2013 California’s Strongest Man Contest

Past CSM champion Erik Peterson confers with this year's 2nd place finisher, Casey Garrison.

Past CSM champion Erik Peterson confers with this year’s 2nd place finisher, Casey Garrison.

The 5th annual California’s Strongest Man Contest took place Saturday, March 23, 2013 in Huntington Beach, California under ideal weather conditions and near flawless execution. While setting up for this year’s version of CSM, we relived the foul weather debacle of last year, relieved that we were returning to our customary perfect southern California weather.

This event was very competitive, with the Heavyweight outcome being determined in the final event, the Atlas Stone over bar and decided by just a half a point.

The Light Heavyweights were also very competitive and we saw a lot of new faces which bodes well for the future of the event.

The ECWC strongman team from California’s Strongest Man on Saturday. Sean Demarinis took 1st in the HWs, Casey Garrison took 2nd and Jeff Holder in 4th. In the LWs - Chris Burke took 1st and Tom Yannuzzii grabbing 4th.

I have posted some additional event pictures over at Facebook and a video playlist of some of the ECWC competitors in the Conan’s Wheel and Giant Tire Flip events

My Road to a 600 lb Deadlift

It has been a whIle since I tested my 1RM and since I just finished a 9 week training cycle using Brandon Lilly’s The Cube Method, I was due.

I underestimated what I could pull, but beat my previous best by 20 lbs.

Seems there was still some in the tank, so I kicked it up 10 lbs.

Had I set my sights higher on that first lift, my coach, ECWC’s Scott Brengel said I should have pulled 585. Well, that comes next then, 600 lbs, both in 2013!

The Benefits of the Floor Press

There are several variations of the standard, tried and true bench press, and one of them is the floor press. There are the dumbbell versions with two db’s and the unilateral movement with one dumbbell.

The floor press is a limited range of motion (ROM) exercise which might be useful if your shoulders are beat up from a lot of pressing, or worse, injured.

While performing this movement,  you are bringing the bar down to the point where your triceps are resting flat on the floor briefly before pressing the bar straight up to lockout from what would normally be about the halfway point in a standard bench press. There is no stretch reflex and bouncing the bar off your chest. So, this movement really works the mid-point of the movement all the way up to successful lockout. Another thing missing is leg drive. There is none whatsoever. Because of this, your technique needs to be right. Your triceps and shoulders will love this exercise and your heavy lockouts will improve and thus, your regular bench press.

This can also be done with dumbbells but since you will not be able to equal the load of a bar floor press, I recommend using one dumbbell, unilateral which will strengthen the stabilizing muscles on the other side.

FLOOR PRESS: 45×10/95×8/135×5/185×5/225×3/245×2/265/285/295/305/.
DEPTH DROPS: 5×5.
BAND PULL-APARTS: 3×15
REAR DELT FLYES: 8×12/10×12/12×12/12×12/15×12/20×12/20×12.
SPREAD EAGLES: 25×8/25×8/35×8/35×8/35×8

Location:Costa Mesa, CA

Better Than Steroids?

What if you could wear just one glove, like Michael Jackson and greatly improve your athletic performance, would you do it? Stanford researcher Dennis Grahn hails the device, a cybernetic vacuum glove to super-cool your body as a way to “reach your maximum performance capacity without using performance-enhancing drugs.”

USADA To Strip Lance Armstrong of 7 Tour de France Medals

U.S. Anti-Doping Agency chief executive Travis Tygart says the agency will ban Lance Armstrong from cycling for life and strip him of his seven Tour de France titles for doping. From the Associated Press: AUSTIN, Texas