Actually that may be one of the most inaccurate titles ever because my new strong person toy is actually definitely a yoke!

But who can resist that sort of pun 😀

Ok it was a terrible pun, I apologise…I am not changing it though 😀

Anyway, back to this yoke. For those of you not super clued up on strongman/woman events, a yoke is a great big frame that goes almost down to the floor and you hang weights off the bottom. It sits across your shoulders and, other than that, bears almost no resemblance to the wooden thing that milkmaids once used.

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In both of the competitions I have to do, yoke walks feature…and seem to be getting heavier every time I look at the competition pages…

So, imagine my delight when an almost brand new yoke showed up on facebook marketplace they are serious bits of kit and under normal circumstances represent a rather bigger outlay than I can justify. Thank goodness for the second hand gym equipment market! This one had been owned by a PT studio in Littlehampton and (from the look of it) never used. The chap we got it from claims noone would use it as it was too heavy!

Perfect for me! I want all the things that people assume are too heavy!!

It is a blooming awkward thing to get used to, not helped by the fact that I have to use it in my garden which is a little slopey and quite a lot bumpy. This is a good thing though, getting used to it on difficult ground is only going to make the competition easier… hopefully…

So far I can lift it and carry it (a short way) on my shoulders at 120kg, I can carry it for the full distance I need to reasonably competently at 100kg. I can also lift it, using the zercher type hold the one where it sits in the crook of your arms, the one up there that elicits my “this is heavy and it hurts” face!

I consider this to be good progress as I have only had it a week, and only done 2 training sessions on it so far! I will get there, and I am extremely happy that I don’t have to learn to carry it for the first time on competition day… it is a blooming awkward thing!

In competition, I have to carry it for 20m which, in my garden is from the apple tree by the sled, up to the lilac that you hit before you go down a slope. I am almost sure they use this sort of measurements in the worlds strongest man competitions…