My Journey To The Pro Circuit

[Rick Walker]

Long legs are a definite disadvantage in sumo pulls.

Actually Clay, it is my belief that long legs and a short back are better for sumo. It allows the lifter to keep his torso more upright, and thus focus pulling with the hips and legs.

-Rick

[supermagnamon]

Understood, Rick. Sorry about that Clay.

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]

Actually Clay, it is my belief that long legs and a short back are better for sumo.

Dammit Rick, which one of us is trying pull sumo while standing 6'5" tall?? I get frequent flyer miles just bending down to tie my shoes, shortcake.

Jen's workout

Push press:

50x5, 65x5, 70*x5, 70*x4, 70*x3 (* = 2" axle)

She found the axle press to be a lot harder than a regular bar. I'm not sure she'll be able to press a rep out on the weight come contest time.

Continentals with 2" axle:

70x2, 90x0x0

She'll have to be able to get this weight racked in order to press it. She used my belt and flipped the 70 over really easily compared to last time. 90 should come by contest time.

Loading to 47":

105 stone twice, 115 keg almost loaded twice and lapped 4 more times.

With forearm sleeves and gloves, she loaded that 105 pretty quickly. Being 5'2" is a definite disadvantage though. After the keg attempts, she laid on the garage floor gasping. I thought that was particularly funny, but I am sick.

[Rick Walker]

Dammit Rick, which one of us is trying pull sumo while standing 6'5" tall??  I get frequent flyer miles just bending down to tie my shoes, shortcake.

Don't be hatin'!

Seriously though, which one of us is still stuck at low 600s? I started doing sumos exclusively and when I went back to conventional, I realized I could 650.

Get strong at sumos and your conventional will get even stronger. Trust me.

-Rick

[Clay Edgin]

I know, I'm just busting your balls. It's what I do. Your advice is the reason I'm even doing the sumos. Between the sumos and the really low keg lifting I did last night, my low back is smoked. It's good.

[Rick Walker]

If you dont like sumos Clay, give the handle squats a try. They will allow you to keep pulling conventional, then follow them up with the handle squats.

Get a couple high high boxes to stand on, one for each foot. Load up a loading pin and attach a straight handle to it, then place the weight inbetween the 2 boxes. Then stand on the boxes in a sumo stance, make sure the boxes are high enough so when you squat down you are close to your sumo stance off the floor.

Now, keep your back completely flat and your head up, and use just your hips by driving your feet out and spreading the floor with your legs. Concentrate on using on the hips to move the weight, not the lower back.

This movement is awesome for hips! I have been doing it every week, and every week I increase by 10 pounds on it. Last Friday I did 550 for 3x3. Give it a try.

-Rick

[Clay Edgin]

My head has NOT been on training recently but today I woke up and the first thing out of my mouth was "I have 3 hours until I lift." I swept the garage, turned on the space heater, warmed up the tacky, and lugged weights and tires outside. Chris showed up at noon and the return of Chan happened today! He wasn't lifting much, just hanging out and BS-ing which was cool. The wind chill brought it down to 22 degrees at one point which is DAMN chilly.

Yoke/Sled medley for 50ft:

Me: 465/200, 565/200

Chris: 465/200, 565/200

This was WAY easy today. I will smoke 650 next week and pull that sled like my name is Rudolph. I sure had the red nose.

Tire medley:

me: 500x3, 800x3, 1130x1

Chris: 500x3, 800x3, 1130xto knee

I should be able to finish this medley next week. If I don't, I'm afraid of what Dan Harrison will do to me.

Log:

Me: 180x5, 225x4x4x4x4

Chris: 180x5, 225x1 (PR)

Chan also got in on this action and pressed it a bit over the top of his head. He might come with us to AZ next month which would be cool. I was able to strict press the 225 for the first time today which rocked ass.

Loading to 47"

Me: 230, 280, 320, 375

Chris: 230, 280, 320, 350

Chan: 230

Loading to 53"

Me: 350, 375

Chris: 230

Then we got even stupider and put a 6" beam on top of the platform, bringing it to 59"

Loading to 59"

Me: 290 keg x 2, 175 keg x 2 (one motion)

Chris: 175 keg x 2

Chan: 175 keg x 1

Then I cleaned the 175 and pressed it over the top of the pullup bar in my rack, which I measured at 7'8". Then I cleaned and pressed it strict.

Jen is coming over tonight to train and then we'll do something light Tuesday. I didn't train farmers today because my hands were freezing and I thought I could spend my energy working on other things.

[Clay Edgin]

Jen's workout

Push press:

50x5, 65x5, 70*x5 (PR), 80*x5 singles (PR)

* = 2" axle. She wasn't able to do the axle for more than a few reps last week and 80 was out of the question. She's very sore from Friday's workout. I think that if she rests until Saturday that she will be able to get 90 for a couple reps.

Loading to 41"

105x2, 115keg x 0, 160x0

She was still too sore from Friday's workout to do anything productive here.

[Clay Edgin]

It's another late night here in the Edgin household and I'm thinking about next year's goals. I spent most of the evening on my back with a heating pad sending heavenly warmth to my lower back. It was spectacular. Not that I have back problems, but a good heating pad does wonders to relax you.

Next year is looking to be quite full with activities. January 21 I am going to AZ to compete in a strongman comp and then I'm switching gears a bit to compete in a powerlifting meet here in town in late April. Then it's the High Desert Challenge in May, Strongest Man on Grand in June, NM Strongest Man in August, perhaps a team contest here in ABQ in September/October, and then the Iron Will Challenge again in December. There's my year. If Nationals are a different weekend than they were this year and if I feel my training is going well, I'd like to compete there just to get a feel for a bigger show and see where I stack up among the better Am's in the country. This year Nationals was held on my daughter's birthday.

I've been training consistently for about six months now on strongman implements and felt I've made some good gains in most departments. As an added bonus, I've been able to help other lifters become stronger and I really enjoy that. It used to be just me out in the garage deadlifting, then it was me and Shawn, then 3 of us, and a couple weeks ago we had 8 lifters here. How cool is that. The way I see it, I am headed down the path to becoming a pro and the only thing that will deter me is paralysis. I don't know HOW it happened, but over the last six months my bond with my family, especially my wife, has grown much stronger. She is much more supportive of me tromping across the country, spending a few hundred dollars in a weekend, beating the crap out of myself all day, and then coming home with a 3rd place trophy and having her treat me like I just won World's Strongest Man. I really couldn't ask for more from her.

Back on track, training is going well except for two core movements - overhead press and deadlifts. Both are receiving special attention to the exclusion of things I think I am already "okay" at - stones and farmers. Stones, farmers, yoke, and tire training have increased my squat by about 75lbs in 8 months but not done a lot for my deadlift. Back when I was making deadlift gains I would pull once a week and then rest all week and come back with a 5-10lb PR. This happened fairly quickly and those gains came consistently. Now, deadlifting takes such a toll on my CNS that I can't do it that often or else my events suffer. And my event training makes my max deadlift training suffer. But I'm not entirely worried about that until I enter a contest with a max deadlift event.

The overhead press is coming along nicely. Today I strict pressed that 225lb log for the first time and it felt wonderful. I feel more confident in my abilities, and that is slowly starting to pay off with more pressing PR's. I just need to put in more hard work.

My goal for 2006 is to have nothing change in my training. I want the ability to train consistently, with lots of hard work and as few injuries as possible. I want 3 sessions per week of smart training. I want a PR in every workout in any exercise. I want to keep getting stronger and using my body and mind to propel me into the top 3 in a big contest. I want to have my training take me to the point where on January 1, 2007 I am looking at Pro-Ams to compete in so I can get my pro card.

These are numbers I'd like to hit by the end of 2006 with my current PR's in parenthesis:

Log or Axle overhead - 350 (295)

Deadlift - 650 (600)

Squat - 600 (wraps and belt) (505x2)

Stones - 420 or 450 to 53" (375 to 53")

Farmers - 405 for 50ft no drops (8'2")

Yoke - 900 for 50ft no drops (765x50ft, 4 drops)

Late last year, I set a goal for myself to have push pressed 315 overhead by the end of this year and the way things are going I might be able to hit that goal on the last workout of the year. Heh, I'm looking at the calendar right now to see how I can cycle my pressing workouts in to where I peak right on the 31st. What a strength nerd I am.

My stones training is coming along very, very nicely. First time I touched a stone I loaded a 160 and then 180 onto a stack of pallets and failed with 220. That day, Fred Cordova lapped his 350lb stone and was trying to stand with it and I wondered how any human could stand with a stone that big and surely a stone this size would be for novelty purposes only. I feel like a 420lb stone would come up for me. Once I enter the low-mid 400's on stones I'll start feeling like I can hang with the big boys.

Highland games pro Ryan Vierra says that in order to be a great thrower you have to LOVE all the events. I keep thinking about this when I train. I can't go into an exercise dreading it because then I've already failed. You legitimately have to love every event you do, not in a weird Jerry Springer type of way, but in that the only thing you look forward to more than this event is the next event and so on.

Anyways, these are just random thoughts that I thought I should put down. They don't deserve feedback or discussion; just ramblings.

Edited December 5, 2005 by ClayEdgin

[Rick Walker]

Highland games pro Ryan Vierra says that in order to be a great thrower you have to LOVE all the events. I keep thinking about this when I train. I can't go into an exercise dreading it because then I've already failed. You legitimately have to love every event you do, not in a weird Jerry Springer type of way, but in that the only thing you look forward to more than this event is the next event and so on.

You hit the nail on the head Clay. Even as I sit here injured and in pain, all I can think about is getting back out to the garage and getting stronger. My boy is deadlifting today, and it will be very, very hard to just help him and not get in on the fun.

If you don't love it, and you don't live for it, you will never get it. Plain and simple. You have to eat, sleep, and breath it.

Are you hungry?

Are you thirsty?

Is it a fire that burns you up inside?

How bad do you want it?

How bad do you need it?

Are you eating, sleeping, dreaming

With that one thing on your mind?

How bad do you want it?

How bad do you need it?

Cause if you want it all

You've got to lay it all out on the line

Got it?

-Rick

[Clay Edgin]

Sweetness.

Axle overhead:

Me: 160x5 strict, 210x3 (1 strict)

Travis: 160x5, 210x5

Jen: 70x5, 80x3, 90xALMOST like 7 times.

Man, Jen almost had that weight. She is really, really nervous about competing in front of a group of people but I said that she can either tune it out, let it intimidate her, or use it to rise to the challenge. She had that thing so close so many times! She was pissed, but encouraged.

Log:

Me: 225x1 strict, 225x2 strict (PR), 225x3, 245x1, 275x1

Travis: 180x5, 225x1

Seated presses from pins (dead stop each rep):

Me: 135x5 (24" ROM), 185x5 (18" ROM), 195x5 (18" ROM), 225x5 (12" ROM), 235x5 (12" ROM) (PR)

Travis: 95x5 (24") 155x4 (18") 155x4 (18"), 185x5 (12") 195x5 (12")

Jen: 65x5 (12"), 75x5 (12")

Travis, correct my numbers here for you if they're wrong.

Overhead supports:

Me: 225x5, 275x5, 315x5, 365x1, 405x1, 455x1

Travis: 225x5, 275x5, 315x5, 365x1, 405x1

Shawn: 225x5, 275x5, 315x5, 365x1

As I stood there with 455 overhead struggling for my life, I pondered Jesse Marunde doing 40 more pounds jerked behind his neck. I cried a little.

Shawn got in on the log action some more, cleaning the 180 and 225 but not pressing them. Then he got the Inch dumbbell above his knee a couple times.

[Clay Edgin]

Here are my personal results from the Iron Will Challenge Strongman and Grip Contest:

Tire Flip medley

500x3, 800x3, 1130x1 (second one didn't hit the ground in time)

225lb 12" log for reps

9 reps (PR)

650 yoke 50ft/250 tire sled 50ft

35.41 seconds (PR)

300/hand farmers for 100ft

16.53 seconds (PR)

230-290-320-350-375 stones to 48"

4 stones in 26.26 (PR)

Grip Comp Results

Grippers

Closed hard Elite, missed solid SE by 1/16"

Two hand pinch

190 (PR on these plates)

Equalizer lift

140 (CRAP!)

Vertical bar

250, 300, 350 (PR on Euro vbar)

One hand deadlift (similar to Euro setup)

400, 550, 650 missed

Well, it wasn't missed. I got it up higher than necessary but I touched the handle with my opposing hand so I opted not to take it.

I don't know how I did so well. I was up late Friday loading everything into the trailer and then set up, broke down and competed in two contests on Saturday without eating anything all day. Just no time! I left some gas in the tank on the vbar lift because if I got any closer to the record, a few select people would be refusing to acknowledge the lift because the plates weren't calibrated or something. I'm learning that it's better to not take those big lifts in small contests because it only leads to arguing about the merit of the feat. Besides, it's more important for me to know where I am strength wise and if I want to chase a record in a big contest I know how far away from it I am. For as much as I don't like to train grip anymore, I did have fun at the contest.

On the one hand lift, I felt the pressure of the record though. I contemplated on the weight for a bit. My face was feeling flush and I was feeling weak from not eating all day, and I just prayed to God to give me one more lift - to give me the strength to finish out the day with one more good lift to prove that I can do it. Upon approaching the weight, I felt the hair on my upper back and neck stand on end and I suddenly became very "twitchy" and focused. Everything else melted away from my vision and hearing. I grabbed the handle, positioned myself properly, then lifted with all I had. I heard "Good lift!" and then I touched the handle with my opposing hand accidentally so I set it down and said I wouldn't take it for that reason. I tried lefty but it wasn't going.

[George Champlin]

I am tired from reading everything you did.... Great Job Clay and to all who competed

[Rick Walker]

Great job Clay!

[jad]

Great to see back in the grip game! The latitude and longitude of NM, along with the ytd precipitation levels divided by the square root of the population don't adhere to WR attempt requirements anyway so you were smart not to waste the effort .

[Wayne]

awesome!!!

you did not actually miss the one hand 650??? what is the setup for these deadlifts? longbar, farmers bar...?

[Clay Edgin]

Thanks guys. Josh, I wouldn't say I'm totally back into the grip game quite yet. I think my hands are getting stronger just by virtue of my body getting stronger. Lots of people say grip is an addiction and I have to agree, so I do best to just stay disciplined in the gym first and then play around with grip stuff once the real work is done! Otherwise, I get distracted chasing after this feat or that and end up not making any progress in my regular lifts.

Here's a pic of the one hand deadlift setup we used:

http://www.gripboard.com/index.php?act=mod...cmd=si&img=2325

I lifted the weight high enough, but just did not think to keep my other hand out of the way.

Edited December 12, 2005 by ClayEdgin

[cyclops]

Siiiiick log, Clay. I've seriously missed out on this while I've been gone. I'll have to read through the whole thing tomorrow. Congrats on the contest!

[Clay Edgin]

First workout since contest.

Strict press:

135x10, 165x8, 185x5, 195x3

Push Press with bands (appx 50lbs of resistance not counted in weights listed below)

95x3, 135x3, 185x3, 225x2

Without bands:

275x1, 305x0

Seated press:

135x5 (24" ROM) 185x4 (18" ROM) 185x4 (18" ROM) 205x5 (12" ROM), 235x5 (12" ROM) (PR)

Bench press:

135x5, 185x5, 205x5

Heavy after all this pressing

Axle deads

160, 250, 340, 390, 430, 520, 610x0, 430x2, 520

[Clay Edgin]

Well, that was humbling.

Decided to test my weaknesses and see just how weak they are so I set up a box at 13" and did some box squats for the first time in my life. I also did them with a very wide stance. As I lowered myself onto the box in the first few sets I realized that I'm apparently VERY inflexible in the hips. In fact, I couldn't do the initial couple of reps because the stretch was so severe that I felt weak and thought I wouldn't be able to rise off the box. I got some video for form critique but the battery died and I'm recharging it right now.

Wide stance 13" box squats:

135x5, x5, 155x5, x5, 175x5, x5, 195x5, x5

Probably good for 245-265 for a single, fresh. Horrible.

Sumo deadlifts, feet against plates:

135x5, 185x3, 225x3, x3, 275x3, x3

Not near a max, but it was getting hard. I remember Zach Passman showing us how to pull sumo at last year's Gathering at Steve B's house and his shins were perfectly straight, top of thighs were parallel to ground, back was very flat and straight, and he made the pull look easy. I can't quite get the flexibility going right now to pull that off, but I think the only way to do it is just to friggin do it.

So tonight was a wakeup call that I need to dedicate some time to getting my hips and posterior chain up to par. I thought I'd be able to work up to maybe 365 or 405 with the box squats and I think I would have if I was using my regular narrow stance, half good morning style. But keeping myself strictly upright and stretching my hips was what I'm shooting for, at least for a while. I'm already sore!

With my focus shifting temporarily to a single ply powerlifting meet in late April and less onto strongman contests (other than the one 1/21 in Tempe) I'm going to be trying to develop a base of strength for powerlifting and then move into a WSB template

[Rick Walker]

Should I hit you with the trout now? Sure:

I have been telling you for months that your hips are weak bro! That is killing your conventional pull, believe it or not.

HANDLE SQUATS are key. They focus on the hips completely and leave the lower back alone. You shouldnt be able to walk afterwards.

remember Zach Passman showing us how to pull sumo at last year's Gathering at Steve B's house and his shins were perfectly straight, top of thighs were parallel to ground, back was very flat and straight,

That is the common sumo position Clay, but a lot depends on arm length, torso length, and leg length. When I sumo, my arms are so freakin' long that I dont need to have my thighs parallel to the ground. I am well above parallel when I reach the bar, and my back is still flat. Dont go to extremes form wise unless you have to.

Get some video or pictures up.

-Rick

[danegarreau]

Same here Rick. My arms are long enough that I am a good bit above parallel when I pull Sumo.

[Clay Edgin]

I've been sick most of the week and am still feeling crappy today so I wasn't expecting much. Nice to be surprised once in a while. Was flying solo today. My grandma bought me a dolly with an 800lb capacity so it was easy to drag the plates outside for the yoke walking.

Strict press:

135x10, 165x8, 185x5

Yoke for 50ft:

285x2, 465x2, 645x2, 805x2 (PR) (previous PR was 765 for 50ft with six drops)

Had one drop on the 805 each way and felt way more solid than I thought I would. Once I got moving, I felt really confident about finishing the course. I think it may be due in part to switching back to Chuck Taylors rather than big ol work boots. I stopped Chuckin' it a while back because my heels were hurting but they've been feeling really good lately so I'll give it another chance.

Now to hit a shower, get some lunch, take some DayQuil, then watch WSM.

Edited December 24, 2005 by ClayEdgin

[smitty]

Great job Clay - looking good bro.

Hope you and your family have a great Christmas. I'm sure that little girl will get spoiled!

[StalwartSentinel]

Yoke for 50ft:

285x2, 465x2, 645x2, 805x2 (PR) (previous PR was 765 for 50ft with six drops)

←

Not too shabby for being sick! Well done!