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Last Saturday I competed in my first ever Strongman comp.

Some background: I train Power Lifting, and I compete in the 56kg/123lb class (female)
I signed up on a whim because the location was literally up the street from my house, and the woman running it seemed really chill and fun. She offered to let me come to her place to practice on the Saturday beforehand.

Read that again-- I had literally a week to train for my first comp. I had never touched an axle bar, a stone, or moved a sandbag before. I had pulled a sled and done farmers carries with kettlebells, but not the proper handles.

I had a 3 hour crash course in technique for everything. I hadn't been doing much overhead pressing lately for building bench, just some incline, but the weight for my class was only 60lbs on axle clean/press so I was confident strength wise, but...

Other than the 13 year old girl who had been training for some time with her dad in Strongman, the other women all had 20-50lbs on me AND height as well (I'm just over 5 ft tall)

But, this was just for fun, you know?

Except I am competitive and my goal was to not come in last.

I actually landed 3rd, 1 single point off from 2nd!

For axle clean and press I got 20 reps. I wanted to beat the 17 I got in practice, so that was great. But the other two stronger women were able to strict press 60lbs all day so I lost to like 33 reps. Whoops.

I got 3rd on this.

For sandbag we had a 75lb bag, I'd practiced with a 100lb so I felt good on this. Sled pull was just 150lbs. Again, same issue as before, the weight was just so light for the others as well that we were racing to the second for time.

I got 2nd on this tho!

On farmers carries (80lbs each hand) the lanes were sooooo tight in the gym setup, racing past each other and having almost no room to turn. I was going to set them down then flip around, but I saw a few others have their handles spin and cost them time, so I just carried the whole way. I did awesome IMO but the bigger girls sprinted the whole track.

Got 3rd.

For the car deadlift, I knew I wasn't going to get it up. Only one of the girls in my flight did, actually. I still gave it my best shot (had to be 300lbs, I can get 250 on a good day)

I ran to the frame after two attempts, it was only 150lbs so I repped it out.

The ONLY reason I got 2nd place on this and not 3rd was because the stronger girl wasn't following judge commands, so she lost a lot of reps that didn't count, and then spent some time holding it while she caught her breath.

Then it was time for stones. It was 80, 95, 118, 130.

I got 2nd on stones, flying up the 1st, then the 2nd, but getting stuck with the 3rd in my lap. My dumb shirt and pants weren't gripping it right, each time I tried to get my hands over the top it just SPUN on my lap. I'd used a tacky towel, but... So annoying. The other girls only got the first 2 stones as well, and I got mine faster.

The 1st place winner got all 4 and we literally screamed and cried when she finished. So much hype.

Getting to podium for my first rushed comp was really satisfying!

I think this was one of the funnest experiences of my life. Everyone was so cool, so supportive, so EXCITED. I'm now hooked and I've ordered a 110lb stone, having a platform built, bought a 100lb sandbag, built my own sled... oh god someone stop me.

Not sure how well I can balance training for power lifting and this, but I'm going to try.

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A lot of this is from memory. A lot of this might be vague. I’ve let some time pass and I don’t have any video from the competition so I can’t give myself honest feedback or exactly what happened. I’ll just talk about how I did and how I trained! There may be errors in weights or distances. That’s not on purpose and probably doesn’t take away from the write up so I’m not going to waste any time going back through!

The weight cut was fairly simple and included nothing more than one day of restriction and a hot bath in the morning before weigh ins. I ate approximately 4,500 calories after I weighed in and spent most of the day sleepy and digesting. The day of competition my head was super cloudy and I was faint. Something that happens to me almost every time I cut weight for a competition now.

I'm going to try and get away from cutting for comps in the future one way or another.

Event 1:

• Pressing Medley – Clean each implement once, press it once

(I’d like to preface this with I trained through some tears/a dislocated shoulder from January. It’s on the mend now. Luckily it didn’t affect my OHP too much, just my horizontal pressing. There were issues though I don’t believe they effected my strength enough to matter.)

250 axle clean and press, 160 circus DB, 240 Keg Press, 265 Barbell/Chains Press, 275 log press, 240 sandbag press

Early on in my prep it was a lot of individual work on the axle, circus DB, and Keg. As we got closer I still ran a lot of the beginning half. At first I thought this was the smartest choice because I knew I had a 275 log in me. (I had hit it for 4 reps at nationals) It kind of came back to bite me. I was so rusty with a log that… well let’s not get ahead of ourselves…

So the axle was always a silly weight. Probably somewhere 70sh pounds below my max. It was always about pressing the axle and then transitioning to the circus db. I struggled with the circus db A LOT. At the gym I went to we either had a tiny globe size one or a huge one that would rival bigger than any that we’d see at WSM. Both were horrible to press. I was inconsistent with both of them in training and it didn’t help that my pressing shoulder was the one that was injured. It was still stronger than the other shoulder so I kept using it.

The keg took a good portion of a month plus to figure out. I realized that all of the videos of people cleaning and pressing a keg simply didn’t work for me. I ended up finding a specific way of doing it and pressed a 250 in training consistently after failing it for 100’s of reps. Reviewing and studying tape of myself over and over. It became automatic and I knew the 240 keg would be easy.

The barbell with chains was silly. The chains added virtually no instability, made the clean lighter, and again, being a weight 50sh pounds below my max press would be no problem. I hardly trained that. Didn’t need to.

We only had a 270 sandbag to train pressing wise. I came close to pressing it once or twice, but didn’t focus too hard on it because I had my doubts that I’d even make it that far. You had to press in order and if you skipped an item you couldn’t go back.

Competition day:

Axle. Easy.

Circus db. So easy I could have probably done 50 more pounds. (I’ve been told that the right size db was going to make the press easier, I was just nervous from my training)

Keg. Basically strict pressed it.

Barbell. Should have been 50 pounds heavier and the chains were stupid.

Log… well. I forgot how to clean a log with all of that other training. By the time I got a super ugly clean in I was too close to blacking out. (Water cut damn you!) I gave it one attempt and then moved to the sandbag.

Sandbag. Looking back I would have easily pressed this. I rushed it and the pick slipped out of my hands and I walked away. If I would have just given myself and extra 5 seconds of rest, took my time with the pick and clean, then I would have been in the clear. I blame my head for being cloudy for the poor judgement.

How did I place? I don’t know. Some people only pressed a couple, most people pressed exactly what I did. One guy pressed one implement more.

Event 2: Sandbag throw for height

40 pound bag over 15, 16, and 17 feet into a 50 pound bag over the same heights.

I was all over with my throws in training. I didn’t really have a good thing to throw at and it showed in the competition. My aim was way off on most throws. I was confident on the 40 over all of the heights because at nationals I had almost got 50 over 15. It sat on top for a second or two and then fell back forward. My true goal was a 50 pound throw over 15 feet!

I threw at the beginning of most workouts and at the end of most workouts. Usually a 45 pound bag between 3-10 reps.

Competition day:

Wild throws. Some going straight up, one even going forward. I got through the 40 pound bag fairly quickly after getting into a rhythm and then moved on to the 50. On my first through the 50 went over the 15 foot and I was happy with whatever came after that because it was a good PR.

A couple of throws at 16 the bag almost rolled over. So much so the judge gave me an over call that he had to reverse when it came forward. I threw a couple more times getting it very close every time, but eventually didn’t make it.

Unsure how I placed. Most people failed where I failed. I believe one person got over the 16.

Event 3:

Squat for reps.

A bottom up squat. (The 1st rep started in the squat position) We got to choose between 430 and 530 for reps. One rep of 530 was worth more than any reps of 430. Knowing my max best squat at any time was 515, the plan was to train heavy to at the very least get one rep of that 530.

This was a lever squat where the height was set based off of our height. Slightly above powerlifting standards for my leverages. I trained with a barbell and SSB bar in the gym working up to heavy singles and doubles. The plan was to get at least one rep of 530. I knew 430 wasn’t going to cut it and I didn’t want to do a bunch of reps anyways. Well…

Warming up in the high 300 range was absolutely horrible. It felt extremely heavy and I thought about going for the 430. I stuck to the plan though and got under the 530 when it was my time.

First rep went up. It was heavy. Like the most pressure I’ve ever felt in my head and body heavy. Like the heaviest thing I've ever lifted in my life heavy.

2nd rep went up. I told the judge that he may want to back up. I thought I was going to throw up the entire time.

Then darkness. Up and down commands were all that existed. The judge saying one more. My head feeling like it would split at any second. One more. Up, down, one more.

13 reps later, I couldn’t get out of my belt fast enough, people opened it up for me. I was having massive hamstring and glute DOM’s. The ones that usually happen from taking 2 weeks off from squatting and then coming back and squatting twice in the same week type of feeling. I couldn’t sit the rest of the competition. I had to keep walking because I knew I would have massive cramps. (I did have quite a few cramp ups)

I took 2nd in this event with 13 reps. 1st place did 14. My only regret is I could have done 1 more. I didn’t try hard enough. I think if I would have realized how this was going to feel I would have spent more time squatting for reps too.

Event 4:

Sandbag medley to sled drag.

Carry a 260 sandbag over the line, run back, carry a 280 sandbag over a bar and onto a sled. Drag that back to the beginning. (Sled was loaded with weights, weight doesn’t matter, slippery floor.)

I had carried the 270 sandbag a bit and was able to pick and carry the 311 once in training, but didn’t have access to any in between bags. I did not have a good time in training with this. It always seemed to kick my ass and I often failed even the lighter bag. Some days I felt fine and could do it. I had no clue how it would go in competition.

First bag was so light that I forgot how to run. I took off sprinting, way ahead of the guy in the lane next to me. I forgot that you should lean back while carrying and fell on my face with the sandbag. A mistake I made 2 years ago at nationals on the same event.

And that was it. I had been in third place at this moment and I knew that there was no making up the time. I got up, picked the bag, sprinted to the beginning and the 280 bag was even easier. I’d like to think I dragged the sled faster than everyone else as well. I placed somewhere mid of the field, but chances are I was top 3 speed here.

Event 5:

Nothing, I didn’t make it to day two. I missed day to by one place. (Top 4 went to day 2, I dropped myself from 3rd to 5th on the last event)

It hurt. Mostly because I lost because of a stupid mistake. It’s one thing where you aren’t strong enough and it just is what it is, but I made a mistake that I shouldn’t have.

It wasn’t just that mistake though. I should have done better on the pressing medley, but I gave up on the sandbag with time to spare.

Even the sandbags tosses could have been better. I should have been practicing the way I was going to compete.

I should have done another rep or two on the squat. All I wanted to do was get out of that pain.

The competition came down to a lot of what ifs and you should haves. But I didn’t. And because of that I try again.

I weigh in on the 19th to compete in an Arnold Qualifier on the 20th.

Hi everyone, a bit back I had posted about possibly sharing my current style of training, which is heavily time-domain programming and conditioning focused in a conjugate framework and there seemed to be quite a bit of interest in it.

I'm still working on that particular template, but thought I'd share a program I'd written earlier this year called the "Kenjugate Method" that also uses a conjugate framework for a Strongman x Bodybuilding (strongbuilding? bodyman?) program.

Here's the YT video I shot go with it with a link to the PDF in the description.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41khanvOvfI

I personally LOVE the conjugate method and am always tinkering with different methods and adaptations with it, one of the things I'm really passionate about with it is getting people to understand it isn't just 1RM's on weird bars, bands, and chains.

There's a lot more beneath the surface.

I've also got some posts in the old daily threads where I talk a bit more and, if ya'll like this one I'll be sure to do more conjugate content in the future for this community.

And yes, the program name was initially made as a gag, but it wound up sticking.

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It has been a while since I posted on this account, and it will probably be a while before I post again, but I was convinced to write this up.

It has been a while since I have done a writeup, and this feels very unorganized, but meh read it or don't- its your prerogative. Any typos are the fault of my fingers- they are not feeling 100% right now.

​

About Me: 25M, 204lbs, mediocre strength (275 Bench, 385 SSB Squat, no clue on deadlift)

I have done less than 5k swings in my life before this.

​

What I Did: 10k swings with a 24kg kb in one day (10 hrs, 16 min)

​

Why I did it: I saw Mythical do the swings in 1 week, and Krieg do magOrt in a day (I think) and it started a small seed in the idiot portion of my brain that wants to do things because they are there.

​

How I approached it: 20 swings emom takes 500 minutes to reach 10k. 20 swings took me ~30s, leaving 30s rest per minute. I allowed myself to take breaks from the emom and go to refill water, recharge my earbuds etc.

​

How It Went: I did it in 10 hrs, so overall a massive success. The first 1500 were more of an issue with me concentrating on keeping the count. At 2000 reps done, my hands started to feel a bit fatigued. I paused after 3000 swings to go refill my water. I then rested for ~40 minutes and went again for another 3k bringing my total to 6k and work time to 5 hours. This is where the "fun" truly started. My hands were slipping and cramping, and my HR started ticking up. My avg hr went from 137 bpm the first 3k to 149bpm the second 3k. This meant that I was no longer in aerobic fun playland and was breaking a little into anaerobic tempo scary land. I paused at 6k to refill water and go eat a sandwich (smadehich according to my typing at the time). This was another ~40 minute break. The next cluster was 2500- a bit of my sandwich came back up ~rep 7000, but the rest was fairly uneventful until 8.5k where I took another break, this one 30 min long. The first 500 back felt awful, I thought I was going to collapse and never be able to move again, but I just attacked it. If my body gave up, fine- but I mentally wasn't going to give up. The last 503 (my last emom was 23) reps were snappier and felt better than pretty much any reps before them and I was very glad I kept going.

So: 10K swings done, 500 minutes of work, 116 minutes of rest (not counting rest between emoms). I am pretty pleased with that, although I know that leaves the door open for someone crazier than me to go sub 10 hrs.

​

What worked: the emom setup was surprisingly tolerable, but I did have to hear SmartWod saying "halfway done" 500 times. My nutrition plan didn't do poorly for me, but I could have made some smarter decisions: gummy bears are excellent, goldfish not so much, sandwiches sit too heavy, and a bottle of liquid IV + a bottle of water is excellent for hydrating.

​

What I Learned:

1. Sitting is God's gift to man- the break I spent sitting and eating the sandwich was probably the most blissful moment of my life.
2. I cry tears of joy when I finish things that are incredibly hard?
3. Chase your white whale challenge- doing things that are hard and scary at first become far more attainable when you do the first rep.

​

My hands hurt, but I am happy and impressed with myself. As far as I am aware, thats a 10k challenge speedrun r/weightroom record. If someone wants to go ahead and beat that, be my guest.

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