[Adam Bishop]

Bag of shit tonight. Tore my TFL on the first rep of my squat set with 305. Finished the rep fine so I’m hoping it’s not too bad and will heal quickly. Had to modify the session after that as couldn’t risk pulling heavy, leg pressing or doing the sand bag walks so…

Squat – up to 305×1
Block pulls (15”) 270x3x2
Back Extension 6×12

I’ll keep you all posted over the next few days. Not ideal as I’m 6 weeks out from Britain’s Strongest man but luckily I’ll be able to train around it I think.

We’ll know more tomorrow

[Adam Bishop]

Excited to follow along here!

I know you’ve mentioned beating the deadlift record, is that something you’re actively working on in the background whilst competing, or will you be taking time off of competitions to train specifically for that? Obviously you’re always training your deadlift, but I think when both Eddie and Thor did it they were focused 100% on the record.

You’d be surprised. Yes Thor did obviously focus on it as there were no competitions going on due to covid.

Eddie however pulled his at Europe’s strongest man in April 2016 after competing at Britain’s earlier in the year and then competing at various shows after it.

I have focused my deadlift work towards it for sure. I’ve moved the focus away from rep work and towards a new 1rm later in the year.

[Adam Bishop]

Take a look at your mattress and pillow.

I sleep on my side and I invested in a really good mattress and pillow from Levetex and it makes a big difference.

Make sure you build your pillow up to the correct height so that you take the pressure off your neck and shoulder

[Adam Bishop]

Not much going on today, no training just rest.

Spent some time in the hot tub and went for my normal 45min walk with the dogs.

Bodyweight update: sitting at an all time high of 156.9kg/346lbs which is great. Progress is being made!

Back to some heavy lifting tomorrow with some squats and deadlifts

[Adam Bishop]

Back in the barn for some assistance work today – back and arms focused.

Chest supported Barbell Row
CG Pulldown
SA Cable Row
High Incline DB Row
DB Alt Curl
DB Hammer curl
Long rope Pressdowns
Bent over Pressdowns

Great first week of prep for this years WSM. Body is feeling great and now I’m on the CPAP my sleep quality is way better.

Looking forward to progressing everything next week.

[Adam Bishop]

Hi Clark,

It’s very easy for us to equate strength increases with new tissue and while this is of course true in advanced individuals we must remember that increasing the muscle cross sectional area is not the only way we gain strength. I like to split strength increases into three key pathways when discussing getting stronger from a physical standpoint:

1. Neural adaptations/ability to recruit motor units

2. Increasing muscle cross sessional area

3. Co-ordination of the movement

If you were moving to a new progressive overload model I would assume that you are teaching your body to be neurally more efficient (point 1) and improving your technique on each movement (point 2) which will lead to bigger numbers on your lifts. This doesn’t mean that you didn’t build muscle tissue but it was highly unlikely IMO.

Strength increases should be celebrated whichever pathway they come so be proud of your improvements especially while calories are restricted.

You say that you are gaining 1-2lbs per week on the bulk so it sounds like you are putting on weight at a fast rate so I say keep on the bulk. Now that you have your technique honed you should be able to push muscle hypertrophy in a calorie surplus.

[Adam Bishop]

Solid events session down the farm today. It’s been a while and the place needs a clean but if felt good to be chucking heavy kit around again.

Big focus for me today was on two key events for Brits – the sandbag toss and shield walk. These two events are make or break for all of us as there are so many things that can go wrong.

Worked on a lot of bag throws over the 4.5 wall with the 22.5kg bags then moved onto the shield where I did some pick up and holds to work on breathing then a couple of 10m carries

That was enough for this week, I’ve got 5 training weeks to increase the distance and add a bit of weight to the shield.

[Adam Bishop]

Thursday – Rest Day

Shoulders were a bit beat up after Wednesdays return to strongman events so I got some mobility work done in the morning, did my usual 40min walk with the dogs and hit the sauna for my recovery work.

Woke up feeling much better today and ready to hit up some sandbag throws, shield carry and stones at the farm.

[Adam Bishop]

You can buy low dead space/total dose needles that sorts this issue

[Adam Bishop]

Great press session today as I returned to strongman events. I had to resist the urge to push the weights higher but I managed to stick to the plan.

Strict log press – multiple singles up to 166kg
Axle clean and press – multiple singles on 120kg fixed axle
Seated Lockouts w/bands – sets of 3 up to a top set of 125kg plus 70kg band tension at lockout
Floor Press – up to a triple on 180kg

[Adam Bishop]

Recovery day today.

Had some soft tissue work done on my back and forearms and then got a sauna session in.

Also picked up some new kit from the welders ready for my sessions tomorrow and Friday. I’ve had my axle fixed so that the wheels don’t rotate and I’ve had a new shield welded up ready for Brits training.

[Adam Bishop]

Tough session today, body is not fully recovered from Friday’s deadlift session so I dropped then block pulls and kept things sub max on the squat.

Back squat 300×3
Leg Press 4×6 (paused) & 3×20
Sandbag walk 4x30m

Rest day tomorrow and I’ve got some soft tissue work booked in as well as a sauna session.

Need to get my body ready to rock for Wednesday’s press session

[Adam Bishop]

Here’s the change to my training split starting tomorrow:

M – Squat and Deadlift
W – Axle and Log Press
F – Moving Events
S – Assistance work

Dropping down to 4 training days as the load and intensity on the competitive exercises increases and I’ll be needing some more recovery time.

The Saturday assistance work is more hypertrophy focused as I look to continue to grow through the season.

[Adam Bishop]

Arms session today all went to plan and that finished off my 12 week off season. Prep for the 2022 strongman season starts tomorrow.

Here’s how today went – all exercises consisted of 2 work sets.

Long rope Pressdowns
Bent over Pressdowns
Reverse grip Pressdowns
BB Curl
Seated DB Curl
Standing DB Alt Curl

[Adam Bishop]

Without seeing you lift it’s obviously a bit of guess work but from seeing how a lot of people use the hack and the pain you’re describing my educated guess would be that you’re allowing your hips/lower back to come off the pad and “butt winking” at the bottom (rounding through your lumber spine).

A lot of people get into this habit when chasing depth and relaxing into the lift due to it being a machine.

My advice would be treat the hack squat as back squat – brace hard every rep with your breathing. I like to force my whole midsection out and feel my lumbar spine actively pushing into the back pad of the hack. Also try using your normal squat stance as I know a lot of people will go narrower than usual on the hack which can increase the chances of lower lumbar flexion during the lift if you’re not looking out for it.