New MuscleMag book

Huge and Freaky (love the title):

New British and European record 2 hand pinches

Both Laurence Shahlaei and I pulled 117.5-kilos. I get the record as I pulled first.

Whey Power Challenge

Had a quick chat with Andy Bolton. Fingers crossed as he's managed to cut his eyeball (ouch!!) and will see a doc Wednesday.

More magazines...

Dextralose - What is it and why the issue?

What is it and why the issue?

Facts. The trade mark owners are Vydex Corporation.

The owner has stated clearly (inc a reproduced copy of his letter on this site) that it does not contain aspartame.

Issues: several companies use it either as an ingredient which they then blend themselves or get others to do for them or it has been included as the same in products made under contract by Vydex.

Contract manufacturing, as is, is very common in the UK. Well known high street supermarkets do not, for example, own sausage making plants but instead get companies which already make the same products to make some for them under their own label. Hell, I used to work for a company which made sausages for Tescos and Sainsbury's many years back (Hygrade Foods, now defunct).

One issue as is is that some resellers and or contract holders seem to be making either impossible claims for their product (that it contains ingredients which are more expensive than the selling price - so impossible) - see Sci-Mentor Excel product or stuff as daft as selling what is reported as an 80% protein product for around the production costs or less. In other words one asks how is this possible? In all cases where attention has been drawn the sweetener is.... you guessed it.

It seems that an earlier post of mine about Ronnie being back on stage is another step closer. Aaron at RX has chatted with the promoter and Dorian has agreed to guest pose, Ronnie and others to compete: HERE

With $240,000 in the pot I'm not too surprised.

Magazines

Rolling Thunder at Bodypower

I'm in discussion with Denny Felix (wife of WSM competitor Mark) about arranging a Rolling Thunder competition at Bodypower (at the NEC). There's a few ideas on the table. More when we have it sorted.

Some bucks back in Powerlifting

More info

4th and final leg of the WSH tomorrow

Tomorrow finds Laurence Shahlaei and myself on a jolly down to Stafford to join most of the rest of the motley UK crew for the last WSH leg.

David Horne's ever creative mind put together the idea of reforming what old school all-round lifters used to call 'postal leagues'. Only with the World's Strongest Hands it was taken world wide. With around 10 venues based in Europe, the UK and the USA combined with a standardized set of equipment (each venue/promoter received an identical set) and a limit of just three tests (some venues added addtional ones but these do not count towards the main scores) you had a good formula.

The three tests are: 2 hand pinch (using a Eurp pinch), David Horne Wrist Developer and the Vulcan Gripper. Tomorrow, both here in the UK and also in the US there's a very good chance that 1 of at least 6 or 7 athletes may have peaked just in time for a world record on the first event.

My last days training of any kind was Tuesday and Monday had me doing my last grip workout. Both yesterday and today have seen my lower back spasm. This is either from previous over work or the inactivity/resting up. A good nights sleep and I hope to put together a good enough performance to place first in the last leg. I say that with an apparently on-form David Horne and an ever improving Nick McKinless threatening to upset me. That's without ignoring the potential for Adam, Aaron or Jedd in the US to put together three decent sets of numbers.

As it stands I think we're looking at our most competitive leg to date. There are enough athletes with a potential to pull over 110-kilos that we can claim never to have seen so many lifts of that caliber in one day. The DHWD will probably need to be a level 10 or better to keep in the scores and Paul Knight, David and myself all have the potential for a level 21 on the Vulcan.

It's gonna be interesting.

Strongman online radio...

RX Muscle steps up with RX's Power Hour.

Romano rages!

As I type this I'm listening to John 'I'm really pissed off with the assholes' Romano ranting and raving on the DA (Derek Anthony) show

He's threatening to reveal bent contest results, dish the dirt and more. It's about time!!

British... best at grip??

In David Horne's recent and almost finished World's Strongest Hand series (the last leg is on Nov 13th) the Brit's have dominated. With the exception of Aaron C in leg 1 the top three has been Nick McKinless, David Horne and or myself. I'm guessing, regardless of positions, it'll be much the same in the final leg. One might argue that many of the top 10 on down are, or were, unfamiliar with the equipment and or the events. But David sent out the gear some months back, the rules are well known and so on.

So the question is... what do we have here that makes us different? The main advantage is, if nothing else, experience. David has well over 10 years plus, Nick not far off David's and I'm just behind. The other singular aspect is probably an obsessive level of determination. Although others may see us as fortunate freaks of hand strength (and in Nick's case just a good all round athlete) it misses out on the sheer grit and effort put in.

If you look at those just behind us you'll see a similar story. Indeed, it could easily be argued that with another 6 months or a year they will equal what we are doing now. In time... all records, efforts and victories will be beaten.

But not, as per the line in Gladiator, today.

RIP Big Dave

News this week of Dave Talbot passing away (heart attack). Dave co-owned the gym I used in Sydenham:

Appropriately named?

P J Braun (brawn??) has just released this photo and competes this weekend with a hope of turning pro.

Lee Priest... no competition but still

For a guy moaning about a lack of finances he's not been slacking off - check it out:

What I did this weekend

Freeweights area

HARTS STRENGTH AND FITNESS GYM OPENING

Yesterday, 2^nd October 2010, my services were required by Chris and Gemma Hart to act as the star turn (as it were) on the day of the official opening of their new gym. I’d worked with Iharts (the supplement side of the business) back at Bodypower earlier this year. I must have made a good enough impression because they asked me to do my ‘thang’ again.

So I made my way up Friday evening and apart from the ‘no-show’ pickup at Chesterfield station (Mobster no like, Mobster mutter much) it was golden. On arrival at the gym it was easy to see that 95% of what was needed to be done had been done but in spite of a too many late, late nights (1 and 2am finishes) it was, for them, going to be another long one. Shelves would be stacked, surfaces polished and much sweeping up of the work dust from drilling was needed. I crashed at their place around midnight but Chris, Gemma and much of the crew were not done until 2am. However, I did get the tour and could see a huge effort had been made.

The building had been a former Victorian age school block and the base refurbishment work had been done before the Hart’s decided it would make an awesome gym space. Not only do they have a proper slick looking reception area but also there’s a juice bar cum supplements shop, a separate women’s training and weights area, aerobics studio, cardio suite and a great deal more. Once working I spent most of my time in the gym machines and free-weights space front (the focus as it is in most clubs) which had dumbbells to about 140lbs, enough plates inc some 25-kilos ones and an assortment of goodies sufficient to give most a great workout. If you get a chance pop in do the door and give it a go.

Saturday found us back in doing some last minute bits and bobs with the 10am ‘big show’ looming. One idea of Chris’s, which saw me with a very small pen-knife furiously cutting a scissor shape void out of an Argos brochure was that he’d do the ‘thanks for coming’ speech to the assembled throng, ask for the scissors to cut the ribbon and turn to me and say ‘Mobby’ and I’d go ‘raarrggghhh’ rip the book in half and out they popped. Good grief it worked!! So they 30-50 or so waiting gave us a round of applause and open she was!

Obviously the crew set to work welcoming everyone, giving tours and so on. With cake, snacks and drinks on hand for the day they were kept fed and watered. For my part I set up some toys to play with. I’d brought down my old and stiff Rolling Thunder handle, clip and pin. Added was a pair of Fat Gripz, a talking grip tester and I’d planned on doing some heavy ass one hand deadlifts. Around 11-1130 or so I did my first show working up to a 180-kilo one-hand Deadlift hook grip style. Not too sniffy considering I’d done nothing for it in months. I made sure, when not on show, to say hi and chat with people. Throughout the day I’d dig out the grip testers and get all and sundry to compete against each other to see who could do what. It was and is an easy way, without chalk or other specialized equipment to have friendly goes with no real risk of harm etc. Plus they could see how close to me they got.

Snacking on cake and much caffeine to keep me going all day long the grip tester was handed around. I’d affixed one of the fat grips to a 140+ pounds dumbbell and while many of the lads could pick up the bell sans handle with it… that was not happening. I, of course, did it with thumb over and thumbless and with either hand. I took as many opportunities as possible to show how squeezing or gripping the handles hard on exercises helps with a greater contraction. Thus, in ‘selling grip’ I’d demonstrate the usefulness of a little hand strength training.

But, as you’d imagine, me showing off was the entertainment. At the mid way through session the Rolling Thunder handle (my old stiffer one) was dug out and a challenge match of sorts was on. With, as is the norm, a few guys hanging in at around 60-75-kilos or so we ended up with one of the taller lads pulling a hard earned 95-kilos load. I then come back in and, again with either hand, pull it – but for 3 reps! I then, after a very quick breather, got one of the guys to bang another 20kg disc for a 115-kilo plus set up total and pulled that. I decided that a 170-kilo lift on the one hand Deadlift – hook grip as before – would suffice this time around but intended saving the biggest pull for the last run around. With the crowds starting to thin towards the end of the day I set a 4pm or so dealine for the last big effort.

Having chatted with some regulars as well as would be new members (lots of fun) and watching the fit girls in the cardio room I told Chris etc that I’d do the big pull. I knew he’d been busy with clients etc early on. I also knew that he’d not seen what I could do with the heavy free weights as we’d been limited to what we could use at the NEC/Bodypower gig. As I’d mentioned to one group during the day, big crowd displays suit lifting of objects over a bar and weights. While most gym users will appreciate what a bar and discs weighs not all of the public or uneducated will. Anyway, I ran through a quick blaster session of yet another Argos catalog (the last one left), the thick handled dumbbell pull and then banged my way through warm-up sets on the barbell. So no bar for reps, 60-kilos, 100-kilos, 140-kilos all fell quite quickly. I took another breather and asked for 200kg. On walking back I noticed that it was 5 wheels a side, which is 220!! Ahem gents can you make those outer discs 10kg plates and thus 200 rather than try and kill me.

Now it’s been some time, using a proper straight bar (it could have spun a little more freely), having pulled 2 biggish weights and lifted, squeezed and gripped through the day I now had the pressure of needing to pull and put on a show. As one lad said after ‘I thought it was only going to come up and inch or two’. But chalk, belt and pride play their place and so with a real gut busting effort I managed 200-kilos above the knees to a nice round of applause and me feeling a little giddy. I’m fairly certain that I had nothing left to give so thank goodness we were done.

The day ended with a very welcome beer or two and some nice thanks. I may have got back to Gloucester at 10pm on a Saturday night when my usual preference would have been feet up and face buried in an ice-cream tub but it was, as it always is, a hell of an enjoyable experience. I’m hoping to do some grip/sports performance seminars back in the gym towards the end of January. Watch this space!

Octobers 2010 coming magazines

Flex (oops... poor Kai was well out of the running this time)
Muscle Mag... for some reason I have a hunch this will sell well.


More...

Best Olympia 2010 image?

If last years transitional image of Jay was it then is this the best from this years?

Jay Cutler is the 2010 and 4th time Mr Olympia

Other results are:

2. Phil Heath

3. Branch Warren

4. Dexter Jackson

5. Dennis Wolf

6. Ronny Rockel