Out of bodybuilding,CrossFit,and powerlifting why’d you guys choose strongman? Personally it just seemed more fun and something that aligns with my goals

In less than 4 weeks I'll be traveling to my first USS Nats and this is my first time traveling for a comp via airplane. Just a few questions that maybe some of you can help me with.

I'm traveling non stop New York to Denver with only a person item (book bag) and one carry on. I'll literally only be there for the comp and flying back home Sunday morning so I will only have my gear and a few change of clothes. Will my tacky be confiscated by TSA? Have you guys flown with it before? I have the Cerberus atlas tacky 5.1OZ jar.

Should I ship tacky to my hotel in advance?

Cerberus Strength is the title sponsor and will have a booth, will they sell tacky there?

Am I overthinking this?

How often should I do deadlift or squats or other lifts per week a lot of programs show me that you should do em once a week but then I search it up on google and it says you should be doing deadlifts for example like 2-3 times for strength improvements so I’m really confused on what to do and how to formulate a program

Any technical tips or guides on how to maximise a Silver Dollar deadlift?

https://youtu.be/riI7KlRmvKQ?feature=shared

Here's a (long) recap of my first strongman meet, Kansas Strongest Man & Woman 2024 hosted at Strong Barbell Club, April 13th, competed in the Novice category.

TL;DR had fun, met cool people, finished the meet 8/11.

Just as a quick background, I am 36 year old guy from Argentina, who started working out in his early 30s to be able to carry more weight and be better prepared for the field season (I'm a paleontologist), and also due to watching Brian, Martins and Juji on youtube back in the day. Before turning 30 I had no sport background except for occasional jogs and soccer matches with friends in my early 20s. I'm 5'7" (170 cms) and was around 188 pounds for the meet, my heaviest ever, normally around 180. Been living in the US for two years.

Events

Event 1: 400lbs farmers walk followed by a standing arm over arm with a sled+250lbs, 50ft. Had farmers to practice. Had a small sled but a short rope.

Event 2: Silver dollar deadlift for max, 3 attempts to find your max. Used blocks to practice.

Event 3: weight for height 28lbs (highlands game style), rising bar, 3 attempts, but if you fail you are out. Practiced with a kettlebell and a cheap pvc structure.

Event 4: 165lbs log for reps in 60 seconds. Had no log, managed to use one around 5 times a couple of weeks before the meet.

Event 5: sandbag and keg over bar medley. 200lbs keg followed by 200 bag followed by 225 keg and 245 bag. Had two sandbags, one 175lbs and the other 225. No keg.

Goals: 1) actually compete, been a fan of the sport for quite some time; 2) have some fun; 3) meet some other strongman people; 4) finish the meet with no injuries; 5) not zero more than one event.

Training: it went well, got around 13 weeks to prepare. The first 4 were basic strength training (squats, deadlifts, presses, rows, rdl) at high reps and lots of accessories for some hypertrophy work, almost no event training there. After that I started a strength block for 6 weeks, with a deload week somewhere in the middle. I lowered the number of reps and increased weight progressively each week until I reached some heavy triples, practiced most of the events (or at least as close to them as possible) at least once a week. Finally, I did two weeks of events only training including a mock meet at around 90% of comp weight. Final week was a deload, no cut was necessary since there was a unique novice category.

Meet day: had a normal breakfast (yogurt, fruit, eggs, coffee, took some creatine just in case), brought a couple of sandwiches, crackers, plenty of fruits, water, and gatorade to the meet.

Event 1: I was hoping for this to be a good event because I prepared quite well for the farmers, although not that well for the arm over arm because I only had a short rope. Sadly, when I was starting to get my grip on the farmers I kind of looked up and I hear someone say go! I wasn't sure if it was for me because I wasn't ready at all, so look at my judges and yes, the go signal was for me, so I started quite late and in a bad position, no brace, etc. I finished the run without drops and went to the arm over arm; things went relatively well until middle of the way when my grip started to fail me, but finished nonetheless. Bad result for my first event ever haha, position 10/11. But just laughed at what happened. Two things to get better at: paying more attention to the judges and more grip endurance.

Event 2: I was hoping to end up middle of the table but went better than expected, my best conventional deadlift was around 485. I understood what worked best for me just before the event while testing the setup (start really slow so that the whip doesn't move me all over the place),  I think I went 440lbs (to be extra sure), 485 and a whopping 572. Super happy with the last pull and I even think I had over 600 in me. Got the 2nd heaviest weight and tied for 3rd/11.

Event 3: the implement at the meet felt completely different to the kettlebell due to the chain and its overall length, was grazing the ground with my swing. At home I went up to 15 feet, so I decided to jump to the event at 11ft and cleared it, skipped 12ft (error), and went for 13ft, but I failed miserably, not in height but trajectory, didn't went over the bar. Disappointing result but what are you going to do, shared 9th/11, onto the next one. One thing I did quite wrong was to stand directly in the sun for like an hour seeing other categories and waiting for my turn, stupid in hindsight. Shoutout to Mason to whom I talked a bit about practicing with a kettlebell and how different it felt.

Event 4: I've split jerked 210 in the past (did weightlifting for like 8 months) and push pressed comp weight for 5/6 reps in 60secs, but all of that with a barbell. Log was a different story, never really got the hang of it until my 5th and final session using one, where I barely managed 140lbs for one. During the comp I split-jerked the first rep no problem, although the split was horrendous, tried a second rep and failed, but managed to re-rack and after a split/push jerk/press fight I got a second rep. I thought I was short in time and didn't try a 3rd one. In reality I had more than enough time, but I never practiced with a timer, another thing to improve. 9/11. Another thing to improve would be getting a log to practice.

Event 5: didn't have much faith in me due to never touching a keg, but asked for some advice from a great guy to whom I talked in several occasions during the day, I think his name is Michael, thank you man! Did the first keg no problem (!) went to the sandbag and cleared it, then to the second keg and I gave it my all but couldn’t load it over the bar, was super close, no more than an inch away. 9/11. Biceps were mega bruised the next day due to the kegs.

Ended up 8/11, a little disappointed on my placement but just a little, was mostly happy to finally compete. I know I can do much better, and I'll do it next time.

Met some really cool people (hardest part for me, super introverted guy) thanks to a weightlifter friend of mine that came with me and helped me during the day, and especially helped me socialize haha.

Finally experienced the camaraderie of strongman, it was great, everyone cheering for the rest, giving tips to the novice like me. There was a kids category and seeing them compete and seeing everyone cheering for them at the top of their lungs was really wholesome. My friend was really impressed with the camaraderie part, he said he didn't experience that in his weightlifting meets.

Enormous shoutout to the organizers, helpers and everyone involved, thank you so much, the meet ran super smoothly (maybe except for the weight for height, but those things just consume a lot of time) and was a great experience overall.

Hope to be able to compete again in the future, maybe next year since I'm moving away for a few months now and won't be able to train much. So long and thanks for the fish.