Happiest I have ever been for a silver medal

WPC European Championships in Riga, Latvia 9-14.6. 2015

Non sooner than the BodyPower comp was through, I visited Finland and then it was time to fly off to Latvia with Emma, team UK and my fellow Finns!

It was a hard week in more ways than one, but also a very rewarding one. It was great to see that our relationship actually holds under weight cutting, dehydrating, timetables changing and hunger! And I had the privilege to spend the week with great lifters of team UK and the Finns of course. Team management and mutual help was indeed needed, as the Latvian timetables changed and information flow was as it tends to be in big comps like this. To many first timers this help was invaluable, and also to many of the seasoned veterans.

Especially remarkable was the first days timetable change that resulted Finlands star bencher Allan Jokinen rushing to the venue as his class had already started lifting. What happened then was nothing short of phenomenal. Allan, 106kg bodyweight pressing machine, outshone most YouTube videos ever posted. In the time it took to go through 13 lifts on platform, he did 7 warm-up sets and ran to the stage to blast a 230kg unequipped bench press opener, and it was a good lift!  That was a show of strength not to be forgotten easily.

Allan and Niina in the gym, place where the magic (and selfies) happens.

The most memorable moments for me were Emmas lifts though. After witnessing the hardships of traveling, injuries, bodyweight loss, stress and inconsistency, she pushed up a perfect series of lifts, 170, 180 and 190kg. All good lifts, single ply under 75kg class and completely unrivalled overall victory of the female bench. Seeing that she was about to pull out of the competition after her 130kg warm-up backstage, I think that could be seen as a rather good proof of her mental coaching skills to psych herself onstage to a world record after that.

Emmas lifts first on the video:



Other memorable moments from the top of my head:

Tapio Laine at masters 5 age category benching clean 256kg for a world record.

Konstantin Konstantinovs pulling 405 without a belt and having a speech in the upright position, holding the bar.

200kg bench at 67.5kg raw, and 210+ good lift in raw bench at 75kg
450+ squats and 400+ benches from equipped lifters and 360+ squat at 120kg bodyweight, no knee wraps, no suit,

Oleg Bazylevich is always a pleasure to meet, and he did a comeback to competition in Riga, more to come from him in December at a Russian comp!


UK:s Dave Gibson battling it on the bench as his first WPC international. Dave is a disabled lifter who also competes in the open class, one of the nicest chaps you can hope to meet and an absolute inspiration.

Anthony Giddings and Steve Plunkett were true powerlifting nomads and came 3 days after lifting in the GPC Euros to lift in Riga at WPC Championships!

Tony and Steve, an old couple from England

Artur Schrczacz did a remarkable job at single ply 125kg class, smashed all and every one by 400+ squats and a 280 bench, and even with an unfortunate lootrip making him miss his last deadlift, still totaled over a 1000kgs! Polish Powerhouse indeed.

410kg in single ply for Artur

And although the memorable people and lifts are too many to list here, I can´t go without mentioning my trainee Arttu Wahlström who was in his second official comp, and fared well despite flu and sorts. He followed instructions to a letter, cut down from 83 to 75kg weight class, which done the first time could go ten different types of wrong! He had a good go at PR weight of 150 still, but this time it eluded him. He also got bitten by a geared powerlifting bug after seeing Emma bench 190 single ply in the 75kg class, so now he is after the same. We  will have to see what happens in the future, will my trainee outbench my wife or not!

Arttu Wahlström, up and coming Finnish bench presser

On top of that the huge enthusiasm expressed by the lifters all around the world, in my eyes especially Portugal and UK rose high in the team spirit scale! I was witnessing that daily among the UK lifters, and saw it firsthand also on the team Portugals action-packed week filled with camaraderie. It is truly what sports in general are about. Help, being helped, overcoming obstacles and growing as individuals and as a group. Sounds like a cliche, but that is the way I see it nonetheless.

Some of team Portugals guys

Didn´t you lift?

My own competition was shadowed by a tricep tear 10 days prior. Tore it in the last bench session, and the whole arm went funky coloured and also rather postmodern shape took on the arm region.

6 days to competition

I applied tried and true, albeit a bit harsh, Finnish injury healing methods. I trained every day, until 3 days prior to comp I gave it rest. I benched through the pain and was already handling 100kg a day after the injury. I also trained rest of the body heavy, stretched, aggravated and moved the arm around every opportunity I had. On top of that everything that has healing properties from flax seed oil to garlic was consumed, and lots of heat applied.
Also got some magic lotion from Rikard Erlandsson to apply on it come competition, and that herbal concoction of his certainly helped also!

I did assure everybody that the arm was OK, but as anyone could see, it was not. Still warm-ups felt incredibly good. Until I put the benc shirt on...



190 felt like the arm is going to explode. There was some more bleeding, but we proceeded and Emma made sure the feeling did not get any worse, so I warmed up until 230. I played it safer than safe, and as I knew that loose Metal Pro I wore would let me touch 250, so I opened with that and it was easy as it should be, tricep tear or not.

After round 1, Bruno Alves from Portugal was at 240, I 250 and the gold was in with 287.5 only, two others had failed their firs attempts. Next round saw Bruno going for 255, me doing 262.5 and Israeli lifter doing 260, and gold still out for grabs at 287.5.

Bruno Alves, a true fighter

At that point I entertained the idea of putting on a tighter shirt and going for 290-300. Luckily for me, Emma said I was an idiot, and Ano Turtiainen of Metal Sports stayed calm and said that Bruno as a firm and talented lifter might well go past me for the silver, he also did not really believe on the Israeli. So we raised my last attempt to 272.5, enough to defeat Bruno if he got his 270 in, and that would secure the bronze at least, even if the Israeli got his lift.

Ready to lift

Every lift as I was pushing the weight up I felt the tricep, and was afraid a bit. But before the lifts I had managed to gather myself and my thoughts, although lowering and pressing was very careful.
On the round went, and the medal contenders came up. I was in two minds about what to hope. I wished Bruno good luck, but somewhere in the back of my mind I hoped he would fail so I would not have to lift as in that case there was nothing to gain as far as placings are concerned.  For once I truly didn´t want to lift as the tricep was constantly on my mind.

The Portuguese looked confident as he had looked the whole comp, and his team was behind him. He went on the stage fueled by cheers and Portuguese superstrong ammonia. And inch by inch he pushed the 270 for his own competition record and as the lift came to a lockout, he also locked himself to the silver medal.

 All hopes of not lifting washed away, and it was game on. I was feeling triumphant on being able to lift anything, and for some reason I was sure, as was Ano, of Israeli lifters failure, so I could have been content with bronze.

Well, I am glad I haven´t got that much common sense, and I am glad that even injured I have the desire to push further than a bronze. And that desire sparked up something inside me that I haven´t felt in a competition for a while. I had the livestream shooting up at the platform, my wife with me, the man who sold me my first bench shirt coaching and my own trainee watching. And those short seconds it took for the loading crew to prepare the bar, even that was washed away.

It is hard to describe to someone who doesn´t compete in sports, or has not faced expectations (mostly from yourself), fears and wishes, how it exactly feels when after all the buildup it all boils down to the fact you have to perform then and there. There is always the next time, but tomorrow disappears for a moment when you hear the words I heard once again for my last attempt in Latvia.

"THE BAR IS LOADED".

I took a walk around the bench, felt my adrenaline shoot up, and then and there made a decision. I sat down, did my setup and felt my position was good and firm laying on the bench. Anos handout was perfect as it always is, and as he let go off the bar with an ease of a man who has spent the last 20 years handling weights up to 400kg.
The bar was light as a feather.

One goes through a lot during the descent of a bar, it is like a roller coaster. Thousand thoughts and ideas try to invade your mind, but they all get blocked with the singleminded fixation on the lowering bar. I lowered it carefully, but before reaching my chest I felt the control of the bar so perfect I let it come down faster. And soon as I heard the command "PRESS", it was over in an instant.
The bench shirt of mine, Metal Pro, although too big for me, worked like a charm with the faster descent. I also had such a mental buildup that it actually made the last of my lifts the easiest.

Brunos lift second on the video and mine to follow right after that, 270kg and 272.5kg respectively:

I was overjoyed, never thought I could feel that good at lifting only 600 pounds in the 110kg weight class, but this felt better than most of my 300kg+ lifts ever have. And the first competition I have ever in my 10 year competition career had three out of three good lifts. So numbers aside, excuses on injuries aside, and even putting aside the fact that on the last lift I felt good for 20kg more, I was one happy man. And maybe more importantly, unscathed.

Me and Sami Huhtala

So even though thank yous bore any and all readers, great thank you to Emma, Ano and Minna for helping on the day, thanks to Arttu for cheering and filming, big thank you for Bruno Alves for pushing me with the injury to fight and lift head to head with him,  shout out to all the lifters who showed up and walked courageously to the platform and great thanks to Team UK and Team Portugal for showing what team spirit is!

Ano at the Metal stand

Part of team UK

That is my brief overview of the European Championships, sorry for all the people I did not mention by name, met just too many great people to mention all of them! More updates to come to catch up on the really recent events, so stay tuned!

Long due update to the blog! Bodypower Expo and all that goes with it.

I seem to start most of my blog updates with the fact that I have not been updating in a while. 

Well, this time my excuses are numerous. First off, I got a supplement sponsor, and delayed update until I had added his links to my page. Then suddenly Bodypower Expo (biggest fitness expo of UK) offered BPU a deal to host a powerlifting comp there with less than 3 weeks notice. Working towards that, arranging my own competition due to be held on 27th of September, then heading to compete in the European Championships and taking my referees exam also during the Championships in Latvia. During all this deciding to get married with few weeks notice one could say it has been busy!

But I will start an autopsy of the recent 2 months  now with a delayed report of the BodyPower Expo, and who knows, maybe I will get back on track with my updates!

Bodypower Expo

This was a devastatingly hard work for me, Emma and rest of the BPU people. On a few weeks notice we had to whip up enough competitors and activities to last through three days in a fashion worthy of the biggest fitness expo of the UK. Reason for this short notice was that the man usually holding the comp has been deemed a cunt by most of the powerlifting community and could not really pull it together. But desperate for preventing anyone else getting their hands on the comp, the sorry excuse for a man was promising to hold the meet up until the end. 

No examination of the size of his penis needed after that kind of behavior.

Well, at the last minute the Bodypower people realized that he is not able to arrange a mug of piss for them and  they need their attraction powerlifting there, so they contacted the only person able to pull it off with that notice, Emma James, president of the BPU (OK, most of you know she is also my wife, but even unbiased, it has to be admitted that propably none other in UK could have done it). 

The next step involved on top of all the normal competition arranging lots of personal messaging, e-mailing and general talking about it, because as a non profit organisation there is not a million dollar marketing budget to be used. So that was done with long hours sitting with a laptop and everything from cunning updates to chatting with lifters-to-be.

Besides that, it was the third weekend in a month for BPU to host a comp, so the men who AGAIN dragged the equipment and their arses on the venue were also taxed to the limit, so one more dealyed thank you to everyone involved, especially Darren Hammond, David Jenkinson and Dans Sharrett and Evans. 

So we worked hard, got a spiffing competition together and also attracted new lifters and crowd members to participate in the fun!

Andy Bolton did his share, and no small share was that! He put on a workshop for participants, and gave solid advice to a select small group. One of the most amazing results was a chap who pulled a 40kg PR in deadlift under Andys coaching! I also participated in hopes of getting tips for my crap deadlift.

Here am I being coached by Andy

And here is Rhianon Lovelace. Notice the crowd and the change of perspective by the photographer Hammond!

Competitors truly ranged from the best of the best (UK best ever under 110kg RAW lifter, David "Executor" Jenkinson" and over 1000kg total owner Artur Schrzazcz who met in a deadlift showdown which saw David pulling 350 to beat Artur and win their personal wager)

to first timers, some of whom made a huge impact.

Holly Caddy, first time competitor pulled a 170kg deadlift:

To media sweethearts, teenage superstars Bronwyn and Cosmo Taylor:

And everything in between disabled lifters like Terry Smith with artificial leg benchind AND deadlifting with the able bodied people, Scottish strongmen like Andy Cairney, and a first timer Alan Wilson who pulled a 250kg deadlift in his first ever comp, currently under chemotherapy and a cancer survivor!

!

I competed also, even though the training or the energy level was not really up for anything special. I had a wager also for best bench on points with the best equipped junior in UK, Jack Chambers. Not to rub it in (no pun intended) but I WON! Measly 262.5kg was my bench, but as we both did not so well, that was enough to beat Jack. Next time boy!

Jack Chambers and his favourite assistance exercise for the squat...

But tro be fair, me and Dan Evans sharing the announcing resposibilities, both of us participated and also had a wager, my bench against his deadlift. I lost a beer to him on, which he won by a 2.5 kilo margin! Damn you!

So that and much more was whipped up in 3 weeks, just wait for next year. We will have the European championships in Juneand Bodypower will serve as a single lift qualifier for those also. and with a full year to plan, it is going to be better than ever, that is a promise!

So that is the first installation of my catching up, hopefully more catching up later on in the week!

PS. Many people ask me about being married. well I skipped honeymoon to arrange at the BPU British Nationals, am sleep deprived, worked long days and had crap to eat. Still, every morning I think I have made the best decision of my life. So there is the answer to that.

And Mike Sweeney in his blog gave me the moniker of boytoy! Not bad either!

http://irnmike.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/cheersto-emma-and-boy-toy.html

Till next time, be strong!

Last martial arts comp of the season, announcing in Finland and UK and the first weeks of Project bench!

Like I wrote on the last post, the week after the hokutoruy comp was just basic powerlifting work, and without a deload I would go on the West Finland for a WABDL comp to announce and from there on sunday to compete in Tampere at the submission wrestling Nationals. On top of that I have ventured already on to the soil of UK, had amazing fun at the Northern Qualifiers of the British Powerlifting Union and had a solid training session with Andy Bolton and his crew in Leeds!

Kauhajoki and the WABDL Easter comp

After a training week I went to the airport and met Emma there, and with a hired car we ventured to the flat fields of West Finland. 

Virpi and Juha Pukkila had arranged once again one of the biggest and most laid back comps of the year, the Easter tradition comp of WABDL Finnish Open. This competition has grown from 13 participants the first time decade ago to a comp of almost 100 lifters and more World champions competing than the original comp had participants. 

I enjoyed announcing and had quite a few friends lifting, as is the case usually in the competitions of Finland. Virpi and Juha were fantastic hosts, and even put on a show for the crowd lifting a tandem bench press! 275kg RAW as a couple, Juha on the bench and Virpi on top of him!

Here is the best RAW bench of the comp also:

After the comp and catching up with friends I headed to Tampere for an overnight in a hotel and then a competition on sunday..

Submission Finnish Nationals:

Not much to write on my part. I wasn´t very committed to the comp, shit tired and not up to par in any way. First bout I was taken to the ground, half willingly as the two first minutes don´t count points, and on the ground I played a waiting game. No drive and no bloodlust. I was in no danger and on the contrary played the opponent a little as he thought he might have a choke. Made him spent energy. But all of the sudden the buzzer went, and I wasn´t even exhausted. And behind on points. Superior match from my opponent, so nothing away from him and a justifiable good win over me. Here is the bout, I will post it even though my lack of trying is pretty embarassing... Less embarassing now though as my opponent later on won the Finnish Open in BJJ, both the heavyweight and the open class!

Second bout has nothing to it. I was caught in a one-time trick leg lock and tapped out even before I felt the pain. So low was I on motivation.I wouldn´t have even competed, but as I had signed up earlier  I wasn´t to cancel without a reason. So that was a anticlimax ending for my fight season. Letś see next year what kind of things the season brings...

Otto "Hulk" Saari did good job again, annihilating 3 opponents to go to the finals. Finals he was ahead but twisted a toe and had to forfeit the bout. So silver for Otto. 

Otto maxing out in the gym

Third one from our team was Tiia Weckman who more focuses on boxing. She suffered a loss to a much larger opponent on the first round, on a two point margin.

Overall not feeling disappointed. Didn´t give my best and just didn´t want it enough. That is it and henceforth no going to a comp if I honestly feel like not to.

Week around home 

Next almost two weeks I spent rarely just around home, training and announcing at a local competition.

The competition was held in a bar near me and it was again one of the funniest competitons to announce, and hard work as hell!

Infernal-Iiro, the promoter of the comp challenged me to a bench press rep competition with a distinct style of holding feet up inth air etc. In Finland that is a popular form of competing, called the soldier bench in Finnish, but in English dubbed as gay bench by Emma James! It is done with the lifters own bodyweight. So even though I was announcing, I was forced to take off my shirt in the middle of the announcing and with jeans on do a rep max with 110kg, that much I weighed on the scale that morning.

Iiro, the promoter on max bench

Eventually I did only 20 reps, Iiro 21, so I lost by one but we had a topless sweaty hug for the crowds amusement and continued on to challenge each other to a crucifix competition also! That one I won, and even sang a song whilst holding the weights, Iiro holding a mic for me. So a full show with all their moneys worth for the audience. Too bad we had such little video footage.

Here is  picture of Arttu and Emma posing at the afterparty...

Two lifters who weighed in at 79.6kg both 

Announcing and lifting abroads

After a domestic week I then ventured on to UK. With no sleep on the night between friday and saturday I arrived to Manchester, and then it was naptime and a little helping out with the competition arranging for sundays comp.

Working on the table with Dan Evans and Paula Norcup

The Sunday competition was a riot! Simon and Paula Norcup had thrown a quality competition in a great venue of Winterton Rangers club house- So many novices, over half of the lifters were first timers. And for once it didn´t mean small weights or bad technique or anything of the like.. Incredible squats and deadlifts especially from the novices, and a 220 raw bench also from a first timer.

Darren Hammond hailing on the deadlift

Really positive was also the vast amount of young female lifters with great attitude towards lifting. Looks like the next generation of gracious, well-mannered lifters is about to emerge.

Smiling novice competitors after a succesful first competition

The best lifter of the day

So there it is, the trips and luckily at least some video and picture footage. I will still record my training and that is it for this update!

5.4. Submission wrestling Finnish nationals. 

Lazy warm-up, two lazy bouts.

6.4. Benching

:

Speed/technique bench: 8x3x140

Gay bench: 10x100, 110, 120, 110, 100

Bench to the throat and pullover superset: 3x20x80+15x23.5kg dumbbell

Push-ups: 2x20

7.4. Triceps and biceps:

Lockouts: 5x100, 120, 140, 160, 180, 190

Pullups, neutral grip: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10xBW

Skullcrushers with 3 second negative: 5x10x50

Biceps curls: with 3 second negative 5x10x50

1-arm curls 3x14

Abbas extensions: 3x15-20

Reverse curls 1x30x20kg

Bench dips: 1x20

Rear delts 5x10

Behind the neck press 3x20

8.4. Legs:

Squats with no belt until 1x195

belt on 10x165

Pause squats, no belt 5x135

Leg press 4x8-12xAll the weights, sled and Emma

Straigth leg deads: 4x8x110

Leg extension, leg curl, adductor machine, 3x15-30 all three

9. 4. Back:

I made the mistake of starting the workout with Emma on a back day. With a bad back to begin with and a hard session the day before I didn´t realise that I could actually have to struggle to keep up with the weights on her specialty movement, the partial deadlifts from the knee with a exagerated pulling back of shoulder blades, no belt and a specific pattern not familioar to most.. I actually had to struggle. But I did just to piss her off a one extra rep on the last set, worthy of sulking in the gym and her disputing the size of my manhood because of such a low thing to do as to top her set! Priceless!

Emmas partials: 20x60, 10x100, 8x140, 8x180, 6x220

Bent-over rows, curl grip: 4x10x90

1-arm dumbbell rows 4x12x40kg

Pulldown 3x10-20

Pulldowns behind back:2x20

11.4. Raw bench Night at Bar Basso

Announcer forced to do the crucifix competition and 20 reps with 110kg on the bench press with feet up the air!

13.4. Benching at the Mayor`s Gym in Helsinki:

Raw until 3x150 narrow grip

Shirted 3x170, 190, 210, 230, 240

Raw, last rep with a stop: 5x5x140, 2 minute rest only between sets

Dumbbell bench: 4x10x26-56kg

Crossover cable flyes: 2x20

Pushups:1x20

14.4. Bench training with Arttu, biceps and triceps:

Lockouts: 5x5x160

Pullups, neutral, 5x5

Triceps pushdowns with a miniband as extra resistance: 4x10x40-70kg

Hammer curls: 4x10x14-27kg

French press with a straigth bar, stop at the face level: 3x10x50

Biceps curls on incline: 3x12

Abbas extensions: 3x10-15

Comcentration curls: 3x10

15.4.Shoulders and some stretching of upper body:

Stretching 20min.

Behind the neck press 6x10-20x10-30kg

Dips: 4x10

Shoulder combo: 3x15+5x12kg

Rear delt flyes: 3x10x21kg

Arnold press standing:3x12x21kg

Behind the back cable laterals: 3x20

Abs few sets

16.4. Legs:

Squats  until 5x140 no belt, with belt until 3x200

Stop squat special, No belt and the first rep with a one second pause at the bottom, second with a two second pause. 6 reps with 130kg, meaning the last one with a six second pause. Felt like 10 seconds though!

Straight leg deads: 4x8x50-130

Hams with Swiss Ball 2x12

Single leg squat, rear foot elevated 2x10xBW

17.4. Back

Pullups 1,2,3,4,5xBW, lots of stretching etc

Emmas partials:3x8x150

Bent over rows with curl grip: 3x10x110

Inverted rows: 3x12

Pulldowns 3x10, last set with 4 drops 

I feel terrific hitting the weights now, after two weeks of concentrating on the benching/lifting in general. I hope big numbers for this year, and I am happy to say the fire to bench pressing is back and I will try my best to surpass by far my previous lifts!

Never let go

There it is, finally the blog and training log is up to date. Next feature will have training in leeds with Andy Bolton, a report from Fight Night Finland and some news about my new sponsorship. 

Hokutoruy Finnish Nationals. Team and Bushido spirit recovered.

As I was writing this, I was in a bus, Shin still bruised, eye slightly blackened and thighs a bit sore. All from a comp week before. I was on my way to announce at a competition and after that compete in s asubmission comp the day before. But more on those in the next update, now it´s time to catch up on the Hokutoruy Jujutsu Nationals and the first week concentrating on weights after that.

The Hokutoruy Jujutsu Finnish Nationals with team Zanshinkan

We left with a group of eight men on the saturday morning, everyone except me and the team leader and Zanshinkan head coach Kimmo Nurkse were starving a little to get to their weight classes. I on the other hand opened the day with two plates of porridge and 15 slices of bacon! It never gets old mocking the weight cutters when you´re a superheavy yourself!

Journey was full of laughter and all kinds of game plans popped up. From slipping illegal blows to resorting in a singing and dancing distraction. Overall we were in good spirits, and everybody was in a decent shape. No terrible nagging pains or old injuries, thats always a bonus!

Otto and me comparing our tremendous muscle mass in the locker room

Weigh-ins done we loitered for a while, had a rules meeting and then changed. The bouts started slowly, and our team was on fire one by one. Sadly, 4 out of competitors falled out of the tournament on the first round, 3 of their counterparts eventually made it to the finals so no shame in that.
Otto "Hulk" Saari won his first one by a choke, Sami"Foot Fetish" Saarinen kicked and took down his abnormally tall opponent to score a points victory, and I, although losing via points, still had a bronze match because my side of the bracket had lead straight to the semi-finals. Its often the same in superheavy, not too many competitors.



I am not pleased with my first bout. The guy I was facing was a Swedish hokutoruy black belt and a world champion, but his ground skills were at a level I should have been able to exploit. Stand up was his, and he scored couple of head kicks and some hard knees to my belly and that earned the points. Nothing really hurt to be honest, not during the bout. After the bout my shin was bloodied and swollen, because of his skillful blocking and my girly shins that aren´t yet hardened.

Overall I managed to pummel him I think with a bit more damage. Found out a completely new weapon to be used in striking with the gi to grab on. An ice hockey style hook with a large arc. Bushido bench hook Sami dubbed it! That I used successfully and even at some point felt I could knock him out with that, judging by the sounds he made and the sound my fists made when contacting his midsection. But he didn´t drop and scored a rightful points victory, in the Hokutoruy judging head kicks score high and he had a solid technique overall.


After the bout he declared that he cannot continue and asked the jury to let me continue to the finals instead. Jury rightfully declined, and pointed out to him that he has 5 hours to get back in shape for the finals and he should find the courage to do that if nothing is really broken.
That he did and stood in the finals like a man. I cheered him as he made through the full bout at the nights finals and lost on points. Clearly, but still by fighting, not a forfeit. And I felt small pride that even though I had a close points loss to him, I had done more damage than him to me and on top of that, the man who eventually won the tournament couldn´t finish him either. And he is a Judo, BJJ and Hokutoruy champion of Finland and an outstanding martial artist. It gave me some trust that maybe with a bit more skill my mindset will allow me to accomplish something small even on this sideline of my sports career.

Sami lost on points the next round, and went on to the bronze match which saw him also suffer a loss. But a great comeback to the accomplished fighter, and I truly await to see the old Sami in action again with his ferocity. Before the comp he joked about having his arm broken and taking a sick leave...

Picture tells more than a thousand words

Otto continued to dominate with huge Judo skills and really did  a superb job! Suplex, trips, takedowns, throws, he dished them all and spiced it up with kicks to the legs and strikes to the body. Did not envy his opponents.


I had a bronze bout ahead of me. I was devastated because I let the place in the finals slip from my hands, nothing takedownwise or in the groundwork was up to my standards, and the reason was the nerves. The first bout was hard on nerves, and my mental strength was all sapped just to keep in the right mode to be not afraid and ferociously hand out some punishment. It worked to a certain point, but it didn´t score enough points.

This time I was on. Sakke gave me great advice on kicking the legs when clinching, I had discovered I can throw mean hooks when clinching to a guys collars during the first bout and overall I wasn´t nervous, I was thirsty.

The second bout was mine. Timing on the kicks was off, legs sore from the first bout. My kick timing overall in the two bouts resembles more of an epileptic seizures than directed effort. But then I just used my rather fast for my size front leg when moving, and in close distance I dished out hooks and low kicks. That worked better than air kicking, and those strikes were enough to make my opponent pull his legs and body back which opened a chance for a takedown. I scored two of those, and while grappling on the ground I managed to land two really mean elbows.


Those elbows were the culmination point of the bout, and during the break between rounds my opponent showed his ribs to the doctor. He found out they´re broken and that was it, no second round needed!  I would be lying if I´d say I didn´t enjoy a fair bit from delivering the elbows. Still its not the attempt ever to break anything. But we all know what we sign up so no apologies, just get well soon to him.

The competition had the finals in a grand night gala, It featured all kinds of exhibitions and competitions from group Kata to tile breaking. And Karate, Taido and Jujutsu Finnish National final bouts. So a great Budo feast with something for everyone.

Our hero of the night was the man who is known in training for his sloth-like calmness. But no sloth here, more like a tiger shark with methodological intent of handing out whoopass. Otto made sure work and with takedowns and ground and pound scored the gold medal for our team! We even opened a non-alcoholic sparkling for him before he had to rush for work.


I enjoyed this competition even more than last year. The team spirit and the whole trip was a complete experience. When we ate together and finally left Tampere, that´s when maybe the best point of the trip was. With swollen lips and eyes, broken elbows and bloodied shins. With exhaustion from the 15 hour long day. Never been big on team sports, but I am glad that Tuomas, Otto, Kimmo, Juuso, Sakke, Sami, and Kimmos youngest son were there to share this.

Already looking forward to next year. If THIS TIME I would actually train kicking and moving, not just the hokutoruy spirit and no steps back attitude. Although, all said and done, those are the foundations of success that the skill is built on. So, foundation is solid, now I only need skills and physique!

Heavyweight medalists

Week has flown past now, spent with my godchildren and their parents, 5 weight training sessions, little wrestling and a meeting on which I agreed to have another youth group about once a week and do sports with them. Maybe arts later, but we`ll begin with that.
Now I have ahead of me a powerlifting comp to announce tomorrow, and come sunday I will drag my half-broken body to compete in the submission wrestling nationals, the last comp of the season I think!

Training:
29.3.
Hokutoruy Jujutsu Nationals, warm-up and two bouts.

30.3.
Very sore bench pressing
Warm-up raw until 5x120
With shirt 3x140, 160, 180, 200, 220, 235, all from a comfortable height
Raw gay bench: 5x5x100-140, 10x120, 20x100
Guillotine bench and pullovers with dumbbell superset 3x20x80kg+3x20x23.5kg

31.3.
Lockouts:
5x5x100-180, went well and locked out evenly
Chins neutral:6x6xBW
Hammer curls: 3x12x23.5
Pushdowns with a miniband around the neck as extra: 3x12x40-50
Abbas tris: 3x15x10
Incline dumbbell bis to stretch:3x15x10
Reverse curl: 2x25x25
Bench dips 2x20
Arms pumped!

1.4.
Shoulder and abs, 6 sets of abs, 14 sets of shoulder, stretching and pumping exercises
4x1-2min. in cold bath, 4x10-15min. sauna
50 minutes of stretching

2.4.
Morning:
50min. of tumbling and wrestling technique
Evening:
Back:
Emmas partials: 5x5x140, thumb couldnt hang on to the bar, still sore from the jujutsu comp and no straps...
Cable row with squeeze and stretch: 3x10x100
Inverted row wide:3x10
Pulldown wide: 3x10x70-100
pulldown behind neck and pullover with rope superset: 3x20+20
4 sets of abs
4x1-2min. of cold bath, 3x10-15min sauna

3.4.
Morning: 60min. of tumbling and sub wrestling, light sparring
Evening:
Legs:
Squat: without belt until 1x180, belt 12x165. Easy sets, was tired and saving energy.
High bar stop squat, no belt: 3x5x120
1-leg squat with back leg elevated 2x12 per leg
Overhead squat:3x20x20kg
Straight leg deads 5x10x60-100
Calves on a leg press: 3x25
1- legged calf raises 2x15

That has been my week, so weights all out, that is the priority now. No deloading for the submission wrestling comp, and hard taping needed for the thumb, By I post this the announcing and competing wil be done, but Ill leave those to the next update.

BJJ competitor, powerlifting announcer, inspired University visitor, all in weeks work!

First time this working class man has ever stepped foot in a real University. Didn´t feel half bad...

And more getting on schedule with the blog.

Last time I recorded my training and side stuff until Saturday the 14th of March, a Saturday spent carbing up for BJJ team Nationals of  Finland.

The Sunday morning came as expected, sunny and fresh. Me, I was a bit groggy and bloated, the opposite of the morning. I didn´t put on a serenade either like the morning birds. And I think that was appreciated by Emma and Pommi whom we traveled to the competition venue. What happened next wasn´t that much appreciated...

I hadn´t checked out the brackets yesterday, so instead of the original ten o´clock, my bouts were due to start around 3pm.

Not happy for my cousin Pommi or anyone else for that matter... So decided to head off to a local pizzeria. They served half chickens with rice and that was just what the doctor ordered at 11AM! So with that and some whole sugar and salt drink I sustained my energy until 3PM. Cousins actually changed during that, the powerlifting one had to go for a goddaughters birthday party but another cousin Juha came in as a replacement!

GT Jiu-Jitsu heavyweight team with the shy-looking lady who deemed the whole sport as gay pyjama tussling. At least until she heard you can pick and throw people...

And it just happened what usually happens when you have to wait for half a day... I almost missed my bout and was called in by teammates. Then I had to find my ID, tie a belt etc in a hurry. I was also chosen as the number one to fight, so I was up with close to zero warm-up.

The bout itself went well. I was really calm and collected, did what I do when facing a smaller opponent and started slow, then yanked the guy down from his collars, and went for my "Hobo-choke". So named because it has no name apparently and Hobo sounds better than shitpants, which was also suggested as a name. Many deem it is not a move, but for some reason I have managed to do it to bigger guys than me, purple belts etc. I actually do know other techniques apart from yanking, laying and choking, but those seem to work the best. Yanking, heavy and chokealicious guy that I am!

I was calm when the choke was in, and contemplated even furthering my position etc. but decided to stay and tighten it little by little. It worked. Unfortunately our team didn´t go further than that so it was my only bout of the tournament.

Here is some video footage:

After the one bout I still had loads of energy. Surprising, seeming it took minute and 40 seconds, and I had carbed up for a day and a half! So I headed to the gym to spot some benches and work in a alittle squat session. After speed squats and one set of ten with 170 I was content to call it a day.

Next week flew past and on friday it was time to head for the UK again.

I arrived to Manchester, visited the Glyndwr University and then headed for a night of preparing stuff for sundays comp and some sleep. The Uni had a good feel to it, and a lecturer I met struck me really positively! I also participated as a test subject for a memory-related PhD. study. I hope my contribution doesn´t twist the results too much...

Saturday saw 7 hours of sitting in a car, setup being done and some uploading of info on the computers for the comp. Southwest was a stunning see for a Finn, truly beautiful, all the way from the nature to the buildings! And the folk I met at least were great, Steve and Sue Middleton foremost.

Working at the table with Sue 

Sunday was another BPU qualifier for the Nationals, second out of five. It was packed to the max and we saw even a bit oversized flight on the big boys, seeing a whopping 20 men in it. I loved the spirit once again, loved promoter Middletons sincere and humble attitude, Emmas speech for the lifters and some recognition to the non-flamboyant Mr. Middleton and the crowds cheers especially when  awards were given.

The crowd, pictured from the picture-takers favourite spot, head referees seat of the bench press.

Also a thank you for VyoMax Nutrition, this competition saw first time for this years qualifiers their presence in the form of supplement prizes, beakers handed out and a discount code for BPU members. Their contribution was well appreciated by the lifters also.

Sunday saw even more sitting in a car! 8 hours this time, and I dont need to point out that I wasn´t exactly primed for Mondays benching. It went well all things considered, 10 sets of full gear benching triples and the trimmings. Thanks for that belong to the great crew at Ralls Gym in Leeds!

Rest of the week I took pretty easy, getting ready for a comp tomorrow.

14.3.
BJJ comp with one bout, 5 min. warm-up

Weights:
warm-up 8x3-10x20-130, beltless
6x3x150
2x3x170
10x170

Some abs

16.3.
Benching
Warm-ups till 5x125 raw
Loose training shirt 6x160, 5x180, 4x200, 3x220, 2x240, 0x260, fell back, then 260 that looked like a good lift, but it must be deemed as a no lift still, I felt the lockout was soft! Shit. But no panic, the shirt is way too big, put it on myself. Still the last few mm must be locked. Some judges might not see them but it is still a no lift...
Gay bench (feet in the air, raw) 3x10x10
Then 25x85
guillotine bench 3x20x60

17.3.
Morning boxing for 60 minutes

Lockouts 4x5x140
Bodybuilding for upper body

18.3.
Morning boxing for 60 minutes

Evening Hokutoruy sparring session with different lengths of high intensity sparring rounds

19.3.
Back workout, semi easy but got a decent pump and freshened the body after a flight

23.3.
Benching in Leeds
Warm-ups until 5x120 raw
Shirt on, 9x3x140-220, then doing a triple with 230 I hit the racks and bar was under on the second rep, had to reset and do the last rep

Gay bench a little, no power
Stretching and fooling around for chest

24-25.4.
Light workouts with technique work, mobility, rehab and some power moves. Especially liked a set done just for fun. I ran down the rack of dumbbells, and did one fast clean and jerk with a pair, all with no break, 8 sets of dumbbells starting from 18kg and ending with a pair of 40s. That kind of stuff is fun to do when deloading or loosening up for a comp as I was doing. On top of that core, tumbling and all that. About 75 min. each session.

I don´t want to always stop these updates with a cliffhanger, but now it is actually due. I am going to compete tomorrow in a competition with modified MMA-style rules with ground strikes etc. and a Jujutsu gi. I am competing against black belt holders of multitude of disciplines in the heavyweight class, and really excited going in as the powerlifting underdog!

I hope the next update will have pics with me medals around my neck!