When I started training for strongman contests in March of 2006, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. This blog has detailed my ups and downs until mid last year when I simply ran out of time to get my thoughts on paper. After a mid-summer win in my weight class of Western New York's Strongest Man I put my sights on Nationals.
Nationals took place in November during the week of my 35th birthday in Las Vegas. I felt I was ready to challenge the best amateurs in the nation. I had put everything into my training up to this point and continued to train hard to get ready for this contest when something bigger presented itself. My friend and training partner approached me with an opportunity open a state of the art fitness center with him. I accepted and we began working to get the place open for the beginning of December.
Because of this, I let my training slide and when I got to nationals, it showed. I was slow, tired and average in my performance. It was the first real disappointment in a contest since I'd first decided that strongman is what I want to do with my life. Glenn worked tirelessly while I was gone and we got the gym opened on time and it has been a great success for us.
The beating I took in Vegas stayed with me and when I returned, I questioned my approach to becoming a professional strongman. I was pushing hard to be a heavyweight. In 2 years I had taken my weight from 240lbs to 280lbs. I was lean and strong at that weight but I was constantly eating and if I did too much conditioning training I lost weight very quickly. I was forcing myself to be big, and if you want to be good as a heavyweight you have to be naturally big. Almost bigger than life.
The only strongman the the public ever sees is what is presented to them on ESPN: The unlimited weight class of the Worlds Strongest Man. But there is another side to the sport made up of some the most agile, well conditioned athletes on the planet: The 231lbs class of strongmen. With the weights lifted in competition running nearly parallel to the super heavies, the lightweights must make weight the day before the contest to compete. Although this group of competitors is just as impressive as the heavies (if not more so) the public wants to see the most massive men lifting the biggest objects possible, so that is what TV presents. I took some time to consider my options: Get bigger and faster to be more competitive as a heavy or cut nearly 50lbs of hard earned muscle to make lightweights.
Several things played into my final decision. At 35 years old my body has been subjected to vigorous training for nearly 20 years. I've wrestled, trained Brazilian Jui Jitsu, done multiple triathlons and duathalons, mountain biked, and squatted thousands upon thousands of reps. Both knees have stage III arthritis and I have a heart murmur. The most I ever weighed before training for strongman was 245 lbs. It was a weight where I looked and felt good. So after much consideration the obvious choice was to make the big cut. There was a contest in New Jersey that was scheduled for mid June. The winner would become a pro light weight and recieve an invite to pro nationals all at once. I circled June 14th on my calender.
In Mid January I packed up the carbohydrates and began the Anabolic Diet. By eating large amounts of fats and proteins you can force your body to burn body fat at a very rapid pace. In just a few weeks I was down 20 lbs and by March I was 255. During this cut, I had maintained most of my strength but it was in irregular and unpredictable waves. Some days I was as strong as ever while other days I could barely hit my openers.
To say I was frustrated was an understatement. I began talking with Glenn about what I was doing wrong. I had not changed my training style (I was doing very little conditioning work) and I was getting frustrated. Glenn is also a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. Now, I think I'm one hell of trainer but my problem was not my knowledge. It was with myself and a with recognizing where my weaknesses lie. I asked Glenn to take over my diet and training and he gladly accepted with one caveat; I would do exactly what he told me without question. I agreed and he began to get to work on me.
He added more carbohydrates into my diet to stabilize my energy levels and reduced the amounts of fat which caused me to begin to lose muscle. He stopped me from doing any exercise over 5 reps and swapped them out for Olympic lifts and strongman events. I dropped more muscle and fat. He ran my ass off. I got lean. We added flexibility, Yoga, and ART (Active Release Therapy) sessions in to my training and my balance and range of motion improved. By the beginning of May I was 245 pounds and began setting weekly Personal Records (PR's) in the gym which made me feel like I was on the right path again. I was barely touching a weight lifting bar during the week, but I was all over the tires, chains, kegs and logs. The implements began to feel like extensions of my body. I knew exactly what I was going to do with them from the very second I picked one up. It was never a surprise to me anymore when I hit a new number with one. My confidence level began to build and internally I felt like was stronger than ever. Stronger than I was at 280.
Besides revamping my entire approach, Glenn pushed me like race card driver pushes his vehicle. If he thought I was dogging it, he would get in my ear and scream at me. He would remind me why I was doing what I was doing and that everyone else wanted to win as badly as I did. If he didn't like what I put on my training plate he would make me eat something else. He not only began to transform my skills but my mindset as well.
Two weeks away from the contest I was just 238 pounds at 7% body fat. I hit 3 PR's in training and felt that I was ready to make my mark as a lightweight.
Glenn and I rented a car with our good friend and fellow competitor Josh Cybart and headed 400 miles east to Trenton, NJ. At weigh in I was 231.4; the max allowed weight. I wore a sauna suit for the last two hours of the drive just to lose that last couple of pounds and it worked perfectly. We ate, went food shopping and got to bed early to get ready to tame The North East Beast the following morning.
Posted by Mike Gill at 12:03 PM