[Adam Bishop]

BSM 2023 write up

Felt great going into this show – training has been perfect and the events suited me very well. I was confident that if I achieved my goals for each event that I would win the show comfortably. If I missed one goal on an event I thought I could still win but it would be closer.

Here’s the breakdown of the event results:

Deadlift ladder 300-380kg – 28sec – 1st
Car walk 20m – 17sec – 1st
Viking press – 8 reps – joint 7th
Loading Race – 39sec – 1st
Powerstairs – 36sec – 1st

Winning 4 out of 5 events was a very dominant performance probably more than the final points indicated due to my lower score on the Viking press. This result was kind of expected as I have had less time to build my pressing strength back up post injury compared to my other events where I am at peak strength.

Unfortunately I tore my TFL on the Viking press but it didn’t effect me on the final two events. It’s pretty painful and swollen now but I’m confident the tear is in the muscle belly – I’ll know more when I see my physio this week.

All in all a great night and a good result. I’m not one to eat much during shows so I relied on a lot of sustain to keep my hydrated and fuelled up between events and it worked a treat. I can also confirm the at DNFM pre workout is perfect for strongman shows!

I’ll take tomorrow off then I’ll be back in the gym so some form of pressing on Tuesday

[Adam Bishop]

Got the title back.

Britain’s Strongest Man 2023 to go with my 2020 title.

I’ll do a proper write up in the morning for you all.

Victory was fuelled by DNFM tonight

[Adam Bishop]

Thanks guys!

Arrived up in Sheffield ok. We drove up this morning and got my interviews and athlete rules meeting done. Also had some soft tissue work done then went for a short walk before bed.

I’ve brought all my food with me this time and brought my own microwave as I wanted to keep everything the same.

Also had a video call with my sports psychologist today talking through the usual nerves I get in the build up to the show. Felt much better after some breathing exercises and our chat.

All kicks off tomorrow evening so I’ll get up and eat before I go for a short walk in the morning then it’s lunch and off to the venue for all the final contest prep.

Time to get that title back.

[Adam Bishop]

No training to report for today.

Spent the day resting and eating to be honest apart from 2 30min walks.

Body is feeling ok but my patella tendinitis is lingering around a bit so I’m going to add in some anti inflammatories tomorrow and run them up to the comp.

[Adam Bishop]

Bulk buy where possible. If you are on a budget you might have to sacrifice quality a little however choose the best quality proteins you can.

Eggs are always a staple. Save money on your red meats by choosing the less popular cuts. Flank steak tastes great and tends to be cheaper than sirloin for example.

[Adam Bishop]

Another successful taper session. Worked up to a rapid strict log press of 150kg. Press is feeling very very strong.

Had some soft tissue massage focused on my quads and adductors before seeing my physio. Tricep was spot on with no post session swelling and my knee was nice and dry. He released my TFL which hurts like a MFer as that’s been giving me some issues as I shift weight over to my right side to protect my left knee.

One more treatment session with him on Thursday before BSM

[Adam Bishop]

Nice one, thank you for that, did you push to keep the non injured side as strong as it was before? I have been doing some push exercise but keeping my strong side working heavy in the 10-12 rep range.

Yes and this is very important as you need to use your non injured side’s strength markers as a way of measuring progress. I always kept unilateral strength scores for 6 reps to know what I needed to get my injured side back to. I also liked to keep my reps schemes at 4×6 for the non injured side in an effort to maintain strength without increasing muscle imbalances.

[Adam Bishop]

Short session today. The goal of my two sessions this week is to keep my body moving, execute a couple of competitive movements and stimulate the relative muscles with extremely low volume in an effort to minimise fatigue.

I keep my prep work the same as if I was performing a full session but the volume is extremely low. I’ve used this form of taper for the past couple of years and really like it. Only issue is that you want to do more but you have to resist that urge. Todays session was 5 singles on 270kg deadlift practicing setting my straps correctly each time. Plenty of bar velocity obviously. Also got my knee ISOs in and some hip mobility.

[Adam Bishop]

Here’s the rehab plan I used and a couple of my rugby players used aswell. It is set up for strongman as it’s a very common injury therefore you can ignore the return to strongman events etc.

Hope it helps. Fire any questions my way…

Weeks 1-2
In Sling with elbow kept at 90degrees. No rehab work on bicep. Trained around the injury in the gym. Safety Squat bar squats 3 times a week and 2 contralateral upperbody sessions (training non injured side) to maintain muscle mass.

Weeks 3-4
Out of sling. Get range of motion back in arm. No loading yet. Focus on getting arm straight and getting full supination of forearm back. This is very important to do before loading. Continuted SSB squat work and Contralateral work.

Weeks 5-6
Commenced non-direct loading of injured side. No direct bicep work but some light pressing and rows. Continued SSB squats.

Weeks 6-9
Direct loading of bicep commences. Start with light bicep curls and compare strength to the non-injured side. Stick with supinated curls as puch as possible. focus on the contraction of the medial head of the bicep. It is common for the Brachioradialis to become dominant after the time in the sling. A Compex (EMS) is a good tool for bicep activation prior to bicep work. This is the session I performed 3 times a week during this period (Monday/Wednesday/Friday):

Single Arm DB Preacher Curl 3×12
Incline DB Curl (supinated) 3×12
Standing Cable Curl (like a double biceps pose) 3×12

Progressed each arm independantly until the injured size was withing 95% of the non-injured side. Key is to keep with the supination range of motion work during this period.

Weeks 10-12
Back to “normal” gym training, probably no strongman events that risk the bicep yet but deadlifting (straps) and yoke etc is ok. Direct bicep work moved to heavier variations such as barbell curls and DB hammer curls etc. I would recommend some swiss ball squeezes during this period as well to mimic picking up an atlas stone.

Weeks 13-16
Back to full strongman training

[Adam Bishop]

Last heavy events session of Brits prep. Everything felt straightforward enough.

Viking press – 150×8
Yoke – 360x18m
Loading – 4 implements in 35sec

Then home to watch the rugby and walk the dogs.

[Adam Bishop]

Light legs session today. Once again dropping volume.

Squat 220×2
Leg ext – 1 set
Leg curl – 1 set
Calf raises – 1 set

That was it not the most exciting session but much needed part of the taper process as I have my final “proper” session tomorrow hitting some events

[Adam Bishop]

Final rest day of the week. Got lots done. A couple of walks again took me over 10k steps and I sorted some stuff out for my sponsors.

Squat session tomorrow and I’ve got a quick photoshoot to door prior to training.

Nothing heavy on the bar tomorrow. Tapers are always tough mentally as I love training and want to lift especially right now when I’m feeling strong but sticking to the plan will yield results when it counts.

[Adam Bishop]

Should read normal life not lift haha

[Adam Bishop]

Hi Stuart, I’m assuming you are UK based here, was the surgery done on the nhs or private? I ask because the NHS’s concern is to get you back to “normal” lift and usually do not take into account training etc.

It sounds like you’ve had a standard distal tendon reattachment. Did your surgeon say anything about having to use a graft for the tendon at all? If they did then that lengthens the recovery time but most of the time there is enough tendon left to allow a clean reattachment.

I’ve overseen and advised on quite a few bicep reattachments (including my own in 2017) so answer the above questions and if it’s applicable I’ll copy and paste my 12 week rehab plan for you.

[Adam Bishop]

Rest day today and got some grown up stuff done. Truck had a service so went for a walk while it was in the garage then did another 40min walk in the afternoon with the dogs.

Topped off the day with a trip to Costco for supplies.

Bodyweight was 151.1kg this morning.