For those of you coming to my blog for the first time, this is a short review of the small part we played in helping Matt complete his world record attempt. He has a fantastic family and friends group from all around the world who were there on the day to help make this possible. I would like to thank them all for their kind words and encouragement that helped Matt on the day.
How we helped Matt
This is just a small part of how Matt Smith broke the 9 Hour Ewe Strong Wool Shearing World Record
How Did He Do That ?
A question that many of us are still trying to fathom out!!
It is not every day that you get to be involved with a record attempt….let alone a world record attempt. Then you couple that with the fact that this record was done with the variable of a live animal (731 to be precise) over 9 hours and you have yourself a very unique challenge.
Now many of you will know that I have dabbled in some long “ish” distance triathlons over the last few years….but let me set this straight, you can give me one of them any day of the week over this challenge.
Back in November 2014, Matt and Pip came to my studio with a dvd of him shearing and showed me what he wanted to do in July 2015. I was, naturally excited about helping him with that challenge, it was different, it was to be a learning curve for us all.
Unfortunately things didn’t work out, the sheep that Matt was hoping to use and the farm he was due to do the record at became unavailable.
World record holders (to be) do not give up! Matt then after a pretty tough and soul destroying set back set about putting together a plan to do it on his own farm here in the South West.
Buying sheep, setting up his farm to look after the extra sheep and putting together with the incredible support from his wife, a team around him that make feats like this possible.
The Journey 2016
From our perspective, I put together an outline plan for Matt. Our primary key objectives were:
– To get Matt healthy after a very “enjoyable” month in NZ in December 2015.
– Begin the fat loss necessary to make sure that it was sustainable and enabled him to perform well in his job.
– Help him get his nutrition started from an early point
– Find him a sports therapist to keep him “sound” and work on a body that takes a hammering.
I broke down the weeks and months leading up to the event and then discussed with Mike Goodman who has been working with me for over 5 years now. We started off with some baseline fitness assessments and I gave Matt a nutritional plan for him to begin this journey. Mike has to take a lot of the credit for the way he handled Matt’s programme and always going the extra mile to make sure those sessions were optimised and adapted for days when Matt wasn’t feeling 100% or needed to get away early to shear, well that’s what he told us 😉
We gave Matt home sessions to do whilst on the road shearing which he would do also when he couldn’t make it to the studio for his 6:30am session. By the way that was very rare and normally involved an animal on the loose or another animal based emergency. Matt was also given a post shearing mobility routine to follow. This side of the programme is often under valued, but if you see the pictures and videos of Matt shearing he moves beautifully and you don’t get that by doing bench press and sitting on leg extension machines in the gym!
Here is the plan that Mike and I put together back in January/February this year
• Mobility routines- provided by Mike to change every 6-8 weeks. Aim to improve and aid recovery and reduce tension in lower back from shearing.
• 8 Home sessions that he could do if something comes up
• Events – Matt Smith to send us a list of shows so that we can ease off training on the BIG shows and smaller shows we will train through.
• Dates for Finland- foam roller and lacrosse ball with him.
• Ultrasound body composition testing every 5 weeks- measure resting metabolic rate,hydration, muscle mass, fat mass.
• First 5/6 weeks– heavier and general strength based ( 2 sessions per week) ( 1 session conditioning- longer steadier rounds)
• Second 5 weeks- (7th march) ( 1 core and movement specific , 1 short intervals HIIT, 1 longer interval session- include mobility)
• Third 5 weeks (11th april) (strength and cardio rounds- keeping movements close to shearing as possible in 2 out of 3 sessions)-
• weight of sheep?? (work general work day 70kg- record day 55kg)…Third session WORK CAPACITY- AMRAPS, WORK FOR TIME, loading (30x30kg=900Kg)
• Fourth 5 weeks (9th may)– (2 sessions per week– power endurance- metabolic legs, pulling, pushing, core) (1 pyramid/accumulator session per week)
• Last phase- tapering but maintaining strength- higher rets periods, supersets (ANTAGONISTIC PAIRS)
HR monitoring/ Testing
* Heart rate when shearing- Matt to do.
* Resting HR
* Suggest lactate threshold testing 28th Feb- (didn’t do this in the end)
* 5th Feb- initial testing day.
* sweat testing to accurately measure rate of electrolyte loss and design a plan to replenish to prevent cramp.
WOW>>>> you may say why so detailed…….simply……because on this occasion “close wasn’t good enough”. That is and has been my mantra for Matt since we started.
He has the incredible skill, he has the mental capacity like very few people who I have met before and I WAS NOT PREPARED TO LET HIM DOWN!
I asked Matt if it is ok for me to share with a few of his personal stats.
He went from 19.6%(the red line) body fat in February 2016, to 18.8 in March, to 11.9% in July 2016. He weighed 108Kg at the start and ended up with a start weight on the day of 88kg (after breakfast). His resting heart rate was 36 bpm and his blood pressure was spot on in the lead up to the big day….the guy was in the best shape he could be.
On the day:
- Danny Groves, gave Matt a massage that would invigorate him and get his neurological and muscular systems fired up, but we were really careful not to do this with Matt because he is an excitable sort of chap.
- We weighed Matt at the start and the end of each round to make sure he wasn’t losing too much fluid.
- Off the back of the results we had back from Precision Hydration on Matt’s sweat testing, I worked out how many milligrams of sodium, potassium and other minerals I thought he needed. I combined this with the number of grams I thought he would need to sustain the intensity needed to reach his goal of each sheep being less than 44 seconds. I knew that the biggest limiting factor in performance would be carb intake and cramp avoidance. We did a good job on that with Matt, some guys have lost 7kg of weight……we kept him within 1 kg all day.
- Each time we gave him a drink , I wanted him to have 120ml every 7.5 mins. To achieve this we gave him 150ml in each cup to account for any spillages. He had 49g of liquid carbs per hour and then we topped him up with some non fibrous carbs, good fats and proteins during the day. I wont bore you with everything he ate, but he did have the trusty bannna omelette…….yep THE BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS.
- Matt had regular massages from Danny for 5-15 mins, his wife Pippa made sure his food was ready, he had changes of clothes, clean towels and young Dusty was in there getting involved with the mobility drills that Mike did before each bout of shearing for 5 mins.
Why so precise…..because “CLOSE IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH” .
The Result
Matt absolutely smashed this record, one which many experts across the world didn’t think was possible, especially in the UK.
With 6 minutes to go the announcer shouted out “722”…the record was broken.
Matt had done it…..did he stop….did he hell….remember Matt has that blend of Fitness, Attitude and Skill that meant he shore at the same rate in the last 6 minutes as he did in the first 6 minutes.
To be fair the atmosphere in the shed got to me in the end……I knew how much he wanted this….I wanted it just as much and so did everyone in that shed….it was overwhelming.
After the event Matt was obviously tired but his heart rate after 5 mins was back in the 70bpm’s range and oxygen saturation back up to 100%.
I could not have been prouder to be part of the day, thanks Matt and Pip for allowing Mike, Danny and I to play our part.
Matt
p.s. It appears Matt is feeling pretty good today…..
