My own trainees competing in the Paimio Power Weekend
Hello everyone and welcome, or "helvettiakos siina toljotatte" in Finnish!
I promised for once not to talk about myself, so here is a small profile of four lifters that I have coached, some longer, some only for a few months. But the common nominator is that they all lifted in my Paimio Power Weekend competition, two bench only, two in the full power. I have other people I train, but I wanted to make a small piece on these particular individuals, and luckily they all agreed.
I am extremely proud of all of them, two of them were complete first-timers which makes it even better!
I'll start with the girls, as we have a saying in Finnish that says: "Women firs, even on a thin ice". Chivalry is not dead!
Katjusa Levaniemi:
Katjusa is an yoga teacher and a youth worker from a city some 20 miles off my hometown. We originally met a few years ago when we were doing a theatre project together in Salo. She came a year or two later again to work in Paimio in a theater project, and at some point she asked me if I could coach her in her gym pursuits.
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| Red carpet |
I agreed and we have worked ever since. The first thing that we came across was, that mobility and flexibility needed in lifting is not the same as in yoga. But with persistent work she eventually overcame her rather dire shoulder and knee problems, and a woman who thought he couldn't squat was able to do full powerlifting raw squats. The hip mobility and opening up were the key, and it was done by lifting, not stretching. She does enough of that on her own with the yoga.
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| Licensed yoga instructor practising what she preaches |
Overall I think those two disciplines are quite complimentary, especially with background of injuries. I think she is now in a very good shape, and can do almost any movement without pain and restrictions.
She took a leap of faith, and competed for the first time of her life in the Paimio Power Weekend. And I was very positively surprised. Sometimes in the training her confidence gave up on certain weights, but in the competition, under pressure she performed her best ever! She did personal best lifts in a competition setting, and for a first-timer that shows inner strength!
Especially the deadlift she has been strong from the beginning, but always had hard time with not rounding the back and keeping the bar near the shins. When she got to three digit numbers, the technique was in the comp better than ever! That was a joy to watch, and I hope she keeps on competing for her own fun at least.
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| Proof that Katjusa is actually a grandma! |
Tiia "Pikku Myy" Weckman
I have known Tiia for about 8 years, we first got to know each other working in the pubs and nightclubs of Salo city. First I was a bouncer and she worked the bars, eventually she also did some bouncing. We have remained dear friends even though I have moved to England. Although there is nothing wrong with working in the bars, I am happy to say she has given up working on the door and behind the counter, bought an apartment with her boyfriend and is back studying! Good for her.
She started boxing few years ago and fell in love with the sport, and along that she started weight training. Sport-bug bit her properly, and she competed 2.5 years ago in boxing, then did couple of submission wrestling competitions and finally now the Paimio Power Weekend was her second powerlifting competition. I do not know what is next, and probably neither does she, but I think more powerlifitng and maybe wrestling on the side. Time will tell!
Tiia is a client who would not want do anything besides squat, bench and deadlift, and would prefer sets of 1-4 reps!
Unfortunately for her, I do make her do other stuff besides barbell lifts, but in my training philosophy, not that much small assistance is needed. She also started coaching fitness boxing classes and still trains submission wrestling, boxing and BJJ on the side sometimes, so there is also mobility and assistance work via those activities.
We have come a long way from her times as a bartender, when she spent a lot of her free time in the pubs also. She eats healthy, trains all the time in one form or another, and is radiatingly more healthier than in those days.
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| About a year after she started weight training |
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| Bar times, this is where it begam |
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| Different, more recent take on lying on a coach and a reminder why to squat rather than eat crisps |
She had a broken build-up to the competition, but she fared well and hit some PR's. She was happy and enjoyed her time on the platform, which always lightens up the audience also. She still has some work to do with her nerves, but strengthwise we are well on our way to bigger lifts! In the squat particularly are many kilos just waiting to be lifted!
Here is a link to Tiia's blog
Here is a link to Tiia's blog
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| In her first powerlifting competition with the grandfather of Finnish Powerlifting, Esko "the Iron Grandpa" Ketola |
Niko Ruohonen
Niko is one of my newest clients, and we worked few months together to get him ready for the Paimio Power Weekend comp, which was his competition debut. He was happy with those short months, and so was I, so we signed a deal to take him all the way to next years European Championships where I am hoping to get him on the podium!
Niko is a hard working man with a baby, a house project, a woman to take into consideration, all this on top of work and studies. And he finds time to train. So, all in all, I think anyone else reading this can ditch the "no-time" argument.
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| As you can see, very busy man, no time to relax |
Niko's dream was a double bodyweight bench press raw, and in competition. I did him a small program originally, and after finishing that, about 8 weeks before the comp we trained together. He is a hard trainer and even with everything else going on he executed the plan to the best of his abilities.
He was a bit over 100kg in weight and went up to 170kg on the bench. He still had a little in the tank, but most importantly technique was very good notch naturally. Very small tweaks were made, nutrition plan laid out, strengths and weaknesses mapped and I told him that he will make the double bodyweight bench in the comp 8 weeks down the line.
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| Niko executing the diet plan... |
Well, he trained hard, stuck to the plan and arrived to the weigh-in at 92kg, very solid look and had been doing good in training. So the comp itself went 175 easy, 185 easy and finally 195kg which he narrowly missed. Not bad for a first competition, and not bad in 8 weeks. Now he will take a semi longer-term approach to the WPC European Championships and hopefully get a 200+ bench in the 90kg class or a 215+ in 100s to make the cut for the medal and the podium!
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| Hard training needs recovery methods, here is cold baths. And no, I certainly did not ask him to do anything like that! |
A good client with a work ethic, and he honestly displayed his time restraints and keeps me posted if there are difficulties in training, so we can plan everything to his needs. We do not live in a perfect world, so sometimes that kind of maneuvering is needed. He has made the best of what is available, and I am sure he will go as far as he wants in benching.
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| After his debut comp, posing with Zahir Khudayarov! |
Arttu Wahlstrom
Meeting Arttu was one of those things that often happens. You meet someone with mutual friends, have a couple of drinks and in the middle of the night you promise to coach him and he promises to train hard, become a champion etc.... And those guys never amount to anything and you'll never see them again.
Except this time we did.
I had been announcing in a bar competition in Finland, and we joined the afterparty with my wife, some of my friends, the promoter and Arttu. He had been lured into competing by my friend and the comps promoter Iiro Huhanantti of Infernal Power Productions.
Arttu had benched 130kg in the comp at 80kg bodyweight, and was not pleased. So I promised that if he does what I say, we will get that number up rapidly. We shook hands, and this time it actually came true. We are both men of our words so we ended up working together.
His bench shot up 20 kg pretty quickly, he did the Nationals. His strength and continues to climb as he started to put the effort in, and I asked him to come to the European Championships. And being a man with a can do-attitude, he decided to hop on a plane to Prague.
A small flu took the best edge of his lifting but still did 150kg at 75kg raw if I remember right, he placed fifth but enjoyed the experience immensely. Seeing Emma (and maybe myself) bench with a shirt in the European championships, he decided to give it a go at my competition. Unfortunately he only got his hands on a proper shirt (METAL's new single ply) 2 days before the competition!
So this man has never tried a bench press shirt, gets one two days before. So what does he do? Tries the shirt on to know the opener! I said his attitude is can-do, and I meant it. in a sport often full of egos and fear of failure, he tried the shirt on, and it was loose, way loose. We fixed the shirt on him, Emma being a single ply specialist trying to make it as tight as possible. Eventually we went up to 180 as the opener, and left it to that.
Competition day arrived, and wouldn't you know it! 180 and 190 flew up, 200 failed on a technicality but was up for grabs. That was unbelievable lifting, seeing that many struggle to even get a result in their first shirted comp, and have trained for months. Arttu had the shirt on once!
On top of that, he was an invaluable asset in arranging the comp, as was Tiia also. So thank yous for both of you via this blog once more!
This was a small glimpse on what different, real lifters look like, their stories and their successes and losses. I am immensely proud of all of these people, and might take a look to some of my other clients. One of the hard parts of leaving Finland is that I have to resort to online training, and of course meet them when I travel there. I miss their enthusiasm and miss seeing them develop as persons and lifters.
Luckily I have few up and coming clients to trian online and some live here in UK, so that part of my life is not completely gone. And as said, I do coach all of these four. The moment I believe I can not help them to achieve their goals, I will redirect them to someone else. Until that day, looking forward to meet Arttu in the World Championships min Portugal where he will destroy the 200kg, looking forward to meeting the rest of you on my next trip to Finland!
Except this time we did.
I had been announcing in a bar competition in Finland, and we joined the afterparty with my wife, some of my friends, the promoter and Arttu. He had been lured into competing by my friend and the comps promoter Iiro Huhanantti of Infernal Power Productions.
Arttu had benched 130kg in the comp at 80kg bodyweight, and was not pleased. So I promised that if he does what I say, we will get that number up rapidly. We shook hands, and this time it actually came true. We are both men of our words so we ended up working together.
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| Arttu having a posedown with my wife after comp, professional behaviour |
His bench shot up 20 kg pretty quickly, he did the Nationals. His strength and continues to climb as he started to put the effort in, and I asked him to come to the European Championships. And being a man with a can do-attitude, he decided to hop on a plane to Prague.
A small flu took the best edge of his lifting but still did 150kg at 75kg raw if I remember right, he placed fifth but enjoyed the experience immensely. Seeing Emma (and maybe myself) bench with a shirt in the European championships, he decided to give it a go at my competition. Unfortunately he only got his hands on a proper shirt (METAL's new single ply) 2 days before the competition!
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| Lack of faith in the yard of our gym in Paimio, two mdays before the comp in a brand new, really big shirt. |
So this man has never tried a bench press shirt, gets one two days before. So what does he do? Tries the shirt on to know the opener! I said his attitude is can-do, and I meant it. in a sport often full of egos and fear of failure, he tried the shirt on, and it was loose, way loose. We fixed the shirt on him, Emma being a single ply specialist trying to make it as tight as possible. Eventually we went up to 180 as the opener, and left it to that.
Competition day arrived, and wouldn't you know it! 180 and 190 flew up, 200 failed on a technicality but was up for grabs. That was unbelievable lifting, seeing that many struggle to even get a result in their first shirted comp, and have trained for months. Arttu had the shirt on once!
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| Shirt put on properly, still big but worked fine |
On top of that, he was an invaluable asset in arranging the comp, as was Tiia also. So thank yous for both of you via this blog once more!
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| Arttu going strong and training hard, just have to wait and see what happens in the next 6 months! |
This was a small glimpse on what different, real lifters look like, their stories and their successes and losses. I am immensely proud of all of these people, and might take a look to some of my other clients. One of the hard parts of leaving Finland is that I have to resort to online training, and of course meet them when I travel there. I miss their enthusiasm and miss seeing them develop as persons and lifters.
Luckily I have few up and coming clients to trian online and some live here in UK, so that part of my life is not completely gone. And as said, I do coach all of these four. The moment I believe I can not help them to achieve their goals, I will redirect them to someone else. Until that day, looking forward to meet Arttu in the World Championships min Portugal where he will destroy the 200kg, looking forward to meeting the rest of you on my next trip to Finland!
