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Bring Snacks Tips

What you need to know for your first strength contest.

10/26/2016

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So you want to compete in a strength sport? Here are some tips for contest day! I am by no means an expert, but I have competed a few times, made a few silly mistakes and want to make sure people don't do the same things.

1) MAKE A LIST.
Unless your contest is at a gym near your house, you will be doing some traveling either on contest day or the night before. Make a checklist and check it twice of everything you could ever need. Chalk, shoes, multiple pairs of shoes (if strongman), tacky knee wraps, shirts, change of clothes...anything and everything you could ever need put it on the list and bring it. I made the mistake of not bringing chalk to my second ever contest. It was embarrassing, but people at the contest are more than happy to help out beginners. That was a mistake I won’t make twice. 
2) Warming up
I can’t speak for powerlifting or crossfit on this topic, however I know from experience warming up at a strongman contest isn’t always the easiest. Don’t plan on going into the contest and doing the elaborate warmup you would do at the gym. Bring a foam roller and some bands to get yourself ready to go.
3) Don’t Cut Weight.
For my first strongman contest I made the mistake of doing a very drastic weight cut, I dropped over 43 pounds in 2 months to make weight for the contest. In my head it was the right thing to do, lose weight feel stronger in a lighter weight class, but in the long run it did nothing but hurt me. I would have been better off making strength progress in those two months instead of losing weight and strength. Not to mention feeling miserable for the last two weeks.
4) Don’t change things contest day.
If you don’t usually train wearing a belt, with wrist wraps, straps, sleeves, ect., contest day isn’t the day to try new things. I made the mistake of trying to wear wrist wraps for the first time ever on a contest day. It in no way helped, and I just felt awkward from the second I put them on. I saw most people were wearing them and thought I would give it a try (mistake). Also, this tip isn’t only about equipment. Don’t change up your diet the night of your contest, if you haven’t eaten ice cream in a year it’s probably not a good idea to eat it the night before your contest. The last thing you want is an upset stomach the day of the contest. You may want to eat more than usual the night before, but just don’t be too drastic. What’s going to help you contest day isn’t the 2 gallons of ice cream you saw some pro eats before his or her contest what’s going to help you is the hard work you put in the months and months of training leading up to contest day.
If you’re staying at a hotel bring your own pillow; it’s going to be hard enough to sleep with all the nerves you’ll have so don’t rely on a hotel pillow.
5) Bring Chairs.
Most events won’t provide much for seating; you and your spectators would be smart to bring some chairs, and if it’s hot and outside then maybe even an umbrella. The worst that can happen is you need to keep them in your cars.
6) The Vets will be willing to help you.
If you have any questions at all just ask one of the veterans there. For the most part they are always more than happy to help out the new guy.
7) Pre contest meal.
If you’re traveling for the contest this isn’t always easy. This may be the only quality meal you’ll be eating for a few hours so make sure you make it count. I have been lucky and stayed at hotels that served breakfast. My favorite meal to have before a contest is a Bagel or pancakes with some eggs and bacon.
8) Lastly and most importantly, Bring Snacks!
You’ll want to bring plenty of water, Gatorade and food. Contests can be long! Whatever you think you need double it and that’s what you should bring. Everyone is going to be different on this part. I’ve tried to bring peanut butter sandwiches but I have trouble eating with all the nerves and adrenaline of contest day. I pretty much stick to eating sour patch watermelon on contest day at this point. I am aware it is not the ideal performance snack but it’s something I can actually eat between events and enjoy.
 
If you have any questions at all about competing in any of the strength sports don’t hesitate to ask, you can either comment here or reach us on the contact now page.
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Cardio Sucks

10/12/2016

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Cardio Sucks: here's what you should do instead.
This article isn't for people who enjoy doing the usual steady state cardio (bike, treadmill, stair master, ect.)This article is for people like me. If your idea of cardio is like mine, which includes walking from your car to Dunkin Donuts and back, here are some things you can do.
1) Learn to love loaded carries. Pick something heavy up and walk with it. Set a distance and complete that distance as many times as you can in 10 minutes, every week do a little more weight or distance. For example, doing 30 yards of farmers walks with 50% of your body weight for 10 minutes is an excellent way to not only increase your heart rate and improve your cardiovascular health, but this will also work almost every muscle you have. It is a great way to increase overall strength.
2) Set a time limit. Anyone who tries this will no how great of a workout it is. Take a light weight, about 50% of your 1 rep max for squats or deadlifts, and do it as many times as you can in 10 minutes. If you work your hardest for those 10 minutes and give it all you've got, you will benefit from the short amount of time you put in.
3) Get outside and get moving. You don't have to do anything fancy. Get some friends together and play some basketball, go for a hike, take a trail walk. Even walk to Dunkin Donuts rather than taking your car. Cardio doesn't have to be miserable.

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Supplements 101

10/7/2016

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So you just went out and bought your first batch of supplements. Here are some things you should know. 
1) There is no need to creatine load. Creatine loading is when you take 20 grams of creatine for one week when you first start using creatine, or when you haven't used it for a while. Loading is a popular thing I see and am asked about. In theory, it works by overloading the amount of creatine in you body causing your muscles to absorb more at the beginning of use; this practice, however, has been proven wrong in studies. The only people benefiting from creatine loading are the supplement companies who are convincing people to take 4 times the recommend amount for a week. Stick with 5 grams!
2) No need to take your pre workout on your day off. It always surprised me when pre workout supplements would say to take a scoop on your day off before breakfast. Why are you trying to get a massive "blood rushing" pump while you're sitting around and not working out? Similar to creatine loading, this is just a way to force you to finish your container faster. Think about this: If a pre workout supplement has 40 servings, and you work out 3 days on 1 day off, you would have taken 10 servings (25%) of your pre workout for no reason at all. 
3) Stick to one scoop. This goes for almost all workout supplements. You'll be reading the directions on any given label and for serving size it will say for athletes take 1 scoop, but for BEAST"S take 2!! I know what your thinking... I've thought it 100 times "I want to be a beast I'll take 2 scoops!" All you're really doing here is increasing how fast you are going to build a tolerance to any given Stimulant filled pre workouts.
4)  Don't fall for good advertising. This has been a theme in all of these points and if you haven't noticed, the supplement industries have some of the best marking strategies and advertisements around. A fancy name doesn't make a supplement better. The thing I have noticed this with the most is creatine is that time and time again companies are claiming they have this newly formed creatine that works so much faster, makes you so much bigger, makes you so much stronger. When placed against the cheapest most basic creatine monohydrate the fancy new creatine loses every time.

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 https://examine.com/nutrition/do-i-need-to-load-creatine/

1 Comment

    Matt Roy 

    BS. Food and Nutrition
    NAS Strongman Competitor

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