2025 CAVEMAN CLASSIC MEN'S OPEN LIGHTWEIGHT STRONGMAN COMPETITION WRITE UP

INTRO

* I’ve competed in yet another strongman competition (I think this is my 14th or 15th one: I’ll have to count it back sometime), taking a hard fought second place in the Caveman Classic 2025 Men’s Open Lightweight.  Though I did not take first, this was a major redemption arc of a competition for me, with some of my best performances in recent years along with feeling my best through out it.  I’m always learning and growing, and I want to share that process with you.

 

THE VIDEO

THE TRAINING

 

I could have picked worse role models growing up

* I’ve written pretty extensively about this in my Tactical Barbell Operator check-in, seen here

 

https://mythicalstrength.blogspot.com/2025/02/tactical-barbell-operator-for-strongman.html

 

* About the only things worth mentioning are my daily sandbag carries, which happened on accident and become an awesome addition.  I ran out of time to do a full on events day one weekend, so I told myself “just do 1 round with the sandbag. 1 round is better than no rounds.”  That took all of about 2 minutes to do, to include set up and tear down, and I realized I could just do that EVERY day, and instead of getting in 3-4 reps in a weekend, I’d get in 7 reps over the course of a week.  Very Dan John there.  And it absolutely worked: I got VERY proficient at picking up the sandbag, seeing the picks get faster and more efficient over time.  I started drilling running TO the sandbag to pick it up, to help prep me for competition conditions.  I also took to doing my sandbag throws in a similar manner: just get in a few throws everyday vs doing 1 throw day a week. 

 

* For the conditioning: I settled into a pattern of Oxygen Debt 101 on Tuesdays and a 90 minute 45lb ruck on Thursdays, using Saturdays to train stones in some manner and Sundays just being a day of activity.  This helped me with getting conditioned for strongman AND surviving my annual 10 mile race which ended up happening the weekend before the competition.  I’m not a smart person.

 

* For the bridge week before the competition, all I did was walk on a treadmill for 75 minutes each morning. These were leisurely walks, for 2 reasons.  One being I’m fairly certain I picked up a stress fracture and plantar fasciitis from my run, so I didn’t want to push the walking hard, and the other being that this was meant to help me recover from training fatigue, reduce cortisol, and keep bodyweight under control leading up to the comp.

 

THE NUTRITION

When this guy talks nutrition and definition, you should probably listen

* 3 weeks out from the comp, I had to change from my protein sparring modified feasting/Apex Predator diet approach, as I had run out of protein powder.  I decided to try out something I always wanted to try: Vince Gorinda’s Maximum Definition diet, aka: “The Steak and Eggs diet”.  I chose to eat 2 meals a day, as, honestly, I find 3 meals pretty absurd these days.  I’d eat a post training breakfast and a dinner in the evening, and would still have a middle of the night protein shake (just protein in water) as a means to ensure I covered my bases with protein AND so that I didn’t train totally fasted in the morning.

 

* The diet lives up to it’s name: I dropped weight and got even leaner during the process leading up to the competition, but since I’m fat adapated, I suffered no training consequences and actually saw my numbers continue to grow.  Right before I started the diet, Costco had an awesome deal on leg of lamb, so for 3 weeks my breakfast was 1lb of leg of lamb air fried with spray duck fat alongside an omelet of 3 pastured eggs, 5 whites and 1 tablespoon of grassfed beef tallow alongside a piece of beef liver.  Dinner was typically the exact same omelet alongside another 1lb+ of some sort of meat.

 

* As for nutrition as it relates to the comp: I still stuck with 2 meals.  That meant a hearty breakfast

14oz piedmontese grassfed ribeye, 8oz of grassfed New Zealand lamb, 5 pastured eggs with grassfed ghee and 3 strips of beef bacon

* fasting through the competition, and then an awesome dinner to celebrate. 

A full rack of spare ribs and some brisket

* I had zero energy issues during the comp with this approach.  It may have helped that, the night before, I shared a 36oz piedmontese grassfed tomahawk ribeye with my kiddo, alongside 5 pastured eggs.

Training fuel

 

THE COMPETITION ITSELF

It wasn't QUITE as tight as this...

**FIRST EVENT** 100lb keg, 150lb axle, 200lb log (max reps on log)

 

* First event was the press medley, and this was what I've been training for this whole time.  I was an awesome presser at one point, and then it fell apart, as my press strength tends to correlate with my bodyweight, and when I dropped 35lbs, my press plummeted and I effectively "forgot" how to press.  My last comp, I totally bombed the event, and I was up against the same guy as last time.

 

* I did zero training for the keg and the axle, because I knew I was strong enough to take care of those on their own: the log was the white whale here.  That said, I bobbled the keg a little at the start, but got it under control to one motion it.  The axle I may have been able to one motion, but I kept it safe and continentaled it and pressed.  I dropped it from overhead, which I felt sheepish about.

 

* Finally getting to the log, I knew 2 reps was the mark to beat, as I was thankfully in the position of going second in these events due to when I signed up.  Nice thing was that this log was smaller diameter than what I trained with, although the handles were further apart.  This was also my first time wearing my grip shirt for the log clean.  In retrospect, the log didn't feel heavy when I picked it up, and I sunk it in deep and felt the shirt really do an awesome job gripping it on the way up, making the clean effortless, which was the whole goal of my training block.  From there, I muscled out a press just like I used to.

 

* This was a clean once and press away event, but the press took so much effort that I dropped the log so I could have time to recover before trying another rep.  I'm not sure if that was the 100% right call looking back, and maybe I coulda gotten more reps if I kept control, but things happen.  I heard how much time I had left and knew I could get in one more rep if I took my time and set up strong, which is exactly what I did.  I muscled out the other press and felt some redemption for all my previous pressing bumbles: the training paid off.

 

* The press put me in a good place psychologically.  It had fallen apart so hard leading up to this, and being able to reclaim it was huge for me.  I’m feeling like a strongman again. 

 

**SECOND EVENT** (Car deadlift max reps)

 

* Because we tied, when we went into the car deadlift, I got to go second again.  The guy I was competing against is a self-confessed poor deadlifter.  He got 2 reps and then pulled out, saying he felt something in his back pop.  I only needed 3 reps to win.  It was at that point I decided exactly why I had shown up: for me.  Not to win, but to have the best competition I was going to have.  Because I cared more about the experience of deadlifting vs winning.  I’ve never had a chance to pull with a bar in front before on a car deadlift, I have ALWAYS wanted to do that, and there’s no telling if I’ll ever get to do it again.  I didn’t want to let the opportunity pass me by.  And I got to prove to myself that I still have some pulls in me.  I managed 11 reps within the allotted time, with the 12th getting edged out by time. 

 

* But the best part was I felt absolutely fine after it was done.  Despite giving it my all, I didn't blow my load on the second event.  All the training leading up to this paid off immensely: my recovery was on point, and I could give maximal output in an event without concern for downstream impacts.

 

* I'm also really delighted because I spent the first 9 weeks of the training cycle training "wrong" for this event: I thought it was going to be side handles.  When I learned it was front handle, I had to quickly pivot, but it turns out I still have some pulls in me.

 

**THIRD EVENT** (200lb keg, sandbag and husafel stone carry 45')

 

* This is the one that I was employing daily training on, and I was curious how that was going to work out.  Specifically, it was the sandbag pick I wanted to speed up, because I was taking FOREVER to get it done in training initially.  In turn, I was ONLY training with a sandbag, as it was the hardest implement for me.  I don't regret that, but do have “regrets” about the event.  It was mine to lose.  I rushed the keg, and it caught me.  “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast”.  I didn’t take my time to get set to load the keg, and I lost MORE time recovering it.  But I felt awesome on all the pick ups, and that was what I focused on in training.  This was the second time in my life carrying a husafel stone: it wasn’t all that awful.

 

* I lost this event by 6 seconds, which, upon reviewing the video, I could have recovered that if I loaded the keg properly at the start.  That stings a little.

 

**FOURTH EVENT** (20, 25 and 30lb sandbag over 15' bar)

 

* This didn't get caught on video, which is for the best, because I zeroed the event.  This was supposed to be 3 sandbags thrown over a 15' bar.  I really don’t like these events, but if I don’t start getting decent at them, I’m going to really limit myself in competitions.  Technique is what is lacking.  And zeroing this event cost me the win, because what should have been a tie between me and the other guy ended up giving him the win, because my zero got me zero points vs 1. 

 

 

* Thankfully, I didn't realize this at the time, and I went into the fifth event thinking that winning it would have us tie, which created some outstanding pressure to perform.

 

 

**FIFTH EVENT** (240lb stone over 48" bar)

 

* This was another redemption event: I haven't gotten a rep on a stone event in my past 2 competitions, and blacked out on a few occasions.  I've ended up glued to the stone due to tacky on a few occasions, and otherwise just didn't have the strength to get through the event.  I had been training hard with my stone of steel and working hard to develop actual technique and strength to get through this.  The heaviest I went in training was 205lbs on a stone of steel, but carryover is different, as this concrete stone was smaller in diameter. 

 

* The initial pick felt heavy, and I STILL used too much tacky and had to fight it on the first rep, and I got the stone low and had to fight that first rep, but after that I found my groove.  The training leading up to this had me feeling comfortable with the stone, and I remembered the techniques I learned.  My time with the front squats had me sinking low and bouncing back out, and I learned how to get my chest on the stone with my grip shirt.  I got the 4th rep JUST in the nick of time, and watched my competitor manage 2 reps before pulling out, claiming he felt something pop in his back again. 

 

* At this point, I was elated for having won the event, thinking I got the tie, but was also elated just to finally get some points on a stones event.

 

**GENERAL TAKEAWAYS**

 

* I felt like I belonged again.  No imposter syndrome.  No being out of place.  No feeling like a fraud.  I saw myself in the mirror in between events and I looked like a strongman.  My physique was filled out and thick, not stringy.

* Cardio, conditioning, and recovery were all top notch.  My body feels healthy and strong.  And this was after a 10 mile race last week.  Tactical Barbell gets my full regards.

* Nutrition was sound as well.  Didn’t need to eat at all during the comp, felt energized and level.  No spikes, no crashes.  Just had to keep hydration up.

 

WHAT’S NEXT

* I have no competitions on the immediate horizon, primarily because every competition I have my eye on is happening at the same time I go on a cruise through Italy and Greece, getting to live out my Hercules/Heracles fantasies (eating all that lamb prior to the competition helped out there).  So I intend to continue to use Tactical Barbell and the Maximum Definition Diet to show up to my cruise absolutely peeled to the bone and jacked out of my mind in good conditioning.  I’m currently wavering between more Operator or a switch to Zulu, but either one is going to be a VERY limited program of 2 main movements: a squat or deadlift and some sort of press.  I’m specifically NOT training the chins heavy so I can train them high volume instead, as I want to recover a lot of lost back size and strength, so I’m going to do a LOT of chinning and rowing.  Removing it from the strength cluster will allow me to emphasize it as assistance instead.  I also intend to trade in my running shoes for time on the rower, as now that my race is done I don’t really have any desire to continue running, and I figure that time on the rower will result in more back growth.

 

* Once I return from my cruise, I should be in a prime spot to start focusing on hypertrophy, which will mean getting back on the Tactical Barbell Mass Protocol.  Yes; I have definitely drank the Tactical Barbell koolaid.  It’s treated me very well.  When I left myself to my own devices training for the competition before this one, I was so absolutely destroyed that I spent the first 6 weeks of the Mass Protocol just healing from the damage I had done to myself, whereas now I finished up the competition and immediately returned to training on Monday.  Definitely not going to fix what isn’t broken here.

 

* I’ll be keeping my eyes out for more competitions in the future.  I’m definitely feeling strongman again.  I’ll need to figure out how to throw a sandbag at some point.  And I’m still open to getting in some more combat sports time.  This is the year I turn 40, and I’m not nearly done.