[CHALLENGE]

On 18-20 September 2009, Virtualmeet.net will hold it's first challenge meet. What is it you may ask? It's something out of the ordinary. It's playful. It's a meet like no other meet. And that's all we know about it at this stage. 

In a nutshell: we will organize a meet consisting of 3-6 lifts that are not part of our ordinary fare. No squats, no bench presses, no deadlifts, no snatches, no clean and jerks. Which lifts will be contested is up for you to choose. It can be any happy mixture of assistance exercises that are safe to go heavy on, any of the "odd lifts", grip work, bodyweight exercises... you name it. It doesn't necessarily need to be for singles either, it can be for reps, for... And it doesn't have to be the exercises you know you excel at... think CHALLENGE.

The only limitations are:

• The lifts must not require any specialty equipment beyond what you can reasonably expect to find in most gyms: While Rolling Thunders, log presses or kettlebell swings would be cool, we want to give everyone a chance to experience this meet.
• The lifts must be safe in a common-sense sort of way: Lifting heavy iron is never 1000% safe, but let's forget maxing out on good mornings, old-school leg presses (barbell resting on the feet), overhead plate throwing...
• The lifts must be judgeable and video tapeable: For example, it could be quite hard to judge an all-out wrist curl.

So please go ahead and suggest lifts below. Suggesting lifts does not imply that you must also compete. The final verdict on which lifts get selected will be based on popularity, balance between lifts (ideally the meet is a happy mix of max work, dynamic work, rep work... the meet should not favor powerlifters over weightlifters for example), safety and suitability for video based judging.

The deadline to suggest lifts is June 11th, one month from now. If needed, a short vote round will then be arranged to determine final lifts. After that a basic set of rules for the meet will be drawn up.

Questions? Also welcome below.

Very much looking forward to seeing where this will go. Will this become a Virtualmeet.net tradition? Or is it a total flop? You decide.

How intriguing! Hmmm, how about push-up variations - one-armed, perhaps? And/or pull-ups?

It's still early days, but yeah... we could do stuff like pull-ups or push-ups... but rest assured that we would then put in another exercise that put the heavier folk at an advantage to balance things out.

... very easy to do:

one-hand-deadlift ( n o   hookgrip) with the regular-bar.

rules: lifting to the knees. no lock out or hold needed. this is a grip-strength-discipline.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...Cc1LI&feature=channel_page

A Turkish Get Up max is one of the hardest 1-rep max lifts ever.  We use it as a challenge lift around these parts fairly often. DB, BB, KB, sandbag, whatever ya got. 

I vote strict curl and overhead press.

One-arm-push-ups could be done in so many different ways, not easy to judge/compare. Don't like that.

Even normal push-ups are not easy to compare.

But why not a pull-up variation? For example one-rep max or repetition maximum with bodyweight, deadhanging and chin over the bar.

I like Walters idea of the one-arm deadlift.

Turkish get up is also a nice and challenging idea.

Strict curls are easy to cheat, overhead press is fine.


In my opinion we should find a good mixture of maximum strength exercises and metabolic work.

How about one-arm-snatch!?

Second what Ramon stated. We would have to agree on how the pull ups are done e.g. from complete stop at bottom and maybe paused at the top (chin over the bar).
I'd throw in Front Squats (e.g. BW for reps or max) and/or hack squats as an idea. Maybe not overhead squats since those could be dangerous going for max weight or reps.
What about DB exercises: DB Bench Press, military press, Front Squat with DB, ...? Or walk for time with heavy DBs?

Yeah, one handed deadlifting sounds fun.

I still think that the strict curl is worth considering, as long as it is judged correctly. Indeed, many people routinely cheat when curling, so it would be interesting and challenging to the ego if nothing else.

A bit on on judging it here, plus a load more ideas.....:

http://www.oddlifts.com/lifts.html

Excellent suggestions so far everyone!

As a quick comment to the strict curl: there are indeed solid rules available for it as it is a competitive sport in its own right and judging should not be a problem if we roll with it. We actually had a strict curl meet scheduled for next week in the 2009 meet schedule proposal but it was removed in favor of this week's deadlift affair.

While not a good idea for the curl, we don't necessarily need to go for the strict version of all lifts. For example, we could go for all-you-can-eat push presses where you are allowed to use as much legs as you want to get the bar overhead instead of, say, a heels together ultra-strict press.

If it weren't both an equipment and space problem, I would personally love to put in a shot put or some kind of throwing event in here. More realistically, I also love Walter's idea of the one handed deadlift and I think Christian's idea of getting some dumbell work in there is a great one too. But it may be a bad idea to go for exercises that require really heavy dumbells as that would make it a no-go for many of our home gym participants, or what do you think?

And a suggestion of my own: the Jefferson lift. Never tried it, but it's sort of been in the back of my mind for some time. If we go with front squats, I suggest ass to the grass style (eg. rock bottom)... perhaps for reps?

Keep it coming!

While not a good idea for the curl, we don't necessarily need to go for the strict version of all lifts.

Just bumped into a German rule set for the cheating curl by accident (English Google translate translation). While I don't advocate that we add it, it was interesting to see that it is a contested lift.

Loved the google translation ;-)

I see that DBs would be a problem. I use a set of DBs that can hold anywhere from 5 to 50 kg a piece but obviously not everybody has these.
Front Squats ATG of course.
Once we settle on the lifts we should have a rule thread for each.

How about handstand press ups for reps?

More here: http://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2.../05/tiger-bends-em-orlick.html

... strict curls are hard to fake, when you use this rules:

http://www.rb-germany.com/StrictCurlRules.html

there is an "internet-competition", hosted by thorsten moser (rb germany).

I like the idea of having something for reps in there.  I also like the turkish get up, I've been meaning to learn that one for a while and this would give some motivation.

The other one I thought would be fun would be a box jump for height, although I'm not sure if most people would have equipment for it.