Competition Write-up: Back to the 80s

On the weekend (Saturday 11th Feb) I travelled along the coast to Inner Strength Gym in Hastings with my training buddies Dave and Shane - accompanied by my supportive wife, Emma and friend-come-coach Jon.

I never really intended to compete in this competition - when it came up on my Facebook feed and I saw Shane throw his name into the hat I took a look at the Intermediate level contest and while it sounded fun, it really looked a little too light. Certainly on paper:

100kg Log (as many reps as possible in 1 minute)

Side-handle Deadlift Ladder (starting at 190kg, 20kg increments)

110kg Fridge Carry (for maximum distance)

Loading Medley (100kg “barrel of doom”, 90kg keg, 90kg sandbag)

Truck Pull (on harness)

I dismissed it and encouraged Dave to join Shane in the novice contest and figured that I’d travel down and support/help them on the day. But after a few weeks into the new year and I was already stressing about another contest not due to run until half-way through May - my wife urged me to register for the Inter’s contest and compete alongside my mates; in the name of fun. Fun was what it was supposed to be all about. This is a hobby. I’m a husband, father and software developer first and foremost and strongman is (supposed to be) a hobby. So reluctantly (I like to resist advice for at least a while) I took what I was told on board and threw my name in the hat.

The Events

100kg Log Clean & Press

As many reps as possible in a minute. I’d been practising this event and hit 6 reps in training fairly easily and believed on the day I could pull 7 out of the bag if I avoided taking too much time to breath (hell, I can breathe afterwards and recover). Unlike a couple of guys that went before me (who both managed 10 reps) I don’t have the raw pressing power to be able to viper-press each repetition so had to do it the hard way. Sadly, although I comfortably cleaned the log 7 times, I only managed to complete the rep with a press 5 times.

5 reps - putting me in last place.

Side-handle Deadlift Ladder

I’m always good for deadlift and I’m confident going into this event knowing that I can probably take good points away. In an effort to try and be more confident as an athlete I approached the implement muttering “Watch this!” to my wife and friends.

The implement was a car deadlift frame with a wooden box loaded to 190kg starting weight. With each repetition a 20kg bag of stones was thrown into the box and we would have 10 seconds to complete a repetition. If you failed a rep it was over (this actually stung my friend Shane during his turn as his DL strap slipped clean off the handles).

I let out a roar as I completed all of the bags finishing at 390kg which was probably nearer 280kg in the hands (for those of you that don’t know, when you’re lifting weight on what is essentially a big hinge on the floor the weight in-the-hands is significantly less).

10 reps - joint 1st place.

Fridge Carry

It’s best to just watch the video on this event, it was a little odd - but quite good. As it turns out I was quite good at it too (always a bonus).

We had a fridge with straps/handles fixed to the side and we were to carry it for a maximum distance in 90 seconds. The Inters weight was 110kg of plates fixed inside of the fridge.

For me at least I found that my conditioning was fine, and the weight of the fridge was okay on the back and hands - but my legs turned to jelly coming out of the final turn (as seen in the video) and I just completely lost all balance and collapsed with it.

Each length we walked with it was worth half-a-point and I managed 4 lengths (or 2 complete laps).

This was enough for joint 1st place.

Loading Medley

A 100kg smooth blue “barrel of doom”, followed by a 90kg beer keg and finishing with a 90kg sandbag - carried for best time over a 10 metre distance and loaded onto a 12” step.

The trick here was to flip the barrel so that the lip of the lid was on the underneath and could be used as a handle. The referee didn’t seem to mind this technique that I observed my competition using, so I followed the lead and took a pretty fast time.

3rd in the medley.

Truck Pull

By this time, I was pretty excited. Mostly because I was fairly sure that unless I completely botched the truck pull I would not be finishing last! As it turns out my wife let me know I was currently tied for 2nd place overall. Cool.

During the build-up for the competition (which was a short 2-3 weeks only) I was most looking forwards to performing a harness truck pull. But in an amusing turn of events the organisers decided that for health & safety we would perform an arm-over-arm truck pull… and also quickly changed the truck for a 4x4 pickup.

The women and novice groups made short work of the pull and for some of the men’s novices it seemed an exercise in best rope technique (how quickly can you move your hands?). For my group they tied a tyre to the back of the pickup to add extra drag to help make it more difficult. It didn’t really make that much difference at all and I was still able to pull the 3rd fastest time with pretty bad technique - falling maybe 1 or 2 seconds behind the next guy.

3rd fastest time.

Final Place

It wouldn’t have been enough to take 2nd on that event sadly as the guy I was joint 2nd with took the 1st place for the event.

I say sadly, but actually my competition with Anthony Price during the day was great fun and banter levels were pretty high. We certainly pushed each other pretty hard. It wasn’t the first time that I’d competed against him and it was great to offer him some actual competition this time and hope that I see him again at another contest later this year.

But I finished 3rd and had a podium place!

Came out of a close battle with @anthony_strongman_price for 2nd place but was pipped by the better man and took 3rd. Long ass day but worth it. Good fun. #strongman A post shared by Matt Ball (@strongly.typed) on Feb 11, 2017 at 3:21pm PST

Retrospective

I’ve spent the last 5 weeks training my conditioning - working with far lower weights and doing 60 second AMRAP (as many reps as possible) sets, mixing in cardio (rowing machine sprints and distance) and performing supersets where possible. My endurance, recovery and fitness were terrible and needed some work to improve. This competition proved to me that these areas had all improved greatly for me - instead of collapsing struggling for air I was able to walk away from events having given it my all for the full allowed time.

But in honesty even though it was just a fairly light (a bit like the WSM 80’s events) back-street-gym competition - I’m stoked to finally get a podium placing. While the competition might have been lighter, my fellow competitors were still very strong guys all fighting for a top place as well - so proving that I was good enough to get 3rd place and almost make 2nd place on the day has been enough to give me some much needed confidence.