Your One stop shop to becoming a STRONGER Athlete
16/06/2026
You should be having fun!
Yes we compete to do well but we should be having fun while doing it!
We choose our sports because we love doing them.
We train our sports relentlessly because we love doing them.
So we shouldn't make competitions stressful and unpleasant!
Turn up, put on a performance and have fun!
12/06/2026
Shout-out to West Midlands Womens Fitness & Empowerment Photographer and team for delivering another excellent album of competition photos that make me look far better at the sport than I actually am!
If you are 'bad' at something, don't lay back and just accept that it's your bad event, don't make excuses that you aren't genetically built for it.
Find the way to train it and force that adaptation.
Become stronger.
Become faster.
Be more technical.
Be more athletic.
Be fitter.
There's a Way to train that will get you to those goals you just have to be willing to put in the graft
Trust the taper!
Trust you've put in the work and you just need to be fresh.
And you'll hit some big numbers on comp day!
Recap part 2
Events 4-6 (the meh events and a finale)
Event 4: bag throw over 4.1m
14-16-18-20-22kg
Throwing has improved significantly but I did not show that off. First two bags moved like butter and then I just got stuck throwing the 18kg. As the whistle blew it went through the frame and I was credited with the rep. Whether I got it or not would make no difference on my placing at all but it definitely told me I need to be finding a frame to throw over
Event 5: dumbbell ladder
40-50-60-70kg
This is my biggest disappointment of the weekend. Wanted to make an attempt at the 70kg and felt good but as I cleaned the 60kg my legs and shoulders felt incredibly tired. Had no drive and couldn't lock it out. Made a few attempts and ran out the clock but was really the only event I was unhappy with my ex*****on on.
Event 5: Dash/carry/load 120kg
4 reps was the goal, 4 reps was achieved. Both this event and the yoke/sb highlighted I need to be more confident on my sandbag picks to save time and be closer to the race. But this was an awesome event to end on and was incredible to watch james demolish this event with seven reps.
8th place overall in my first Europe's and had a great time.
Learnt lessons from both the good event and the meh ones and we are back in the lab preparing the come back next year.
Recap part 1
Events 1-3 now known as: the good events
Event 1:
Axle/log trump weight heavy option 110/110kg
Wanted the trump axle and it flew up.
Couldn't clean the log but based on prep this was unsurprising. Happy to get the goal set and have a couple of cracks at the log
Event 2:
Axle deadlift 210 or 250kg
Peaked my axle deadlift and wanted a single at 250kg to match my deadlift bar pb. Instead I pulled a clean double at 250 and made a solid attempt at a third that got stuck below my knees. Felt like I could run though a wall and had to actively calm down after the event. After this I was pretty much happy with anything that happened.
Event 3
300kg yoke into 100kg sandbag (down and back)
I wanted to get one length of yoke and 1 length of sandbag. So to go out and run with the 300kg yoke and then finish the entire event under the time cap was a massive win.
Massive thank you to naturalstrongman for putting on the best competitions and developing the premier pathway in all of strongman
05/06/2026
Process goals for Europe's!
Much better prep for this than for UKs , but heavier prep and harder weight cut. Lets go have some fun with the best weight class u80s
Train to full competition standards and you won't have a bad day with your judges!