Events Saturday: Easy, Tiger

 FANTASTIC turnout today at PTC Strongman. The mighty Kong has returned from the land of Fifo, eager to get stronger. Stalwarts Ryan 'Hightower' and Alex, our future under 105 state champion, were joined by He-Dad Mathew. Stephan, who has been a no-show for the last month or more, turned up late and ripe with excuses, and the diligent newbie Andrew had to sit today out as he's in training for a novice PL comp happening very soon. He will return to SM once the comp is completed and he has sufficiently recovered.

My shiny new deadlift program called for 230 kilos pulled a dozen times today. That is week one. That is where a guy who fractured his foot in two places, two months ago, decided to begin his routine. Save to say; this didn't happen. I pulled 230 for a single, double overhand, just to see how heavy it felt... and it felt pretty heavy. I'd say a little more time is still required before I launch back into that kind of loading and volume. Let me try again in a week. The great thing about this 15 week program is that it finishes with four weeks of singles, so I have some latitude as to when I roll it out if I need it. I'll still finish up more or less where I want to be.

The only thing of note I did today was some 10-rep sets on the log (45 kgs / 60 kgs / 70 kgs). Trying

to improve my conditioning and re-learn the clean-press. I will increase the loading only 5 kilos per week (and less as it gets heavier) while aiming for 10-rep sets for as long as possible. It seemed as though half the class was in the same boat as myself, being recently injured. Ryan, Kong and Alex were all in varied stages of sub-max capacity and had to sit out one or other event. I don't ever push people beyond what I think is safe. I don't use myself as a yard stick for what others should be doing either.

Next Saturday's clinic is going to be fun! My new Fat Gripz have arrived and my grip strength is more or less where it should be, so we're going to incorporate some grip training exercises into the session and video it for the good people at Fat Gripz. Maybe they will find a promotional use for it.