[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.

[Adam Bishop]

It depends on what sector you want to work in.

Let’s assume you want to coach people. If you want to coach professional athletes as an S&C coach you would be best getting a sports and exercise science degree or the like. Most positions in the professional sporting world require this. Be warned – the hours will be long and the pay will be lower than you expect!

If you want to help general people in the fitness industry (ie the public) achieve their sporting or physique goals and build your own business then an PT qualification is a good option.

You can obviously do both of you have a thirst for knowledge and a passion for learning.

My final advice: get coaching people straight away in any way you can. While working as an S&C coach I interviewed hundreds of people fresh out of uni with degrees and even masters but many of them had little to no physical coaching experience and did not know how to connect with athletes face to face. The lost art of coaching is a real problem in the industry as things become academic driven and coaching moves online.

Hey Adam hope you’re having a great day.

In the first case, where you need a degree. Does a physical therapy degree covers this “degree requirement”?

I’m about to study physical therapy school. My thoughts are that it gives you a deeper understanding of the body and you can have a wider scope of practice to chose from.(do you agree?)

Sports Science in my country, unfortunately because of not so good school PT teachers has a bad reputation and isn’t taken seriously. That, and you can’t help people dealing with pain or readapt to training again (am I right?), and generally (if not always as far as I’m aware) in my country you can’t live off that paycheck if you do my have free housing,water,electricity,etc. because the payment is too low.

I’ve got time to think because during the first year and most of the second year the courses they take are the same.

What are your thoughts on this[/quote]
Hi Roberto

What country are you from please?

Yes of course it will vary country to country as the education system varies.

My comments above refer to how it works in the UK trying to get a job as a Strength Coach in professional sport. I’m sure the requirements are different in the americas for example.

[Adam Bishop]

Rest day for me today before an arms session on Sunday.

Honesty so excited about seeing where my strength is at on competition movements now.

I feel like I’ve added some decent tissue in key places over the past few months and from Monday it’s time to put that tissue to work on a strength focused phase