Britain’s Natural Strongest Man 2013 by Lee Parkes

The venue is Consett Rugby Club, we have been warned about the potentially changing weather…we arrive for the weigh in and it is already scorching at 10am…gonna be a hot day.
 
The kit is already laid out ready for the competition on the all weather facility…Jack Lovett’s crew are very efficient!
 
First up is the Log press, 90kg for reps for the Under 90’s and 105kg for our Polish powerhouse Lukasz! Not the best start for each of us…for me this is terribly disappointing as I was hoping for this to be a good event…not happy L…
 
Onto the deadlift…210kg for reps for the under 90’s…we see some improvement in this, Jordan cranks out 3 good reps, 5 for Adam and 6 for me…we are all back in the race!!
 
Next up is Farmer’s walk…for the 90’s it is 100kg in each hand for 20m followed straight away by 120kg in each hand for 20m…this is brutal…great efforts again from all four of us. I mange to complete the course…a PB for me, and a fantastic second place for Adam pushing him well into contention for a qualifying place.
 
Unfortunately for me the amount of effort for the Farmer’s has left me with an old shoulder injury recurring…the last two events are going to be tough!!
 
Penultimate event is Clean & Press for maximum weight, Jordan manages to crank out the opening weight of 90kg…pretty good for somebody weighing only 83kg on the day…I manage 95kg, again not happy… the shoulder is not holding out too well…Adam pulls 100kg out of the bag to stay in touch with the leaders…great effort!
 
Final event is the ‘Spartan Medley’…designed with lots of love by Jack Lovett himself…for the U90’s it is a 250kg yolk walk for 20m followed by 3 flips of a 350kg tyre and finally a 160kg sled pull for 20m…ladies and gentlemen please leave your guts at the starting line…great effort by Jordan, Lukasz (280kg yolk, 4 flips of tyre & 200kg sled pull) and myself but yet another fantastic performance from Adam see him taking second place in the Medley to ensure a qualifying place of 4^th overall…
 
I think it is fair to say that all competitors and spectators enjoyed the day…big thanks to all spectators from Evo, nice to see a good following for all the competitors!
 
Now time to rest and recuperate…fix all the broken bits and plan for the next enjoyable excursion…thanks for reading!

Lee Parkes – strongman
Farmers walk

Deadlift

Lee Parkes – Team Evo Strongman
Shoulder Press

Team Evo take on Team Strongman by Lee Parkes

Under 85kg Team Strongman – Body Active Gym, Essex

Sunday morning is a cool dry day. Perfect conditions for the pain that lay ahead of us!
10:00am and all nine teams are weighed in, competitors weighing between 78 and 85kg. I just scrape in at 85kg and Jordan easily makes weight at 80kg.

Lots are drawn for the running order. We draw 5th for the first event, team tyre flip weighing 400kg for as many reps as possible in 75 seconds. The first four teams score between 12 and 14 reps. Our aim is 16 reps, thinking this will be enough to win this event. We get 16 with seconds to spare! The last team to go get 17 reps! Second place in first event, a good start!

Next event is Farmers deadlift for reps, 95kg in each hand. Jordan gets a solid 20 reps in 75 seconds. Good start, I manage to add 28 reps to make a total of 48 reps. This is enough for 3rd place in the second event.

Next up is the team loglift, an extra long two man log loaded with 140kg of weight. This is gonna be fun! We crank out 6 reps but get a dubious decision on 1 rep and only given 5. Fourth place in 3rd event leaves us in 3rd place overall at the halfway mark. We are then rewarded with a well earned break of half an hour to refuel for the next half.

4th event is the dreaded medley, all items to be carried 20 metres in relay fashion 60kg dumbbell, 80kg log, 105kg axle and finally 160kg duck walk. Brutal! We get fourth place!
Penultimate event is Frame carry for 20m, frame weighs 360kg plus! We do it in 12 seconds! Good enough for 4th place again.

Last event is arm over arm drag, a sled weighing over 360kg. This event causes a bit of controversy as only three teams are able to move the monster sled over the concrete car park. We are one of the three teams and come third in the last event. Joint 3rd overall, I am gutted!

Good start to the season. We had a great day, met some great people and by the end of the day we were both completely chin strapped! So back to EVO to get stronger for the next one!!

Strongman Gallery

On August 28th Team Evo Strongmen travelled across the Pennines to compete in a Novice Strongman Comp – here is some photographic evidence of the event thanks to Louise Carr.

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