the 3RM. We should be approaching new 1RM teritory here and in an ideal world we’d pull 2 singles at or close to your current max.
Phase 5: Take the new 1RM
Anyway, back to my athletes!
Jen hit a new 3RM in the Push Press at 52kg and New 1RM Squat of 105kg. The strength phase of the WLC is almost finished and we’ll be looking to hold strength in those movements while we transition that strength over to the competition lifts.
15 year old Cori has been making good progress as you’d expect hitting 5RMs in the Axle Squat of 90kg and 100kg along with an unplanned 1RM in the Deadlift of 170kg.
Strongman Club member George C & Online Teams Member Stephen will be competing at the Units Strongest on Saturday 26th August so keep your eyes peeled for their results!
George F, like Phil has done very little training this month… and for exactly the same reason! It’s another congratulations, this time to George and his family on the birth of his first child!
Dean hit a beautiful PB on the deadlift of 240kg while also competing at the Battle For Mercia where he finished 5th in his category. His partner Gillian also competed at the Battle for Mercia finishing 1st in her category. A successful day for both of them!
Johnny is currently prepping for UKNS Worlds and has hit a new 5RM in the Deadlift of 260kg in Prep for it. The deadlift at UKNS Worlds is a heavy Deadlift ladder with the final deadlift being 10kg over his max. Watch this space… a quick 3 would be nice, but we’re not ruling out a full run!
Mark hit a new 3RM on the Deadlift at 240kg which will set him up well for a Max Kratos Bar Deadlift when he competes on Saturday, this time at Blackpools Strongest. Watch this space for results!
Lastly, If you wanted to know my result at the battle of mercia, I came 1st in the opens category. Head to my personal Instagram https://www.instagram.com/the_sagittal_savage/ if you want to see the videos.
Thats it, as usual i’ve begged up my guys PBs and added some value by giving you some thoughts on how I structure building an athletes rep maxes, I’m not the quickest typer and all of this has taken around 2 hours to write, so thats me out!
Until next time
Adam
