It's been a busy month at Savage Strength, one of our busiest in fact and as I sit here writing this blog I'm still coming down from the results at the weekend which included 4 podium spots between local and international competitions...
One of those being a 16 year old who was competing against grown men and another being a 1st place at a World Championship...Anyway, lets get to it because I've got a lot to write
Courtney is making her first blog by hitting a 50kg Clean and new 5RMs in the Overhead Squat at 30kg and 35kg. Courtney has some great potential in Olympic Weightlifting and is a client that I share with another coach where my job is to stay on top and teach the technical aspects of the Snatch, Clean & Jerk.
Flo is also a client I share with another coach, only this time my focus is to specifically teach the Jerk and then transfer it over into the context of strongman and different strongman events for her. That started with cleaning up her dip and drive which lead to a 60kg Split Jerk and then a 60kg Axle Clean and Jerk. We have a way to go and we're currently focussing on transferring her split jerk onto the log ready for competition.
Jadine sometimes comes in with Flo and her goal is largely the same and while it's too early to be hitting any Jerk PBs, I have had time to teach some derivatives of the Clean Pull you'd see in Olympic Weightlifting which helped her to an Axle Clean PB of 45kg. Jadine is quite a petite human who doesn't carry a great deal of mass on her upper body, so utilising the legs and contact will be a game changer for her in helping her better handle heavier loads in the Axle Clean.
Muscle mass and strength
Neural drive is talked about a lot when it comes to strength and it is important, it's the reason you can 'peak' movements short term without any physical changes. However on a very base level (and there's research backing this up) muscle mass is what appears to drive strength gains. If you disagree, it's why we have weight categories and why people cut large amounts of weight to get into smaller categories, bigger humans just usually carry more muscle, and if you're one of those smaller weight category athletes, less muscle will limit your maximal weights. So how can we work past this? To use techniques like Jadine that allow us to use the bigger muscles and become more efficient.
I didn't teach Jadine anything out of the ordinary, I just shifted her away from a less efficient technique of picking the bar up straight to the shoulders in one movement, which is a very upper body dominant movement, onto a two movement technique called the continental clean that allows her to utilise the legs in the second phase of the lift from the belt / stomach to the shoulders. Once we'd mastered that, we looked at adding an Olympic Weightlifting style contact to the bar using the legs in phase one again, taking the focus off the arms and putting it onto the legs. In 30 short minutes we'd gone from a one motion movement that relied on grip and brute force from the upper body (Not Jadines strongpoint as a lifter that weights 50kg), to a 2 phase lift where both phased prioritise the bigger muscles of the leg increasing Jadines strength immediately and future potential alongside that.
This isn't just a technique for smaller lifters though, this can be utilised by people of any size to increase strength potential. It's just that you see the smaller lifters are the ones that usually have to utilise these things out of necessity.
Sam has had a nice month hitting a new Football Bar Press PB of 72.5kg and a nice Deadlift PB of 175kg. With his Squat & Bench PBs last month we can see Sams general strength levels continuing to trend up and because of that he's hitting golf balls further!
Finally in our one to one contingent, Taj has a nice month hitting PBs in the Power Snatch of 58kg and PB doubles in the Squat of 100kg x2 and 105kg x2. 100kg is theoretically his 1RM so i'd expect to see something big this week when he takes a new 1RM.
Want to join our team of one to one clients? Click the link below to book a consultation.
In the Hybrid branch of Savage Strength, James has had a nice time overhead this month hitting a new 3RM BTN Block Jerk of 120kg x3 as a baseline marker and then 4 weeks later hitting 130kg x3 adding 10kg onto his best. James has big aspirations both overhead and in the U90s class of Strongman and the Split Jerk will be a big part of realising those.
We seem to be working past Jenesis' shoulder issues and thats manifested itself with PB Clean & Jerks of 36kg, 37kg and 38kg which is a 3% increase each time and a 9 or 10% increase overall!
What can I say about Big Jo... He had a great training cycle leading up to Natural Worlds Strongest Man and that manifested itself as a 1st place finish. The sky is the limit for this 20 year old and I'm just going to leave a list of his PBs below.
Husafell - 145kg x60m
Kratos Bar Deadlift - 240kg x 5
Log CTOH - 105kg x 5
Yoke - 300kg x 10m (7.5s)
Frame Carry - 250kg x 20m (10m+10m in 15s)
Axle Push Press - 105kg x 5
Husafell - 150kg x60m
Log 110kg x1+3
Log 115kg x1+3
Kratos Bar Deadlift 250kg x 3
Log CTOH - 120kg x1+3
Log FTOH - 125kg x1
Kratos Bar Deadlift - 260kg x3
Axle Push Press - 115kg x3
Axle Push Press - 120kg x3
Axle Push Press - 120kg x3
Yoke into Axle - 300kg + 115kg
Katos Bar Deadlift - 270kg x1
Natural Strongman World Championships (Juniors) - 1st
What I will say is due to his size (he's a big guy at just shy of 6ft 6in and 137kg) it's always been Jos static strength that was his downfall, but thats starting to change and you can see that by the way his Log Press and Push Press have sky rocketed this training cycle. Thats nothing to do with a different approach and everything to do with patience and waiting for his body to mature and for the effects of previous training cycles to take effect. Going forwards we'll be looking at and revising Jos goals and creating a new plan to move forwards. That plan will most certainly include bringing up his Deadlift which is his current weak link.
Tall Strength Athletes
While I might be playing the worlds smallest violin here, it's my opinion that it takes taller strength athletes longer to mature in terms of strength. Taller athletes will usually have a bigger frame which takes more time to fill than a smaller framed athlete. As mentioned above, muscle mass matters and once they've filled that frame they're hard to beat if they've done it right, but along with shorter athletes often having better levers for lifting, it's often why you might see shorter strength athletes reaching their potential earlier in their careers...
In short:
Shorter Athletes = Lower potential / Quicker to fill their potential
Taller Strength Athletes = higher potential / Slower to realise their potential
This is just a thought and something to keep in mind though, it's not gospel.
Marie finally hit that 100kg milestone back squat and it was glorious! On top of that Marie has hit new 5RMs in the Front Squat of 64kg & 65kg, Back Squat of 80kg, Clean of 49kg & 52kg and a PB of 50kg in a complex of BTN Jerk + Jerk. Marie despises volume, but also seems to work better with intensity and we've found a new approach that allows us to accumulate decent volume while also prioritising intensity. It's not a wholesale change to my usual approach, just a modification that seems to work better for her.
Olivia is now around 5 weeks out from her first strongwoman competition and I believe we're in a great place for her to excel after hitting PBs in the Monster DB of 37.5kg and 40kg and BTN Press of 42kg while taking the 50kg Iron Cross for 53m. She's also hit PBs in the Deadlift of 127.5kg x3, 135kg x1 & 140kg x1. Up to new her training has been quite general in terms of strongman and after this week its about to shift to something way more specific ready to compete on the 6th October.
Want to merge online programming with in person coaching and join our team of hybrid clients? Click the link below to book a consultation.
https://savagestrengthconsultation.as.me/OneToOneCoachingConsultation
Our online clients have had a nice month too. First up we have Joanne who hit PBs in the Squat of 76kg x3 and Front Squat of 56kg x5. It's not all been plain sailing though and Joanne has been struggling with the Snatch which to me seems more like a mental block and confidence issue. We'll get through that, but the fact her leg strength is on the up bodes well for her Olympic lifts in the future.
This blog came a week to early for Scott who is about to go into a testing week before we start a new training cycle to get him ready to compete on 1st August. Hopefully I don't eat my words when I come to write September Blog!
Wil is making great progress despite all the travel and disruption in his life and hit a new 1RM Deadlift of 183kg. He's also making great progress with his upper body strength and we finally hit that 100kg Bench Press in the least of ideal circumstances! On the way to that 100kg milestone Wil hit PBs of 95kg x2, 96kg x1 & 97.5kg x1. Next up for Wil we'll be looking to top off his training cycle with a PB Squat and then we'll recalibrate his goals.
Want to join our team of online clients? Click the link below to book a consultation.
https://savagestrengthconsultation.as.me/OnlineCoachingConsultation
Savage Strength School has not been running during the Summer holidays... Something about the kids leaving the country etc, but we're back from September 2nd and if you know of any kids aged between 7 & 16 who want to start lifting (the right way), I'd love for them to join us!
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.
Want to join Savage Strength School?
Click the link below to book a session.
https://savagestrengthconsultation.as.me/SavageStrengthSchool
Jack has had a nice month in our Olympic Weightlifting Club and has hit PBs in a complex of Snatch + TAG Snatch of 82kg and in the Push Press of 108kg x1. Next up for Jack and our Weightlifting club is a competition down at Altrincham WLC on November 3rd.
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.
Want to join our Weightlifting Club?
Click the link below to book a session. https://savagestrengthconsultation.as.me/SavageStrengthWeightliftingClub
Our Strongman Club had a great showing this month and we'll start with Cori! In training Cori hit PBs this month of 180kg x3 on the Deadlift followed the week after by 180kg x4. He also made progress overhead with a 90kg Push Press double along with a 90kg 1 clean & 2 Press Pb on Log too, thats not all though! Cori competed at the Units strongest and was the youngest in the field at 16 year old competing against grown men for the first time in the First Timers class. He hit plenty of PBs in all of the events and even taking an event win in the sandbag steeplechase. In the end Cori finished second overall in a close race between the top 3 while winning the 'top banana' award for generally just being a very nice person to be around on the day. What a result for Cori!
George C also competed in the Units strongest in the Novice category and despite no repping the Deadlift, he finished in 3rd place overall after a generally well rounded showing on the day after a less than ideal taper week that included him being on holiday!
Emily came back! I have coached Emily previously through her first strongman competition back in 2022 I think after she dipped her toe in as an addition to her Crossfit. She won that competition shortly left to focus on Hyrox to which she ended up going to the World Championships. Anyway, she's back (so I guess I did something right) and she has her eyes set on another strongman competition in October and we've already ticked off a new 1RM Deadlift of 150kg.
Sometimes people leave
Sometimes people leave and there can be various reasons for that, thats just part of coaching... But if you've done your part, provided progress, value and have generally acted in the right way, it's highly likely when their goals realign with the coaching you provide, they'll make the decision to come back to you over going to someone new.
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.
Want to Join our Strongman Club?
Click the link below to book a session.
https://savagestrengthconsultation.as.me/SavageStrengthStrongmanClub
In our Online Weightlifting Team Karen made progress in her Clean & Jerk taking a Clean + TAG Clean + Jerk complex for new 1RMs of 56kg and 58kg. This complex is now so close to her max, I have no doubt there is a PB C&J there for the taking. Our Team programming largely follows the programming in our club, hopefully we can tempt Karen to compete on November 3rd too!
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.
Want to Join our Online Weightlifting Team?
Click the link below to book for a free trial.
https://www.savagestrengthcoaching.co.uk/weightlifting-online-team
In our Online Strongman Team George F is currently prepping for New Levels Strongest in the Opens category in just under 2 weeks time as a last minute entry! Previous to that swerve George has hit 10m PBs in the Yoke and Sandbag of 350kg & 160kg.
Jonny is fresh off worlds where he came 5th in the U105 category and while he might have taken a back step in placing due to the increased competition, he certainly took steps forwards based off his performance. Coming in this year Jonny was statically stronger, but most importantly he excelled in the Yoke and Sandbag Toss which were his two weakest events last year. We'll see more progress from Jonny in the 2025 season where he'll come in even stronger!
A lower placing
So, first off, I'm not saying placings don't matter, but they do need contextualising for the individual. Jonny came 3rd at worlds in 2023 and 5th at worlds in 2024. That in itself is great consistency at an elite level, but on the surface appears to be a back step. That doesn't however take into account that the field was almost double the size as last year, with a higher calibre of lifter and with qualifiers in way more countries and regions around the world in 2024. On top of that, Jonny is both, stronger statically, faster when moving with load and we improved on both his weak events from last year going from low placing and looking for damage limitation in the Yoke and Sandbag in 2023 to seeing those events as something we could push on with this year. Results matter, but don't look at them in isolation and keep hold of the context.
Stephen put on a great performance at the Units Strongest, showing great progress in his deadlift and overhead events which were both for reps and taking 2nd overall in his class.
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.
Want to Join our Online Strongman Team?
Click the link below to book for a free trial.
https://www.savagestrengthcoaching.co.uk/strongman-online-team
And in our Get Big Get Strong Team, Callum hit the triple digit milestone on his Deadlift thanking 100kg for a ride, which I am lead to believe, he was very happy about.
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.
Want to Join our Get Big Get Strong Online Team?
Click the link below to book for a free trial.
https://www.savagestrengthcoaching.co.uk/get-big-get-strong-online-team
I think I'm done writing this and hopefully you enjoyed reading it and as usual, took something useful away.
Until next time
Adam
