I have decided to start a blog/training log to share the type of training that I do as a strongwoman and powerlifter AND to have a place where I can share my "athletic" thoughts.
I'll start out by just explaining my training philosophy. I have been following a training program by the great Jill Mills for the past 2 years. Jill Mills won World's Strongest Woman in 2001 and 2002. I trust her explicitly with my programing. I used to live in San Antonio and was able to train with Jill 2-3 times a week. However, I have since moved to Las Vegas, Nevada and no longer have the luxury of training with Jill. I usually train by myself during the week then join Nick Best and his wife, Callie Marunde Best, for strongman events on the weekend.
I train 4 times a week total, with one of those days being strongman event training. I basically follow a powerlifting regiment during the weekday. In my last training cycle I squatted during one session, every week, and deadlift every other week. I have lower back issues so I have to be careful not to overwork my back. When it starts hurting beyond a certain threshold, I call it a day. I believe it's important that a powerlifting program remain at the core of any strongman training plan. The reason is, powerlifting increases your base strength the fastest. The stronger and more stable you are, the more successful you will be at strongman events. Secondly, event training really beats your body up! You CANNOT train events 3-4 times a week. You will not be as successful as possible in my opinion. Instead you will most likely get injured or become frustrated when you quickly hit a plateau.
I currently hold the title of World's Most Powerful Woman in the 75 kg category and I am the Amateur Arnold Strongwoman Fitness Champion. I have an elite total in powerlifting in the 148 lb category but would most likely compete in the 165 lb category a future powerlifting meet. I walk around at about 158-160 lbs but I absolutely HATE cutting. I cut to 148 lbs for the Olympia (single ply powerlifting) and ended up bombing out. There were multiple reasons for that but the weight cut did not help!
Currently I am taking a break from the heavy weights following the three competitions I did right in a row (within one month's time). Those competitions were the Olympia, World's Most Powerful Woman (1st place), and America's Strongest Woman Middleweight (2d place). At America's Strongest Woman I qualified for the 2014 Arnold Strongwoman Fitness competition but, I am debating whether to compete. The weights have recently been announced and they are so light that I'm not at all inspired to train for it. I asked the competition director if I could compete as a heavy weight, because those weights would be challenging and fun for me but, I was told "no." Sooooo, we shall see.
That's it for now! Thanks for reading!!
- Alanna Casey
If you walk around at 160, why not gain 5lbs to compete with the heavyweights at the Arnold?
ReplyDeleteHey there, thank you for the question. I WANT to compete as a heavy weight at the Arnold but was told that I couldn't bc i qualified as a middleweight. So i either compete as a middleweight or not at all... I know, it sucks.
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