# England's Strongest Man Under 90kg write up and vid



## will san (Jun 22, 2010)

*England's Strongest Man Under 90kg 2013*

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*well, ive been trying, unsuccessfully, to qualify for this for the last few years and this year, I finally made it. after having competed yesterday I believe that makes me only the third man ever to have qualified and competed in both englands u105 and u90 competitions after mark copley and pagan. now, im under no illusions that this makes me anything other than the long in the tooth journeyman competitor I am. but, given my limited abilities, this achievement is pretty huge for me. particularly as I have been working towards it since 2010 with more than a few disappointments along the way.

anyway, given this, I was determined to enjoy this comp WHATEVER happened. prep was a bit up and down but I was reasonably happy I wasn't going to make a fool of myself. target was to avoid last place.

*MAX Log press*

first event was MAX log. I usually like pressing events but I don't really enjoy them for max just because of the pressure of it. plus, my log is notoriously unreliable in competition which just added to the feeling that I just wanted to get it out of the way so I could enjoy the rest of the day. I opened on 100 just to get a lift on the board and then skipped all the weights until 115 as this is a weight which I had been doing weekly. now, a weird thing happened at this point. literally every other competitor aftr me skipped the weight so I ended up standing there for ages waiting for someone to lift against. which, was ok, I made the lift easy. however, I didnt quite realise at that point that this meant that because everyone had skipped it went right back round to the start for the 120 lifts. I think one pairing ended up going and then I had to go straight back in. wasnt recovered properly and missed 120, a weight I have done maybe 10 times in my build up. I have no doubt I would got it with a couple more minutes rest but I guess thats just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. ended up 12th. I think thats got to be be my lowest ever placing in a press event, the standard was nuts!

*Medley*

with the log done I could relax a bit more. id done a bit of tyre training going out on road trips but other than that I hadnt really done a huge amount of prep for this. keg felt fine if not spectacularly fast, tyre technique felt sweet and actually the first three steps of the powerstairs didnt feel as hard as expected. just hit the lip on the fourth though, fought with it and lost. after that I just hit the wall and couldnt do it. solid 11th place.

*Arm Over Arm*

next up was arm over arm. traditionally this has been my worst event of all, never having finished outside of the bottom three in competition. I quite like it when things like this come up though as it forces me to face my weaknesses and work on them. I bought a sled off jt and worked it hard every time I trained at the farm. and, the work I put in really seemed to be paying off. the weights I was struggling with on my first few goes really started flying as the weeks went on and I seemed to be stacking up pretty well against the guys who came over to train with me. I was up pretty early due to my low placing on the previous event so I wanted to try and set a half decent time for the rest to chase. managed it in 39.75 which took first at that point and actually held up for a little while. in the end I finished up 6th which I was over the moon with in that field of beasts. its just so satisfying when a plan comes together. not my best placing but my favourite performance of the day.

*MAX Deadlift*

we had a little interval next which I definately needed as the pace was pretty hot and I was not feeling like I could pull a max deadlift at that point. used the time to rest which was good but, as a result only managed to get a very quick warm up for the deadlift. I think I managed a straps down 140kg x 1, 180kg x 1 and 200kg x 1 before my first lift in the comp of 250kg! thankfully, 250 flew up though so I felt confident. went 260 next which needed a slight hitch at the top which gave me hope of repeating my 270 pb. something which I wasnt at all sure that I would do as I had failed 272.5 twice in the past few weeks. went up, pulled it and it came up pretty well. needed a slight pause on the knee to hitch it up but it ended up being a better pull than last time I did it. pulled out there as 280 wasn't there. crazily, that gave me a share of 4th place with four other guys. deadlift is also an event in which I always finish in the bottom half of the table in competition so this was another new experience for me. very pleased with that indeed!

*Keg Toss*

the kegs we used on the day were mine so I had plenty of practice on them. everyone kept saying 'you should be great at this with your oly lifting etc.' but having trained them with others I wasn't at all sure. and, to be honest, I don't think I actually improved much with all the training I did with them. I might have actually gone backwards! anyway, I had a little practice before we got going and it didn't exactly feel great. after decent placing in the deadlift I was quite far down in the order and watching the others I thought I needed the 16kg keg to get any kind of decent points. the 13,14,15 went fine so I slowed a little to make sure on the 16. unfortunatley I missed it the first time and then just lost my mojo. looking back at the vid I was standing way too close and hit the underside of the bar each time. if id stood all little further out maybe I would've sneaked it, or maybe not. who knows? 11th place.

*Loading Medley*

Last up, loading medley. looking at the table I think I was sitting in 9th at this point which was pretty nuts in itself. and, with a 1.5 point lead on my long time rival the general! so, after working out that he was going in the pairing going out before me, my plan was to see what he did and try and work my strategy to beat that. after a quick first three loads he didn't manage the 125kg keg. so, given that im not that quick on my feet, I thought my best chance was to take it steady and make sure I got the 125 keg loaded. this plan went perfectly..until I got to that damned keg! it just felt super heavy and I only just got it to the platform. at that point I dropped it to give myself a little rest before trying to load it. sadly, I just couldnt pick it up again. lower back was done. in retrospect, I should've just paused on the lap and gone straight for the load. nevermind, I might not have got it even then.

so, as it unfolded at the end, because of my slow times on the first three there were a few guys in between the general and I meaning he leapfrogged me in the table as did eric so he did also. I finished up 12th, 2.5 points off 10th. which, all in all, im very pleased with. I could've picked up a few more points here and there with a perfect day but how often does anyone have those? I was just pleased to be mixing it with the best athletes in the country and not looking too out of place. brilliant, brilliant day!

vid:


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## hometrainer (Apr 9, 2003)

huge thumbs up to you mate


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## IronPhil (May 30, 2012)

Congrats mate, solid effort!

This is exactly the sort of thing I've always wanted to do, but I really lack the genetics for it.

Im just too damn week! Respect for you man.


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## TELBOR (Feb 20, 2012)

Nice work mate!


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## paul xe (Sep 24, 2011)

Fair play bud.

Those first couple of minutes in the video got to be a killer!


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## will san (Jun 22, 2010)

cheers lads! phil - dont defeat yourself without giving it a go. by no means am I a naturally gifted athlete. anything I have achieved in the sport has been with graft and perseverance not any particular talent I was born with.


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## mozzwigan (Apr 20, 2012)

will san said:


> *England's Strongest Man Under 90kg 2013*
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AWESOME STUFF! WELL DONE I WOULD LOVE TO DO THIS! FEW MORE YEARS AND I WANNA COMPETE! MY SHOULDER IS ****ED SO I CANNOT EVEN DO OVER HEAD PRESSING OR BENCHING AT THE MOMENT, ONE DAY I WANT TO DO THIS!


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## Oldskooler (Jun 14, 2013)

Congrats bud


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## Guest (Jul 15, 2013)

Excellent that mate


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## bigchickenlover (Jul 16, 2013)

Congrats thats some hard stuff !!!


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## alex the bear (Mar 7, 2012)

Just reading your write up of the day you make it all sound so easy but then watching the video... WOW just wow!!!!! I'm at the very beginning of my training and I'm unsure if I want to go down the BB or SM route but after seeing that I would love to give it a go. Big :thumb: for the personal achievement, you must have been buzzing...... and ever so broken by the end


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## Guest (Aug 3, 2013)

Nice 1 mate


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## GreedyBen (Mar 8, 2011)

Excellent write up and well done!

Inspirational stuff there!


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## ellisrimmer (Sep 9, 2012)

Must be great to say "I am the xx strongest man in the country"


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## mygym-mytemple (Jun 8, 2012)

Good going mate:thumbup:


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## will san (Jun 22, 2010)

cheers lads. it was a great day. wasnt sure if id still have the drive for it after finally getting to esm but, I definately do. new goal is to qualify again and improve my placing.

alex - go for it mate. in my opinion, strongman training is by far the most fun to train of all the strength sports. cant beat an events session out in the summer sun!


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