Being a strongman competitor and not knowing any better, I want to compete as much as I can. It makes sense to me, to compete every opportunity I get. The more comps at heavier weights I can get under my belt, the stronger I get and more experienced I become, right?
I recently went to Jordan with a six competition plan for the next 12 months:
October - Static Monsters
November - BNSF record breakers
January - Londons strongest
March - Souther Qualifiers U105kg
July - BNSF Britains strongest
October - Worlds strongest natural u105kg (if I qualify)
Jordans response went something like this:
“Stop seeking short term validation.
You can bounce around the strongman seen doing comp after comp with minimal time between to build foundations and/or peak properly. Eventually the gains will stagnate. Then you could just hit the gear to see more results but that will eventually do the same and stagnate, then you got nothing.
Competition carries the highest emotional involvement and the highest risk of injury and lifts or reps often fall outside of technical ability.
Competing too much also isn’t good for longevity, the person that lifts the longest without serious injury will end up getting the strongest in the long run. Consistency over time beats intensity.
The way I see it Olympians don’t do local meets to stay active. They do 3 comps a year with only one being over 100% which is their biggest.”
This got me thinking, the top 1% of powerlifters, weightlifters, fighters and Olympians only competed around three times a year. So why should strongman be any different?
The reason strongmen want to compete so much is because it suites a strongman’s mentality. Train more, lift more, eat more, compete more. Doing more makes you feel a lot of pride, its good to feel like your doing more than everyone else, but sometimes you need to train smarter not harder.
To sum it up:
You reap more benefits training at a lower intensity and building it up over a longer period of time. Also you are less likely to get injured in the process, helping create better structural intensity.
To make my new 12 month plan Ive picked the most important competitions. Leaving me with one more comp this year to make it a total of three in 2018 and three next year:
November - BNSF record breakers
March - Souther Qualifiers U105kg
July - BNSF Britains strongest U105kg
October - Worlds strongest natural U105kg
Jake - BNSF Britain’s strongest natural U105kg
