Yesterday during training I had Dumbbell and sandbag to attack. Dumbbell was lightish weight with a solid amount of reps. Nothing too special or strenuous. Its always going to be an event that I’ll have to continue to work on. Pressing has never been a strong suit. Well, to be honest, no static lift for me is a strong suit. I’m 5’11 3/4″ (aka basically 6′) with long limbs.
So, when I tell people that I lift, naturally I get asked “Oh yeah? How much can you squat, deadlift, and bench?”. In my head I’m like ugh, please don’t ask me these things! For two reasons, I typically don’t max out. I don’t need to. I haven’t yet done a competition where it has a maxed lift in it. And reason number 2 is because my numbers are as impressive and entertaining as Nickleback… Theres a reason why I do strongman and why I don’t do powerlifting competitively! I am NOT built for it what so ever! That doesn’t mean that someone with my body type can’t do it. I’m just sayin, when you have legs that take up your whole body, that squat is a looooong way down, and that deadlift pull is a loooong way up. And when you have arms with a wingspan the length of your height, well I think you see where i’m going with this…That and I’v had yeaaaars of major back problems from not having a strong core and throwing in college on my track and field team. But now that my core is getting stronger, my back is also getting stronger and better.
Now that doesn’t mean that I don’t come across these lifts in a competition, or that I don’t train these lifts to build my strength. Just means that my strongest events are moving events; yoke, farmers, carrying events, stones, etc. And when I do come upon these lifts in a competition ( some sort of deadlift mainly) my form is never perfect like a powerlifters. If its max reps in a minute, my gosh, those last reps I swear will probably be THE UGLIEST reps you’ve ever set your eyes on. But you better bet your sweet buns that I’ll be doing everything I can to pull my hips through and lock that sucker out.( 300# 18″ Axle dead for reps ) <- perfect example of that.
Same as benching, pressing anything with long arms is, to be perfectly blunt, a bitch. But that doesn’t give me an excuse to sit on the sidelines and wine about it. That just means I have to train that much harder at it, and really focus and work on my form. With both log and DB, I’v been shaking the rust off and very much been trying to change my form so that I can use my leg drive more and shoot it up there. I’ll touch more on log this Tuesday after I train with it. I’m in the process of fixing errors that have been occurring with it.
Sandbag is a horse of a different color. I’v been working with the 175# sandbag for a couple weeks, up until yesterday. My trainer told me to have fun with the 225#…
The most I’v ever done with a sandbag was a 200# annnd that was on the day of a competition. And it felt good…but then again, that could have been that competition adrenaline pump getting me through that one…
Welp, that 225# sandbag showed me that this was NOT going to be an easy prep for this competition what so ever. I already knew that I had my log and DB weights to work up to, but I officially had to add this sandbag to the party. It slapped me around like a shark with a seal (its shark week, i had to 🙂 ). I was the snake to its mongoose. Or is it, the mongoose to its snake. Either way it was bad…I don’t know animals… ; -)
I was able to pick it about 5 times, walk it a measly 5 feet at a geriatric pace, before loosing it. I had to adjust how I picked it because its fat butt kept getting stuck between my legs (large leg problems). And even after doing that the struggle still continued. But the more I struggle with an event, the more motivated I get to conquer it! Yesterday I didn’t quit conquer it, but alas! I have 9 more weeks to do just that! That sandbag has not seen the last of Keeley Moffit!!
Strongmind Strongwoman 