America's Strongest Woman Results

As promised, I told you I would post my results as soon as possible regarding my placing at the America's Strongest Woman Show. As you know, I have only been training with strongman implements for about two months now. I made the decision to train in Las Vegas with Nick Best, current World's Srongest Man competitor, and retired world ranked World's Strongest Man competitor, Mark Phillipi. Under their careful guidance, they trained me so that I would peak for this show. Just two short months ago, I was just learning the finer nuances of handling the implements for this national level contest, which attracted the finest of North America's strongest woman, many of which are veterans of these shows for a minimum of five years, and in most cases, more. Despite that fact, I knew I was up against a really experienced field of women, I was confident, even with minimal training that I could win the Overhead Clean & Press Log at 170 lbs, the 550 lb car dead lift, the 240 pound stone over a 50" bar for repetitions in 60 seconds, and, I knew the 200 lb keg for distance would be a challenge, but with my long, powerful arms, which are great for stones and carrying events, I would be competitive.

Day one, I was the number three big girl in the OH C&P. My personal best was 8 in training, so I was gunning for 10, under meet conditions and adrenaline fueled. I am accustomed to training in weather between 80-110 F. The day we started, it was only around 60 F. As fired up as I got, I was a bit slower out of the gates, and sometimes, when one gets nervous, you forget the finer points of lifts that make you more relaxed and in the groove. In my case, since 170 lbs is fairly light for me, I ended up strict pressing the first 4 reps to everyones amazement and awe. And, I did not dip my head through fast enough and use my legs to explode out of the bottom, a very common mistake for me when I can manhandle the weight. Anything over 200, and, of course, I am far more aware of the fact that I must not cheat on brute strength, but also use my legs. So, strict pressing takes more energy and oxygen, and takes a greater wear on the body, which is not good in a sprint event. I actually began to pause on rep 6, 7, & 8, which I lost valuable time on. Upon my completion, the reigning champion, Kristin Rhodes, and American OH record holder approached me and tapped my hand, asking me what my rep count was, since she knew that was what she had to beat. Other girls just shook their heads and advised me I did not even use my legs, and I just laughed, and was both glad and mad at my performance. Just a few moments later, Rhodes repaid out 8 reps, and we tied. My two toughest events were up next, the yoke and the farmer's walk.

I have trained with Nick Best's yoke, and it is far heavier than the yoke at the meet, which, in my estimation is a good thing. I tore my left calf muscle early in my preparation for these events, in late August. I was using Mark Phillipi's yoke, which has an independent loading system, and it was only my second yoke run. It was serious enough, that I had no choice but to take time off all sprinting and loaded events, and focus on static strength, such as dead lifting, stones, and overhead pressing. I have been getting extensive massage and rehab done to it, and now, even though the calf is better, it has traveled down to the attachement at the Achilles tendon, which hurts whenever I try to sprint or move fast. To date, I have only used Nick's yoke three times, and have only made it through the entire course with several yoke drops, which is not only obviously inefficient, but painful on the lumbar. My yoke time was one of the worst, if not the worst at 34 seconds. The average time from winning to middle of the pack must have been around 13 seconds to around 30. And, finally, the farmers walk was not great, but better than the yoke, with 18 seconds time. I was miserable in the cold weather, and the standing around, something I am not accustomed to. My back was stiff, tight, and I felt miserable after those two events after watching these girls just smoke these events. But, I also knew that, I did not train these events at all during my preparation with the exception of a couple of times, due to my injury. My only hope to save the day was the dead lift.

I was the number three heavyweight girl to pull on the dead lift. The meet promoters decided to change out from the car with three boards, and I had to wake up. It was getting darker and colder out. I was getting my head ready to pull, and they told us to strap in. Dionne Wessels, the show director and NAS proprietor, was my judge. She told us to relax as the big men lifting the cars were still suiting up in their suits and strapping in--and nothing is more frustrating than getting in position and having to wait. My coach, Eddie, started yelling my name, "Amber!" And his voice is hard to hear, over the crowd I finally looked over at him, and motioned that I had not hooked by belt. This would have been a potentially fatal error on my part, even though the 550 load felt like it was only about 315 to me on a traditional dead lift. Although my core is strong, this may have been a critical factor in getting the last several reps. I was in my zone and the reps just ripped off the ground. I nearly locked out 25. There was one girl, Ann Vanderbush that got 19, and Christian Lafex and another girl got 17 reps. I could sleep easily, knowing that I would be the last heat in the keg, which was a good thing to know the distance to beat.

Day two, going into the keg, a darkhorse competitor by the name of Jana Hoffman carried the keg two and three quarter lengths. I knew that I had to get three lengths to beat her. I was pretty confident I could do it. I watched most of the top contenders fail after about 1.5 laps and many of them readjusted and then failed. My best training run was only little over two lengths. In my mind, I know I can do three, even though I had not yet traveled that far with it, as I have only carried the keg for distance on two separate occasions. I felt dizzy after the first 80 feet, but not bad, then turned at 160, as I looked up toward the sky, trying to control my breathing and pace. My legs began to feel very heavy and my grip was starting to slip a bit. I decided to reposition a bit by squatting down, then kept going, when all of a sudden, I felt my hamstrings and legs locking up and not wanting to move. My mind wanted to go forward, but finally, my legs collapsed out from under me and I just laughed as I fell to the ground, but very disappointed, because I knew that it was going to be close or just short of Jana's distance.

To be continued, I am at a pub in Memphis, so I am running out of time to get to my gate! Cheers...stay tuned!

North America's Strongest Woman

I am sitting here in my hotel room in Tunica, Mississippi, relaxing in preparation for North America's Strongest Woman competition, which kicks off tomorrow. I feel very good, and as ready as I am going to be. Although I decided I would prepare for this show only two short months ago, I have made every workout count, every rep count, and every morsel of food and day of rest count. I feel stronger than ever, very calm and relaxed, and yet supercharged at the same time. As a lifelong athlete, it's a cool feeling getting the competitive vibe.

When I first started training implements, my weight shot up to 220, but after a couple months of training, my weight stabilized to 210-212 and I look better and am stronger than ever at this weight.

Day one is overhead press 170 lbs for reps in 60 seconds, yoke, 550 x 80 yards, farmers walk, 200 lbs each hand, and car dead lift, about 500 lbs. Day two is keg 200 lbs for distance, and then finally, 240 lbs stone over bar at 50". I feel great for all events and will post photos, vidclips and results here as soon as I can. I will also backtrack and post my New Hampshire win. For the past month, I have only focused on my training and relaxation, so I put my website(s) and other business endeavors on a brief hold. I appreciate each and every one of you that follow me here on this blog and my Facebook account, as well as my websites, and thank you from the bottom of my heart for your devoted support.

I am very blessed to have made it this far, and would like to thank everyone and the Universe that has that has conspired in getting me here today. Many sentient beings have helped me in my journey to where I am at this moment in time. I am living my dream...and, as always, stay tuned to the Steel Universe! Aho, Ponca-sa

North America's Strongest Woman

Strongwoman Competitions

Strongwoman training in Las Vegas

So, I took a bit of time off from my training this past summer, as I do from time to time. But, it came at a time when I trained my heavy overhead pressing with my benching and squatting, and all my numbers were way up. OH pressing was back to 215x2-3 reps, squatting and benching over 300 raw. So, this gave me a good base for a short layoff, which I took mainly to focus on my production work for Goddess of Fetish. I am kind of like a squirrel gathering nuts for the winter, making sure I produced enough content to get me through the winter, so I can focus on my training, Strongwoman shows, touring in November, and holiday with family in December.

I am training at Nick Best's place, where he has all of the implements that I will ever see. And, most importantly, between Nick and his wife, Callie, I have a couple of experts that have been in the sport for many years to fine tune my technique on the events. The first time I went to train at Nick's, which is usually Sundays, mid morning on into mid afternoon, when the Vegas sun is at it's highest, he put me through the ringer. I had only gone with the intention that I was going to master one event at a time. Nick just kept pushing me through all the events I would do in a typical competition. I started off with the log press, and got talked into farmers walk, tire flip with sled, deadlift, and then stones at the end. It was grueling, but fun. I learned a lot about technique and also that I could make it through the events.

During the week, I train at Mark Phillipi's Sports Institute, where I combine my strength training with some implements. I am preparing for two major shows--September 24th and November 5th. The first show is a qualifier for nationals, and the nationals are on the 5th of November. So, I still have to train heavy, but also condition for speed. I take my days off seriously, only swimming and getting massage and steam to keep my muscles flexible and recovered.

I am at my all time strongest ever, and I know I have lots of room for improvement since I am so new to the sport. It has reinvigorated my competitive drive and has given me focus. My bodyweight is right around 217-220 now. I do not do any extra cardio, as most of the events require anaerobic/sprint type drive and power with some endurance. Lifting the implements has helped put the weight on, and I must say, it is quality weight! It sure makes everything much easier to lift! Stay tuned for my progress notes.

Strong Woman Training

I have always admired power, and strength. To me, the human body in motion, performing amazing feats of strength is beautiful. Perhaps that is why I have taken so quickly to training for strong woman events. As many of you may already know, I have been honing the skill of overhead pressing, both barbells and people. Remember in the old days, maybe a few hundred years ago, you would see the old strongmen and women doing these one armed feats of strength with either barbells, dumbells, kettlebells, or people? The true hallmark of the strength of a man was how much weight he could put up overhead. And, still, to this day, it is still a good indication for several reasons. First of all, one must have the joint mobility in the shoulders and incredible upper back, trapezius, and shoulder strength, as well as very strong abdominals, and lower back muscles. The legs come into play, as in a push press, a fast, dynamic start allows the lifter to get more weight up effectively overhead. It can prove to be a dangerous lift, if one does not immediately stabilize the weight, whether it is a barbell or human, as the back could get misaligned. And, the wrists, hands and elbows must be both flexible and strong to handle the weight. As you can see, I have studied the movement and many great lifters, and look to hone my skill every time I go to the gym to train.

My most recent strength skill I am developing are working with the Atlas stones. Now, there are varying circumferences for both men and women in both competition and training. Most beginners and women will start with the 18" stone, which, are shown in this recent video. On my first attempt at lifting stones, I was able to lift the 195 lbs to 55", 235 lbs to 50", and the 280 lbs to 41". I felt as though they were natural to lift, and I enjoyed the learning process. I then attempted the 20" (typically the men's competition girth) 310 lb stone. I struggled to even move it off the ground initially. After a couple more tries, I was able to "lap it", meaning, set it into my lap, which is the hardest part of the movement. From there, it's all hip thrust in getting it to the desired platform. I was so happy to even move that stone! I have found it takes extremely deep concentration, technique, and some anger to conquer any stone. And, I also learned that you must respect any stone, whether it is 5 lbs or 500 pounds, your technique should always be consistent, and never assume that, just because a stone is lighter, it does not deserve to be respected. That is how injuries occur. So, getting it the proper mindset is of crucial importance. Oherwise, you should just quit and go home if you do not have "it" that day. There will be other days, and sometimes there is no sense in trying so hard you may harm yourself in the process.

For now, I find that strong woman training has put the passion back into my lifts. It has given me the focus, drive, and passion to get into the gym and push/pull heavy weight. The fact that I have always had an innate desire just to be strong, is an internal flame that will always burn inside of me.

Stay tuned for more videos of my feats of strength and gym clips! I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Monday--Leg Day

I am beginning my new four day a week routine. Last summer, I was on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday routine, eating what I want, and resting as much as possible. While that worked quite well, it is time for me to step up my game. Particularly if I am going to perform my Amazon Medley for you all! So, I am back to basics, eating a Paelo diet comprised mostly of wild game, which includes bison, ostrich, venison and elk. I am lucky to have friends that are hunters, so one of my training partners is going to give me some elk and my favorite, oryx! Yay. Since I am American Indian, I am going to see what I can do to get on a hunt this year, hopefully before the winter. All of the wild game from my suppliers has sky rocketed, so what's a hungry Amazon to do? Send her tribe of men out, or go get it herself? Well, either way, it will get accomplished.

I met Branch Warren, Arnold Classic Champion, and Mr. Olympia runner up to Jay Cutler, at our local Max Muscle here in Albuquerque this past weekend. He told me he is a big time game hunter, and gets a bison every year up in Wyoming, and also hunts a lot of deer on his land in Texas. He pretty much diets on all wild game, which I found interesting. I find that if you do not provide your body with the most wholesome, wild food sources, your body will not really perform or look optimal, and you will not feel as good. The quality of protein/fat ratio of wild game literally blows the barn doors off of USDA cattle, which often is marbled with intramuscular fat, which, in my opinion, is the worst kind, because you can only cut the white part off that you see is fat. Now, every once in a while, I go out to a big name steak house franchise, but really only as a treat.

It was great to "chew the fat", literally and figuratively, with Branch at Texas Land and Cattle (which my filet was disgustingly marbled), as he talked about his early beginnings in his bodybuilding career. He won the Nationals in 2001 to get his pro card, and trains at the famous Metroflex in Arlington, Texas, where Ronnie Coleman trains. He told us some good stories about his travels before he headed off to the airport. All in all, I got the feeling, that Branch is a hard working guy, with an inspirational work ethic in his professional career and personal life. It is not surprising to see he leads the path of a true and honorable warrior, and I think it will not be long before he is crowned the kind of men's bodybuilding.

It was great to reunite with old comrades in the bodybuilding industry here in New Mexico. I remember my first show, back in 2003, where I won the Mid-USAs as a heavyweight, and I had no idea what a career changing event bodybuilding would have on my life! All the amazing people I have met, both fans and friends, and loyal supporters of Goddess of Fetish, which I am extremely grateful for.

The nice, long restful weekend, while meeting some inspirational people, fueled my workout for the day. I took a few weeks off from my normal routine to help a good friend of mine in San Diego, with some back surgery. After nearly a month off from training, I have not lost any strength, and I am highly motivated. Sometimes, after a layoff from training, you feel a little rusty. I did not allow any of these weak thoughts to permeate my mind, and kept a positive mental attitude before a very late night to start legs. I even used my training bands tonight. I put the green bands on and had four plates on each side. The bands actually help you "out of the hole", (the bottom) but, nonetheless, it was still good to take the weight on my meaty traps just to get used to the feeling. More video workout journals, I believe they are called "vlogs" now, to come this week! Stay tuned.