Connor Pauling Posted January 20, 2015 Report Share Posted January 20, 2015 My Name is Connor, I am 20 years old and currently traveling. I started weight training for confidence and aesthetics in August 2013. Like most people new to training I destroyed my posture and created a lot of muscle imbalances. I started to learn more and more about structural integrity and very soon my obsession with lifting heavy began. I am aspiring to become a strength and conditioning coach and a professional strength athlete myself. By October 2013 I was 73kg and very strong in terms of body weight exercises like dips and press ups, but for overall weight, well I couldn't press much, I had never done a deadlift before and I was squatting pathetic weight with horrible form on the smith machine. I learnt how to deadlift and squat correctly along with some other compound exercises when I started training with my new German friend In about January 2014. For the first time I attempted a deadlift with well... average form I suppose, the main thing is I had confidence. before this lift I had never gone above 80kg because I was worried about destroying my back. That day I lifted 140kg, I was about 85kgs by then. Slowly my strength increased over the next few weeks and on February the 22nd I went heavy before going on holiday and pulled 170kgs. It wasn't until April that I realized maybe I am built for strength. I attempted the 20 rep squat challenge with amazing results. According to the gym I was training at (they weighed, measured me and did the body fat% test) I gained 7.8kg of muscle in 4 weeks, only training twice a week... brutal training. My greatest set of proper squats with no assistance apart from a belt was 125kg for 20 reps. I tested my max's at the end of the month and my squat was 170kg (maybe could of done 180 but somehow I really hurt my leg warming up) my deadlift was now 190kg and I was amazed to bench 110kg because I've always been really bad on the bench, In Jan I could maybe just press 70. I was 103kg by the end of that month, and apparently only 22% bodyfat. So from October to April I gained, well I believe 20kg of muscle. As the months went on work really dragged me down (In Karratha WA If you've never been it's just hot as f*ck!), I wasn't training very often and I was eating very little but my strength kept improving. At some stage along the line I was hungover early on a Saturday night from a heavy night drinking on Friday and went to the gym for a confidence boost before heading out otp again, I told myself I was going to deadlift 200kg, and I did. So I think If I was in a better state and had fulled up on brown rice I could of hit 210 or maybe 220. I haven't squatted heavy since the squat challenge as I fucked up my hips by over developing my hip flexors from not using my glutes. I gained alot of interest in the push press and managed to hit 100kg the first time I tried it, actually that was back in April. By November I was more training for power, I could jump very high and my other lifts were getting faster too. I managed to deadlift 185kg totally raw, no straps,shoes, belt or chalk and both hands were overhand. I managed to push press 90kg for 2 reps raw and strict press 70kgs raw for 2 reps, almost almost did 80. I never have tried to press 100kg again but I know I could have. So that's basically my training history so far, I hope to start training for New Zealand's strongest man by late 2016 and win it by 2020. I want to join this community and learn as much as I can and share the experiences I've had and hear your's. Please feel free to message me and say hello, I would love to feel welcomed and even a bit of a tutorial on how to use this site would be helpful as I am totally useless on computers and have no idea where this message will go and if anyone will even see it lol If you took the time to read all of this Thank you, I hope to make many new friends and train with the big boys one day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wookie Posted January 20, 2015 Report Share Posted January 20, 2015 You want to be a big by one day, you go train with the big boys now, and do everything you darn well can to make them like you. Ie...treat them with respect and buy them beer. tyreguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nate225 Posted January 20, 2015 Report Share Posted January 20, 2015 You want to be a big by one day, you go train with the big boys now, and do everything you darn well can to make them like you. Ie...treat them with respect and buy them beer. This.Several sub-80kg guys have trained with Matt n the boys, where on any given day there can be up to 5 NZ Strongest Man title holders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FellowshipOfTheRon Posted January 20, 2015 Report Share Posted January 20, 2015 hey nice details of your journey man. welcome to the forum by the way i think wookie above is hinting at something haha... fyi he is an NZSM himself as well as a coach, you've come to the right forum to get strong! start a log so we can follow you and keep up with that journey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Connor Pauling Posted January 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 You want to be a big by one day, you go train with the big boys now, and do everything you darn well can to make them like you. Ie...treat them with respect and buy them beer. I got the hint mate haha note taken! Seriously I would absolutely love to start strongman training right now!, but I'm re building my ship. I was developing a cannon on a blow up raft, I need to build a fucking ship! Then the hard training can begin. I just wanted to get Involved with the community early on make some friends, and when I'm studying in Melbourne I'll be training so I'll log all that progress. The reason I said late 2016 was I hope to be a qualified Trainer by August this year (In Melbourne) then off to Europe for a working/practice/holiday for about a year, Then back to NZ to really train hard. Maybe I will end up doing some hard training with the Germans haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GyzzBrah Posted January 24, 2015 Report Share Posted January 24, 2015 Just read this so good luck with strongman and also powerlifting. f*ck your strong mate. Gives me motivation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.