Plans for Rest of the Year and Next Year

 I am glad to be back home after the traveling. Fun to be there but that’s vacation talk and walking at pace like I don’t have anywhere to be or having a job to do. Thankfully didn’t have a rough time with readjusting to the time difference (though the weather if for the birds here haha). I can’t wait to do it all over again.

There are still 4 months of this year left but I’m already on to next year. Mostly I think because I already know the timeline of things and what my focus is going to be. I want to get back to the big show again as this year and last year have been the most fun I’ve had at this level of competition. Unless something dramatically changes with Strongman Corporation, I’m likely not renewing stuff when membership expires next year. I’ve no interest in United States Strongman or Official Strongman Games. 

Qualification for Natural Strongman for 2027 season is different from the previous two years. They had tested out a more standardized option with competitions in the UK and Ireland with having the same events regardless which show you did and then getting a leaderboard to compare across the nation. That seemed to work out for the pilot program so that is what it will be for everywhere this time. All the regional qualifiers will have the same events so doesn't make sense to travel outside of comfort zone if that is the case. No advantage to going to a different region as will not be just who you compete against there but everyone competing in the US as well as the other countries participating. 

Additionally, winning the regional doesn't guarantee qualification for World's, only for Nationals. The inaugural contest was in January this year for US Nationals and it was open contest so no invite. I didn’t do it because I thought the events were boring and I was hopeful that other competitions had better events. Now there is greater emphasis with the National event. Win the regional event, get invite to Nationals. Even if you don’t win the regional, top 10-12 nationally get invite to Nationals and then potentially top 3-5 at Nationals also get invite to World's. Also could do well enough at the regional event that globally in the top rankings and could bypass Nationals and get Worlds invite as well. So nothing really guaranteed and best to plan for having to do 2 shows to get to World’s

So this would be the tentative schedule:

East Coast Regional - 1/16/27 (NJ) – 20 weeks
Nationals - 5/15/27 (NJ) – 18 weeks
Worlds - 8/27-29/27 (TX) – 15 weeks

I'm signed up for Masters this coming year as I don't feel unless something dramatically goes well this off season prep where I get back to the strength I had 4yrs ago I'm not going to be able to hang with open HW class. It won’t be a good time. I can still compare to other masters and heavy open class since same events (with trump/mercy options). The events are very boring because they are standardized but my hope is that Nationals will be interesting events and then we know Worlds always does have interesting stuff with the standard in the mix.

The only sure thing is the regional show I’ve signed up for as everything else will be invite only. One of the blessings I guess with the events being so basic is that I can work on things this offseason and really only need to do like 8-9 weeks of focused prep on non-gym lift stuff. 2 weeks of GPP focus and then 6 weeks of hypertrophy focus (also triphasic stuff for dip drive for log) and then 3-4 week kind of pivot from that last block to the competition peak/prep.

Besides the workout plan, I am also trying to keep track my mental state with things and adjust accordingly. I’ve been working on the self-talk/internal dialog to be direct with myself and not going third person passive. I’ve been detailing prep plans with competitions and putting forth expectations and goals of competition and prep. Redoubling my efforts for positive vs negative self-talk with reframing thinking and scenarios for a healthier focus. Picking that up from one of the Aussie competitors that was with me on the stone tour. So putting my best foot forward for this next year.