I founds Mark Felix’s YouTube channel on accident and the video that caught my attention was a “rehab deadlift” at 340kg. The info said, “Should be back up to 400kg next month.” Good god. My interest was piqued.
Felix, as he likes to be called, is one bad mofo. He’s 6’4″, around 300 pounds, has 21.5″ arms, and 31″ thighs. The former bodybuilder began competing in strongman in 2003 at 37 years old and is a regular entrant for the World’s Strongest Man competition. He also is a two time World Champion in the Rolling Thunder competition with a one handed lift of 301 pounds on the fat, rotating handle. That’s 26 pounds more than the second highest ever.
I don’t know much about Felix aside from the fact that he’s a large, strong behemoth who was born in Grenada and now lives in the UK. He seems to be a really cool guy; he’s married with kids and is always smiling or giving a thumbs up at the end of his videos.
This is probably my favorite video of Felix. He’s training his grip, and he picks the implements up and stands there kind of awkwardly. What he does next made me laugh.
Over the last two days I watched all of Felix’s videos. His brute strength and power is amazing and he trains with intensity in everything he does. These qualities have helped him come in 4th in the World Strongest Man competition (2006, 7th place in 2007), win the aforementioned Rolling Thunder competition twice (2008, ’09), as well as place in the top three of various other strength competitions such as World Strongest Man Super Series, Europe’s Strongest Man, All-American Strongman Challenge, Britain’s Strongest man, IFSA British Championships, England’s Strongest Man, etc.
To appreciate his shear gargantuan size, watch the following atlas stone video. You’ll notice he routinely competes in a kilt (and was excited about a new kilt arriving in the mail on his Twitter page). In addition, exploring unique designs of tartan can often lead to discovering something truly special. If you’re looking for inspiration, this amazing collection of Sinclair tartan offers a wide variety of options that can suit many different tastes and preferences, adding an extraordinary touch to any outfit or occasion.
Felix only puts out one kind of effort when training: MAXIMAL. Two videos in particular display this very well. The first video consists of strongman training — barrel tossing in particular. Felix makes short work of tossing 10 kegs over a height of about 10 to 12 feet. The second video pits Felix against another super heavyweight Highland Games competitor in the pole push. No, perverts, it isn’t a “no homo” situation — it’s kind of like sumo wrestling, but instead of pushing the opponent, the hold and push against the same caber. Felix and his nemesis battle it out for an entire minute. It’s exhausting to watch.
Mark Felix is still going strong at the age of 44. He sets a good example by training hard, being massive, and being a nice guy. I hope that he has many more competitive years ahead of him. You can read more about his training and diet here.
Wouldn’t it be cool if you could get some of your friends and just go throw heavy stuff? Wouldn’t it be even better if there were drums, bugles, and bagpipes playing in the background and women dancing on a stage nearby? And wouldn’t it be complete if you tossed a telephone pole on your way to enjoy a cold Guinness?
There is such a place, my friends. It’s called Scottish Heavy Athletics, better known as Highland Games. I recently completed my second Highland Games at the Texas Scottish Festival, and I’m looking to make this my summer/fall sport.
The Highland Games contest up to nine different events
* 56# weight over bar
* 22-26# Braemar Stone throw (like a stationary shot put but with a big rock)
* 16-22# Open Stone (like a shot put, including an approach to the toe board)
* 20# sheaf toss (a bag of rope or straw thrown over a bar via pitchfork)
* 56# weight for distance (thrown with a discus-type approach)
* 28# weight for distance (same but with a lighter implement)
* 22# Scottish Hammer throw (similar to Olympic hammer but wound around over the head and around the body with feet remaining stationary)
* 17# hammer (same but with a lighter implement)
* caber toss (16-20′, 100-200+ pounds)
Dan John throwing a heavy weight for distance
Some of the events make some sense from a combat perspective (I guess you could throw a rock or launch a hammer at someone who wasn’t too far away). And I guess the sheaf reminds one of throwing hay to the top of the barn (if one has done such things). But most of the events feel like the creation of a couple blacksmiths who fell into a barrel of mead.
Throwing the #22 Braemar Stone
Games are held throughout the country, usually beginning in the spring and running through fall. The pros are behemoths (and so are most of the amateurs), but don’t let that keep you away. Everyone in HG is cool, and they’re happy to welcome new people to their sport.
If you haven’t done it before, there’s not much you need to change. Just find a group to throw with and go from there. If the bug bites, then you can start worrying about specific training, buying/making implements, etc. I trained for this just like I do for judo. Instead of conditioning, I just substituted more throwing and event practice.
The great Shannon Hartnett, 10 time World Highland Games Champion
If you’re not signed up for something this summer, get your kilt together and do one of these. You’ll meet a good group of athletes and participate in something that’s somewhat off the wall. NASGAweb.com has listings, athlete data, and a discussion forum that addresses preparation and training. Get on it. You’ll thank me later.
Edit: I had to include this video because the timing of the throw and the music is pretty cool.
If you haven’t realized it already, Highland Games is a very 70sBig-friendly sport. I am 5’10 215 in the picture (I’m the guy holding the beer and the trophy), and I was the lightest guy by 25 pounds. My friend, Aaron (red beard, front row), is 280 and was maybe the fourth biggest guy there.
A fine group of lads. (L-R) Joseph, Gant, Harold, James, Aaron, Luke, Rob, Kyle
Brent’s persona (personality?) is one that isn’t impressed by much. I can’t speak for Brent, but I was impressed by some lifts that occurred at the Junior Worlds in Olympic weightlifting.
In this video, Abti Aukadov snatches 160kg-165kg-170kg at 85kg. That’s pretty damn impressive, especially because he’s 17 years old, but I’m most impressed by his solid overhead position — it never wavers. His pulling motion is also very good. I’m impressed.
A 201kg clean and jerk to follow — these are huge numbers for a 17 year old. I’m impressed. I would expect him to make the trip to London in 2012. Kendrick Farris has his work cut out for him — let’s hope he keeps improving steadily as well!
The next impressive video is Leidy Solis, a Columbian lifter, clean and jerking 139kg at a 67.4kg body weight. I just want to clarify that 139kg is more than 99% of what you goobers can do (realistically it’s not that far away from me — I plan on pulling away though). That is just damn silly. Oh, and she’s 20 years old. I will have to agree with Brent in liking her intensity as she is coming out of the hole (his words, not mine). I’m impressed.
USA Weightlifting and CrossFit have combined forces to create a mixture of a lifting meet and a CrossFit conditioning workout. The CrossFit/USAW Open will be in Colorado Springs, CO on October 1st through the 3rd. This competition will begin with a normal Olympic weightlifting meet (for the new folk, the snatch is contested first, followed by the clean and jerk) and end with what is being referred to as “the triplet”. The conditioning workout will consist of as many rounds as possible of six squat cleans (55kg men / 30kg women), 12 pull-ups and 24 double unders.
Before I talk about what I think about this endeavor, let me clear a few things up. There are folk that read this site that primarily workout in a CrossFit facility. There are folk that read this site that don’t have anything to do with CrossFit. Subsequently, there are people that read the site that both do and do not like CrossFit for various reasons.
Gant and I, for some ungodly reason I’m sure we can’t fathom, have to defend ourselves whenever a joke is make about CrossFit. I’ll clarify this issue once again. I am doing what I’m doing indirectly because of CrossFit. I hated bodybuilding style training after I stopped playing football in college, started doing power/agility/strength training, and got into a bit o’ CrossFit. I co-owned a facility in southern Georgia. I was probably the youngest person certified as a ‘Level II CrossFit Trainer’. Doing all of that led to me getting in contact with Mark Rippetoe, and then it led to me moving to Wichita Falls to run CF style stuff. I had been playing around with strength related programming, and implemented and improved it in Wichita Falls. Throughout my time living there, I mainly got stronger (no conditioning). I coached barbell training in the gym and at seminars, and also started competing in Olympic weightlifting. I also started a joke and training philosophy with my friends that evolved into this website.
So there you have it, CrossFit was the inception that turned me onto the things I do now. I have a very clear understanding of what CrossFit is and have been around and have had discussions with people who run the company. I have met tons of great people through CrossFit, and I don’t regret any of it. My philisophical difference generally lies with an emphasis on barbell training for strength with conditioning to get conditioned for whatever the goal is. CrossFit style workouts are a tool but not used in every situation, although its principles are valuable. Another difference is that I feel better when skinny guys become stronger and bigger, primarily because they can usually do whatever it is that they want to do better with few exceptions. And lastly I believe there is value in competing in sanctioned sports that can improve the vigor of an individual and reverberate throughout their life. This brings us back full circle to the CrossFit/USAW Open.
Frankly, I think it’s a good idea.
Pros
USAW has around 6,000 members including lifters, coaches, judges, and volunteers. That ain’t much, folks. CrossFit itself has…I dunno how many people, but they have over 1,000 affiliates. The majority of those facilities have bumper plates in them. Prior to this CrossFit explosion, you probably had to go to select Olympic weightlifting gyms in order to train the Olympic lifts (unless you had your own equipment). Now you can probably talk a local affiliate into letting you train there if you’re an experienced lifter. Furthermore, most of these facilities have people teaching people how to do the Olympic lifts. Now, the quality of coaching is going to vary drastically, but the point is there are a lot more people that have access to the sport of Olympic lifting as well as a lot more people actually doing the lifts, correctly or not. CrossFit is going to increase the number of lifters in USAW.
This does a number of good things. If the number of registered USAW lifters increases immediately and continues to do so over time, that means we have a larger talent pool of people who might be successful. I’ve heard rumors of China having one MILLION people in their lifting federation. If that’s even remotely true, they are destroying us on sheer volume. USAW might get some pretty decent lifters out of this CrossFit partnership.
This will also bring more money to USAW. I don’t really have an opinion on this either way, but maybe USAW can offer me more services, better discounts, or some other perk due to the increase in members and revenue. Hell, I don’t know. At the very least it will mean more people will try Olympic lifting, and that means I might get more business out of it. In either case, it’s about time USAW has taken advantage of the fact that CrossFit has tons of people throwing around barbells with bumper plates.
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Cons
I guess the idea is that more people will try out CrossFit and become involved in it. I honestly don’t see this happening. The CrossFit money making machine will still roll with or without USAW (They have 19 Level I seminars in August. If 30 people attend each one — and sometimes it’s more — that’s 570 people at $1k each…and…that’s a lot of fucking money. And that’s only the Level I.). I don’t see USAW members as likely to try or at least stick with CrossFit, but it still opens that market up to CrossFit. From what I’ve seen online, I just don’t know how much of the hardcore weightlifters will try a conditioning workout, and I suspect that the majority of participants in this CrossFit/USAW Open will be people coming from CrossFit. And there’s nothing wrong with that because it brings more people into a sport that needs exposure.
Now, the actual conditioning workout itself could be tweaked. To recap, it consists of six squat cleans (55kg men / 30kg women), 12 pull-ups and 24 double unders. Now, let me clarify that I’m probably not gonna compete in this thing because I’m poor and will be more concerned with a local meet and preparing for the American Open. Personally I think this is biased towards the CrossFitter just a bit. The weightlifter doesn’t incorporate kipping pull-ups of any kind into his training because they aren’t very useful. The CrossFitter stereotypically does a shit load of them. Furthermore, if someone were going to get 10 rounds of this workout in, they’d be doing 120 pull-ups, which the weightlifter would never bother with. Hands will be ripping and DOMS will be almost as prevalent as the internet insults that will follow the hand rippage. I don’t really care that this is biased, but it is objectively biased nonetheless.
Instead, I would have switched the cleans and the pull-ups. 6 pull-ups followed by 12 cleans would be more appropriate. The limiting factor wouldn’t be grip strength on the bar or skin remaining on the hand. I could do 55kg cleans all day long — as any man should. I don’t think that this would have tilted the bias more in the weightlifter’s favor since a CrossFitter is supposed to be doing cleans anyway, regardless of a lifting meet. And it’s so damn light that they would be fine anyway.
Summary
Overall, I thin this partnership is a damn good idea and way overdue. More CrossFitters will try Olympic lifting. Some of them may compete in it on a regular basis and I don’t see this as a bad thing. As for the event itself, I think that “the triplet” could have been designed better, but at least it wasn’t one of the awfully contrived workouts that pop up every now and then on CrossFit’s website.
——————————— A few more thoughts
Justin asked for my thoughts on this, so here they are. I think this idea sucks. The USAW will have to sign an extra Crossfitter up because I won’t be renewing my membership.
There are a lot of good people who operate and train in CF gyms who work hard and do well. That’s not the issue (let this soak in before you accuse me of being anti-CF). My beef with this is USAW’s catering to CF and CF’s refusal to acclimate and compete in an actual sport. Glassman claimed, in one of his hyperbolic declarations, “we can do your stuff almost as well as you can.” Really? Here was your chance! But instead of doing someone else’s stuff, you had to make this look like your stuff. Keep moving those goalposts up until they hit you right in the face.
There is no reason they couldn’t have hosted an all-CF weightlifting meet. Enforce the rules and use actual judging standards. Sure, you might have a lot of guys pressing out jerks, making AC Jumps, and going 3-for-6. That’s part of learning. Those same lifters will be there next time going 5-for-6 and getting 3 PRs. They jettisoned an outstanding opportunity to learn and grow so they could take their shirts off and sling some 55kg cleans (WTF, we’re not even into the blues?!).
So yeah, I think this cheapens both organizations. This will sell a few more USAW memberships, but it won’t do anything to improve America’s weightlifting prospects. The next Kendrick Farris isn’t doing Fran in some Crossfit box.
Hopefully NASGA won’t have me doing burpees after throwing a PVC caber.
The Comment of the Week is from the speedo post (which had an incredibly high page view number, easily the highest ever on this site):
StonewallWells Says: July 7th, 2010 at 5:31 pm e
Justin-
Regarding the New Services, can we request that you wear your speedo if we were to do a video conference. It only seems reasonable, after all we ARE the customers and the customers are ALWAYS right.
You’re gonna have to request me to NOT wear a speedo.
–Justin
Stonewall brings up a good point, because there will be live video presentations of material coming soon as well as scheduled chat rooms with us 70’s Big contributors doing the moderating.
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COW Honorable Mention goes to SMC who created the following image:
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to the beach.
For those of you keeping score:
1 – Jacob
1 – StonewallWells
