About

From being very young I have admired strength in many forms, whether it was on the TV or watching my father lift things, it has always inspired me and always will.
Even now if I think something looks like it can be lifted then I will give it a try, you name it, rocks, bags, logs….anything!

This was a common trait as a youngster, I was always lifting bags of cement, old axles, rocks and trying to throw things, no matter how big. Resulting many times in cuts and bruises and sometimes broken bones.

I bought my first York barbell kit when I was 13 and had many a weightlifting competition in my bedroom with friends, just the basic lifts, cleans, deadlifts, and overhead pressing. The manuals I learnt from were old and never really featured bench pressing etc Just the good old standard routines that came with York weights.

Deep Knee Bends (squats)
Bent Row
Military Press
Upright Row
Barbell Curls etc……

With some basic strength training under my belt at age 13 I entered a shot putt competition in place of my brother who was sick and won. I represented my area and was hooked on throwing from this point onwards. In fact it’s safe to say I was ‘obsessed’ with throwing discus and putting the shot. I spent most of my time from age 14 to 22 training for throwing.

From 1993 I took throwing more seriously and started training 6 days a week ,  at this point I went from average to pretty good gaining international honours in both events on 7 occasions.

What training for throwing gave me was explosive power through heavy powerlifting, heavy olympic lifting, masses of sprinting and plyometrics. In addition to this I also did a massive amount of cardiovascular training which is not what you would expect from a thrower, but was part of the system developed by my coach to give me the endurance to throw at my best on every throw.

Every session began with at least 10 mins running, 10 mins of drills and usually ended with sprints, killer circuit training sessions, pitch rotations or jumps through a sand pit followed by bounding depending on the time of year.

My throwing career came to a halt on 7 March 1997 when I had a serious car crash and sustained a triple fracture to my right femur which put me on crutches for 7 months. I returned to throwing from 2002 onwards to a lesser degree than what I left at, achieving many good results but never the distances I had previously done.

There is part of me that feels that it is a chapter that needs closing out on a personal best, at age 35 it feels like it is slowly dissapearing out of my grasp. Who knows maybe I’ll give it one last shot, not too far from now! Many throwers have thrown world class distances at 40+

I still stand by the fact there is ‘no magic routine or exercise’ only hard work and perseverance will get you there. I am not foolish enough to believe that your training shouldn’t be intelligent but this entirely depends on what your goals are. I do not need periodization anymore for being a garage strongman. I feel too many people spend more time analyzing and looking at their training than they do actual training. So if that’s you then get a grip and do some ‘actual work’

My advice would be to train and do what you enjoy most, working on your weak points and varying your training as much as possible. If you want to achieve a specific goal then train specifically – you do not become a good rower by going cycling.

Most of all listen to your body and learn by feel, don’t just blindly take advice from someone else, try and work things out along the way. You know yourself better than anybody else, too many athletes just train – TRAIN INTELLIGENTLY for better results.