Sat, 12 Mar 16

I headed down to Brute Strength Gym in Norfolk, VA to train today along with Gregg, Marc, and Bill.  I haven't been able to get down there to train in a long time and everything was AWESOME as always.  It was Marc and Bill's first trip and they both did well with Marc significantly improving his stone technique and trying a series for the first time and Bill doing an awesome job on the fingal fingers and trying out deadlifting a car for the first time.  Gregg did well on everything he trained and PRed on stones, despite his Negative Nancy outlook going into each set.  I say this every time, but if you have never been to Brute, get yourself there pronto and then repeat as often as possible!

Log C&J (clean once)

complex x 90

complex x 140

complex x 180

3x230

1x270

1x300

I was considering not even pressing today since my elbow was still bothering me from hyperextending it on Tuesday, but everything felt good and if we hadn't been on somewhat of a time crunch I would have kept going up.  I didn't though because doing log was not why I made the trip to Brute.

Andy Deck with an easy log clean and press! #brutestrengthgym #strongman #log #logclean #logpress

A video posted by Brute Strength Gym /CF Amalgam (@brutestrengthgym) on

Fingal Fingers

5x271

3x423

4x423

5x271

PLer and LW strongman Kevin Dickhut joined us at this point and after some easy warmups with the empty finger, we decided to throw some weight in.  In retrospect we should have asked how much the rebar poles we added weighed BEFORE adding them, but we managed anyway.  The difference between 271 and 423 smacked me in the face as soon as I went for my first pick.  In retrospect I definitely went too heavy here and I'll go a little lighter next time I train them, but it wasn't so heavy I couldn't do it at all and it definitely made me aware of what to focus on to improve.


Atlas Stones

3x225 - Shouldering to warmup.

2x {1x290, 1x315, 1x335, 1x350 loaded to 56", 54", 48", 48"}

Besides making a rookie mistake and not bringing half of what I needed to do a really good job on stones, this went pretty well for the first time I've tried a series in several months.  It wasn't spectacular, but I know it will be better next time I go to Norfolk.

Prowler

12x 50' x prowler + 50 - Indoor feet on rubber floor, started with a 3 man rotation, then dropped to 2, then I finished up with back to back runs flying solo.

Besides Dickhut, I also got to see several other guys I know from training and competing at Brute including Mark Kimener, Chad Dunn, and Jake Fisher among others.  They were all training for a comp down in Clayton, NC next weekend and everyone was looking strong.  Finally, I gotta send out a huge thanks to Liz and David, the owners of Brute Strength Gym, and Stella, the GM.  It wouldn't be the place it is without y'all and every time I walk in the door I just get hit with waves of insane awesomeness.