Jedd Johnson from Diesel Crew came up with the events and ran the competition.  Unfortunately, not many stepped up to compete besides myself and two other brave men (Chance Smith & Paul Berry Jr.).  It was competitive and one heck of a great time!

There were three events:

The first event was the log press.  We had 1 minute to clean and press a 12 inch log bar as many times as possible to full lockout with your head through.  I think the bar weighted 110-120 pounds which is not extremely heavy but none of us have a log bar to train with normally, so the awkwardness of it was the difficult part.  You just do not clean a log bar like a regular barbell.

The second event was the mace swing; which proved to be even more awkward and as you seen or will see from the video, very challenging.  We also had one minute to swing the mace back and around our head to the point of attention (straight up in front of our body) as many times as possible.  I personally liked this event the most but was honestly glad when it was over.

The third event was the kettlebell sled drag.  The sled was loaded with 50 pounds and a 50-55 pound kettlebell was attached and used as a handle.  What you had to do was pinch the kettlebell between your hands and back peddle a certain distance.  Quickest time won.  This actually proved to be my worst event as I quickly found out that I need some work on my back peddling skills.  I guess I am just not as quick as I once was (getting older sucks!).

In the end; Paul, Chance, and I had a great time and had some good laughs afterwards; especially with my graceful stumble across the finish line.

I think it is great to get out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself with new and different types of training and strongman lifts will definitely do just that.  They can also be dangerous if not understood and done correctly.  Always make sure you understand the techniques involved in any of these types of exercises. Jedd Johnson is releasing a new DVD soon describing how to not only execute these movements correctly but also how to implement them into a training program.  I was able to review this DVD and it is totally awesome.  I will keep you posted when that will be available.

I would like to thank Jedd Johnson for organizing and running the event and Doug Smith for putting together what some say is the best strength & conditioning conference on the east coast!

I hope you enjoyed the video!  I was glad to share that with you all.

To your health,

Jerry