A strongmans log - British champion u105KG
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Caporegime
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Congratulations Ben! 
Did I see a post on Sugden saying it'll be on Eurosport at some point?
Did I see a post on Sugden saying it'll be on Eurosport at some point?
Britain’s Strongest man 105KG – 21/07/13
Okay, not much in the way of training to be recorded here due to all of the recent competitions.
I competed at Britain’s strongest man 105KG last weekend, so in order to keep this in some sort of logical order I shall start with a brief report from there:
The venue was Bridgend, not somewhere I’d ever been before and to be perfectly honest it didn’t strike me as the most glamorous of locations! However I travelled down early Saturday morning, severely dehydrated after a day of not drinking and several hours in a hot bath the night before and was pleasantly surprised to find K2 gym. It was a few weeks away from being brand new and was one of the best training facilities I’ve seen, it was to be the venue for the following days comp.
I made weight about 9Am Saturday morning, luckily it was done in a private room, away from all the people training in the gym as I was still 105.1KG with only my underwear left to remove!
I spent the rest of the day re-hydrating, eating pizza, exploring the sights of Bridgend town centre and catching up with a few of the other competitors.
Saturday went pretty quick and a good nights sleep and a decent breakfast took me up to competition time. I was feeling much better than I did at England’s 105 a few weeks earlier, largely because I hadn’t needed to drop quite so much weight.
Event 1 – Max deadlift (suit, straps, but no hitching)
Done in round robin style, everyone had to lift the 260KG and 300KG after that we could pick our weights. I opted for 330KG followed by 350KG which both felt very comfortable. By the time I’d done the 350KG there were only two of us left in the competition. I could (and in hindsight should) have settled for 2nd and left it there, I knew that Karl was a very strong deadlifter. I opted to take 360KG in the hope that it would be enough for a tie of the lead. I pulled the 360KG (an equal PB) fairly comfortably, however it was hitched, meaning that on this occasion it didn’t count, frustrating from my perspective as hitching is allowed in every other comp I’ve ever done and as such default to it on my heavier pulls. I was confident that 370KG would have gone for a new PB had I been allowed to attempt it. However it made no difference as Karl went on to pull a very easy 380KG for a new British record (beating my existing 350KG mark by some considerable margin!) and the first event win.
Event 2 – 130KG Axle for reps (60 seconds)
It was done head to head, I should have been against Karl in the final pairing, but there was a mistake with the order and I was out in the second to last pairing with a total of 5 reps to beat. I knew that Karl would once again be my main rival in this event, I did 8 fairly comfortable, but slightly untidy reps to take the lead. Karl then came out and squeezed 9 reps into the 60 second time period. His technique was a lot more efficient, but I’m confident I’d have found an extra rep for equal first had we been put head to head as planned.
Event 3 – 360KG Yoke – 30m (drop and turn at 15m)
I knew Karl was going to be good at the first 2 events, but I wasn’t particularly happy about going into event 3 in second place (not that I could have done anything about it)!
However event 3, the yoke is a strong event for me and a relative weakness for Karl, the current leader.
We were head to head in the final pairing with a time of 22 seconds to beat. Determined to win the event and hoping to take the overall lead I managed a quick run without any mistakes for a time of 17 seconds. Karl didn’t manage to finish the course, so I was the overall leader after event 3.
Event 4 – 140KG Farmers – 30m (drop and turn at 15m)
Another good event for me, a chance to extend my lead at the top. However there had been 5 or 6 very fast runs and I was head to head with one of the best at farmers in the 105KG class. I knew that my grip would need to hold out to avoid what could be a very costly drop.
It did, I won in a time of 14.xx seconds. Another fast and solid performance.
Event 5 – Conans wheel
Having looked at the scores after event 4 and being the last of the 13 athletes to go on conans I knew that an event win would be enough to secure the overall title (with 1 event still to go).
However that wasn’t to be, I made my first and only mistake of the day. Conans is a good event for me and I would have expected to win, however I messed up my breathing at the very start and had to battle for 3.5 revolutions with next to no air inside me! Luckily for me it was still good enough for 3rd, but I was frustrated with a basic mistake and started to worry about another silly mistake on the stones costing me the title!
Event 6 – Atlas stones – 100KG – 160KG
High platforms and a 2m run in with the stones meant that even the best stone lifters had only managed 4 of the 6 stones. My overall lead gave me the advantage of going last, I knew that 3 stones would be enough to take the overall title and 5 would be enough to do it in style and win the last event. After the mistake in conans I was going to make sure of the title, but once I’d done that I added the 4th and 5th stone to finish what may well be my last 105KG comp on British soil on a high.
Overall 1st place with a comfortable 14 point winning margin. Very pleased to have won, 5 out of 6 events couldn’t have gone any better. Mistakes are common in strongman, so I’ll happily take that.
I have videos from the event, that I will add to my youtube account as and when I get the chance.
Okay, not much in the way of training to be recorded here due to all of the recent competitions.
I competed at Britain’s strongest man 105KG last weekend, so in order to keep this in some sort of logical order I shall start with a brief report from there:
The venue was Bridgend, not somewhere I’d ever been before and to be perfectly honest it didn’t strike me as the most glamorous of locations! However I travelled down early Saturday morning, severely dehydrated after a day of not drinking and several hours in a hot bath the night before and was pleasantly surprised to find K2 gym. It was a few weeks away from being brand new and was one of the best training facilities I’ve seen, it was to be the venue for the following days comp.
I made weight about 9Am Saturday morning, luckily it was done in a private room, away from all the people training in the gym as I was still 105.1KG with only my underwear left to remove!
I spent the rest of the day re-hydrating, eating pizza, exploring the sights of Bridgend town centre and catching up with a few of the other competitors.
Saturday went pretty quick and a good nights sleep and a decent breakfast took me up to competition time. I was feeling much better than I did at England’s 105 a few weeks earlier, largely because I hadn’t needed to drop quite so much weight.
Event 1 – Max deadlift (suit, straps, but no hitching)
Done in round robin style, everyone had to lift the 260KG and 300KG after that we could pick our weights. I opted for 330KG followed by 350KG which both felt very comfortable. By the time I’d done the 350KG there were only two of us left in the competition. I could (and in hindsight should) have settled for 2nd and left it there, I knew that Karl was a very strong deadlifter. I opted to take 360KG in the hope that it would be enough for a tie of the lead. I pulled the 360KG (an equal PB) fairly comfortably, however it was hitched, meaning that on this occasion it didn’t count, frustrating from my perspective as hitching is allowed in every other comp I’ve ever done and as such default to it on my heavier pulls. I was confident that 370KG would have gone for a new PB had I been allowed to attempt it. However it made no difference as Karl went on to pull a very easy 380KG for a new British record (beating my existing 350KG mark by some considerable margin!) and the first event win.
Event 2 – 130KG Axle for reps (60 seconds)
It was done head to head, I should have been against Karl in the final pairing, but there was a mistake with the order and I was out in the second to last pairing with a total of 5 reps to beat. I knew that Karl would once again be my main rival in this event, I did 8 fairly comfortable, but slightly untidy reps to take the lead. Karl then came out and squeezed 9 reps into the 60 second time period. His technique was a lot more efficient, but I’m confident I’d have found an extra rep for equal first had we been put head to head as planned.
Event 3 – 360KG Yoke – 30m (drop and turn at 15m)
I knew Karl was going to be good at the first 2 events, but I wasn’t particularly happy about going into event 3 in second place (not that I could have done anything about it)!
However event 3, the yoke is a strong event for me and a relative weakness for Karl, the current leader.
We were head to head in the final pairing with a time of 22 seconds to beat. Determined to win the event and hoping to take the overall lead I managed a quick run without any mistakes for a time of 17 seconds. Karl didn’t manage to finish the course, so I was the overall leader after event 3.
Event 4 – 140KG Farmers – 30m (drop and turn at 15m)
Another good event for me, a chance to extend my lead at the top. However there had been 5 or 6 very fast runs and I was head to head with one of the best at farmers in the 105KG class. I knew that my grip would need to hold out to avoid what could be a very costly drop.
It did, I won in a time of 14.xx seconds. Another fast and solid performance.
Event 5 – Conans wheel
Having looked at the scores after event 4 and being the last of the 13 athletes to go on conans I knew that an event win would be enough to secure the overall title (with 1 event still to go).
However that wasn’t to be, I made my first and only mistake of the day. Conans is a good event for me and I would have expected to win, however I messed up my breathing at the very start and had to battle for 3.5 revolutions with next to no air inside me! Luckily for me it was still good enough for 3rd, but I was frustrated with a basic mistake and started to worry about another silly mistake on the stones costing me the title!
Event 6 – Atlas stones – 100KG – 160KG
High platforms and a 2m run in with the stones meant that even the best stone lifters had only managed 4 of the 6 stones. My overall lead gave me the advantage of going last, I knew that 3 stones would be enough to take the overall title and 5 would be enough to do it in style and win the last event. After the mistake in conans I was going to make sure of the title, but once I’d done that I added the 4th and 5th stone to finish what may well be my last 105KG comp on British soil on a high.
Overall 1st place with a comfortable 14 point winning margin. Very pleased to have won, 5 out of 6 events couldn’t have gone any better. Mistakes are common in strongman, so I’ll happily take that.
I have videos from the event, that I will add to my youtube account as and when I get the chance.
Worlds Strongest man 105KG – 28/07/13
So… an opportunity I’d wanted for a long time. An opportunity I felt was unfairly taken from me last year. But this was my chance!
I started strongman with a local novice competition 4 years ago, with no aspirations beyond having some fun and trying something new. But due to my competitive nature that was never going to last long! As soon as I got involved in the 105KG scene, I knew that I wouldn’t be happy until I was winning! I didn’t expect to win straight away, which was lucky really because my first taste of success didn’t come until a few years down the line. However even during my first year I was competitive with some very strong and experienced athletes. I finished 2nd in the 2010 UK finals behind Paul Woods, who as the champion qualified for WSM 105. From this point onwards I’d decided it was something I was going to achieve.
Sunday’s comp didn’t come at a brilliant time for me, I’m in great shape right now, but have been so busy competing elsewhere that I wasn’t able to fit in a single training session on the actual events! But I’d had a full week of rest and recovery following last weekends British finals so I can’t complain too much!
I doubt anyone cares how I got to Kiev, or what ordeals I went through to to make weight on the Saturday. If you’ve read one of my other write ups you’ll have heard it all before! So lets cut to the chase, the event took place at a popular boat racing competition, an hour or so outside Kiev in the Ukraine. I wouldn’t have guessed that fans of speed boat racing were interested in strongman, but its turns out that the Ukrainians knew better as there were a good few thousand people who turned up to watch. Both stands were full and even standing room was hard to come by.
13 athletes from 10 different countries, 6 events, 12 TV cameras, 1000′s of spectators and 1 title up for grabs!
Things got under way about 2 PM on a very hot and sunny Sunday afternoon.
Now before I start, I’m pretty good at knowing my own strengths and weaknesses, but on this occasion I had no idea what to expect from any of the other competitors! They were all national champions in their own right, they all deserved to be there, but I knew nothing about any of them!
Event 1 – 370KG yoke – 20m
I’d drawn 10th out of 13. Most of the other competitors had finished the full 20m course, 3 or 4 in what looked like quick times. I think the leader had managed 14 seconds over what was a slightly uneven 20m course.Yoke is normally a good event for me, so I knew that I’d need a good placing here if I was to be in contention for a top spot overall.
Things turned out very well, I managed what was probably my best ever yoke run and recorded a time of 10.69 seconds and took a comfortable win in event 1.
Event 2 – 85KG dumbbell for reps (60 seconds)
I was in the final pairing as a result of my event win, 8 reps was the current lead, everyone else had managed somewhere between 1 and 6 reps.
I was feeling confident, having done a very easy rep in warm up.
8 reps should have been well within my capabilities, however I made mistake after mistake! We were given vests to compete in and the dumbbell kept slipping on my sweaty shoulders, I was rushing reps to try and make up for previous mistakes. Things weren’t going well! I somehow battled my way to 5 reps, it felt like I’d messed up another 5 on the way to that total! It could have been worse, but I was massively disappointed. I had to settle for =3rd when I should have really taken another event win.
Event 3 – Conans wheel
This was my 3rd competition (in 4 weeks) with a conans wheel, so this was one event I’d managed to practise! After messing up my breathing last week, I wasn’t going to make that mistake again. 2.5 revolutions on the slightly uneven ground was the target to beat with just 2 guys to go after me. I adopted a slightly more controlled approach due to the nature of the ground and managed to take the lead with ~2.75. A score only the Polish competitor went on to beat, leaving me in second place. However this extended the Polish athletes overall lead by another point. I was in second place, 3.5 points behind first.
Event 4 – Arm over arm sled pull
Once again, I was in the final pairing after my second place finish in conans. By the time my name was called out, one thing was obvious… this event was heavy and incredibly tough. The best of the 11 competitors that had gone before me had only managed a few meters. Some guys hadn’t moved it at all. The pressure was on, a poor result here could cost me massive points and put me way out of contention for the lead.The sled was heavy, the ground was uneven and the rope was very elasticated, that combination explained the previous results.
I made the decision that I wasn’t going to be pulling the sled anywhere with my arms, so sat with my feet against the stop board in an ultra deep squat position. With the rope wrapped around my forearms (I have the rope burn to prove this) I simple pushed away , straightening my legs, to my slight surprise and delight the sled came with me. I guess it probably only moved about 1m per pull, but it was moving and to be perfectly honest it was pretty easy. I did another 4 or 5 pulls before looking over at the Polish guy and realising he’d only managed to struggle his way to about 0.5m in total. I had plenty of time and energy left, but had already done enough to secure the event win with about 5m!!
My event win, coupled with other results going my way was enough to leap frog me into the overall lead by 5.5 points.
Event 5 – Car squat for reps (suit and straps)
The field was cut from 13 to 8 at this stage in the competition.
I consider myself to be a good squatter and should do well in an event like this, but as mentioned I had no idea what to expect from the others. The athletes in the first 3 pairings managed between 2 and 12 reps. I strapped up my knees and made my way over to the squat thinking that as long as I did 13 reps I’d be going into the last event in the overall lead. However I’d been told it weighed 310KG and 13 reps at 310KG seemed impossible! As it turns out, I really didn’t need to have worried. After the first squat, I knew that I was going to win the event. It was light and for someone who normally squats deep the range of movement was small. I actually lost count of how many reps I’d done once I’d passed 12, but knew I was leading and squatting much faster than my opponent in the final pairing. I stopped with about 20 seconds to go and another 10+ reps left in the tank, only to be told afterwards that I’d finished =1st with my final pairing opponent, both with 16 reps. I fail to see how this was possible and had I known at the time would have done more. Oh well, it only cost me 0.5 points and I still had a 5.5 point lead going into the final event, with only 8 points now available. Still, lesson learnt!
Event 6 – Medley – Frame carry, duck walk and tyre flip.
Of the 6 to go before me, only 1 had finished the whole event, most failed to even finish the frame. I needed 3 points from this event to secure the overall title, regardless of what anyone else did, which at this stage is all I cared about. 3 points meant finishing 6th or better. I knew that 7m+ with the frame was enough for 6th place and the title.
In my mind there was no way in the world I wasn’t going to carry the frame the required 7m, I just hoped my body agreed!
The whistle went and I picked up the frame and managed about 3m before my grip slipped, the handles were quite wide and very thick. I could have panicked, luckily I didn’t, I went again and got to the 7 or 8m mark before my calves started to cramp. It was a very hot day, I’d dehydrated the day before and been competing in the sun for about 5 hours now. There was no way I was stopping here, I might have already done enough but I couldn’t be sure. Ignoring the cramp (as best I could) I could now only manage 1 step at a time before having to drop and reset. Every step induced sever cramp in both calves, but it was the last event, the title was at stake and I was actually beating my rival in the final pairing. I dragged the frame a total of 15m with what felt like a hundred drops. But after the ~10m point I’d stopped caring about the pain. I knew I’d done enough.
Overall 1st place
My first international 105KG competition and my first world title. I couldn’t have been happier! To do it against a bunch of extremely talented national champions, who were not only incredible competitors but genuinely great guys, and infront of the 12 TV cameras and a crowd of 1000′s who spent all afternoon sat in the blazing sun to watch and cheer was even better!
I’d like to say I’m going to take a few weeks off to recover and enjoy the moment, but I’m off to Poland next weekend for that will undoubtedly be a even tougher competition against the heavy weights!
So… an opportunity I’d wanted for a long time. An opportunity I felt was unfairly taken from me last year. But this was my chance!
I started strongman with a local novice competition 4 years ago, with no aspirations beyond having some fun and trying something new. But due to my competitive nature that was never going to last long! As soon as I got involved in the 105KG scene, I knew that I wouldn’t be happy until I was winning! I didn’t expect to win straight away, which was lucky really because my first taste of success didn’t come until a few years down the line. However even during my first year I was competitive with some very strong and experienced athletes. I finished 2nd in the 2010 UK finals behind Paul Woods, who as the champion qualified for WSM 105. From this point onwards I’d decided it was something I was going to achieve.
Sunday’s comp didn’t come at a brilliant time for me, I’m in great shape right now, but have been so busy competing elsewhere that I wasn’t able to fit in a single training session on the actual events! But I’d had a full week of rest and recovery following last weekends British finals so I can’t complain too much!
I doubt anyone cares how I got to Kiev, or what ordeals I went through to to make weight on the Saturday. If you’ve read one of my other write ups you’ll have heard it all before! So lets cut to the chase, the event took place at a popular boat racing competition, an hour or so outside Kiev in the Ukraine. I wouldn’t have guessed that fans of speed boat racing were interested in strongman, but its turns out that the Ukrainians knew better as there were a good few thousand people who turned up to watch. Both stands were full and even standing room was hard to come by.
13 athletes from 10 different countries, 6 events, 12 TV cameras, 1000′s of spectators and 1 title up for grabs!
Things got under way about 2 PM on a very hot and sunny Sunday afternoon.
Now before I start, I’m pretty good at knowing my own strengths and weaknesses, but on this occasion I had no idea what to expect from any of the other competitors! They were all national champions in their own right, they all deserved to be there, but I knew nothing about any of them!
Event 1 – 370KG yoke – 20m
I’d drawn 10th out of 13. Most of the other competitors had finished the full 20m course, 3 or 4 in what looked like quick times. I think the leader had managed 14 seconds over what was a slightly uneven 20m course.Yoke is normally a good event for me, so I knew that I’d need a good placing here if I was to be in contention for a top spot overall.
Things turned out very well, I managed what was probably my best ever yoke run and recorded a time of 10.69 seconds and took a comfortable win in event 1.
Event 2 – 85KG dumbbell for reps (60 seconds)
I was in the final pairing as a result of my event win, 8 reps was the current lead, everyone else had managed somewhere between 1 and 6 reps.
I was feeling confident, having done a very easy rep in warm up.
8 reps should have been well within my capabilities, however I made mistake after mistake! We were given vests to compete in and the dumbbell kept slipping on my sweaty shoulders, I was rushing reps to try and make up for previous mistakes. Things weren’t going well! I somehow battled my way to 5 reps, it felt like I’d messed up another 5 on the way to that total! It could have been worse, but I was massively disappointed. I had to settle for =3rd when I should have really taken another event win.
Event 3 – Conans wheel
This was my 3rd competition (in 4 weeks) with a conans wheel, so this was one event I’d managed to practise! After messing up my breathing last week, I wasn’t going to make that mistake again. 2.5 revolutions on the slightly uneven ground was the target to beat with just 2 guys to go after me. I adopted a slightly more controlled approach due to the nature of the ground and managed to take the lead with ~2.75. A score only the Polish competitor went on to beat, leaving me in second place. However this extended the Polish athletes overall lead by another point. I was in second place, 3.5 points behind first.
Event 4 – Arm over arm sled pull
Once again, I was in the final pairing after my second place finish in conans. By the time my name was called out, one thing was obvious… this event was heavy and incredibly tough. The best of the 11 competitors that had gone before me had only managed a few meters. Some guys hadn’t moved it at all. The pressure was on, a poor result here could cost me massive points and put me way out of contention for the lead.The sled was heavy, the ground was uneven and the rope was very elasticated, that combination explained the previous results.
I made the decision that I wasn’t going to be pulling the sled anywhere with my arms, so sat with my feet against the stop board in an ultra deep squat position. With the rope wrapped around my forearms (I have the rope burn to prove this) I simple pushed away , straightening my legs, to my slight surprise and delight the sled came with me. I guess it probably only moved about 1m per pull, but it was moving and to be perfectly honest it was pretty easy. I did another 4 or 5 pulls before looking over at the Polish guy and realising he’d only managed to struggle his way to about 0.5m in total. I had plenty of time and energy left, but had already done enough to secure the event win with about 5m!!
My event win, coupled with other results going my way was enough to leap frog me into the overall lead by 5.5 points.
Event 5 – Car squat for reps (suit and straps)
The field was cut from 13 to 8 at this stage in the competition.
I consider myself to be a good squatter and should do well in an event like this, but as mentioned I had no idea what to expect from the others. The athletes in the first 3 pairings managed between 2 and 12 reps. I strapped up my knees and made my way over to the squat thinking that as long as I did 13 reps I’d be going into the last event in the overall lead. However I’d been told it weighed 310KG and 13 reps at 310KG seemed impossible! As it turns out, I really didn’t need to have worried. After the first squat, I knew that I was going to win the event. It was light and for someone who normally squats deep the range of movement was small. I actually lost count of how many reps I’d done once I’d passed 12, but knew I was leading and squatting much faster than my opponent in the final pairing. I stopped with about 20 seconds to go and another 10+ reps left in the tank, only to be told afterwards that I’d finished =1st with my final pairing opponent, both with 16 reps. I fail to see how this was possible and had I known at the time would have done more. Oh well, it only cost me 0.5 points and I still had a 5.5 point lead going into the final event, with only 8 points now available. Still, lesson learnt!
Event 6 – Medley – Frame carry, duck walk and tyre flip.
Of the 6 to go before me, only 1 had finished the whole event, most failed to even finish the frame. I needed 3 points from this event to secure the overall title, regardless of what anyone else did, which at this stage is all I cared about. 3 points meant finishing 6th or better. I knew that 7m+ with the frame was enough for 6th place and the title.
In my mind there was no way in the world I wasn’t going to carry the frame the required 7m, I just hoped my body agreed!
The whistle went and I picked up the frame and managed about 3m before my grip slipped, the handles were quite wide and very thick. I could have panicked, luckily I didn’t, I went again and got to the 7 or 8m mark before my calves started to cramp. It was a very hot day, I’d dehydrated the day before and been competing in the sun for about 5 hours now. There was no way I was stopping here, I might have already done enough but I couldn’t be sure. Ignoring the cramp (as best I could) I could now only manage 1 step at a time before having to drop and reset. Every step induced sever cramp in both calves, but it was the last event, the title was at stake and I was actually beating my rival in the final pairing. I dragged the frame a total of 15m with what felt like a hundred drops. But after the ~10m point I’d stopped caring about the pain. I knew I’d done enough.
Overall 1st place
My first international 105KG competition and my first world title. I couldn’t have been happier! To do it against a bunch of extremely talented national champions, who were not only incredible competitors but genuinely great guys, and infront of the 12 TV cameras and a crowd of 1000′s who spent all afternoon sat in the blazing sun to watch and cheer was even better!
I’d like to say I’m going to take a few weeks off to recover and enjoy the moment, but I’m off to Poland next weekend for that will undoubtedly be a even tougher competition against the heavy weights!
Great write ups Ben
Poland will be awesome, I hope that you are able to perform at your absolute best because we know what can come from a great result
Do you know who you will be competing against yet?
Thanks Mark. According to Giants Live website the line up is:
Krzysztof Radzikowski - POL
Misha Koklyaev - RUS
Vytautas Lalas - LTU
Lauri Nami - EST
Ben Kelsey - ENG
Martin Wildauer - AUT
Bartlomiej Bak - POL
Scott Cummine - CAN
Eoin Graham - IRE
Robert Cyrwus - POL
Giants Live Poland 03/08/13
So, last weeks success is now 6 days old and I now have a new challenge to face. A challenge that’s likely to exceed any previously encountered.
Giants Live Poland an open weight contest against some of the strongest men to have ever lived, I’ve seen them on TV, read about what they can lift in training and repeatedly watched their youtube videos in an attempt to copy techniques.
I travelled to Poland, without knowing the events and feeling pretty nervous. All I knew, was that whatever happened I’d have the chance to compete against some of the best athletes this sport has to offer and one way or another I hoped to learn a thing or two!
The venue for the Polish leg of Giants Live was Woodstock music festival, a truly massive affair. I went along on the Saturday afternoon to see the arena and meet up with the other competitors. Everything about this festival was a little chaotic, which coupled with my inability to speak a single word of Polish caused a few problems. We ended up parking about 2 miles away from the venue and having to walk through what felt like a never ending camp site before finally locating the right area an hour or so later. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the temperature was well into the 30′s and drinking water didn’t appear to exist, it was beer or nothing!
Anyway, I meet up with a few of the other competitors, realised just how big they were and left again feeling even more nervous!
I awoke the following morning, after a very restless night in a hotel room that didn’t have air con, but did managed to provide countless mosquitoes!But it wasn’t all bad, I managed to get a lift with the other athletes to avoid another hours trek through the camp site.
The equipment was more impressive, the crowd much bigger and the standard of competitors much higher, but its still strongman and some things never change… we were about 45 minutes late getting started!
Event 1 – 150KG famers + Sled drag (20m each)
I’d drawn 7th in the running order. The first guy had opted to wear trainers, although he completed the farmers with ease, he only finished half the drag after slipping and sliding on the sandy ground. The second guy to go chose football boots and had much more success, completing the course in a quick time. Two things became apparent at this point, firstly he was the only one with the foresight to bring football boots and secondly all of the remaining competitors had size 11 feet! While the loaders reset the equipment, the athletes swapped shoes!
By the time it came round to me, everyone else had managed to finish the course, most of which pretty damn quickly. I was a bit nervous about my grip on the farmers, having torn a couple of callouses last weekend, but the handles had good grip on them and it wasn’t an issues at all. The drag however caused me a few problems, I really struggled to get it moving and generate any kind of momentum. However I finished strong, where others had struggled with the last few meters. My time of 46.xx seconds was only good enough for 9th place, I was the slowest out of all the guys who completed the course and only managed to avoid last spot because the first guy wore trainers! A disappointing start, I’d wanted to be more competitive on the moving events. But I think my lighter bodyweight cost me on the drag, had I been 5-6 seconds quicker it would have pushed me up 4 or 5 places.
Event 2 – Overhead press medley – 160KG log, 95KG dumbbell, 110KG block, 185KG wooden log
I was first to go and my legs were still feeling a bit shaky from the first event. 160KG is only a whisker away from my best log press so was a little nervous going into this with shaky legs and no warm up!
Things got off to a bad start, I cleaned the log and then totally messed up the press, losing it forward. I then had to reset the log before going again. Second time lucky, I nailed both the clean and press on my second attempt, I’m tempted to say it was easy! Onto the dumbbell, which went up at the first time of asking. I then rushed into the 110KG block (which was huge, much bigger than any I’d come across) cleaned it to my chest and set up for the press. Just before I locked it out, I lost my balance and dropped the block behind. Both me and the block ended up lying in the sand, I was lucky it hadn’t landed on me! My efforts here were only good enough for 10th (last!). Again a disappointing result, but on a different day I’d have got the log first time and nailed the block. Only 2 guys managed all 4 implements, so a successful 3 lifts could have put me right in the mix.
Event 3 – Keg toss – 8 Kegs (16-22KG)
I was pretty happy when I heard that keg toss was going to be included in the events, it’s an event I’ve always liked and consider myself to be good at.
It turns out that being good at something simply isn’t enough at this level, I only managed 6 of the 8 kegs, which resulted in another 9th place finish.
The top 3 or 4 nailed all 8 kegs in a very fast time, but the others only managed 6 (in a faster time) or 7 kegs. I had 4 attempts with the 7th 22KG keg, most of which were very close. So although I was once again propping up the lower end of the table a successful attempt with the 7th keg could have netted me 3 or 4 extra points.
Half way through the competition I’d only managed a 10th and two 9th place finishes. At the time I was disappointed, I was suffering in the heat and really struggling with my energy levels. But looking back at it now, I was only small margins away from being much more competitive, I was never going to be challenging the top guys, but could have easily picked up an extra 10 points if things had gone my way.
Event 4 – Conan’s wheel
I should have known! I’d seen various lists of potential events for this competition, but at no point had conan’s been mentioned. However I’ve now had it in my last 4 contests!
My 9th place finish in keg toss meant only the Irish athlete was up before me, he managed about 1 rotation. I had nothing to lose, I took a slightly risky approach on the uneven ground and went as fast as I could. Resulting in a fraction over 2 rotations. Which turned out to be good enough for 4th spot, a meter or so behind the competition leader Lalas and enough to beat both Misha and Radz!!
I was much happier now, pleased to be in the mix on at least 1 event. The event winner only managed 2.5 turns, had I have known that maybe I could have held on a little longer, who knows!
Event 5 – 420KG yoke and shield carry
Head to head with Lalas in the 4th pairing. Most people had finished the yoke, but most people had struggled to move the shield at all.
My plan was to make sure of the yoke on what was pretty uneven ground and then move the shield, ideally all the way but more than likely just far enough to beat those that hadn’t lifted it.
My plan was executed to perfection, I did the yoke with 1 drop halfway down and then tried setting up for the shield carry before realising it wasn’t going to happen and just literally dropping it a few feet in front of me.
My few feet with the shield was only enough for 7th, but I was happy enough with that. In hindsight I think I wimped out a little, had I committed to getting low on the shield and trying to pick it up properly I might have managed the 20m course.
Event 6 – Atlas stones – (5 stones, No idea what they weighed!)
I was =8th going into the stones, by the time it came round to me I knew that I’d need all 5 in under 45 seconds to secure 7th overall or 2 stones to avoid dropping down to 9th.
The first stone went up well, however I misjudged the second and it fell short of the platform. I had to reload, costing me valuable seconds, I now knew that I was destined for 8th place. I half heartedly attempted the 3rd stone before giving up.
Overall 8th place
I’m happy with the end result, I had jokingly set myself two goals, avoiding last place and taking at least 1 point from the big 3 Lalas, Radz and Misha. Apart from Lalas being very reluctant to give up any points to anyone, I pretty much achieved both of them.
It was a great experience, and good to see first hand how the pros do things. I was never in danger of finishing in the top 3 of any event, but with a little more luck and a few less mistakes I could have been more competitive.
I dont know how to add pictures here, but there are a few on my blog: www.oxfordpt.co.uk
So, last weeks success is now 6 days old and I now have a new challenge to face. A challenge that’s likely to exceed any previously encountered.
Giants Live Poland an open weight contest against some of the strongest men to have ever lived, I’ve seen them on TV, read about what they can lift in training and repeatedly watched their youtube videos in an attempt to copy techniques.
I travelled to Poland, without knowing the events and feeling pretty nervous. All I knew, was that whatever happened I’d have the chance to compete against some of the best athletes this sport has to offer and one way or another I hoped to learn a thing or two!
The venue for the Polish leg of Giants Live was Woodstock music festival, a truly massive affair. I went along on the Saturday afternoon to see the arena and meet up with the other competitors. Everything about this festival was a little chaotic, which coupled with my inability to speak a single word of Polish caused a few problems. We ended up parking about 2 miles away from the venue and having to walk through what felt like a never ending camp site before finally locating the right area an hour or so later. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the temperature was well into the 30′s and drinking water didn’t appear to exist, it was beer or nothing!
Anyway, I meet up with a few of the other competitors, realised just how big they were and left again feeling even more nervous!
I awoke the following morning, after a very restless night in a hotel room that didn’t have air con, but did managed to provide countless mosquitoes!But it wasn’t all bad, I managed to get a lift with the other athletes to avoid another hours trek through the camp site.
The equipment was more impressive, the crowd much bigger and the standard of competitors much higher, but its still strongman and some things never change… we were about 45 minutes late getting started!
Event 1 – 150KG famers + Sled drag (20m each)
I’d drawn 7th in the running order. The first guy had opted to wear trainers, although he completed the farmers with ease, he only finished half the drag after slipping and sliding on the sandy ground. The second guy to go chose football boots and had much more success, completing the course in a quick time. Two things became apparent at this point, firstly he was the only one with the foresight to bring football boots and secondly all of the remaining competitors had size 11 feet! While the loaders reset the equipment, the athletes swapped shoes!
By the time it came round to me, everyone else had managed to finish the course, most of which pretty damn quickly. I was a bit nervous about my grip on the farmers, having torn a couple of callouses last weekend, but the handles had good grip on them and it wasn’t an issues at all. The drag however caused me a few problems, I really struggled to get it moving and generate any kind of momentum. However I finished strong, where others had struggled with the last few meters. My time of 46.xx seconds was only good enough for 9th place, I was the slowest out of all the guys who completed the course and only managed to avoid last spot because the first guy wore trainers! A disappointing start, I’d wanted to be more competitive on the moving events. But I think my lighter bodyweight cost me on the drag, had I been 5-6 seconds quicker it would have pushed me up 4 or 5 places.
Event 2 – Overhead press medley – 160KG log, 95KG dumbbell, 110KG block, 185KG wooden log
I was first to go and my legs were still feeling a bit shaky from the first event. 160KG is only a whisker away from my best log press so was a little nervous going into this with shaky legs and no warm up!
Things got off to a bad start, I cleaned the log and then totally messed up the press, losing it forward. I then had to reset the log before going again. Second time lucky, I nailed both the clean and press on my second attempt, I’m tempted to say it was easy! Onto the dumbbell, which went up at the first time of asking. I then rushed into the 110KG block (which was huge, much bigger than any I’d come across) cleaned it to my chest and set up for the press. Just before I locked it out, I lost my balance and dropped the block behind. Both me and the block ended up lying in the sand, I was lucky it hadn’t landed on me! My efforts here were only good enough for 10th (last!). Again a disappointing result, but on a different day I’d have got the log first time and nailed the block. Only 2 guys managed all 4 implements, so a successful 3 lifts could have put me right in the mix.
Event 3 – Keg toss – 8 Kegs (16-22KG)
I was pretty happy when I heard that keg toss was going to be included in the events, it’s an event I’ve always liked and consider myself to be good at.
It turns out that being good at something simply isn’t enough at this level, I only managed 6 of the 8 kegs, which resulted in another 9th place finish.
The top 3 or 4 nailed all 8 kegs in a very fast time, but the others only managed 6 (in a faster time) or 7 kegs. I had 4 attempts with the 7th 22KG keg, most of which were very close. So although I was once again propping up the lower end of the table a successful attempt with the 7th keg could have netted me 3 or 4 extra points.
Half way through the competition I’d only managed a 10th and two 9th place finishes. At the time I was disappointed, I was suffering in the heat and really struggling with my energy levels. But looking back at it now, I was only small margins away from being much more competitive, I was never going to be challenging the top guys, but could have easily picked up an extra 10 points if things had gone my way.
Event 4 – Conan’s wheel
I should have known! I’d seen various lists of potential events for this competition, but at no point had conan’s been mentioned. However I’ve now had it in my last 4 contests!
My 9th place finish in keg toss meant only the Irish athlete was up before me, he managed about 1 rotation. I had nothing to lose, I took a slightly risky approach on the uneven ground and went as fast as I could. Resulting in a fraction over 2 rotations. Which turned out to be good enough for 4th spot, a meter or so behind the competition leader Lalas and enough to beat both Misha and Radz!!
I was much happier now, pleased to be in the mix on at least 1 event. The event winner only managed 2.5 turns, had I have known that maybe I could have held on a little longer, who knows!
Event 5 – 420KG yoke and shield carry
Head to head with Lalas in the 4th pairing. Most people had finished the yoke, but most people had struggled to move the shield at all.
My plan was to make sure of the yoke on what was pretty uneven ground and then move the shield, ideally all the way but more than likely just far enough to beat those that hadn’t lifted it.
My plan was executed to perfection, I did the yoke with 1 drop halfway down and then tried setting up for the shield carry before realising it wasn’t going to happen and just literally dropping it a few feet in front of me.
My few feet with the shield was only enough for 7th, but I was happy enough with that. In hindsight I think I wimped out a little, had I committed to getting low on the shield and trying to pick it up properly I might have managed the 20m course.
Event 6 – Atlas stones – (5 stones, No idea what they weighed!)
I was =8th going into the stones, by the time it came round to me I knew that I’d need all 5 in under 45 seconds to secure 7th overall or 2 stones to avoid dropping down to 9th.
The first stone went up well, however I misjudged the second and it fell short of the platform. I had to reload, costing me valuable seconds, I now knew that I was destined for 8th place. I half heartedly attempted the 3rd stone before giving up.
Overall 8th place
I’m happy with the end result, I had jokingly set myself two goals, avoiding last place and taking at least 1 point from the big 3 Lalas, Radz and Misha. Apart from Lalas being very reluctant to give up any points to anyone, I pretty much achieved both of them.
It was a great experience, and good to see first hand how the pros do things. I was never in danger of finishing in the top 3 of any event, but with a little more luck and a few less mistakes I could have been more competitive.
I dont know how to add pictures here, but there are a few on my blog: www.oxfordpt.co.uk
Last edited:
Caporegime
- Joined
- 21 Nov 2005
- Posts
- 41,241
- Location
- Cornwall
Fantastic achievement Ben!
Must admit I've never heard of Bak or Cummine so have no idea how big they are but the other athletes must've all been at least 1/3 heavier if not more which puts things in to perspective.
You staying at 105 or moving up now?
Must admit I've never heard of Bak or Cummine so have no idea how big they are but the other athletes must've all been at least 1/3 heavier if not more which puts things in to perspective.
You staying at 105 or moving up now?
Cheers guys, there's a picture somewhere of me and Lalas, we are about the same height, he's just twice as wide!!
The plan (at the moment) is to try and add 10KG of muscle over the winter and compete in the opens at around 125KG next year.
The plan (at the moment) is to try and add 10KG of muscle over the winter and compete in the opens at around 125KG next year.
I've actually got time to train this week!
06/08/13
Kettle bell – 16KG
10 exercises – 60 seconds per exercise – No rest
Squat jump
60KG – 10
80KG – 10,10,10,10
Skipping (various styles)
60 seconds fast – 30 seconds recovery (x5)
Ab roller
3 x 10
Dips
3 x 10
Chins
5 x 5
Leg raises
3 x 15
07/08/13
Squats
70KG – 10
120KG – 5
170KG – 3
210KG – 5,5,5
Power cleans
70KG – 3
120KG – 3
140KG – 1
160KG – 3,3,3
Axle BTNJ
75KG – 3
115KG – 3
155KG – 1
185KG – 1
Hang snatch
70KG – 3
100KG – 3,3 (skipped last set, shoulder was sore)
Grip work
06/08/13
Kettle bell – 16KG
10 exercises – 60 seconds per exercise – No rest
Squat jump
60KG – 10
80KG – 10,10,10,10
Skipping (various styles)
60 seconds fast – 30 seconds recovery (x5)
Ab roller
3 x 10
Dips
3 x 10
Chins
5 x 5
Leg raises
3 x 15
07/08/13
Squats
70KG – 10
120KG – 5
170KG – 3
210KG – 5,5,5
Power cleans
70KG – 3
120KG – 3
140KG – 1
160KG – 3,3,3
Axle BTNJ
75KG – 3
115KG – 3
155KG – 1
185KG – 1
Hang snatch
70KG – 3
100KG – 3,3 (skipped last set, shoulder was sore)
Grip work
Varies, depending on many factors but anywhere between 1-2 hours. Tonight's session was about 60-70 minutes.
What blows my mind is that you've had, what, 4 weeks in a row with comps? No training, and absolutely smashing yourself every weekend, and then you finish it all off with a cracking performance against the big boys.
It's not often I get cheesy, but you sir are an inspiration. Hearty congratulations on the title!
It's not often I get cheesy, but you sir are an inspiration. Hearty congratulations on the title!