Monday, April 27, 2009

Nick Pratt - QLD Strongman Competition



On Sunday the 22nd of March I competed in my first ever strongman competition I went in nervous yet exited as I had only been training with the strongman implements for around 6 weeks. I was competing against men much older than myself (I’m only 17).

The first discipline was the farmers walk, I had been nervous about this event all week as I have never walked the full distance of 50m with this weight of 110kg in each hand. Once the gun sounded I took off taking 2 huge steps this made me stumble everywhere but I managed to pull it together and walk a total distance of 38.6m placing myself 5th out of 7 after the 1st event.

The next event was the Super Yoke a 285kg frame which you rest behind your neck and walk down a 25m runway. I won my heat and finished 4th in my weight class.

The next event was one of the most draining events on this day it was the over head press medley, which involves lifting a 100kg log, a 85kg keg, a 50km dumbell in each hand and a 120kg axel with a 2.5inch thick bar. I went through the Dumbell and the log a breeze then came to the keg it was one of the most awkward things to lift. After wrestling it up to my chest I gripped the edges and pressed it above my head. Next up was the axel and I was so physically exhausted that getting it to my belt was hard enough. The bar was much too thick for me to get my wrists under and press so I told myself I wasn’t going to waist any more time trying to flick it up. I found myself placed 4th in this event and 4th over all with only two events left to go.

The next event was the event I was dreading most, it was the car dead lift I was worried about this because I had never lifted the weight of 250kg before. So with the thought of failure in front of a huge crowd, I walked out chalked up my hands applied my straps and just pulled I did a total of 6 reps. I was shocked but only 4 of these reps counted because I never came to a full lock out in 2 of my lifts. At the end of this event I was back to 5th place.

I needed a big effort on the atlas stones but was so exhausted I could feel my legs turn to jelly after every step I took. When it came out, I was far too excited and tried to go to fast. When it came to the 140kg stone I just hit the wall and found myself grinding away at it for so long. I just couldn’t get the last stone up in the 90sec time limit. I was disappointed but I wasn’t the only one to slip up on the stones. The last effort I had on the stones was enough to place me back at 4th over all

1 comment:

  1. Well Done Nick, great effort for your first ever Strongman comp.

    Fitnance Team

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