Can you imagine having a 4 year old kid and telling him that if he wants to go to his room upstairs, he has to climb the rope his dad hung from the ceiling down to the bottom floor? According to Zach Even-Esh, that is exactly what athlete and physical culturist Steve Maxwell did with his boy.

In his article, like one of mine, “Pack Light, Train Hard“, which was featured on straighttothebar.com, Zack says some very telling things about grip strength, machines and where the serious strength athletes are going. Read the rest of this entry

Pro strongman Scott Brengel of the Freak Factory and others are planning to host a local Strongman competition to take place in beautiful Huntington Beach, California on March 7, 2009. Mark your calendar now and make plans to compete or attend. (He really has chosen a great location). You have less than 4 months to sharpen your training, so get busy. Here is what Brengel himself says about the event.

I have secured an awesome venue right on the beach in Huntington Beach.  If you saw World’s Strongest Man last year, it’s going to be in that approximate location. Pacific Coast Highway and Huntington Street across from the Hilton and the Hyatt (just a couple of blocks from Main Street and Huntington Pier). If you have been there, you know it’s the perfect spot for a show like this, there is a boardwalk 5 feet from the contest area that people pass by all day long riding their bikes, walking, skateboarding, rollerblading, uni-cycling, so there should be a good amount of fan fair. I hope that everyone can make it out.  I’ll send out another update as the event gets closer. So spread the word to anyone that you think might be interested in watching or competing.  I would love to here any ideas on promoting the contest from friends.  I’m tentatively planning on having 2 to 4 classes competing. In addition to the strongman contest, I may have a bench press your bodyweight for reps contest – $3 entry, winner takes the pot.  Same thing for the strict curl – 1/2 bodyweight for reps.  And we might do some fun contests for kids as well.  So it will be a kid friendly environment.  And don’t forget to throw your bikes or rollerblades in the car as well.

Definitely Lightweights – under 231 lbs
Definitely Heavyweights – over 231 lbs.
maybe Teen HW
maybe Teen LW

Tentative events will be:

1) An Overhead Pressing medley with a giant log, an axle press, and a couple of other heavy things
2) A giant tractor tire flip with maybe something else in there to add more fun.
3) a Farmer’s carry
4) A heavy vehicle pull with a harness and rope
5) And everyone’s favorite – the atlas stones or as many of you refer to it as the “giant ball lift”

If you have any questions just shoot me an email at scottbrengel@yahoo.com or call me at
714-423-3173.

With summer in full swing, I haven’t been blogging much but my training hasn’t missed a step even if I have. This week, our favorite smack-talking Freak Factory strongmen, Scott and Pete invited us to one of their Saturday sessions over at Scott Brengel’s Costa Mesa home gym. Now it may have been a simple matter of those two just being sick and tired of slapping each other down and needing some “fresh meat” by bringing in newbies like me, Mike Covert and their friend “Rhino” along with another strongman, Sean. Maybe Scott decided to have an “Open House”. Either way, it was great to get the invite and we had a great time training with the freaks.

Initially, we lifted the two strongman logs and did 8 sets of 3, up to 161 lbs.

Read the rest of this entry

Monday, 7/14/08

Burgener Warm-ups x 3

Barbell Snatch:
65×3/75×3/88×3/88×3/95×3/115pc/120pc/120/120f/120

Kettlebell Swing + Burpee Ladder, 24 kg

10 kettlebell swings + 1 Burpee
10 kettlebell swings + 2 Burpees
10 kettlebell swings + 3 Burpees
10 kettlebell swings + 4 Burpees
10 kettlebell swings + 5 Burpees
10 kettlebell swings + 6 Burpees
10 kettlebell swings + 7 Burpees
10 kettlebell swings + 8 Burpees
10 kettlebell swings + 9 Burpees
10 kettlebell swings + 10 Burpees

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Tuesday, 7/15/08

Rest Day

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Wednesday, 7/16/08

Sandbag Training, 75#
10 reps each:

Squat Clean and Press
Walking Lunges
Zercher Step-ups
Over the Shoulder, 5L/5R
Snatches
Step-ups, sandbag on back
Back Squats
Lateral Throws
Power Cleans
Good Mornings

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Thursday, 7/17/08

2 Position Snatch:
65/65/70/75/80/88/95/100/105 <sloppy>/105

2 Position Clean:
100/115/135/145/155

GHD Sit-ups:
2×20

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Friday, 7/18/08

Burgener warm-ups x 3

Barbell Snatch, singles:

65/65/88/88/103/103/103/103. The last 4 were at 85% of 1RM.

Medicine Ball Throws, 30#

• overhead, 20
• chest passes, 25

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Saturday, 7/19/08

Strongman-Style Workout

Already beat from my training of the last few days, I had to be ready for whatever Scott Brengel and his strongman freaks had planned.

Log Cleans and Push Presses, short 50# log
116×3/116×5/126×3/136×3/145×4

Log Cleans and Push Presses, long 75# log
151×3/161×3/161×3/161×3.

Log, 115# 1 set, 9 reps per minute for 1 minute

I liked the log.

44 kg kettlebell swings
2×10

Farmer’s Walk, 410#, 100′ uphill. This one surprised me. My grip strength was up to the task.

Medley

• Farmer’s Walk, 410#, 100′ uphill. This was a do-over since I wasn’t on the clock.
• tire flip, 3xm with help. This beast weight 800-900#
• tire sled drag. After getting through the first two, this truly was a “drag”!
  
• time was 2:07 (seemed like 20 minutes)