Ben's Rugby/Strongman Journal

[lhprop1]

I don't usually keep an online journal because I don't like my fellow strongman competitors to see what I'm doing, but there aren't any strongmen looking through this section.

I'm 34 and have been playing rugby since 1996. I'm a loosehead prop (as the name indicates) as well as the strength and fitness coach for my team. I've also been competing in strongman contests since 2004. Over the years, I've learned to make the transition from one to the other, but it's still challenging.

Right now, I'm focusing on three upcoming strongman contests (and planning an August wedding). I'm mainly focusing on the strongman stuff, but I still do some agility and running to keep me sharp. Around mid-July I'll begin the transition from strongman to rugby training. Hopefully I can get some feedback from some fellow ruggers to make the transition to rugby season a little smoother.

Last night's workout
9 days pre-contest, starting to taper down

Deadlift
warmup
315 x 5
405 x 5
455 x 3
505 x 1

Yoke
80' runs
430 x 2
520 x 2
610 x 2

X Band Walks
w/ green band
10 per direction x 3

Disc Squats
Stood on dyna disc pillows, partner throws 12 lb med ball, squat, throw ball back
2 sets of 20

2k jog

[lhprop1]

Thursday 6/10

Log Press-clean & press each rep
100kg x 3 x 3

High incline press
About 80 deg incline with camber bar
135 x 5
179 x 3 x 2
179 x 4 x 2
179 x 3

Seated plate clean
5 kg plates x 15 x 2

[lhprop1]

Saturday 6/11

Car yoke
530 x 80'
610 x 80'
710 x 50'
800 x 50'--PR

Circus DB
120 x a bunch of singles

Immediately after training, I showed up to a 7s tourney just in time to kit up and play the last match. God, I hate 7s. It's not even rugby. The first two times I got the ball, I ran right over the first dude I saw just to show my contempt for the bastard child of the beautiful game of rugby. Oddly enough, they weren't expecting it. After running one dude over and drawing another two to wrap me up, it created a few nice holes that produced a try. I showed that I can still run with the young skinny kids.

[StackedRugby]

Nice lifting and good work in the 7's, always nice to run over a back. Although Ayoola Erinle rocked up for one of the other teams. Not a good start to the morning.

[moose45]

MN??? Sweeet! Where you at man?

[lhprop1]

Near St Paul

[lhprop1]

Monday 6/14
Chiro and massage. Massage concentrated on hamstring/glute and used a new technique.

Tuesday 6/15
Light work to prepare for contest on Saturday

Chain drag
560 x 50' x 2
This wiped me out. I'm cutting to 215 because the promoter decided he wanted to make up his own stupid weight class. I've never had to cut before and it's really gassing me out.

Tire flip
780 x 3 flips x 2
Easy. I could have done a dozen flips with it.

[toad1]

cool log. it's good to see something totaly different from a rugby player.

[lhprop1]

cool log. it's good to see something totaly different from a rugby player.

Thanks. As rugby season gets closer, you'll see a lot of the same old fitness and stuff.

Wednesday 6/16

Up & Backs
-Sprint 10 m, backpedal 5m, hit my gut, jump up, Sprint 10 m, backpedal 5m, hit my gut, jump up, repeat for the entire distance

30m x 10

Deadlift
225 x 10
315 x 5 x 5

Harness Truck Pull
-up hill, no rope assist
F-150 x 50'

Med Ball Situps
12 lb med ball x 40 x 2

And just for the fun of it, here is me about 1mm away from scoring. Notice all of the blue socks/white shorts around me. Those are not my team colors.

[lhprop1]

Thursday 6/17

Still trying to cut to 215. Went for a 2 mile run. It was 89 degrees and really humid. I wore a sweatshirt. It sucked.

[lhprop1]

Saturday 6/19
Worst strongman contest in my career. Pulled a muscle in my shoulder/trap/upper back warming up for the first event. Finished 6 out of 7.

Sunday and Monday were for letting my injury heal.

Tuesday 6/22
3 hill circuits
*1 circuit = little hill x 3, jog around school (about 500m), big hill x 3

[lhprop1]

How do I embed vids from youtube? I have some from this weekend's contest

Thursday 6/24: 2 mile jog

Saturday 6/26: MN Strongman Championships

Farmers Walk: 220/hand for 120' with one turn. 20.52 seconds-2nd place out of 16 (.02 sec out of 1st) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCpbbmaPmGg

Conan's Wheel: 600 lbs for distance. 115' (1 1/2 laps). Bombed this one. It was really humid, so I decided to take a different grip with my hands. Needless to say, it failed. I was something like 13th out of 16. With 16 competitors in my weight class, that was an insurmountable hit in the total points.

Log Press: 210 lbs, clean and press each rep. 5 reps. Tied for 4th.

Keg Toss: 5 kegs over 16' bar. 15 seconds. 3rd place. I watched the video and saw that I have a slight pause before each throw. Cleaning that up may have closed the 1.5 second gap between me and the event winner.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-ug7QpsxmQ

Going into the final event, I was 7th in points because of the conans wheel and getting into the top 3 would take a miracle.

Car Deadlift: 600 lbs in hand. 0 reps. El bombaroo.
I'm not going to say I don't need to work on my deadlift, because I really do. But when all of the guys over 6' are bombing out and the shorter guys are knocking out a ton of reps, something isn't right. There's no reason the guys in 1st and 2nd place going into this event should both get zero reps. Again, I'm not saying I would have got a single rep with 600 because it was 50 lbs over my PR deadlift.

Monday 6/28: Massage and chiropractor

Tuesday 6/29: 5k run

With only one strongman contest left this summer, I'm starting to shift my training to running for rugby. There will be a bit more speed and fitness work in the coming weeks along with very event specific training for the one remaining contest.

[lhprop1]

Wednesday 6/30 Light day

Farmers walk
100kg x 50m (one turn at 25m) x 3

[rugbyman87]

Keep it up man! Nice workouts

[lhprop1]

Thursday 7/1

Keg Clean & Press
99kg x many

Friday 7/2

5k run

Saturday 7/3

1.5 mile run immediately followed by 10 hill sprints

Wednesday 7/7

Deadlift
225 x 10
315 x 8 x 3

Yoke
All runs 80'
460 x 2
550 x 1
640 x 2

Thursday 7/8

Incline DB press
85 x 8 x 5
85 x 6

Tire Flip
780 x 3 singles
780 x 7 in 85 seconds

Camber bar flat bench
140 x 10
230 x 4 x 3
230 x 3

Band Pushdown/Plate Front Raise Superset

Green band x 20, 15 kg plate x 10
Superset x 4

[lhprop1]

Saturday 7/10

Tire Flip
910 lbs x 6 singles

Stones-all to 48"
240 x 2 singles
274 x 2 singles
240, 274, 305, 325, 356 series

[TomMutaffis]

Saturday 7/10

Tire Flip
910 lbs x 6 singles

Stones-all to 48"
240 x 2 singles
274 x 2 singles
240, 274, 305, 325, 356 series

Nice work on the stone series!

Way to bounce back after the contest a couple of weeks ago.

[lhprop1]

Nice work on the stone series!

Way to bounce back after the contest a couple of weeks ago.

Thanks. It's been a rough few contests and I really needed this training session as a confidence booster for this one. Training has been really bland.

I got that stone series in 29 seconds last year at this same contest. I have to beat that. I'm still gunning for that elusive sub-25 second run.

[lhprop1]

Monday 7/12

Axle Strict Press out of the rack
+120 lbs chains
105 x 6 x 2
135 x 2 x 5
145 x 2

218 lb Keg Press
x 2 cleans
x 5 singles clean and press each

Frame deadlift hold
505 lbs
1st hold, 25 seconds
2nd hold, 31 seconds