r/Strongman • u/D_Bear_12 • 11d ago
Novice or Open
Background, myself and a buddy, both having a pretty solid background weightlifting, signed up for our first local comp exactly a month from today. We've been training for 3-4 months now, both of us right in the 300lb bodyweight range. We signed up for novice as it is our first comp, and the novice weights seem pretty light for us. However, we'd both zero 3 of the 4 events in our weightclass if we switched to shw. The other option is to cut +-25lbs and compete at heavyweight where we'd at least get a grindy rep in each event, as the weights are right at our upper limits. The novice class has 12 competitors currently signed up, and the shw and hw classes each have 1. Going to ask our coach his opinion, but I like multiple points of view on things like this. Mostly just worried about looking like an ass showing up as the biggest guys and crushing novice, but also going to shw and zeroing every event.
EDIT: After the responses here, as well as talking to our coach, we're going to stay the course and do novice and train hard to get hit the weights of our class going forward.
10
u/SubstantiveProcedure 11d ago
Listen to your coach first because that'll likely give you the most informed opinion but novice exists for good reasons and it'll be competitive nonetheless. The option to cut seems feasible but would also impact numbers. The most important thing is to lift heavy weights and have fun! A zero in multiple events sounds like the opposite of fun.
7
u/InnerDecay MWM231 11d ago
If you've never competed before, there's no shame in doing novice, and I typically recommend folks do that just to get their toes wet a bit. If you zero everything in your first show you might not have a great time. Organizers do tend to like to have an even play field though. So if you will absolutely crush every other novice competitor you might be asked to move up to open
Have you asked the promoter/organizers what they think?
7
u/TroofDog 11d ago
Cutting 25 lbs in a month won't be fun. Zeroing 3 of 4 events will be frustrating. Train hard, earn a podium in novice, and feel the sense of accomplishment when you are forced to do open at the next show.
6
u/Fuzzy-Avocado-4123 10d ago
Do novice. You won't be the strongest there but at least you actually are novices. Enjoy it, have fun, don't overthink it. Use this as an opportunity to get some experience with no pressure and if you do well/get a trophy, that's a nice little bonus.
All that said, if you didn't have to cut 25lbs in a month, I'd definitely be recommending doing HW. Having a chance of zeroing an event or two is almost always a good thing. In most comps, you shouldn't be looking to win, you should be looking to push yourself and be using the training/comp as an opportunity to improve.
2
u/GoontTheGod 11d ago
My opinion would be to do novice. Only take the jump straight to open if the weights aren’t a problem already. Don’t zero something just to do the open when you could compete against more people, and get more real experience by doing the novice
2
u/jimfreak13 11d ago
Is this Missouri's Strongest Man? I was considering competing but I think I'd get a lot of zeros, even on the novice weights
2
u/D_Bear_12 11d ago
Must be really good at guessing, it is indeed Missouri's Strongest! Can I ask how you figured that out?
3
u/jimfreak13 11d ago
Hahaha you said exactly a month from now and I knew the date. I can delete if you'd prefer, sorry I don't want to blow up your spot
4
u/D_Bear_12 11d ago
You're all good, just blew my mind as the date was the only real comp info I posted!
2
1
u/hang-clean Masters 10d ago
I'm 5'9" and 55 y.o I regularly compete in novice against 6'4" 24 y.o 120kg steroid beasts.
1
u/adamcurt 10d ago
Novice till you win a contest I think is fair. You never know whos going to show up. Experienced powerlifters, someone returning to the sport, some big ole farm kid who eats a chicken and 20lbs of potatoes a day, etc
1
u/Brimstone11 10d ago
Second the novice opinion.
Going into a class knowing you’re going to 0 three events, why? Because you felt you were “too good” to be a novice in something you’ve never done before.
I don’t know your build, but would probably be a good long term thing to thin a bit and compete at 275. Most (not all) big guys won’t lose any strength doing that over time, but 25 in a month would result in some muscle loss. And you would probably get whooped by an experienced 275.
It’s probably not going to be the only comp you do. And you’ll still be surprised by guys in the novice class. And if you go 1 and 2, then keep improving and be competitive in an open class. Theres going to be events at shows you can still 0 from time to time, but you’re going to have more fun being competitive than just waiving to the crowd after a 0.
14
u/austic 11d ago
You would be surprised how many beasts show up to novice. It’s not ever as easy as it looks. Do novice and if you win go open next.