My Journey To The Pro Circuit

[Wayne]

wow that farmers pr is crazy, you're a beast man!

ever carry stones for distance? for a workout or just personal satisfaction, whatever. me and my friends recently started going for distance with a 170lb. natural stone(until we get a bigger one) just wondering what someone experienced thinks of it and i see you are all about farmers walks.

[Clay Edgin]

At NM's strongest man in August, we had to carry a 386lb coffin shaped stone for maximum distance. I think I got somewhere between 330-340' before having to drop it. My 220lb training partner set a new field record with that stone by taking it 360-something feet. I think the benefits of carrying anything heavy for set distances (or to failure) are great. The worst it could do is make you stronger I've never tried to carry an atlas stone.

One of the things I think I need the most work on is my lower body strength when walking with the yoke or farmers. Seems like when I step a little too far out, the weight makes my knee buckle a bit like it's not strong enough to handle the pressure. Because of that, we do a lot of farmers and yoke.

[Wayne]

those are some very impressive distances with that 386lb. stone. you've just inspired me to move ''finding a bigger stone'' to the top of my to do list.

[Rick Walker]

Clay!

Using chalk, squat suits, and now super tacky?????

The Gods of all natural strength, lift in jeans and boots, and refuse to use aids in increasing your overall strength will now curse you

[bencrush]

Awesome log Clay! I've enjoyed it from start to (hopefully never) finish.

[Clay Edgin]

Thanks Wayne. I always think I'm doing alright in my training until I go to a contest or train with someone stronger than me. Then I have to rethink my priorities and find a way to get stronger!

Ben, the process has been fun so far!!

Tonight's escapades are entitled "Apparently, I have triceps."

John Beatty sent me a program for my overhead press that I'm going to dedicate one night a week to following.

Strict barbell press:

135x10, 155x8, 165x5, 165x2, x2, x2

I am embarrassed to post this part of the workout. I have done 225 strict for one rep before. What the hell is going on?

Push press:

185x8, 205x5

Again, I am ashamed. 290 on the log went up not too long ago. Am I getting sick? Am I growing a vagina? Is there sand in it? If I rub my legs together real fast, will the sand turn into a pearl????

Seated press from different heights in rack:

95x5 (24" ROM), 115x5 (18" ROM), 135x5 (18" ROM), 185x5 (12" ROM), 205x5 (12" ROM)

I sat on a couple 12" wooden blocks I had laying around and I liked how I had to tighten my core to get anything to move off the pins. I've never done this before and was trying to get a feel for it. All things considered, I think this was my favorite part of the workout. John said to let the bar completely stop on the pins between reps so I had to relax my arms and then tense them again to start the next rep.

My shoulders and triceps are feeling good now. Saturday, a local reporter is coming out to the house to do a story on the Iron Will Challenge so I'll probably run through each event with relatively light weights for the pics and then train on Sunday. Travis is picking up a very heavy tire tomorrow from the Tire Welder if all goes well, and I will spend the first part of Saturday further modifying the yoke for shorter people and cleaning up the wooden log a bit.

[Clay Edgin]

You can't imagine the wood I sported when Travis' parents rolled up with 3 tires on a trailer today. One was about 500, another was 800 and they are both going up with Travis to Farmington so he can train during his winter break from school. The big'un was for me. It comes in at about 1126 according to a site I saw and it felt about right. It also makes be believe that 1050 I have is closer to 950 which kinda sucks. A reporter from the local paper came by this afternoon to take some pictures and do a story on the upcoming contest.

Yoke:

Me: 405x200ft, 485x50, 585x50

Travis: 405x100ft, 485x50, 585x50

Alex: 225x50ftx2 (PR), 305x50ft (PR), 305x30ft

Robert: 305x50ft, 405x50ft

I think Alex was surprised how easily 225 felt on her first set and with the reporter there I think she was inspired to go for 305. She muscled through it without much difficulty until she made her second trip. Robert was game to yoke it up today and took 405 for a nice stroll.

Tire:

Me: 1130x1, x1, x2, x2

Travis: 1130x1, x1, x1, x2

Alex: 430x1 assisted

Robert: took a few cracks at the big'un

I can't tell you how satisfied I was with this. I'm considering having this tire in the contest instead of the 1050 (now probably a 950 based on comparisons to the new one) for two reasons: (1) it's closer to 1050 than the 950 and (2) it's a lot safer. The tread on the 950 is very jagged and I always get roughed up by it. I'd hate to have someone tear their hands up on the first event and drop out.

180 log:

Me: x5 (strict), x4 (push press on last one)

Travis: x3, x5, x8 (PR)

Alex did farmers on 2" handles: 120x50ftx2 (I think a PR)

I experimented with just lapping the log and then popping up and pressing out, rather than cleaning it first and then dipping and pressing. The 180 felt very, very light and I think I can get some more weight on a log this way. On a side note, it is downright silly that my strict log press is better than my strict barbell press.

[Clay Edgin]

Today some locals who do powerlifting came out - Mike, Teale, and Chris - and I have to say that Chris' entry into the MW's will shake up the contest order quite a bit. Teale is also very strong. I am still beat up from yesterday but couldn't resist playing.

Stones to 47":

Me: up to 320

Chris: 230x2, 290x2, 320x1

Teale: 105x4

Teale certainly has the strength to lift heavier stones, but because of her height she has to practically shoulder every stone. Chris caught on to the technique pretty quickly and put that 320 up with some height to spare.

Tire:

Me: a couple with 800

Chris: maybe 6 singles with 800

Teale: 8-9 flips with 350, one assisted with 430

Mike also toyed with the 800 a few times.

Yoke/sled:

Me: 485/200x50ft, 585x25ft

Chris: 485/200x50ft, 585x25

Teale: 125/100x50ftx2 trips

My yoke was built for me, a guy who is 6'5", so anyone shorter than 5'10 has some difficulty with it at times. I will chop it down so far so that children can use it!

2" Farmers for 100ft

Me: 250, 300x40ftx2

Chris: 160x2 trips

Teale: 100x2 trips

Mike: 250

Overhead:

Chris: 180lb log x 3 (nearly strict)

Teale: 70lb axle x many, 90lb axle x 3

These folks will have no problem with the overhead event. Must be because each can bench over double bodyweight?

[Rick Walker]

Training is looking good Clay!

These folks will have no problem with the overhead event. Must be because each can bench over double bodyweight?

Dont you know brother, people who use powerlifting gear build no strength at all and are only kidding themselves.

How are those squats coming along in that suit? Getting used to it yet? I was training in my Titan bottoms, but I find that Titan digs into my legs far to much to even consider keeping it in my training. I switched over to the METAL Viking with the straps down for 495 3 sets of 5 last squat day. MUCH better! The Titan feels like it is trying to rip the fat off my legs that I worked so hard to get there.

I might go down a size in the Viking for the meet. Right now I am thinking it is going to take 650-675 to get to depth in my 52 Viking, so a 51 should take 725 or better. Perfect for my 2nd and 3rd attempts.

-Rick

[supermagnamon]

These folks will have no problem with the overhead event. Must be because each can bench over double bodyweight?

I might go down a size in the Viking for the meet. Right now I am thinking it is going to take 650-675 to get to depth in my 52 Viking, so a 51 should take 725 or better. Perfect for my 2nd and 3rd attempts.

-Rick

←

that's not bad, rick. how much do you plan to do on your bench and deadlifts?

[Rick Walker]

Bench-I put 425 up last week and the meet isnt until march 18th and 19th. So, I am hoping for 450 in the bench. deadlift should be somewhere around 700. Plan on getting 660+ at my deadlift meet December 4th.

Next time please PM me so we dont squat on Clay's training log.

Thanks-

-Rick

[Clay Edgin]

You squatters, you. haha

I'm planning on hitting the squats with the suit on Tuesday. The advice I received in my thread asking for a critique makes me want to go put on the suit and try it right now! I also gotta figure out how to get the suit to help me deadlift. As it is, when I pull conventional I have a hard time getting into position and while the bar does pop off the ground a lot, I get thrown out of position so I think I will have to start learning the forbidden art of sumo deads.

[Rick Walker]

clay-

For some reason I cant f*cking watch the videos in the gallery? I am staring at a little gray box, thats it. And, I have windows media player, so I dont know what the problem is.

Anyway-I am sure you arent sitting back enough, and you are probably forcing yourself down. Sit back and ride the suit down. If you dont hit dpeth, so what! Add more weight and keep going till you do! I see so many lifters force themselves down, and that leads to the knees going forward and the back bowing. Neither are any good for you!

I also gotta figure out how to get the suit to help me deadlift. As it is, when I pull conventional I have a hard time getting into position and while the bar does pop off the ground a lot, I get thrown out of position so I think I will have to start learning the forbidden art of sumo deads

I never wear a suit when I pull. Just feels uncomfortable and doesnt seem to do shit for me. You should be training sumo anyway to help boost that conventional. I have been training sumo almost exclusively, and it has pushed my conventional pull to 650+ in a matter of MONTHS. Amazing! I do sumos, pulls standing on a 6" box, rack pulls, and a lot of handle squats. Hit those hips HARD and the deadlift will come up. Trust me. Going into this deadlift meet I have done hardly any conventional pulls at all, yet I will pull conventional at the meet. One style helps the other.

-Rick

[Rick Walker]

Okay, I updated my Windows Media and had a chance to check out the squatting clip.

#1. I hate that angle, and quite frankly, it is hard to tell you much of anything from that angle. You know it is high, but who cares? If there isnt enough weight to push you down, dont force it! The last rep on the video was sloppy because you forced yourself down. Get me a front angle next time. I want to see where the bar is sitting, what your legs are doing, where your feet are, what your head is doing, what your arms are doing, etc.

#2. You aren't sitting back enough. It looks like you are starting to go back, then you go down much to early. Sit the bar LOW and force your ass way back before you descend. That suit is not locking you in at all. You should be getting much more pop then that out of the hole, and you are looking like shiat!

#3. Are you wearing a belt? If you arent, you need to. That will lock the suit in. Put the belt on, make sure the straps are out over the belt, then use the bar in the cage to put the straps over and set yourself deep into the suit. Whether the straps are up or not, you should still be in a belt.

#4. The last rep shows me your hips are weak. They shot up first and left you bent over. Bring your hips up so you rise out of the hole as one, not in 2 parts.

Again, get me a front shot next time!

-Rick

[Clay Edgin]

Thanks for the tips, Rick. When I put the suit on, I had Travis help me get into it as far as I could and then I belted up and let the straps down. I was gonna hit my squats tonight on video for more critique but my lower back is still cooked from event training both days this weekend so I'll try to hit it later tomorrow night with a front angle.

[n8ive]

Clay,

If your gonna workout tomorrow night I can swing by and hit up a workout before I drive up to F-town for Thanksgiving. I'll be leaving school about 5ish, could possibly be there about 6:21ish give or take a few seconds.

[Clay Edgin]

Dang, sorry bro. Kelli and I are going bowling tomorrow night (I'm a hopeless romantic!) so we'll be gone most of the evening. Warren and I did some overhead and stones tonight.

Strict press:

Me: 135x10, 155x8, 185x5, 205x4 (PR)

Push Press:

Me: 225x8, 245x5, 295x1 (PR)

I've done 300 before, but not since moving to NM. When I moved here, my 300 went down to 245 because of the weather/thinner air/my pussiness.

Axle clean and press:

Warren: 140x3, 160x2 singles, 170x2 singles

Not a bad effort for a guy who weighs 10lbs more than his heaviest press.

Seated presses in rack:

Me: 135x5 (3rd pin from top), 185x3 (2nd pin), 185x3 (2nd pin), 185x5 (1st pin), 225x3 (1st pin) (PR)

Warren: 95x5 (3rd pin), 135x5 (2nd pin), 135x5 (2nd pin), 155x5 (1st pin), 185x5 (1st pin)

I like this exercise. I sit on a couple blocks and put the bar 3 pin holes from the top which puts the bar right at chin level. Then do 5 dead stop singles, bump up the weight and put the bar at the next higher pin and repeat. 225 last week would have been out of the question since 205 was so difficult. Stronger shoulders maybe? Better technique on this type of press? Either way, 275 should be possible soon but not til I hit 5 with 225.

Stones to 47":

Me: 230x2, 290x1, 350x1, 375x2

Warren: 160x3, 230x2, 290xalmost lapped

Thass'right, the 375 is my prison beyatch once again. Loaded it faster than ever too!

Thanksgiving is Thursday so there goes that workout. I don't know what kind of idiot scheduled a holiday on my workout, but there it is.

[Clay Edgin]

Jen's workout:

Push press:

50x5, 60x5, 70x4 (PR), 80x2 (PR)

Her old PR was 70x2 but I didn't tell her how much the weight was on the bar between sets until she was finished.

Loading to 47":

105 stone x2, 115keg x lapped x 4 times

Jen's 5'2" so loading stuff to even 47" means having to nearly shoulder it. She had more than enough strength to stand with the 105 and the 160 should be doable by contest time.

[Clay Edgin]

Too Cold!!!

I woke up this morning to a layer of snow on the ground and 25 degree temps. It warmed up to 35 by training time, but the wind was horrible and made it much colder. We started to do the yoke/sled medley but it got brutally cold and windy so we bagged it and went inside to play with overhead stuff and stones. There were 8 of us lifting today, the biggest crew so far. I can't even pretend to know what everone did today so I'll put what I remember:

Axle overhead:

Teale: 70x3, 90x3

Alex: 70x4, 90x3 assisted

Warren: 160x3, 170x1, 170x3 (PR)

Chris: 140x5, 160x5, 210x5, x5

Robert: 140x5, x5

Travis: 160x5, 210x5, 250x1 (PR)

Me: 160x5, 210x5, 250x3 (PR)

12" wooden log 180lbs:

Chris: x5, x5

Travis: x10, x10 (both PRs)

Me: x10 (7 strict)

12" steel log 225lbs:

Me: x5, x5 (volume PR)

Geez, all this pressing I've been doing lately is paying off. The log presses had almost zero leg drive.

Stones to 47"

Teale: 105x4, 115keg x lapped

Alex: 105x3, 115kegx1

Warren: 230x3 (fast!)

Robert: 160, 230, 280 (PR)

Chris: 160, 230, 280, 320, 350x1 (PR)

Travis: 230, 280, 320

Me: 230, 280, 320, 350, 375

Robert doesn't use tacky. Teale has to practically shoulder the stone and get on her toes to load it to 47". Chris doesn't have a lot of experience with the stones. Travis has never done this 320 from the ground before, and that 375 is feeling easier and easier every week now. Puttin in work!

After that, we moved the platform to 57 and were going to do a series of stones. Warren got the 160 but not the 230. Travis got the 230 but when he went to load the 280, it slipped off the ledge and we both grabbed for it. The stone caught my pinky finger on the rack in and tore a layer of skin off, but it's fine. It also cut his finger too. That was the end of the day!

[StalwartSentinel]

Great strength on the push press and axle!

Also good, no I mean great, to see you get SNOW!!!

[n8ive]

You forgot the incident with me taking the blood off with kleenex, while I still had my arms and hands covered in tacky. That was a mess in itself. Typical college student.

[Clay Edgin]

Ah yes, that was quite the scene! Man that was funny.

A note of clarification, Travis got the 280 up to 57" before losing control of the 290. I think that he would have had it fresh. 57" is just high!

[Zach Passman]

Clay, I hope the scratch on your finger heals quickly.

Zach

[Clay Edgin]

Pressing day

I didn't really think about it until I was halfway through tonight but I just pressed two days ago with a fair amount of volume. Still, I liked tonight's results. I called and woke Travis up at about 6pm tonight - that guy has been pulling some SICK hours in the architect studio, going to school and getting little sleep plus he's got a cold now so the guy could use some rest. Just Jen and I tonight.

Strict Press:

Me: 135x10, 155x8, 185x5, 215x3 (PR)

I'm coming close to that sexy 225 strict press

Push Press:

Me: 225x3, 275x1, 300x0

Jen: 50x5, 65x5, 75x5, 80x5 (PR), 90x0x0x0x0

I was more interested in test driving 300 again. Jen is getting stronger every workout.

Seated presses from pins, dead stop each rep:

Me: 95x5 (24" ROM), 135x5 (18" ROM), 185x5 (12" ROM), 225x5 (12" ROM) (PR)

Jen: 65x5 (10" ROM), 95x5x5x5 (4" ROM)

Jen is a lot shorter than I am so not only did she have to sit on a shorter block so her feet could touch the ground but her range of motion was a lot less. After the second set she commented how hard this exercise hit her shoulders and back. I wanted that fifth rep with every fiber of my being and the last rep took 15-20 seconds of agony. It was hard the entire way. Once I got it to a certain point, and it was already moving very slowly, the bar touched a bolt head in the power rack and I couldn't muscle it up over the bolt so I had to let the bar drift backwards a bit and then finish it out. Upon lockout, I let out the girliest screech ever, thus embarrassing myself in front of my wife's best friend, but it was so worth it.

Got 3 workouts left before the contest. I am not as pumped up about competing in my own contest because I've got so much work ahead of me. In fact, I had to sit down and look at a calendar to plan out my workouts for the rest of the time before the comp. I'm actually looking forward to competing in Scott Porter's contest quite a bit because all I have to do is show up and lift.

[Clay Edgin]

I wasn't visualizing any kind of world class workout tonight and really I had no game plan going into the workout. I spent most of the day thinking about contest prep so my head wasn't in the game. Still, I had fun.

Axle clean and press BTN:

Me: 120x5, 140x5, 160x5, 170x3, 220x3

Warren: 120x5, 140x5, 160x2, 170x2 (push press, not BTN)

I can definitely tell I am overtrained on my shoulders and triceps right now. 220 felt tougher than it should have been. 3 pressing workouts in 5 days does that.

Deadlifts:

Me: 135x5, 225x5, 315x1 (sumo on all, not near a max)

Warren: 135x5, 225x5, 315x1, x1, x1

Sumo feels funny. It hit my lower body in a different way and that was good. I'm not convinced that I like it though. Long legs are a definite disadvantage in sumo pulls.

Keg lifts:

Me: 290kegx10 squats, 175x2 to shoulder, 290x2 to shoulder

Warren: 175x5 squats, 175x3 to shoulder

This was the fun part of the night for me. The keg lifts were done like this - with the keg standing up, squat way down and wrap your arms around the keg. Then stand up and pop it up onto the shoulder. Simple, right? Right. I'm thinking a set of 10 shoudlers with the 290lb keg would be enough for a workout by itself.