Strongman Recap

Typically I don’t like to have too long of a recap for powerlifting and weightlifting meets, but strongman isn’t something I get a lot of recaps on (Paul, I will put yours up soon!). Antigen and ThunderThighs are my pals, and both train together and enjoy competing. Saul’s training and zest for competition reminds me of Gant (and that is high praise). In addition to lifting Antigen is almost nerdy and TT has a vibrant personality — I like these two. Antigen did a full meet recap, and I found it very interesting throughout. Additionally, there are a lot of vids, and I’ve embedded a few. See Antigen’s YouTube Channel for more. The rest is written by Saul.
–Justin

We competed in our first strongman Saturday April 30. I’m glad I did it but I wouldn’t do it again. (I’ll get to that later) ThunderThighs wants to do one again. It was hosted by a local gym a couple miles from where we live. I mentioned when I was signing up my girlfriend wished she could enter. The next time I was there they told me they’d create a women’s division for her. She was very excited when I brought the news home.

To train we lifted at our regular gym 4 days a week with squats, presses, o-lifts and deadlifts, the usual. We were allowed to train at Los Campeones after paying the entry fee as we had no where else to use the implements. We are really glad they were super super nice to let us do that. The gym owner (Benjamin Loehrer) is pretty cute, TT has a raging crush.

The meet was supposed to be held outside but it was pouring rain the day of so everything was inside. We got soaked on the bike ride there but had extra changes of clothes. Speaking of clothes I wore 3 shirts to minimize the pinching in the Axle continental clean & press, TT wore a tank top (single ply). Soaking wet, I still managed to weigh in as a light weight (<200lbs) but I didn't see my weight. ThunderThighs declined a weigh-in. A friend Tim whom I talked into entering his first meet with an entry fee (by cornering him at work) was MIA that morning. I will continue to bother him until he competes.

[spoiler] The axle is a thick (2.25″) 100lb bar with non revolving sleeves. This makes Olympic clean techniques less useful at heavy weights.

ThunderThighs went first and although she was told it would be the empty bar for max reps, they changed it into max weight. She made 100,110,120 and missed 130’s jerk with no prior practice with continental technique. She was the only female lifting.

The Lightweight men started with 150 on the axle and made 20lb jumps. It was performed last man standing style and competitors had to lift every weight on the way up. I power cleaned and pressed my first 3 attempts but switched to a continental clean and split jerk style so I would be ready for heavy at 210 and up. Some of the 6 lightweights were already eliminated by that point because they were weak and/or didn’t know how to Jerk. The third place lifter was knocked out by 250. I lifted 270 easily but was dreading the pain olympics of continental cleaning even heavier weights. Fortunately the other lifter who had magnetic hands and was power cleaning all his attempts missed at 270 and was knocked out. The 5 heavyweight men started with 200, made 20lb jumps and two lifters failed to get 280, a weight I had continental cleaned in training. It’s disappointing to leave bigger lifts in the tank but there was no incentive for lifts beyond 1st place and continentals damage skin even with 3 shirts.

Antigen’s legit 270 lbs axle clean and press:


TT 120 lbs
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[spoiler]The goal was to lift over the axle placed between some squat stands which were raised after each attempt. At maximum extension, the bar was high enough for me to walk under it, I’m 5’7″.

Thunderthighs was never able to lift their lightest atlas stone, 135lb, higher than a few inches off the floor in training. Her substitute was an 85lb sandbag, she was tossing it higher than neck height before she failed.

This event took forever. I had suggested the lightweights use the 235lb stone, but because there were some younger and weaker lifters 190lbs was the starting weight. 3 lifters including myself were able to launch the ball over the 6′ goal after 10+ rounds of lower heights. The tie break was to use the 235lb stone, which continued for several more increases until the tallest guy who also was strong enough to shoulder it won. (Big surprise) I tied for second with a lift around eye height. The heavyweights were able to lift to the same notch as us but started with 235.

I trained for this event improperly because I assumed a heavy stone like 235 or 265 was going to be used so it wouldn’t become a how tall are you contest. So I practiced only with those and even got 265 chest high my third practice session.

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[spoiler]4 Deadlift stations for time.

TT had a 200lb olympic bar, 100lb DBs, 225 hex bar and 240 axle. She made 240 look easy but it was a 5lb pr for any type of bar.


Mens lightweight had 365 olympic, 200lb suitcases, 425 hex and 455 axle. I got 455 to knee height with very little rest, it was a disappointing miss as I hit 475 two weeks ago in the TSC. I disagreed with the scoring of this event as people who attempted the 4th bar but couldn’t lift clocked a worse time than those who simply quit after station 3. 3 people got it, 2 missed it and 1 didn’t try.

Heavyweights had about 500lbs on the hex and olympic bars, 250lb suitcases, and 530 on the axle which no one was able to successfully lift.


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[spoiler]This was another event that was switched on us, it was supposed to be Circus Dumbbell Clean and Press for max reps in 90s. The lightweight division was to use the lighter of their two circus DBs but I preferred lifting with the 130lb dumbbell as it was a little more compact and was heavier and had done doubles with it. Then some idiot broke the lighter circus dumbbell the week before the contest so everything was switched to sandbags 85, 120 and 150 for the three divisions.

TT got the bag over her head a couple times but was unable to get a complete lift. The extra upper body involvement controlling the sandbag made 70% not a very good female scale, further hers was the most unstable as it was the least full.

The only sandbag there was to practice with leading up to this event was 85# and it was so light I never touched it again. I had trouble with the rules of this event. First touch and go was not allowed, which I did accidentally once, then another rep that I had actually let go of was wrongly DQ’d. So just a few seconds in I was pissed and two reps behind, so I tried to go as fast as possible by not resetting at my chest. On one “press” (mine were more like snatches) I twisted my left shoulder funny, it hurt pretty bad so I hope I’m not injured. Several more of my reps weren’t counted because it was drooping too much in front of my face and the rule was get your head under at lockout. I rage quit with 10 seconds still on the clock I was so disgusted with the event (Editor’s Note: gg). The top 3 tied at 14 reps. I had 8 which counted and almost as many attempts that did not count.

The best reps for the 150lb heavyweight division sandbag was 6.
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[spoiler]TT used 225 on the trap bar, which is a really impressive load to walk with, being just 20lbs below her new 1rm. She used her best friend (the 85# sandbag) in place of a keg.

Lightweights used the 200lb suitcases. Everyone was tripping on the rubber floor mats while carrying the Keg, including me. I placed second in this event with 40.5s, third place was 41s. The guy who got first did it in 30.0, I’d recommend watching me and then imagine what 35% faster would look like. We’re talking Brent Kim proportions of Dianabol to be able to sprint carrying 400 pounds of weight.

Heavyweights had a 495lb trap bar to walk with and a heavier keg. Everyone that wore a belt found the Keg pretty unwieldy because it would pivot against the buckle I would highly recommend not using one. No one had to set the farmers walk implements down including a 165lb 16 year old. The only people to not actually trip at some point were TT and the lightweight winner.

Editor’s Note: After watching this vid, Brent said, “Antigen’s kind of a maniac.”

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[spoiler] TT’s sub was pushing the owner’s Mini Cooper the same distance the men pulled the truck. This was her first time ever pushing a car, which is really surprising for living in Minnesota.

Grip was a big issue here, we wore rubber gloves but I’m not sure how much it helped. My strategy was to use two arms to get it rolling and then go for speed with one handed pulls but I lost a lot of power from slipping. It turned out using a two handed pull was the best for the conditions. It felt very anticlimactic finishing with an event where you couldn’t tell who was faster or slower from watching and no one was able to pull their hardest.

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Overall I placed third, the tall dude second and the dianabol dude first. For this I won 1 month of gym membership to Los Campeones.

I wouldn’t do another competition because I don’t feel that strongman as well refined a sport as Powerlifting or Weightlifting (or even the TSC). Many of the events did not challenge the limit strength or power of any of the competitors, including Keg carry, tire flipping, and sandbag presses. If strongman is the title the implements shouldn’t be light enough that everyone who enters can lift them! Since I did not know the weights and distances ahead of time and some of the events were changed on us it wouldn’t meet Justin’s definition of sport either. http://www.70sbig.com/blog/2011/04/sport/ The scoring of the deadlift medley, especially for the heavyweights introduced substantial random noise into the scoring. For them the winner was the person who took the least time to realize he couldn’t lift the 530 axle not who completed the first 3 lifts fastest. Finishing place in stones for height was like sorting us by height after accounting for physical ability to lift the 235. In events where lifters tied for the same place they could have broke the tie by bumping the lighter lifter ahead but they had ties stand. But I don’t like the sum of placings scoring in general because it does not reward any effort beyond what gets 1st and can make the least bad athlete win instead of the strongest overall.

Despite that I’d still recommend trying a strongman contest if you are an intermediate with competitive experience and want to shake up your training. It’s probably more fun than a Crossfit competition and if you’re the strongest you just might win. If you’ve never competed: a powerlifting or weightlifting meet is a safer bet because you’ll be able to practice all the lifts of the competition and know the rules ahead of time.