2017 May - APL World Championships - ricchardomagni

[riccardomagni]

2017 World Armlifting Championships

St. Petersburg Russia

 

Wow!  What a trip!  As I reflect on this journey while I wait for my first airplane back to Los Angeles, I figured that I would type up some thoughts about this contest.   This is going to be very long, but here we go!

First of all, I need to thank Roman Penkovskiy and Dmitriy Suhovarov for inviting me to Russia after I qualified at the LA FIT EXPO in January.  I also want to thank Eric Roussin for his help as an intermediary in getting the logistics set with Dmitriy.   I also need to thank my grip mentor Odd Haugen for his advice prior to the contest on training and travel.  He is an amazing teammate as was the big guy, Clay Edgin.   He has been doing grip stuff for a very long time and is world class at many events. 

The road to Russia was a long one.  I began training in earnest the day after the LA FIT EXPO.   I only took 4 days of rest from Jan 10-May 10.  Then I rested from May 10-12.  I timed my peak well. 

I also need for thank Bryan Hunsaker.   He told me about the grip community on Instagram and I got the bright idea to post one video per day from my training.  That challenge spurred me on to greater training than ever before.

I also need to thank Jon Andersen for inspiring me to lose a bunch of fat.  His simple advice on diet coupled with my work ethic and discipline made for me losing 16# of fat and being stronger than I was in LA just 4 months before.  In total, since Christmas of 2015,  I have lost 43# and I am stronger.

Unfortunately, on March 11, I partially tore the A2 pulley tendon in my right ring finger.  This was quite unfortunate but it was very avoidable.   Lesson learned: FOCUS ON YOUR OWN PR’S, NOT OTHER PEOPLE.   Of course,  I had to change my training.   I was still going to go to the contest; I just had to figure out how to get ready without being at full strength.  I only told a few people about the injury because I didn’t want to draw attention to it.

On to the contest!  I weighed in at 235# on Friday (106.6kg).  The travel to Russia was not too bad.  You just have to learn how to relax in a tiny seat for 12 hours.  Of course,  I was in the middle seat on the long flight.  J

The schedule was released about a week before the contest. It was clear that the days were going to be quite long.  When you read that I didn’t match all of my training weights, you need to realize this: there is a 10 hour time difference between California and St. Petersburg.  I had to lift in the biggest contest of my life when I would normally be asleep.  When you see me set PR’S on Instagram,  I am in control of everything: when I train, how I train, etc.  At a contest like this, that’s NOT how it is.  It’s not easy…

One thing that I learned is that most of the Russians and Ukrainians do not speak English.  Some of my communication with them was with chalk on the floor drawing numbers to find out how they train.  Team USA (Led by Odd Haugen, Clay Edgin or Edgin Clay as he is known in Russia and me) sat with Mr. Maple Leaf, Eric Roussin; he is so strong that he doesn’t need teammates!   We were joined by Team Finland: Arto Joronen and Juha Lehtimaki.  They are great guys and also very strong!  That was most of the English speakers in attendance.

 

First event: Silver Bullet

I had to use my left hand because of the injury.  I had been preparing for the #4 prior to the injury but that was not going to happen this time...10.97 seconds with the #3.   I was happy with that.  In fact, immediately after the event, Clay Edgin told me to try the #3 in the warmup room.  I closed it strongly.  That was a first with the left hand and was my first clue I had peaked correctly for the contest.

Rolling Thunder

After about a 4 hour wait, I got to do Rolling Thunder.   The handle is new.  It has been redesigned with end caps.  It was quite spinny.  My highest in training for this contest was a PR of 80kg x 3.  My contest best is 93kg.  The rule in this meet is that for the one-handed lifts, you get one minute to complete your lift.  Either hand, as many chances as you want.  If you don’t make it, you are done.  No second or third attempt.  I like this rule because it adds strategy to the contest.  I opened with 83 kg. Easy.  I then dropped 88kg on my second.  I kept trying, but the top end wasn’t there.  This is where the injury reared its head...

Then I had to wait about 7 hours to do my favorite event, the Hub.  It started after 8pm.  I had some very good training here prior to the contest, even with the damaged finger.  Warmups went well, but there wasn’t a Ironmind Hub to warmup on.  There was a Russian Brand called Bear Grip.  It had an interesting paint on it.  It was quite grippy.   The warmup room got pretty quiet when I did 60# in each hand without chalk while talking to Clay.  I opened with 30kg (66#) and crushed it.  Then all hell broke loose.  Another competitor filed a video protest about my finger position on the lift.  I have to thank Roman Penkovskiy and Randy Strossen for defending me.  After that, there were some judging irregularities.   Watch the video when I post it.  Unfortunately, it caused me to lose focus and I missed what should have been a PR with 32.5kg.  I honestly felt 35kg should have been easy but not this time...it was hard to determine placing in most of the events because of the huge number of people competing.  The Hub was an open class called Man Hub.  I got 4^th.   After a 13 hour day in a boiling hot and dry room, I went to eat and sleep. 

Day 2

Axle

My training indicated that I had a chance to beat my 170kg from January,  but that didn’t happen.  There was only one axle at the contest.   My warmup consisted of one pull with 130kg and then waiting for an hour to lift.  I wasn’t prepared for this.  I opened with 150 as a result.   160 was also very easy on a second attempt.  I went for a PR of 172.5kg (380#) on my third to move into 4^th place but again, the top end wasn’t there...I got 5^th in this event.

Saxon Bar

Now I had to wait 8 hours for the Saxon Bar event.  This had gone really well in training.   Unfortunately, by the time the event came around, all I wanted to do was go to sleep.  I could barely do 140# in warmups.  In contrast, I did 176# x 5 in my garage and also did a combo of bar and chain totaling 229#.  I have to thank Clay Edgin and my new friend Arto Joronen for getting me fired up.  I did 70kg, 82.5kg, and tried a PR of 92.5kg and missed.  In hindsight, 87.5kg would have been a better choice.  I was trying to move up in place.  I got 10^th in this one.

Excalibur

I think that we started Excalibur at 8:30pm.  Again, all I wanted to do was sleep.  Arto to the rescue!   I did 80kg, 90kg, and 95kg.  In warmups, I could not do 185# (84kg).  I was very happy with how I competed.  I was able to battle back.  I ended up 15th.  I could have done 105kg but I didn’t have the exact implement and that did make a difference.  My imitation was OK, but it is not the same.  I actually beat Odd in this event.  That was a first, and who knows, it may not happen again!!

There was a surprise for me at the end.  I didn’t realize that there was a team contest as well.  Even there were only 3 of us, Team USA got third.  Russia was first and Ukraine second.  It was great to be a part of this contest. My team was fantastic.  The atmosphere was great for lifting, especially if you like the Band Disturbed.  I made several new friends.  Maybe a future journey will take me to Canada or Finland...we'll have to see. The level of competition was ridiculous.   There were 18 year olds and 50 years old pulling 400#+ on the axle (not counting Odd).  That’s just the beginning.   I can’t really express how strong these guys are.  Look at the results once they are posted.  CRAZY!!

In my opinion, the most impressive lifters were Eric Roussin, Odd Haugen, and Sergey (I don’t know his last name but everybody will soon).  Eric’s thick bar strength is beyond world class.  He is also a fantastic guy.  Odd set a WR on the Saxon Bar (110kg) at age 67.  Are you kidding me?  Sergey pulled 213kg on the axle weighing 103kg.  Insane.

I had so many people help me prior to this contest that it would take another page to list all of them.  I would like to thank Gil Goodman from Barrel Strength Systems for his support for this contest.   It was a pleasure to represent his company in Russia.  Nick from Amino Army provided support as well. 

If you made it this far, thanks for reading!   Follow me on Instagram @riccardomagni1

Next contest is on July 9 at the Training Hall in Newbury Park, CA.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Juha Lehtimäki]

Nice write up bro! It was finally great to meet you and the others. Here you can find the results: https://vk.com/armlifting_world

[Royz]

3 hours ago, riccardomagni said:

I partially tore the A2 pulley tendon

That's a really sucky injury just prior to a big comp! Had this a couple of years back. Took about 3 months to heal I think.

Tnx for the write-up! Sounds like a great comp.

[riccardomagni]

Good. Then I have a month left.  Thanks for the info and thanks for reading. 

[riccardomagni]

Great to meet you, Juha.  You are a badass!

[Kashtan]

Very interesting article! Odd Haugen invite Sergey Kulyasov on Viking Vice Grip in Los-Expo. 

[riccardomagni]

Yes.  I was standing right there when Odd was talking to him through an interpreter.

Sergey is VERY strong.

I talked to him on the floor with chalk about his training lifts.  I was impressed.

[anwnate]

Sweet!  Totally envious.  Well done man.  Congrats on your "Odd" victory.  

[riccardomagni]

Thank you so much.  

Not many people beat Odd at anything.   You've got to celebrate the small victories sometime...

[Boulderbrew]

Great job Riccardo. Strong work! It's been fun following your progress on Instagram.

[riccardomagni]

Thank you so much.  

Like many people, I have been following your progress.   You are an animal!