I learned quite a few things from my first ever Strongman competition, some good and some bad. For starters, cutting weight freaking sucks...for any of you out there who have never had to cut weight for anything, you are very lucky people. I have never been so cranky in my entire life. As someone who regularly puts down over a gallon of water a day as well as nearly 4,000 calories a day it is very hard to limit my caloric and liquid intake. In fact it was just downright miserable, especially for someone who has had the consistent goal for over six of years of trying to put on weight. I began my cut process on my way back home to St. Louis from Fort Worth Texas, that is a 10 hour car ride in which I seriously cut back on food and water. I came home on Thursday at a body weight of 183lbs and had to be 175lbs by Friday afternoon, ya that was really fun. Friday morning and early afternoon was quite possibly the most sluggish morning of my entire life. After a day of probably about 16 oz of water, 2 cans of tuna in water 2 handfuls of spinach and only 6 egg whites..(how I survived I will never know) I finally weighed in and I was actually below 175!! On one side I was happy that I had made weight and on the other side I was having a total gainers panic attack, luckily I sprinted back to my car which had a banana a protein shake with a scoop of BCAAS and Carbohydrates and 3 liters of water. I immediately began my rebuilding phase.
Finally Saturday morning had arrived and it was time to compete, and if I wanted to lift big I knew that I would have to eat big,just like any good Bullshark so I started off my morning with 5 whole eggs 4 egg whites, 1 cup of spinach, 1/4 cup of cheddar cheese, 3 strips of delicious fatty bacon and a bowl full of berries and a banana. I then packed up all of my supplements and snacks for a long strenuous day. That composed of a pre workout cocktail of 55grams of carbohydrates and 6.5 grams of AA's. An intra workout of a gallon of water and a 2 cup mixture of almonds and blueberries. Post workout was 30grams of whey protein, 55 grams of carbohydrates, 6.5 grams of AA's and 5 grams of creatine monohydrate.
The First thing that I noticed upon arriving at the competition was..THANK GOD for weight classes, seriously I felt like a gold fish in a shark tank. Eventually some of the other dudes in my weight class started to show up which then made me feel like a goldfish surrounded by larger more freakish goldfish.
As I have said in my previous posts this competition was to be a one rep max Axle clean and press and a 1 rep max deadlift from the floor. Well unfortunately I never had the opportunity to train with an axle and when warming up with this implement I found it to be very challenging, so I actually opted out of doing the axle press and instead just competed in the deadlift.
Finally it came my turn to lift, and I will have to admit that I was getting some funny stares seeing as I was one of the very few who was not using a belt or a suit to deadlift.
I wound up taking 3rd overall for my weight class after pulling 485lbs which was 20lb PR...sadly I felt as though this was too easy and that I should have and could have gone heavier. My progression was 425, 455, 485. Instead I should have done 455, 485, and then 505, but that is all a part of the process. This was a great learning experience and my training definitely paid off. I cannot wait to enter my next competition but for the mean time I am focusing on a bodybuilding routine designed to add on some good size and strength before I start training for my next contest.
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