STRONGMAN - Tom Mutaffis

[Justin Ryan]

Great job at the event!!

You're a beast Tom!!

[Cmanuel]

Great job tom. Ill be subscribing to your log and will cheer you on as you kick ass in strongman

[Tom Mutaffis]

My diet has been good this week, bumped up the protein and also added in some additional carbs to help me put on a little bit of size. Still eating relatively clean and weighed myself this morning at 223.5 lbs. I have two contests on back to back weekends later this month and one of them is a two day event; both very heavy. Will need the bodyweight to be able to recover and there is a good mix of static events / medleys so I also need to keep my conditioning up.

Yesterday I did some cardio at the gym at work; it is small but they have some good Precor brand equipment there.

Cardio - Elliptical:
30 minutes @ level 2, ramp level 8 - This was pretty easy, heart rate between 105-110 bmp. Was talking on the phone with my Grandfather for half of the workout.

Am feeling mostly recovered from the contest / weekend and am going to get back in the gym today or tomorrow.

[Tom Mutaffis]

Saturday 8/15/2009

Was feeling a little bit tired today but wanted to hit the gym to do some pressing so that I can focus on other events tomorrow. Trained at Elite Fitness up in Huntersville, bodyweight a little over 220 lbs.

Warmup: Elliptical and some light machine work.

Hammer Strength Incline Press:
2 plates each side x 5 x 2 sets
3 plates each side x 5
4 plates each side x 3
5 plates each side x 4 - Might be a PR, last time that I did these was over two years ago. Took video.
3 plates each side x 8 - Easy set
1 plate each side x 12 - Wide grip, slow tempo.

12" Log Clean & Press:
This was clean & press each rep, working on viper pressing.
160 lbs x 3
210 lbs x 2
225 lbs x 7 in 30 seconds - PR for speed, all one-motion presses but didn't hold the lockouts. Took video.
255 lbs x 1 - Minimal rest, no belt, no sleeves.

One-Arm Dumbell Press:
This is in a contest coming up and I have never really done them.
100 lbs x 3
125 lbs x 1 - Fairly easy but a little unstable on the shoulder.

Grip Work:
Did a few sets of timed hangs; 45 seconds, 30 seconds, 30 seconds - not to failure.

That was it for today, will be doing some strongman event work tomorrow.

[Clifford Gillmore]

I'm always impressed by Strongman pressing, your no exception here Tom.

[Tom Mutaffis]

Thanks Risk - my press was a strength of mine for a while, am just starting to ramp back up my accessory work and will be looking for new PR's soon.

_________________________

Sunday 8/16/2009

Woke up today feeling pretty tired. Ended up going for a bike ride and then doing some strongman events in the afternoon. Depsite not having much energy the plan was to go for a heavy yoke walk, and so I stuck to that plan.

Bike Ride: 30 minutes @ Moderate Pace, mostly hills.

Rested for about an hour then headed to strongman training. It was quite hot in South Carolina.

Yoke Walk:
515 lbs x 25 feet x 2 Runs
605 lbs x 20 feet - Felt way heavier than it should.
755 lbs x 20 feet - Again felt heavy.
875 lbs x 25 feet- Had a couple of drops, each time went further and probably could have gutted out more if I had to. This is the heaviest I have ever gone and my calves are not happy with me today.

Plyometric Work:
Standing jump to 42" x 5 reps (had more)
5' Broad Jump to 42" - This was tough!
7' Broad Jump to 20" - Easy
9' Broad Jump to 20" - Barely got it
One-Leg Broad jump, 7'

The jumping was good. I think that it helps to improve my timing on some of the events and for certain lifts like cleans. Took some video that I will post up later on.

[Tom Mutaffis]

Tuesday 8/18

Trained after a long day at work. Have been eating clean but need to bump my calories and put on some bodyweight for upcoming contests. Slightly under 220 lbs for this workout.

Axle Bar Clean & Press:
165 lbs x 1 x 5 sets - Warming up
225 lbs x 2 - Trying a new technique
225 lbs x 2 - Very efficient on this one (not going heavy since the contest is 220 and 230 axle in a medley).

Zydrunas Press:
This is a newer exercise that apparently the big man does to work his overhead. You sit in a power rack, legs out in front and thne do a seated press. There is no way to use any legs for stability or assistance and there is no back support. Very challenging.
165 lbs x 3
175 lbs x 7
215 lbs x miss (stability)
175 lbs x 3

Core Work:
165 lbs good morning / band crunches - Did a couple of circuits here.

That was it for the day. Going to regroup and start packing down food, can probably hit 2-3 more training sessions before NJ's Strongest Man on 8/29.

[Tom Mutaffis]

8/19/2009

A couple of my training partners have been doing mid-week stone work. Decided to give it a shot last night. Bodyweight is back to 220 lbs now, making progress.

Atlas Stones:
240 lbs x 3 to 48" - Warmup
300 lbs x 1 to 58" - Final warmup.
335 lbs to 48" / 240 lbs to 58" alternating - Completed (3) on the 335 and (4) on the 240 in good time.
240 lbs x 10 to 58" - Getting comfortable with the higher box. Finished this set in about 55 seconds, one-motioned a few (took video).

Today is going to be a long day at work and will not be able to train. Planning on doing some gym work and maybe GPP stuff this weekend then resting for the contest.

[Tom Mutaffis]

The changes that I have made to my diet seem to be working. Woke up today at 223 lbs; which is a 3-4 lbs increase this week. My goal is to have a morning bodyweight of 225 lbs next week leading into the contest. This could be challenging with the long drive thrown in (9+ hours).

We had a VP in town at work and so our team went out bowling last night. Not my best sport but it was fun.

Bowling:
Played 3 games in about two hours; shot 103, 107, 120 something.

I think that I strained my hip flexor while bowling. Thinking about doing some box squats or front squats this weekend but that will depend on how everything is feeling.

[slashkills]

I can barely shoot a 140 with bumpers

hope your hip flexor heals up soon.

[Tom Mutaffis]

Thanks Slash - it turned out to be very minor and was healed in about a day.

____________________


Saturday 8/22/2009

Worked out today at Lifestyle Fitness. Ended up training a little later than I had wanted but caught up on some sleep though which was good. Bodyweight was at 224 lbs so everything is on track there.

Warmup: 7 Minutes on Elliptical / Low Resistance - Knee was a little sore.

Box Squat:
135 lbs x 5 x 3 sets
225 lbs x 5 x 2 sets
315 lbs x 3 x 1 set

Box Squat / Hammer Strength Low Row:
This was the Iso-low row with the 4 different hand positions. Would do a set of squats then hustle to the low row and hit a different grip each time.
405 lbs x 1 x 5 sets, 2 plates x 7 x 5 sets - All done no rest, good pace.

Box Squat / Hammer High Row (Underhand) / Hammer Shrug:
315 lbs x 2 x 5 sets / 2 plates x 5 x 5 sets / 2 plates x 5 x 5 sets - Again no rest, started feeling the fatigue toward the end but finished easily.

Back Hyper:
25 lbs x 12

Ab Crunch Machine:
110 lbs x 12

Stretching:
Mostly low back and hamstrings, stretched for about 3 minutes.

Good easy training, planning on doing some conditioning stuff on Sunday and then maybe one more gym day before New Jersey's Strongest Man.

[Tom Mutaffis]

Sunday 8/23/2009

Went for a bike ride in the morning for about 45 minutes; mostly hills. Rode through the UNC Charlotte campus.

[Tom Mutaffis]

Monday 8/24/2009

Trained at Lifestyle Fitness in Charlotte. Wanted to get in a good upper body workout before the strongman contest this weekend. Bodyweight is up to around 225 lbs.

Warmup: Elliptical for 3 minutes

Incline Barbell Press:
135 lbs x 10
185 lbs x 7
225 lbs x 3 x 2 sets
275 lbs x 3
325 lbs x 3 - PR! Haven't gone heavy on these in a while, felt good.
185 lbs x 10 - Wide grip, pause, slow tempo.

Iso Pulldown / Iso Seated Row:
250 lbs x 5 / 250 lbs x 5
250 lbs x 5 / 250 lbs x 5
200 lbs x 5 / 200 lbs x 5
200 lbs x 5 / 200 lbs x 5
175 lbs x 10 / 175 lbs x 10

Circuit:
One Arm DB Rows (100 lbs), Pushdowns (45 lbs), Crunches (57.5 lbs), Back Hyper (25 lbs), Hammer Curls (35 lbs), Incline Flyes (35 lbs), etc.

That was it for last night. Had a good workout and now just going to rest this week for NJ's Strongest Man. The events are a press medley (axle/axle/log/log/keg/dumbell), sandbag carry for distance, yoke race medley, stones, max log, farmers walk. It will be at the Atlantic City Convention Center at a fitness expo. Right now there are 20 LW competitors signed up so it promises to be a competitive field.

[Tom Mutaffis]

I just returned from New Jersey's Strongest Man. It was quite a battle but ended up taking home 1st place in the Open LW division against a stacked field of more than 15 athletes.

Full writeup with pictures and video will be posted later.

[Jorge Sanchez]

Congratulations, Tom. That's a big win!! Looking forward to the videos.

[Off Road]

Nice job Tom

[Lones Green]

Awesome Tom!

[Travis Bell]

Congrats Tom!

[evilxxx]

Nice job in Jersey... just looked at a few of the pics you posted on facebook. Did you get a chance to visit most of the stuff on the boardwalk? or did you just stayed on the Harrah's and Borgata area?

[Tom Mutaffis]

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the support.

Getting ready to go and do it again this weekend at the Beast of The East, a two day contest in South Carolina. Am also currently leading the Southern Slam Series and this is the final contest:

http://www.southcarolinabarbell.com/...uthernSlam.htm

(Click Page 1 for the LW Class)

Nice job in Jersey... just looked at a few of the pics you posted on facebook. Did you get a chance to visit most of the stuff on the boardwalk? or did you just stayed on the Harrah's and Borgata area?

We stayed at the Flagship in Atlantic City and went out to Harrah's; was only in AC for one day. I spent Friday night up in Scotch Plains / Westfield / Cranford and stayed with family there. It was about a 10 hour drive each way but we did stop in Virginia on the way up so that I would at least have some rest for the contest.

[Tom Mutaffis]

New Jersey's Strongest Man Write-Up

I was very excited about this contest since I haven't competed in the Northeast in over a year and there was a stacked field of competitors signed up for the event. With six brutal events in line I knew that I would need a lot of energy and tried to put on some weight in the 10 days leading up to the contest. I also wanted to visit family and drove 11 hours between Thursday and Friday then spent the night in Central Jersey. Woke up early on Saturday for the two hour ride down to Atlantic City and wasn't feeling very well on the car ride down.

Made it to the venue and weighed in at 227 lbs with clothes, shoes, etc.

Had the opportunity to catch up with some friends who I had not seen in a while and relaxed for a little bit while the equipment was set up.

Max Log Press:
This log was tough! I tried 240 in warmups and was all over the place. The huge cutouts made the clean pretty hard and the log was 13" diameter of solid steel pipe which weighed over 150 lbs empty. Was hoping for the grey log that we used at Northeast Beast but the HW's had that one. I wanted to open big since we had more than 15 competitors and knew there could be some ties.
280 lbs - Good lift, this settled me down as well.
300 lbs - Good lift, now only about 5 competitors were still in the running.

One of the other competitors hit a 310 log on his 3rd attempt to take the lead and I had the opportunity to go after him. Based on how the 300 felt I was thinking about going 310 but something inside of me said to put it on the line.

320 lbs - Good lift! I was very pleased with this. Almost missed the clean but stabilized and hammered the press. Video: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/vi...5307516&ref=mf

Sandbag Carry for Distance:
We used a lumpy 250 lbs ironmind sandbag for this one. Some guys seemed to fly with it and others struggled a bit, looked like the placement and grip were very important. One competitor posted an outstanding 360 feet and anything in the 300 range was toward the top of the pack. I had a bad pick and had to sit and reset the sandbag in my lap. Didn't want to waste time so I just took off with it keeping a steady pace but couldn't run because my grip wasn't good. Ended up grinding out the 250 lbs sandbag for 297 feet (5 turns) for 5th or 6th place on this one.

Press Medley: 220 axle / 240 axle / 245 log / 250 log / 130 dumbbell / 160 keg
A handful of competitors managed to finish this event so speed became a factor. I decided to just run down the line and try to move quickly between implements. The axles and logs were no problem but once I got to the dumbbell things fell apart. Having never pressed one before my technique was terrible and I missed it 4-5 times and wasted about 10 seconds before getting it. Quickly sprinted to the keg and pressed it with ease, edging out the win by 2 seconds on this event.

Farmers Race:
We did 260 lbs for 85-100 feet strait course. I picked the implements and the grip did not feel great so I was a bit concerned. Some great times were posted and it seemed that the top finishers were all within about ½ second of each other. Had a good pick and kept it steady through 50 ft, from there I realized that my grip was fine and turned on the speed. Managed to make up some time and finished in 11.4 seconds but in the tough field it was only good for 6th place; the winner finished in 10.4 seconds.

Atlas Stones:
This was a unique setup where we had to do 3 different stones, each one loaded over a bar for two reps (250 lbs, 275 lbs, and 300 lbs). Going into this event I was in second place by 1 point but had two event wins, so if I won the stones I won the contest. The leader had the opportunity to go after me and I knew that a big time would have to be posted. One of the competitors posted the best time at around 37 seconds and I knew that I had to really attack the stones in order to come out on top. I one-motioned the first stone then threw it to the side. The next stone lapped and loaded quickly then moved onto the final stone. I could feel my tacky pulling a little bit but managed to roll the stone into my lap and dump it over the bar for the winning time of 30 seconds!

Took home 1st Place Overall in the 231 lbs Class by about 6 points in a tough field with more than 15 athletes.

[slashkills]

Damn dude give some one else a chance to win lol. Great work

[Tom Mutaffis]

Am still working to recover and get ready for this weekend.

My body is not sore but all of the driving and the long day of competing has my CNS a bit burnt out. My diet has been good and I have been drinking (3) Nitrean Shakes per day, taking Results, and eating high protein / high carb. Might bump my fat intake slightly over the next couple of days for some added energy; my bodyweight is safe so I don't have to worry about that.

Tonight is half price sushi at a good place near my house so I will probably head there after work then possibly do some light dumbell training tonight when I get home to keep the blood flowing.

It is now three days out from the two-day event.

[Tom Mutaffis]

Here are some additional videos from last weekend; I have a couple of others that I may post later.

Max Log (different angle): http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/vi...1015408&ref=mf

Atlas Stones: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/vi...2470408&ref=mf

[Tom Mutaffis]

I am feeling more recovered as the week goes on and should be ready for the contest this weekend. My bodyweight peaked last night at around 227 lbs and woke up today at 223.5 lbs which is basically where I was looking to be.

Tomorrow is going to be three events:

- 18" Deadlift for Max
- Log Clean & Press for Max
- Farmers Hold for Time (260 lbs each hand)


On Sunday there are five more events:

- Keg Press Medley (175 lbs to 250 lbs)
- Car Deadlift for Reps
- Farmers Race (250 lbs per hand for 160 ft, turn at 80 ft.)
- Truck Push / Chain Drag Medley (10,000 lbs truck, 700 lbs anchor chain)
- Atlas Stones (240-340 lbs, 66"-48" boxes)

This contest is called The Beast of The East and will also decide the winner of the Southern Slam Strongman Series (10 contests in 5 states to determine a regional champion).