On Sunday, 27th of July, Alex, Chad, Christian, Dean, Jason, Justin, Sean and I (The regulars from the Coco’s Gym Saturday morning training crew) participated in the round 3 of the Queensland strongman series. The day was incredibly good fun and very well run by Luke and the team that handled the proceedings. We are all looking forward to Round 4 later this year as a couple of others from our Saturday morning crew (Joshua and Lucia) have shown interest in having a go.
For me, the highlight of the day was the huge efforts and results from our training crew, all of them pushed themselves and achieved numbers and lifts that they weren’t close to in recent times. As a coach, I was really impressed by their performance. I would like to congratulate Deane (competing in Division 2) for finishing the 20 metre, 125 kg per handle farmer‘s walk in a single pickup (during training last weekend Deane had struggled to carry the 125kg per hand farmers walk for the entire 20m’s) and also going through the entire 4 Atlas Stone series in the fastest time he had ever completed it, he demolished it and made the 140kg stone look like a toy compared to any of his previous efforts.
In addition, a big congratulations to Jonny for finishing second in Division 2, Johnny had only been training with us for the past month. Jonny appears to have no weaknesses and is very quick showing a strong consistent effort all day. His speed and agility added to his strength make him a redoubtable opponent.
Alex, as expected of him, showcased his astounding strength and continued to find abilities he didn;t know he had by successfully completing the whole 5 events (125kg per handle farmer’s walk, 95 kg log press, 170 kg Conan carry, 380kg tire flip and the atlas stone loading: 100 kg, 110 kg, 120 kg and 140kg). Alex just keeps getting stronger and I look forward to his improvements in the coming weeks (yes he is improving that quickly), months and year.
Justin (the veteran of our team) has forearms that would make Popeye blush and used his superior grip strength to make the farmers walk look easy. His shoulder strength is amazing too mostly strict pressing the Log (95kg) and all the more impressive as he is only 90kg with most of the competitors in Divison 2 over 100kg.
Chad competed in Division 3. Though struggling with the farmers walk at 110kgs per hand. He did go on to push the Div 3 group in the Conan Carry, 20 metres in just over 8 seconds putting him in 4th place for that particular event.
A newcomer to heavy lifting and movements is Christian, joining our training crew less than a month ago stepped in and had a go at everything. This man is built to become a hulking strongman, 6’6″ and already over 120kg an amazing base to start from, watch what he does in the future. He made the 130kg conan carry look like a toy.
We were also lucky enough to be joined by two regulars from Brisbane recently, Sean Foran and Jason Jeffery. Jason jumped into the strongman training at a similar time to Christian and also competed in the novice event. Jason’s impreovements were astounding, several weeks ago struggling with the 75kg Atlas stone but after a few technique refinements and some consistent training he went on to complete 9 reps in 60 seconds at the comp, better than any training effort.
Sean also proved solid. The first time he turned up at the gym, he had never lifted a stone over 100kgs and did the 109kg and 120kg easily. The second time he turned up he nailed the 140kg stone, he didn’t even need to do this stone for the comp yet made it look easy! Sean competed in Division 3 at the comp and went way above his own expectations, aiming for 20-25 reps on the 85kg double over hand axle deadlift event, he finished with more than 35 reps, very, very strong grip!
I am already looking forward to seeing what this group can do in the coming months in preparation for the 4th round and for the others in our crew that are planning on joining the competition for the first time. Incredibly exciting times ahead for a strength coach and the acheivements our group have ahead of them.
Coco
Owner and Sports Scientist/Personal Trainer
Coco’s Gym, Bundall, Gold Coast
Ph: 55 380034