The Template

THIS could be a winner... or a disaster. But here's what I've devised for myself, for between now and late-April, when I compete at GPC states.

Weekdays Pull and Press
Tuesdays and Thursdays I will deadlift and bench press with a variety of accessories, like underhand seated rows, dumbbell seated overhead press, chest press, dumbbell front raises and face-pulls. I'll also be jumbling hack squats back in there somewhere, as lightweight hack squats don't seem to aggravate my knees. But they do work my hammies and glutes, which are in dire need of strengthening.

Saturdays Strongman Events
And it's game on. While we have an ever-growing selection of events to train, I'll be keeping tabs on the ones most often performed in state level comps. I'll be programming for progressive overload and aiming to be back in good enough shape to compete mid-year, if not sooner.
Layout looks like this:

TUESDAYS
Deadlifts*
Seated rows (underhand) 3 x 10
Hammer Strength seated rows (neutral grip) 3 x 10
Triceps pushdowns 3 x ME
Face-pulls 3 x 20

THURSDAYS
Bench press*
Hack squats 3 x 10
Seated DB OHP 3 x 10
Hammer Strength chest press 3 x 10
DB front raises 3 x 10
Bicep curls or Pinwheels 3 x 10

SATURDAYS
Axle clean-press, deadlifts & power-cleans
DB clean-press
Farmers walk*
Keg toss
Log clean-press*
Sack carry
Tyre flips
Yoke walk*

The events and exercises asterisked have set weekly loadings, and all routines have a rest period after each 5 week training block. By mid-April, I have set myself the following goals:

Deadlift: 340 kg
Bench press: 175 kg
Farmers walk: 150 kg p/h x 20 meters
Log clean-press: 110 kg x 5
Yoke walk: 430 kg x 15 meters

The deadlift and bench goals are not new territory: for both lifts I plan to hit the same numbers at under 125 kg this year that I did as a superheavyweight in 2015. But the SM events goals are small, achievable new PRs. And it would be nice to improve on my strongman events this year. Getting under a yoke on the weekend for the first time in months was, as expected, a rude fucking shock. Walk away from it for just a couple of weeks, and the yoke has a way of reminding you exactly how weak you really are. So now we're gonna do yoke every week till it doesn't feel like a near-death experience anymore.

Watch this space for more updates.