A strongmans log - British champion u105KG

exploitah · 17 Apr 2013 at 23:11

A brief introduction:

My name is Ben Kelsey, I live and work in Oxford as a fire fighter and personal trainer, I've been a member here for a number of years, but done much more lurking than posting.

A few stats:

BW - 114KG
Squat - 320KG (belt and wraps)
Deadlift - 360KG (belt and suit)
C&J - 175KG
Snatch - 130KG

I have spent the past 4 years competing in strongman and currently hold the titles of Britain's strongest man at 105KG and Britain's natural strongest man.

I recently placed 5th in my first open weight competition (see video below), the 4 guys that beat me were all seasoned World Strongest Man competitors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Sn3wKQ2saA

My 5th place qualified me to compete at my first Giant's live (international strongman competition and qualifier for WSM) in Poland later this year.

I will be posting training highlights here as often as I can, if anyone's interested in following all of my training feel free to check out my blog (www.oxfordpt.co.uk/blog) or follow me on twitter @oxfordtrainer.

I'm more than happy to answer questions about my training or offer advice on others training should anyone be interested.

LiE · 17 Apr 2013 at 23:16

Awesome stuff Ben. Will be following this log.

Pigeon_Killer · 17 Apr 2013 at 23:26

Ditto LiE!

Was that Ed Hall you beat in the Medley Ben?

exploitah · 17 Apr 2013 at 23:32

Pigeon_Killer said:
Ditto LiE!

Was that Ed Hall you beat in the Medley Ben?

Yeah, Ed finished 3rd overall.

icecold · 17 Apr 2013 at 23:37

Cool, now I don't have to trawl through sugden to find your training...

Welcome Ben!

Congrats on the Giants place! I wasn't entirely sure if you'd gotten that on the day.

Nitefly · 18 Apr 2013 at 00:24

I'm not sure what's more impressive - the lifting or that camera work. What an artist! :eek:

mrthingyx · 18 Apr 2013 at 06:15

Bags first question about Olympic lifting!

Nice to see you on here, and I have very much enjoyed stalking you on YouTube! :eek:

Freefaller · 18 Apr 2013 at 07:53

Nice to have you here Ben! Amazing results - shall be following your log with interest, and look forward to chatting about this sort of thing with you.

icecold · 18 Apr 2013 at 08:06

Nitefly said:
I'm not sure what's more impressive - the lifting or that camera work. What an artist!

The clear unsung hero is the guy who drove the camera man to the event.

I also hear that guy dropped some chicken onto a man standing under the stairs where the camera/support/douchebaggery team were standing. Legend.

King Damager · 18 Apr 2013 at 10:50

Awesome work Ben, and grats on getting to Giants live. So awesome.

kd

Morba · 18 Apr 2013 at 11:05

Lazy ass supporters too scared to speak to others at that comp clearly

Ben, been following your progress for a while (post on sugden now and then!).
As said on there, you did amazing at Swindon and can't wait to see you do more against the opens

Any tips on leg drive for over head (you get a crazy amount of extra weight from your push press compared to strict) and knee tendonitis prevention/cure would be very nice

Steedie · 18 Apr 2013 at 11:19

In.gif

Subscribed!

exploitah · 18 Apr 2013 at 11:41

Glad to see there's an interest in my training, thanks for all the kind words.

exploitah · 18 Apr 2013 at 11:46

Morba said:
Any tips on leg drive for over head (you get a crazy amount of extra weight from your push press compared to strict) and knee tendonitis prevention/cure would be very nice

For comparison my strict is 110kg, my PP is 160-170KG and my jerk is 200-210KG.

Difficult to offer advice without knowing how you lift, however two generic tips that should help:

1. Be as fast and explosive as possible on ALL of your lifts, including warm ups. Get used to putting 100% into every lift, speed is key to making the leg drive work for you.

2. Drive through your heels, don't try and generate the drive with the weight on the toes.

In terms of the tendonitis, I've not had it in my knee, but suffering with a little in my elbow at the moment. Haven't had much luck treating it, however Ibuprofen gel seems to help control the symptoms.

exploitah · 18 Apr 2013 at 11:47

mrthingyx said:
Bags first question about Olympic lifting!

Nice to see you on here, and I have very much enjoyed stalking you on YouTube!

Fire away, I doubt I can turn anyone into a Olympic lifter over the internet but no harm in trying!

Morba · 18 Apr 2013 at 12:02

exploitah said:
For comparison my strict is 110kg, my PP is 160-170KG and my jerk is 200-210KG.

Difficult to offer advice without knowing how you lift, however two generic tips that should help:

1. Be as fast and explosive as possible on ALL of your lifts, including warm ups. Get used to putting 100% into every lift, speed is key to making the leg drive work for you.

2. Drive through your heels, don't try and generate the drive with the weight on the toes.

Yeah, that is the thing, I can strict a log or axle the same weight as yourself, but my legs are useless lol.
They call me "wet dynamite" (amongst other things) in our unit for a reason, complete lack of explosion

exploitah · 19 Apr 2013 at 15:12

Today's efforts copied from my blog:

19/04/13

Considering how tired and hungry I was at the start of the session and how much I dislike training in the morning it wasn't too bad!

Front squat

70KG - 10
120KG - 5
150KG - 3
180KG - 3,3,3,3

C&J (power clean, split jerk)

70KG - 3
120KG - 2
140KG - 2,2,2,2,2 (wanted to keep the weights low to focus on being explosive with the jerk)

Romanian deads

140KG - 5
190KG - 5,5,5,5,5

CG paused bench

50KG - 10
100KG - 5
130KG - 3,3,3,3,3

Dips

BW - 12,10,10,8

Good mornings

70KG - 10,10,10

Seated barbell twists

70KG - 10 (per side)
100KG - 10,10,10 (per side)

Ez bar curls

25KG - 10
45KG - 10,10,10

exploitah · 19 Apr 2013 at 15:13

Morba said:
Yeah, that is the thing, I can strict a log or axle the same weight as yourself, but my legs are useless lol.
They call me "wet dynamite" (amongst other things) in our unit for a reason, complete lack of explosion

At what point do you fail the press?

LiE · 19 Apr 2013 at 15:29

Nice work, good to see some curls in there

Morba · 19 Apr 2013 at 16:29

Nice front squatting

exploitah said:
At what point do you fail the press?

If I put 130 on a log it's my legs that fail me. Combination of timing and no explosion ruin it for me. If I could get it above my head I'd press it out I sure.

I've got on log on here which shows how bad things are lol.