Broba Fett: Mandaloranger?!?

[Broba Fett]

Fresh off my first strongman competition, my Ranger conversion begins.

 

Well, it technically began a few months ago when I started at my current gym which does crossfit WODs during the week and strongman events on the weekend.  This challenge we make it official.

 

Having developed a good routine when it comes to exercise and nutrition, this challenge will be primarily focused on adding additional weapons to the arsenal.

 

Goals:

 

1.  Go Ruck Yourself - Going to try rucking and attempt to rack up some miles.  If half the Ranger Corps does it and my coach does it as part of his routine there's gotta be something to it.  Shooting for 15 miles.  Will be very surprised if I don't hit this as the only time I seem to be able to actually catch Pokemon is when I make time to take a walk.  Completed: 3.5/15

 

2. Skillz - Devote time to acquiring and building skills every week.  This is meant to be primarily focused on getting me out of the "scaled" level of fitness but as I will be spending some time on the farm this month, cowboy/agricultural/shooting skills will count as well.  Some of the skills explored may be:

• Box Jumps - Had this in mind before I smoked it today!  Will be shooting for the 24" and 30" sides next. 20" box conquered 7/13

• Jumping rope - Coach took for granted I can do single unders a few weeks ago and I had an embarrassing moment in class.  I can jump and I can swing a rope.  Just need to put the two together. 10 consecutive single unders conquered 7/20

• Working towards a pullup - Managed to strict pull myself up a few inches at the beginning of the challenge.  Assisted or jumping pullups with as slow of a negative as I can manage will be the goal here.

• Burpees - My nemesis.  We have a "50 burpees for time" test that gets cut off at 7 min.  I haven't finished it.  Increased from 13 to 29 7/27

• Strongman - Any and all events I can get more experience in.  12k pound Mack Truck Pulled 8/1

• Shooting - Taking the IL CCW course in August or September.  In my mind that comes with a responsibility to regularly practice.

• Cowboy - Could be bucking bulls at the farm, horsemanship, shooting, roping, or whatever the family at the ranch is doing when I'm up visiting.

 

3. No Scaling -  No, not redundant.  I mean my bathroom scale.  My emotional state is waaay too dependant on if the scale went down every day. Gonna spend this whole month attempting to not look at the scale once. One weigh in at the beginning, one at the end.  Weekly tape measurements are ok and will keep me sane.  Beginning of Challenge Weight: 392.1lbs.  Beginning of Challenge Waist: 60.0"

 

If I can stay strict and ace this challenge I'm going to do my best to finally enter myself in a CCW class in August. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Welcome to the Ranger Corps. I'll be following again.

[WorldSparrow]

Welcome! Look forward to the strongman stories.

[Rurik Harrgath]

Oya Mando!

 

Glad you're with us again, Broba. 

[DarK_RaideR]

17 hours ago, Broba Fett said:

with an overall goal of getting myself to 350lbs by my wedding next June

I can't help but wonder whether that's bodyweight or lifting weight...

[Agnarr]

Following, Ranger!

[Broba Fett]

Thanks gents. Stoked to be a Ranger.

I can't help but wonder whether that's bodyweight or lifting weight...

Bodyweight. I was 392 and some change this weekend. Smallest I've been as an adult is 352 so I'm shooting for 350 by my wedding next June.

Really big personal milestone today during my WOD: did a 20" box jump for the first time. Then did it 8 more times. [emoji16]

I shall elaborate and see if I can get some strongman pics and vid uploaded this afternoon when work slows down.

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[Agnarr]

33 minutes ago, Broba Fett said:

Really big personal milestone today during my WOD: did a 20" box jump for the first time. Then did it 8 more times.

Heck yeah! good job, sir

[Wild Wolf]

1 hour ago, Broba Fett said:

Bodyweight. I was 392 and some change this weekend. Smallest I've been as an adult is 352 so I'm shooting for 350 by my wedding next June.

Really big personal milestone today during my WOD: did a 20" box jump for the first time. Then did it 8 more times.

 

For starters, you're gonna crush your weight goal. I think you can manage 345 brother  And SUPER congratz on the 20" box jump-thats a helluva milestone! Glad to have ya back too, Broba. The Ranger Corps needs more badasses like yourself. I'm also looking forward to the inspiration you bring! Let's do this!

 

 

Wolf

 

[Jord]

There are too many Rangers. It was hard to find you over here!

[Broba Fett]

5 hours ago, Agnarr said:

Heck yeah! good job, sir

Thanks man.  I hadn't attempted one since falling in junior high on a 10" box and humiliating myself.  Super proud of it. Possibly moreso than my strongman comp.

 

 

4 hours ago, Wild Wolf said:

 

For starters, you're gonna crush your weight goal. I think you can manage 345 brother  And SUPER congratz on the 20" box jump-thats a helluva milestone! Glad to have ya back too, Broba. The Ranger Corps needs more badasses like yourself. I'm also looking forward to the inspiration you bring! Let's do this!

 

 

Wolf

 

Thank you sir.  My honest hope is to be down close to the 350s by the holidays so I'll have a few months to recoup from holiday food.  We shall see.

 

 

15 minutes ago, Taddea Zhaan said:

There are too many Rangers. It was hard to find you over here!

 

 

 

It is kind of overwhelming huh?  Glad you found me.  I shall be seeking out your newest thread as soon as I type up a post recapping the past week starting riiiiight.... now.

[Rurik Harrgath]

6 hours ago, Broba Fett said:

Really big personal milestone today during my WOD: did a 20" box jump for the first time. Then did it 8 more times.

 

Nice work, brother!

[Broba Fett]

Left early Sunday to make sure we were there right when registration opened, which meant we sat around for 3 hours just being nervous and staring at the various logs and stones laid out before us.  Wandered around and found the two other competitors in the Novice Super Heavy divison.  The one who ended up taking first seemed like a decent guy, didn't talk much.  The other guy was really nice and we ended up making plans for him to come train at our gym some sunday.

 

Three of our coaches from the gym drove the two hours to support us and coach us through events and another one was competing with us and still took time to coach us up between her events.  We pay a lot of money for our membership there but I feel the support, not having to worry about programming, and access to almost any strongman implement you can think of makes it well worth it.

 

First event was tire flip.  Four flips down, four flips back for time.  Mine was 500lbs, Tammy (fiancee)'s was 350 I believe.  We both did well despite the tires being tractor tires rather than the monster truck tires we have at the gym.

 

Second event was farmer's carries.  60 feet down, drop, 60 feet back for time.  I had a total of 510lbs, Tammy had 260.  I had only done 500lbs in training due to bad barbell math and I was only able to pick and run once.  Couldn't get it back up to run back.  So I was pleasantly surprised when I got to the end of the first run, turned around, and picked it right up and started running back:

 

 

Tammy beasted hers.  Just hauled them up and took a leisurely stroll:

 

My delicate little flower.

 

 

I made what is apparently a rookie mistake and put the weight down ON the line rather than completely crossing it.  Thus I had to pick up 510lbs two more times to shuffle it forward enough to finish.  Likely would have taken first in this event without that mistake.  As it was, took 2nd.

 

Truck pull was third.  I murdered it.  Mostly.  I had a little cross step at the beginning due to not having my feet far enough apart but after that I killed it.  Finished faster than a guy from our gym who is going to the amateur world championships later this year.   Unfortunately the guy who took first in my division finished it just .08 seconds faster than me.  8 freaking hundredths!  I'm still very proud of it.  Coach took a video of it but I can't figure out how to get a video posted from facebook to embed on here.  If I can I will definitely do so.  Tammy got the third fastest time of ANY woman.

 

Fourth was log press.  Blah.  I suck at presses.  I matched my PR with 140lbs, missed 150.  Definitely need to work on this.  Also tweaked my shoulder attempting 150, more on that later.  Since I missed my second attempt at 150 and it was Wessels Rules (I also got to meet Willie Wessels!) I was done with this one:

 

 

A really nice guy who was competing in the Super Heavy Open class (and does a LOT of these, his name is Chris Vachio) gave me some tips on the log so I hope to make some major improvement on that soon.  Tammy set a PR at 110lbs.

 

Last event was stones.  Started around 6pm.  Since we had been there since 9am and there was no chance for me to finish above third at this point, we both decided to go with a stone we knew we could life and go for 3 rep PR on it.  I got the 225lb stone three times in around 40 seconds, Tammy got the 150 in 30 seconds.

 

So yeah.  Had a great time. Every time someone was giving max effort nearly everyone went nuts to try to push them to a new PR.  My log lifts were by far and away much lower than any other competitor but as soon as everyone realized I was struggling they did everything they could to try to motivate me.  Tammy can't wait to do another, and honestly she probably has a more likely road to Nationals next year than I do, since Super Heavy Men's open weights are.... super heavy.

 

Got right back in the gym Monday night for deadlift day. 

 

Skills was working on Snatch Grip High Pulls at 95lbs. 

 

Strength was 5x4x80% (Coach had me do 265, less than 80% for me, due to coming off the comp) deads followed by sets of 20 lunges until time expired.  I believe I finished 2 sets of lunges. 

 

Conditioning was a partner WOD:  75 thrusters at 65lbs, 75 20lb wall balls, 75 pushups.  AMRAP 20'.  Split the reps however you want, only one person working at a time.  I was paired with a much fitter man and managed to keep up. I think he only did 5 more thursters and 5 more wall balls than I did and we finished the entire round and went a few reps into the second.   Felt very good to mostly keep up.

 

This morning was Bench day.  Warmup was hanging hip touches.  You're supposed to hang and take one hand off the bar to touch your hip.  I was able to touch my hip before I hit the ground but my grip strength isn't quite able to hold all 390lbs of me quite yet.  HOWEVER,  for the first time ever I was able to hang with a pull-up grip and engage my shoulders to actually lift myself a couple inches.  It's not much but that pull-up will eventually be mine.  Oh yes, it will be mine.

 

Strength was Bench 5x4x80%.  I was unable to do this due to the pain in my shoulder.  Had to back down to 135 and even then it was rough.  I'll be seeing the chiro this week about it. We followed bench up with roughly 10 mins of supersetted BB rows and floor presses.  I just stayed at 135 and got through it fine without much rest.

 

Conditioning was an AMRAP of 9 hang snatches, 9 box jumps, and 9 hang clean high pulls. 65lbs on the bar.  As mentioned above I had never done a box jump.  But, one of my big goals right now is to build my CF skills so I decided to do box jumps onto a 45lb bumper plate for the first round, 2 plates for the second, etc.  After the 4th I had the two other people in class and my coach cheering me on so on the 5th and final set I just went for the 20" box and nailed it!  Finished that whole last round out on the box.  I honestly am more proud of doing box jumps at ~390lbs than I am of competing in strongman.

 

Alright, I think that's got us all caught up.  Off to my lunch break and then to hunt down all of your threads.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Great job on that strongman comp. Very proud of you.

4 hours ago, Taddea Zhaan said:

There are too many Rangers. It was hard to find you over here!

You have know idea. You know we got Spezzy this time around right?

[Jarric]

Glad you enjoyed the strongman; looks like you did awesome on your first one!

[Broba Fett]

2 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Great job on that strongman comp. Very proud of you.

 

45 minutes ago, Jarric said:

Glad you enjoyed the strongman; looks like you did awesome on your first one!

 

Thanks to both of you.  It was an excellent time.

 

Updated first post with actual goals.

[Sloth the Enduring]

Nice write up. It sounds like a good meet.

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[WorldSparrow]

WOW! Sounds like you and your fiance did great! Ugh, I hate tire flips, being a little guy. My old squad did them a lot. I can't even image pulling a truck.

Nice job brother!

[Jord]

15 hours ago, Broba Fett said:

  I honestly am more proud of doing box jumps at ~390lbs than I am of competing in strongman.

 

This is honestly impressive! I really want to work on jumps, not as a crossfit thing, but just because I feel lame that I can't really jump every since my injuries. And frankly I haven't really tried since I stopped doing cardio video workouts. You are doing awesome! I think I might start with just the flat one level cardio step and see how that goes. 

 

Moving 390# of self up 20" is no joke!

 

13 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

 

You have know idea. You know we got Spezzy this time around right?

 

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. 

[Wild Wolf]

15 hours ago, Broba Fett said:

Had a great time. Every time someone was giving max effort nearly everyone went nuts to try to push them to a new PR.  My log lifts were by far and away much lower than any other competitor but as soon as everyone realized I was struggling they did everything they could to try to motivate me.

 

That's awesome dude! Sounds like a great group of Strongmen and women . You're just lucky I'm down here in Texas or wait..maybe unlucky? I dunno, but if I was near you, I'd be motivating you constantly! I had a good buddy of mine let me train him back in 2013 and he went from 365 to 265 (he's 6'5) in the course of that year-he also dropped from 41% BF to 18%!! I would love to help get you to your wedding weight so I'll just have to motivate from afar. You rock brother, keep up the outstanding work!

 

Wolf

[DarK_RaideR]

18 hours ago, Taddea Zhaan said:

There are too many Rangers. It was hard to find you over here!

13 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

You know we got Spezzy this time around right?

15 minutes ago, Taddea Zhaan said:

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. 

 

Registering our Guildhall as a Pokestop has really been a game-changer

[Broba Fett]

Nice write up. It sounds like a good meet.

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It was for sure. A phenomenal first show for us.

WOW! Sounds like you and your fiance did great! Ugh, I hate tire flips, being a little guy. My old squad did them a lot. I can't even image pulling a truck.

Nice job brother!

Thanks man. We loved it and she absolutely killed it. Pound for pound she's got me beat in strength hands down. Coach has been saying ever since she pulled 285 just a month or so into training that she would be going to nationals and Arnold next year. After this weekend she is starting to buy in. I'm fairly certain I'll be cheering her on at both.

 

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. 

Idk why this only quoted the second part of your post but thanks.

When you go to work on your jumps, I cannot recommend starting with bumper plates enough, if you have access to them. 3-4" jumps are much less mentally challenging than going straight to that 20" box.

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[Broba Fett]

 

I had a good buddy of mine let me train him back in 2013 and he went from 365 to 265 (he's 6'5) in the course of that year-he also dropped from 41% BF to 18%!!

 

Wolf

That's what I'm shooting for! 350 would be around 90lbs in just over a year and a total of 150 lost.

If I'm calculating BF correctly I'm at 36% right now around 390 and 25% would be around 330 so that will be the goal post-wedding. Once I'm between 20 and 25 I'm gonna amp up the calories and see what I'm really capable of when not eating a deficit.

All that said, I don't really know exactly what my body fat is due to my weird body shape. My lower body is fairly lean and I carry almost all my fat in my abdomen, which makes measuring weird . So who knows? I could still be up in the 40-50s. Someday soon I want to track down one of those water submersion testing places to find out some actual numbers.

Either way, glad to have you along for the ride brother.

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[Wild Wolf]

48 minutes ago, Broba Fett said:

Either way, glad to have you along for the ride brother.

 

I wouldn't miss it brother! Just keep staying steadfast in your journey and sticking to the protocols and you will get there. You'll be looking super suave in your tux

 

Wolf

[Rurik Harrgath]

That write-up was awesome, my friend.  You're firing on all cylinders there!