Tag Archives: Training

Contest memories part II

By Eric Todd

When I first decided to give strongman a shot, I was rather anxious to get rolling.  I found the aforementioned Tri-States Strongest Man contest in Canton, but a mere month later was another, even closer opportunity to see if I had what it took to compete in strongman.  It was in Kirksville, MO, just a couple hours away from me by automobile.  I went ahead and entered this meet as well, and trained for the 2 concurrently.

The events in this were as follows: a clean and press for reps with a railroad tie, anvil throw for height, sheaf throw  for distance, anvil/stone load medley, and truck pull for time.  The clean and press, I just trained with a barbell in the gym.  For the throw for height, I procured a keg to train with, though I was just launching it in the air, not over anything.  I just did repetitions with the 230 pound stone that I had made to try and get ready for the load medley.  I used the old tractor inner-tube as a harness to pull my brothers broken down car around what is now my yard.

It was the sheaf throw that threw me off.  When I studied up on it, I found it was a “bale” throw with a pitchfork for height, so I reckoned this was just a bale throw for distance  in the same fashion.  I already had a pitchfork, so I went out and bought a straw bale and went to work.  I had really no technique, and found this rather challenging.  I was maybe getting 10 feet.  My brother (of Lift for Leroy fame) was with me while I was training it one day.  I thought maybe it would  motivate me to throw further if I had a moving target, so I suggested he run away from me as I tried to hit him with the bale.  While this method did produce another foot or two in distance, it more closely resembled a Keystone Cops routine than a sound training method.

Contest time came.  I found my way to the park a little early and started looking over the implements.  I was at that time when I met Thom VanVleck and Brian Kerby.  As a rather introverted individual, I found it refreshing how engaging they were and how easily I was able to visit with them.  This is where the theme of “like minded individuals” began to draw me to strongman.

While I cannot remember the exact order of the events, I believe we started with the clean and press with the railroad tie.  While I am certain I was not the strongest presser (pretty sure that designation would go to Brian Kerby that day) i was able to hit more repetitions due to speed, resulting in an event win.  The sheaf toss for distance was not what I had envisioned.  The “bale” was much smaller and more compact than the straw bale I had been working with.  This discipline clearly required MUCH more technique that I was exhibiting that some of the other competitors with highland games experience had mastered.  I pulled my best throw of the day with my last throw where I left the fork in the bale, a throw that was ultimately good for last place.  I felt like that maybe was a nail in the coffin of a decent placing at the meet.  I would have to dominate the rest of the meet in order to place well.  It is usually the guy who is consistently toward the top who wins.  A last place finish can be devastating.

Well, I got to work.  In the anvil throw for height, I kept pace with the proficient highland throwers.  Seems like I tied for 1st or second in this event.  Then came the load medley. I consisted of loading 3 progressively heavier anvils, followed by 2 field stones to a platform a bit higher than waist high.  If I remember correctly, the heavier of the 2 field stones was a bit over 300 pounds. This type of event ended up being a strong suit for me. While I was one of 3 competitors who loaded all 5 implements, I did so the fastest, so another event win for me. The last event, we went up the hill to a parking lot for the truck pull.  We were to be pulling Thom’s father Earl’s semi-diesel truck.  It was probably the event I was most excited for, as this a feat I had watched the giants of World’s Strongest Man perform back in the day that I assumed  was something I would never be able to do.  While memory tells me that I won this event, I am not 100% sure that is accurate.  What I am 100% about is  that I performed well enough in the event for the overall contest win.

It was this win, coupled with my relative success at Canton that let me know I belonged; however, it was the absolute camaraderie that kept me coming back.  Though I was competing against Thom and Brian all day, they kept coming back to compliment me on what I had done.  They were explicitly positive influences on me that day, and this assured me that the strongman community was something I needed to be a part of.

As a side note, this was a two day event.  Day one was strongman, day two the highland games.  I competed in both. Make no mistake about it, what ego boost that had been a result of my day one success was quickly dismantled as I competed in the B class on day 2…

The Excitement and Memories of Competition Prep

By Christopher Lestan

Since there haven’t been any in-person competitions I think it would be fun to reflect on when the time comes when in-person competition becomes normal again.

The preparation for competition is what stimulates the regular strength athlete and soon becomes all they can think about for the next couple of months. The training schedule, reps, and sets are all determined 8-12 weeks out from the day of the competition. The journey from the beginning of prep when you write down goals you want to achieve. Then at the end of the competition prep you recall on what you have written down to see if you achieved your goal or goals.

That is the beauty of competition. The journey! Everyone has as prep that they remember like the back of their hand. The prep that pushed that individual to the brink, or maybe have to overcome some sort of adversity during prep. Those are the  memories that stick with us the most. The moments that we recall as defining us or redefining us as people. It’s what makes competition prep almost seem like magic.

My personal competition prep that sticks out to me to this day was my first Heavy Lifts Nationals back in 2018. I had just finished competing at College Raw Powerlifting Nationals and as soon as I got home I went to Frank Ciavatone to start training. Now normally I give myself a decent 8-10 weeks before a major competition. This allows myself to peak for the day of completion with phases of hypertrophy, strength, and power. However, during this time Heavy Lift Nationals was only 4-5 weeks away. Thank goodness I have one of the greatest Heavy Lifters of all time Frank Ciavatone. I remember we talked for hours on end deciding what to do for the prep and how to get ready. Finally, he made the decision (because he’s the coach and I am the athlete) to do 1-2 workouts a week of the Neck, Hand and Thigh, and Hip lift.

During that time I learned so much about timing of training, and how to control intensity. I learned how to be a listener whenever Frank gave some advice or technique tips. I learned how to recovery from the lifts, for the style of recovery is vastly different from recovering from powerlifting workouts. I loved every minute of it. It was one of the best 4-5 weeks of training of my life because Frank taught me so much about how to get ready for these lifts. I guess it worked in the end because I achieved all of my goals by the end of 5 weeks and found a new love for the Heavy Lifts. This time of my life sticks out to me because of how much I learned from Frank about the lifts, and also I was allowed to push myself in a different discipline of strength sports.

As I said before… Everyone has these types of memories. Maybe it was your first Powerlifting competition? Or the time you deiced to do a strongman competition? Or the first All-Around Weightlifting Competition. All different stories that come with different memories!

Learning A New Skill

By Christopher Lestan

I thought I might make a post recently because I haven’t been active in a while.

During this time of social distancing I been learning about myself a lot since there is plenty of time to just think now. One of the important things I learned from my father is to keep headstrong and focused during times like these. In other words he says “Keep busy”. Now after school ended early for me around March I was lost in limbo for a few weeks. No more jobs are available. No ability to train with friends. Not being able to have a couple of beers with the boys at our favorite local bar where the beers are 2$ a pour!

This was a strange time indeed. Fortunately, my family is always there to help. My dad who recently became an electrician and worked for the city of Boston was off of work until mid-May. He realized that I was very lost in what to do. In a conversation he and I reached an agreement of him teaching me how to landscape and plant trees since he worked at our family’s nursery when he was young. He also added that he would help me redo our Aunt’s Yard, for she recently moved into a new house and the yard needed some fixing.

For the past month and a half I can confidently say my Aunt’s yard has new grass seed, mulch, trimmed bushes, and new plants. I also planted a couple Hemlock trees in our back yard. I was soon fixing both grandparents’ houses and even took a tree stump out of the ground and put in a new willow tree for one of them. Soon I was in charge of taking care of 3 lawns.

Now you may be asking what was the point of me telling this story… Well, I think it’s important for people to learn new things especially when times are strange and even in their free time. I never thought I would be redoing whole lawns and even spreading mulch and soil to make lawns look nicer, or even plant trees. It’s a rewarding experience.

When you do something rewarding you build confidence that can be utilized for other things. SUCH AS LIFTING!!! My lifts are finally coming back to normal after my injury in December and have learned to gain confidence when there are no spotters. Now with the nice weather I can build an outdoor platform and compete in the 3rd Postal!!

I can’t wait for things to slowly come back to normal and to see my friend group.

Texbooks Can’t Teach Everything

By Christopher Lestan

When we grow up and attend school we often are told to use the books that are distributed to us have all the answers. From elementary all the way to college this is true, for some classes only have information from the book.

This couldn’t be further from the truth when it comes to any form of Strength and Conditioning.

I currently study at Umass Amherst as a Kinesiology major with a path of Strength and Conditioning. Most of my days are spent at the library trying to memorize every muscle, tendon, and bone in the body. Nights are long, and all-nighters tend to be very common. This is due to the fact that UMass puts kinesiology in the same category as Nursing, Medicine, Physical, and Occupational Therapy. Thus, the classes I take are close to the medical level to some degree. The major is difficult, but there is one thing I have noticed working in the Strength and Conditioning Field for three years. Textbooks don’t answer everything.

I took my first internship at Athletic Republic, a gym centered around sports performance with athletes ranging from high school to pro. When we had meetings on what to do with the athletes, our schedules, and hours they recommended that we learn the basic compound movements. This sounded strange since I thought to be in this field you had to have some sort of passion, and the capability to perform the basic compound movements. I soon realized I was the only intern who knew how to clean, snatch, bench, squat, and deadlift properly. As well as be able to teach movements to other athletes. I WAS SHOCKED. However, due to my ability to teach and perform the movements, I was hired after the internship.

Fast forward then to last semester at Umass I took a course in Strength and Conditioning which specialized in being certified a CSCS (the highest strength certification anyone can get). The only way to be picked to take this course was if you showed the desire to work with athletes in the future, and had a passion for strength. So naturally, I thought I would be with people very similar to me. I soon learned I was very very wrong. Other people who were in the same major as me couldn’t clean, snatch, deadlift, bench, or do basic push-ups correctly. I continued with the course and got an A- and moved on.

Fast forward to this summer, for I am working as a trainer at Athletic Republic. Part of my job is to help the new interns understand the system we run. Unfortunately, like my internship, and class before…. none of them knew how to do the basic movements properly except for one. This leads to my conclusion that textbooks don’t teach everything.

In today’s world, someone can flash their certifications, bachelor’s degree, a massive amount of Instagram followers, and their crazy physique and people will automatically assume that they are experts in the field. Now there are people like this that know how to program properly and use a ton of percentages to get out a quick strength cycle. However, I find the ones that have experience in competing, gaining strength, and technique that are the best coaches.

Take me for instance. I am no means a brain genius and a medical expert, yet I am 99% sure that I would beat most other kids in my major in teaching, coaching, and reputation due to my experience. The same can be said for other strength athletes out there. My neighbor Frank Ciavattone is my current coach/mentor and has increased my lifting abilities so much. I have a much more refined technique in Olympic lifting, all-around lifting, and powerlifting due to his advice and coaching. Frank doesn’t’ have all these certifications that will let other people know he’s a trainer. What he does have is trophies, experience, and knowledge that can’t be beaten.

The best coaches know how to demonstrate the lifts, and use their own experience to help others. They understand the stress strength athletes put on their bodies and the amount of energy it takes to put hundreds of pounds on their backs. They understand how much we need to recover from workouts and the amount of sleep we need. Those coaches, know exactly what an athlete is going through because they have been there.

The same can be said to anyone in the Strength World. If you are improving on your lifts, seeing results, and breaking Personal Bests than you probably will do well in the strength and conditioning world even though you haven’t used a textbook to get you to the place you are in now.

This can be said to everyone in the USAWA. We all learned how to lift from someone who was kind enough to give us some wisdom on how to perform these lifts. We didn’t just read a book and assume that it is the best way to perform the lift. We practiced, practiced, and practiced until we found our form. After a certain point, we don’t use books to help us execute lifts.

As I said before ….. Textbooks can’t teach everything….

Yellow Light Lifting

By John McKean

” Did you just hear an EXPLOSION??!!” spat out the angry, grumpy old neighbor. “Whatever that awful noise was, woke me from my nice nap!” screeched ole Mr. Raphaele  from his back door.

The waggish, freckle faced little lad, standing in his own driveway, couldn’t help but answer “Nope, didn’t hear a thing! Maybe you should check the rear of your undershorts!”

With the subsequent loud slamming of his neighbor’s porch door, the boy returned to easily cleaning his lightly loaded barbell, and once again shot up a press with such velocity and momentum that the barbell rocketed ,when released, about 4′ above his extended arms. Then the young lifter got the hell out of the way as the bar crashed yet another time into his gravel driveway.

This wild, ballistic training eventually set up the youth for more structured training with ever heavier weights in local weightlifting clubs around his vicinity. You may have heard of him; he was Olympian Russ Knipp, a middleweight who established 9 press world records (usually with double bodyweight), and gave the Russians fits due to his pure strength strict presses (by then the Soviets and others had devolved into doing modified push jerks).

So what does the Knipper’s early training have to do with the “yellow light” title of this article? Well, I equate it to my wife’s driving around our crowded suburban area – as she approaches a stop light and it turns yellow, she instantly accelerates and speeds up, though most often having to hit the brakes as the light goes red! Young Russ Knipp attempted to develop what we used to call “fast twitch muscle fibers” (Lord knows what the “experts” call it these days!), Marilyn just enjoys driving fast and gliding through intersections !

Paul Anderson was so adept at "speed lifting" that the author once witnessed Anderson one arm press a 275 pound dumbbell for 3 fast reps within a blink of the eye!

Paul Anderson was so adept at “speed lifting” that the author once witnessed Anderson one arm press a 275 pound dumbbell for 3 fast reps within a blink of the eye!

Years ago I wrote a story on “speed singles” using lighter weights as a backdown set from heavier near limit singles, to be done in a fast ballistic manner. Since the idea came from material that legendary Paul Anderson had given me, concerning using bodyweight high jumping squats following my squatting program, I immediately acquired a great deal of confidence in this “speed” supplement. Also,  fast repped sets as “backdown” work following heavier lifting was much of the training basis  of old pal Bob Weaver (first powerlifter to officially squat over 800# in a National Championship), and  great results in my early powerlifting career came with their application.

Recently, with revitalized interest in power rack holds for all-round lifts, it occurred to me that I should experiment with speed work (or” yellow light lifting”,in deference to my wife!) BEFORE hitting limit weights in the rack. Sort of like a tune up,to have all muscle fibers firing when following with a rack overload for a hold. Of course I needed some resistance, though not much, and wished to use something that would NOT simply accelerate and allow momentum to throw it through its range with little muscle involvement. The good ole rubber cables came to the forefront once again! I now grab a few moderate strength bands that are easy ,yet a slight bit challenging, and WARMUP, prior to rack holds, with 3 very quick sets of an explosive 4 reps. Usually I do these with three main exercises(similar in nature to the LIFTS I’ll be soon doing within a power rack), and believe me, the entire body gets totally warm, actually HOT ! The mind is on fire ,too, and I’m ready to tackle anything!

Author John McKean demonstrating one of his "yellow light" band warmups before proceeding to heavy rack overloads

Author John McKean demonstrating one of his “yellow light” band warmups before proceeding to heavy rack overloads

After the “yellow light” band work, I immediately go with just ONE all out power rack middle range hold for 3  top-strength all-round movements. These holds are done much in the manner of what world record holder Bill March did in his pioneering rack routines – starting with a very heavy weight that just allows a push off lower pins ,up to a set of rack pins 4″ higher,then a  severe isometric push (really a hold -those steel pins ain’t going anywhere!). I’ve found over the years that working the midsection of a lift only, rather than multiple positions is best for strengthening almost any lift, and to allow most progression in poundage (which should continually be increased!). I need no build up poundages within the rack as the speed band sets has me so primed and ready! Just one all-out slight movement & iso ! Even as I approach “early middle age”(ok, ok, I’m 72), I’m seeing some startling increases in rack poundages, and my usual training partner & grandson,at 12 years old, already has gained so quickly that he outweighs me by 30 very solid pounds and is a monster-in-the-making ! By the way,pick your favorite lifts for this program to really get into it ;currently young Andraes and I use the belt squat, bentover row, and close grip floor press. Our band “yellow lighters” consists of a standing band pressout at chest level (like a bench press without lying down), one arm band rows, and a sort of close grip straddle lift with bands & a kettlebell (mainly for its handle, not for much extra weight).

OK, there ya have it, a short intense system that’ll quickly boost your power to unimagined heights. And the only thing that could possibly get your excitement levels and heart pumping faster would be a drive through Pittsburgh with Marilyn at the wheel !

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