This past Saturday marked an historic event: the first national championships for the new United States Strongman federation. USS is run by several seasoned veterans of the sport including former (perhaps one day masters?) 105-kilogram pros Willie Wessels and Mike Johnston, as well as experienced lightweight strongman John Albrecht who serves not only as the Indiana state chairman, but also Vice President of the federation (and who ran one of the finest competitions in which I have ever had the honor of being a part). USS offers more diverse weight classes and divisions for both men and women than long time federation North American Strongman, and already has competitions set to qualify athletes for international competition as they enter their second year of serving the athletes who support them.
When I qualified for nationals back at the April Fools competition at Brute Strength Gym in Norfolk, Virginia my instant reaction was, “Hell yes I’m going!” As the month of June unfolded though, I went through the process of moving from an apartment into a new house, taking an accelerated gross anatomy program and cadaver dissection lab as a preamble to starting physical therapy school (with final exams for both the lecture and lab sections three days before nationals), trying to train for nationals through extreme heat conditions at the Unit, and managing to attend weddings on the two weekends preceding the competition, not to mention that my girlfriend’s and my birthday (we share the same birthday) fell on the day I had to leave to drive to Indiana.
This led me to have growing reservations about my ability to be physically ready to compete, not to mention that I was holding onto my sanity by a narrow margin with the mounting stress I was under as the month wore on. But I have a strong respect for the men who started the US Strongman federation that I have developed from my interactions with them at various local and national competitions starting back at my first nationals in 2007 and I want to do whatever I can to support them and help them grow their new federation. Plus you only get the chance to go to the inaugural national championships once, so, “Hell yes I’m going!” turned into, “What the hell, I’ll regret it if I don’t go.” Despite what was a sub-par performance on my own part, I am extremely happy with my choice to go compete and be a part of such an awesome event.
I made the trip with the one and only Dan Falcone, U90kg international man of mystery extraordinaire and Iron Sport Gym member (he also holds the Iron Sport Gym record for 18” deadlift at 900 pounds). Our drive from the east coast to Indianapolis was the stuff of torturous legend as Dan was cutting weight and I was still nearly out of my mind from having studied for finals for the last three days straight and having had to finish up moving out of my old apartment and cleaning it up for final inspection the day before leaving. Suffice to say we made it safely in a timely manner and Dan made weight on the first try. Since I was competing in the 242 class in the HW open division and my weight has been steady around 235 recently, I had no issues with weigh ins. Competition day dawned and as usual, I felt like total garbage and didn’t want to lift anything. I hate this feeling, but I can’t remember going to a competition where I didn’t feel this way, except maybe for my first few competitions where I was so scared sh!tless that I couldn’t tell how I felt under the stink of fear wafting off my ignorant, untrained body. Warmups went fine and I physically felt pretty good, but mentally, I was still in a sand-in-my-lady-parts kind of mood. The event order was yoke walk, log clean and press, car deadlift, frame carry, atlas stones.
Yoke Walk
My weight for the yoke was 800 pounds for a 60’ course. Only one drop was allowed and the second would end your run. I wasn’t too worried about the weight as 800 seems to be pretty much par for the course for the competitions I do and I had worked up to competition weight with no problems in my training for nationals. My one worry was blacking out and failing to finish the course. This has happened to me several times in my career, almost always only in competition though it has happened a couple times in training as well. Warmups felt fine and some people were having issues with the yoke being wider than normal, but this didn’t really bother me since I hold the cross bar instead of the uprights. I got set to go and started and my worst fears became a reality. I began to get tunnel vision and lose feeling in my legs — I was blacking out. I tried to fight through it, but the numbness grew worse and started to spread up into my midsection. I had to drop the yoke or risk actually passing out and quite possibly injuring myself horribly. I gulped in some air and the feelings of numbness started to fade, so I got back under the yoke to try and finish up the second half of the course. As soon as I picked it again, the symptoms of the blackout came back with a vengeance. I think I staggered about another quarter of the course before I had to drop it again, ending my run short of the 60’ course goal. It ended up that I still won the event for the 242 weight class, but any goals I had of placing well in the overall heavyweight division and possibly winning the title belt went up in smoke after the first event.
Log Clean and Press
Next up was the log. It was clean once and press for reps with the option to put it down to rest if needed or if the athlete lost control, and reclean it to keep going if there was still time. My weight for this was 300 pounds, which I knew under even the worst conditions I should be good for a minimum of three reps, and my goal was to hit five or six. The log was a little bit larger diameter than the standard 12” and the cutouts for the handles were bigger, so I couldn’t get the added torque of driving my forearms into the log on the clean.
This event had actually felt really good for all my warmups, but after my failure on the first event I didn’t want to get my hopes up too much. Time started and I cleaned the log. I took my time getting it into a good, tight rack position to try to minimize any stupid technique errors that would have cost me reps or time. As I began to press it, everything felt smooth and strong and I was bringing it right back into a great position to repress it every time. I kind of lost count a little while I was going, or maybe I just wasn’t that aware of what was going on in my state of rage and fear fueled mania, but on what turned out to be my 6th rep, I started to do the Texas two-step a little on my lockout, so I put it down to catch my breath and hopefully try to add another rep or two if there was time. There was time since I had completed the first six reps in about 30 seconds, so I rested for 15 seconds or so and went to clean the log again. I did and I knew I was fatigued and the press would require full commitment on my part; I wasn’t going to get the rep if I gave it the same effort I had given my first rep. So I went all in and managed to get a 7th rep before time was up. This was a huge PR for me for reps at this weight and would end up being the highlight of my competition. This was also good for first place in the 242 class.
Car Deadlift
The car deadlift was the third event and one that I was a little worried about since I have historically been hit or miss on it and I really didn’t want to bomb it. Everything went well in warmups thanks to my Metal Jack Deadlift suit. I was slated to deadlift a Cadillac sedan with an additional 90 lbs on the frame for reps. I actually hit this weight in warmups for a couple reps, and while it wasn’t horribly heavy, I felt like the weight was probably pretty good. Unfortunately for me, some of the lightweights had been hitting rep festivals with their weights, so the decision was made to increase the weight on the HW car deadlift frame from 90 pounds to 200 pounds. I have used this frame several times in training at the Colosseum Gym in Columbia, MD and adding that much weight to the frame makes a big difference to the weight in hand. I had no goal on this event other than to get at least one rep. I did that with a considerable amount of straining and set it back down hard and fast. It was too heavy for me to hit for touch and go reps like I would have preferred. I reset and managed to grind out two more reps. I tried for a fourth rep and cracked the frame off the floor, but my back was rounding a lot and I could feel strain in all the wrong places so I put it back down in the interest of keeping my spine inside my body and completing the competition. Not sure what my placing was here, but I know it was at least mid-pack if not better.
Frame Carry
And now we come to the downfall of my day, the winter of my discontent, the frame. A 700-pound frame carry for 60 feet isn’t light, but I have never, ever failed to pick a frame or farmer’s handles in competition ever, so I thought for sure that I was good for finishing this one without too much trouble, or at the very least, I would get a distance measure. A lot of competitors had a lot of trouble with these particular frames, both picking them as well as holding onto them. I still wasn’t worried since I had done both 350-pound farmer’s walk and 700-pound frame carry in training for this comp without any problem. Well surprise, surprise, surprise! I went to pick the frame and I completely failed. I was puzzled by this and thought that maybe I was out of position, so I reset and tried a couple more times, but to no avail. Big fat bomb. Of all the events in the competition, this is seriously the last one I ever thought I would have trouble with. If I could have just picked the damn thing up and crossed the starting line I would have won my weight class, but instead I failed miserably.
Atlas Stones
Last was the atlas stone series. I had done well with this in training, but my back was fried and cramping and felt slightly strained from the car DL and from failing on the frame. Also, I usually don’t finish stone series in competition. I tacked up and got set and did it just like I did in training, thankfully. The weights were 240, 280, 300, 320, 360. I went through the first four with no problem, but I slipped a little on the last stone because my tacky was wearing off, but I didn’t want to stop to retack from the glob I had on the back of my hand, so I gave it another go and got it in my lap and then I knew I was good to go. I finished up in a little under 30 seconds, which I think was a pretty good time, possibly first in the 242s, but as I already said, it didn’t matter since I had screwed the pooch on the frame.
I did still manage to finish up in 2nd place in the 242 class, which sounds good on the face of it, but I judge my contest performance by how I do in relation to what I was hitting in training rather than how I do in relation to my fellow competitors, so failing to complete the yoke and bombing the frame were really big mistakes that cost me a lot of points and cost me first place. Former 105kg pro BJ Barabas ended up in a well-deserved first place in my weight class with a solid, well rounded performance through all 5 events. My travel partner and occasional training partner Dan Falcone won the 198-pound weight class and also the overall middleweight title with a stellar performance the whole day. I am extremely proud to have been a part of such a well-run competition with an amazing group of athletes including guys, girls, teens, masters, amateurs, and pros and I sincerely hope I am able to qualify for and attend next year’s US Strongman national championships in Louisville, KY at the end of June.
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