In the next year I hope to win both the equipped and raw British Championships and any other competitions I take part in and complete my Level 1 and 2 British Powerlifting coaching course.
What are your goals for the long term?
To hold multiple records, be the best in my class and to stand out amongst everyone else.
What drives you?
I am autistic and find that lifting is a great release. There is nothing better than the feeling of hitting new PBs; it feels like I am in another world. Also, my Dad holds 12 world records in various fitness related events such as bench press, press ups, sit ups and climbing the equivalent of Mount Everest on a stepper.
You have completed your GCSEs, right?
Yes, after various issues with school and teachers doubting me, I completed GCSE equivalents online at the age of 14.
Tell us about your Instagram interviews
I hold interviews live on Instagram with strength sports athletes to hear other people’s experiences and to try to inspire people.
What is a typical day like for you?
Eating, training and sleeping.
Anything you want to add…
I’d like to say a massive thank you to my coaches Fred Mackenzie and Jim Mcgill for helping me to improve constantly at the Hirst Welfare Centre in Ashington.
You can follow Olly by clicking the link below or searching for @the_static_giant on Instagram
]]>We waited a long time for this event, we first contacted the FitXpo team in March 2021, when the event was planned for Jul 21. This then had to be moved to Aug 21 due to... you guessed it!... COVID restrictions, however it was a relief that it was only moved by 1 month and the FitXpo were fantastic in keeping us informed of developments. We had booked an apartment for the time in Liverpool and initially feared that we may lose the money on this (well we wouldn’t have, we would have just spent that weekend in Liverpool anyway!) however fortunately and due to FitXpo’s quick communications, we were able to just change the dates at no cost, so thank you for that AirBnB host!
This was our first event of this sort, so a lot of preparations were required. Lists of bits and bobs for the stall were endless and we even marked out the space and done a dummy set up one day!
We arrived in Liverpool on the Thursday night, to find our apartment was 3 floors up in an attic, not ideal when we had brought our printing equipment with us, including a 60kg printer, which we [edit by Jason- we?] had to carry up all those stairs! Suggested event for next years England’s Strongest Man: big printer carry up flights of stairs…..no? The apartment was nice and modern, no issues, apart from no curtains in the bedroom! Who on earth does not consider curtains in the bedroom to be essential? Getting adequate sleep was going to be interesting. At least we didn’t have an early start on Friday, set up didn’t start until the afternoon.
Friday morning was spent getting in some training (squats and deadlifts) [edit by Jason- not me, I was recovering from the printer carry] at No Limits Strength and Conditioning Centre on Stanhope Street (the gym was not easy to find but the staff were so helpful – thank you!) and completing final preparations including printing our own t-shirts for our forthcoming 2 days of ‘work’. We made our way to the Exhibition Centre in the afternoon where the FitXpo staff made us feel so welcome and arranged all our passes, bands and of course our VIP After Party tickets. When we first walked into the Hall B, we were in awe! The hall was huge and there was a real buzz about the place with many other stalls and events also starting to set up, it was so exciting!
Our set up went smoothly and didn’t take us long at all; everything fitted in perfectly.; the dummy set up had not been a waste of time! There was a brief for all traders in the evening so late afternoon, we headed into Liverpool city centre with a shopping list for a few last minute bits and a visit to Nando’s. On return to the Exhibition Centre, we started to chat to other traders and spotted some familiar faces during the trader’s brief.
We were so tired on Saturday morning! We had not slept well in the no-curtain apartment 🙁 [edit by Jason- and Cheryl's snoring is horrendous]. However, we made the 10 minute drive to the Exhibition Centre by 0800 to find everything still set up perfectly and Hall B busy and filled with bundles of enthusiasm amongst traders and staff. We were excited but also so nervous!
There was so much going on, it's difficult to remember it all, but it was fab! We enjoyed having customers, finding out what designs they liked and what items were not as popular. All while England’s Strongest Woman took place right in front of our stall. Well done! From what we could see, it was a great show!
It was also great to have a walk round the other stalls and catch a few glimpses of the bodybuilding shows when we could. We stocked up on Protein Queen goods, they are delicious, with really good macros.
The World’s Strongest Couple, Sam and Sue, collected an order from us and we were delighted to finally meet them in person, along with their son Ollie, after lots of messages back and forth over the past year. Another Welsh legend, Gav Bilton was also among the first stars we took a photo with. If you haven’t met Gav and think he is a big guy, think bigger!!! Lesson learned – get bigger stock in 👍. Chatting with Dan Hipkiss was surreal as well, we listen to his podcasts and he is a fountain of knowledge in the world of strength coaching.
At the end of Saturday, we decided to reconfigure our stall a bit and then set off back to the apartment, tired however still so excited at the fact we were actually there! As traders, we were invited to the after party at Revolution de Cuba in Liverpool so after some food we got dressed up and caught an Uber to get us there. The venue was busy but we had such a good time getting to know some new friends, we stayed til 1am! [edit by Jason- I tried to get her to leave earlier]
Sunday morning came around and we were super tired and a bit hungover. None the less, we arrived at the venue in plenty time for opening and were eager to see what the day would bring. This time we had England’s Strongest Man taking place right in front of our stall, MC’d by Dale McPherson, another Strongman personality we had been looking forward to meeting after being in contact previously.
Following the after party, we were a bit more confident in approaching the stars for photo opportunities. First up was US strongman Evan Singleton, followed by women’s deadlift world record holder Lucy Underdown. It was great to chat to English strongman Graham Hicks and his wife and then we couldn’t believe when 2019 World’s Strongest Man Oleksii Novikov walked into the hall and had a look at our stock! Later on, we discovered a suitcase belonging to Oleskii had been left behind at our stall! So we dutifully saved the day and reunited the giant Ukranian with his luggage, via the fantastic FitXpo staff.
Next up for photos were the wonderful Andrea Thompson, British strongwoman and finally the team from Cerberus Strength; a neighbouring stall who we had been chatting with over the couple of days. We both checked out a few stalls again and purchased a raft of protein products, energy drinks and more.
We were exhausted by the end of Day 2! However so pleased with what we had achieved! We packed up ready for the long drive back to Northumberland with smiles all round. Luckily the AirBnB host had given us a free extension so we could check out once we were finished on Sunday evening, so we returned back to the apartment for the 60kg printer [edit by Jason- Cheryl did help this time] and all our gear; she had made up a tiny bit for the lack of curtains!
Its now been a month since the event and we have certainly seen a rise in business and social media following as a result of having the chance to get our name out there. In addition, we had a fantastic weekend and as powerlifters ourselves and fans of all strength sports, we thoroughly enjoyed all that was there, so thank you FitXpo!
]]>What is a deadlift? An exercise? No, that doesn’t seem right. Exercise is what your Aunty does when she goes to her “bums and tums” workout class at the community centre. It’s what we’re doing when we roll around the floor under the instructions of the latest celebrity fitness guru’s video stream. It's going for a walk. It's working up a bit of a sweat to get a short term feel good.
No, that won’t do. Exercise is moving around because you know you shouldn’t be sitting around so much. That’s not a befitting descriptor for the deadlift. It’s ridiculous to think that Strongman Eddie Hall merely exercised his way to picking up 500 kg from the floor, or four times Britain’s strongest Woman Andrea Thomson holds the women’s deadlift world record at 280 kg because she exercises. These are displays of raw strength in its most basic and complete form and they didn’t happen by accident. It took dedicated training. How did they train to get their deadlift so strong? By deadlifting.
So, if it’s not an exercise, then what? Is there a succinct way to put it? I’ll try:
The deadlift is both the most elemental way to display raw strength and the best training mechanism to obtain said strength.
How’s was that? Terrible, you say? Okay then...
it’s picking up a weighted barbell from the floor to get stronger and also to display that strength.
It’s a pretty basic really; a barbell, some weight discs and clips are the bare minimum. I’d add to that some proper footwear and a lifting belt. Proper attire would be shorts, long socks and a gym t-shirt . We’ll also discuss wraps and gloves.
When it comes to selecting a barbell, there are choices. There are what are called standard bars, Olympic bars, Elephant bars, Trap/Hex bars, Power bars, Hybrid bars and other specialty bars not suitable for deadlifting.
A standard bar is a bit of a misnomer; it refers to a barbell which has a diameter of 1 inch so that “standard” weight plates can slide on it, but the bar itself is not standardised across the industry, typically ranging from 4 to 7 foot long and are not usually made to withstand heavy lifting. This kind of bar is better suited for casual exercising, which as discussed, is a category the deadlift does not fall within.
We’ll discuss the trap/hex bar next. This is an unusually shaped bar. One that isn’t actually bar shaped, but rather an irregular hexagonal frame that the lifter stands within, with a handle for each hand built within the frame that the lifter grips either side of their legs with a neutral grip, rather than grabbing the bar in front of them like with the straight bars.
Using such a bar for what are termed “hex bar deadlifts”, may sound like a suitable variation to a deadlift, however, it usually causes lifting mechanics that are so far removed from actual deadlifts that it can’t be said that the lifter is actually doing a deadlift. Experienced lifters may have found their own success with them, but more often than not amongst those left feeling their way around the hex bar, they end up using squat mechanics, without the ability to squat to the bottom position of the squat. This makes the trap bar deadlift a partial squat, which does not have the benefits of a full squat (another important strength training movement) and does not have the benefits of a deadlift.
In addition, the bar in never in contact with the body, like when correctly deadlifting with a straight barbell, that there are stability issues that detract from the main purpose of getting strong.
The Elephant bar, made by Rogue is similar to what we will be finally discussing next- the Olympic bar, the Power bar and the Hybrid bar. Except at 9 foot long it is 2 foot longer and pairs with the manufacturers 2 inch wide plates. This causes the bar to feel very different to a deadlift done on an Olympic Bar, and so is trained for as its own type of deadlift by strongmen/strongwomen competitors in addition to the regular strongman/strongwoman deadlift.
And finally, we will talk about the Olympic Bar, Power Bar and Hybrid Bar. These are the bars best suited to deadlifting and are far closer to an industry standard, unlike the “standard bar” talked about above.
Each of the three are approximately 7 foot in length and weigh 20 kg (I make no apology for mixing imperial and metric). An Olympic bar is 28 mm in diameter with 50 mm diameter rotating sleeves on each end to accommodate the Olympic plates. It is called an Olympic bar because it is the standard bar for the sport of Olympic weightlifting (Clean & Jerk and Snatch).
The power bar is the same length and weight as the Olympic bar and also has 50 mm diameter rotating sleeves. The bar itself is slightly thicker at 29 mm, which makes it a stiffer bar than the Olympic bar (which is said to be whippier).
The stiffness of the Power Bar changes the feel of the whip during a fast Olympic lift, and so is not suitable for Olympic lifting, but is the correct bar for the sport of Powerlifting (Squat, Bench press and Deadlift).
Using the whippier Olympic bar when deadlifting technically causes more flex of the bar before the weight plates break from the floor, making the start point of bearing the full weight higher up the legs of the lifter. For training purposes, this effect is only really significant at advanced weights and so it is not of major concern to begin with.
There are some other slight differences between the Olympic and Power bars. This is the hand position markers, but are a concern for the Olympic lifts and the bench press and so will not be discussed here.
The hybrid bar again has the same length, weight and rotating sleeve characteristics, but is 28.5 mm in diameter. This makes it half way between the whippier Olympic Bar and the stiffer Power bar, making it feel not too different to either- a great choice if you want to practice both sports with one bar.
To sum this section about barbells up, if you’re serious about deadlifting, you need either an Olympic Bar, a Power Bar, or a Hybrid bar.
Note: For completeness, I’ll mention that there is also what is called a “deadlift bar” and it is the same as the Olympic/Power/Hybrid bars but 27 mm in diameter and is used in Strongman/Strongwoman deadlift competitions. There are “female Olympic bars” which are 6 foot long and 15 kg with a 25 mm grip with. The 25 mm width was to accommodate smaller hands and the 6 foot length is to match the whip to the 7 foot thicker bar.
Phew! If you’re still with me, well done! Who would have though there was so much to talk about when discussing a barbell?! Thankfully, there’s less to talk about with plates.
They are round discs that slide on to the barbell to make the bar weight incrementally scalable.
Standard plates have a 1 inch hole for the “standard bar” and are usually not sufficiently large enough in outside diameter to place the barbell high enough up the leg for the starting position of a deadlift, further negating the standard bar’s usefulness for deadlift.
Then you have plates with a 2” hole (50 mm + slop) which fit on our Olympic/Power/Hybrid/Deadlift bar. They are often described as being Olympic plates due to the 50 mm hole, but take care here, as the description can mislead you into assuming, they will be of the correct Olympic outside diameter (45 cm) when what they really mean is, they fit an Olympic bar.
When getting plates for your 50 mm sleeved bar, get ones which are 45 cm in outside diameter. They can be steel plates or bumper plates, it’s not too important- although I will mention that the very thick bumper plates can eat up available space on the bar sleeves for adding more weight. The lighter plates can be less than 45 cm as the heavier plates will do the job of setting the starting height for you.
Using plates of a smaller outside diameter throws off the ability to set up for beginning the deadlift, usually by causing the lower back to round, so it’s an important point to get the 45 cm plates.
Another important point is to make sure the plates you get are actually round discs. Polygonal plates were popular in fitness suites for a while and you still see them knocking around from time to time. They are no good for deadlifting, as after you have lifted the bar they will rotate so that when you put back down the bar you end up putting the plate down on its corner, kicking the bar out or in on one or both sides as the plate settles down on to an edge, increasing injury likelihood and throwing out your position for the subsequent rep.
Always put your clips on to secure your plates. These don’t necessarily have to be the full threaded clamping locking plates, with spring clips usually being sufficient. Plastic quick locks are good too, and less cumbersome than the spring clips.
And that’s enough for Part 1. Part 2 will discuss the rest of the equipment (belt, footwear, clothing etc.) and how to execute the deadlift. Part 3 will discuss how to train the deadlift, sensibly progressing it to get stronger.
In the meantime, why not check out our gym theme t-shirt collection below.
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