This week Darren and Alex sit down with Harvey Robinson, a full-time dairy and sheep farmer, competitive powerlifter since 2012, and the reigning Hereford's Strongest Man. Harvey takes us from milking cows at 6am to squatting 360kg, benching 230kg (a British raw bench press record, won at the Arnold Classic) and deadlifting 385kg, all while running the farm and raising a family. He explains the "training pyramid" that underpins everything he does: general conditioning at the base, bodybuilding-style hypertrophy in the middle, and sport-specific max lifts right at the top, done sparingly. We get into how concurrent training (built on Zatsiorsky's Science and Practice of Strength Training) rebuilt his knees after years of pain, how a 12-hour farming day still makes room for training, and why he's now building his own powerlifting club in Monmouthshire. This is a genuinely fascinating look at what it takes to build serious strength around a demanding, physical, real life, no fluff, no shortcuts, just structure and consistency. In this episode we cover: How a farmer from Bedfordshire became "adopted" by Hereford and won Hereford's Strongest Man with almost no event-specific trainingHarvey's journey from national-level competitive swimmer to 37-competition powerlifterThe training pyramid: general prep, bodybuilding, then sport-specific lifting, and why time spent should match that shapeConcurrent training and the book that changed everything: Zatsiorsky's Science and Practice of Strength TrainingOvercoming years of knee pain without surgery, and rebuilding to a 360kg squatA day in Harvey's life: milking cows, GPP training, farm work, and heavy lifting in the eveningPlans to open his own powerlifting club in MonmouthshireCoaching, post-workout nutrition, and his advice for anyone starting strength training from zero🎧 Listen. Learn. Get Smarter Than Yesterday. If you enjoy the episode, give it a like, subscribe and let us know what you'd like us to talk about next. And if you've got a story, challenge or lesson that could help someone else become smarter than yesterday, we'd love to hear from you. www.smartperformancecoaching.co.uk #SPCPodcast #Powerlifting #Strongman #StrengthTraining #Farmlife #HerefordsStrongestMan #SmartPerformanceCoaching #SmarterThanYesterday 00:00 – Intro & Harvey's morning on the farm 01:08 – Meet Harvey: farmer, powerlifter since 2012, reigning Hereford's Strongest Man 03:49 – First-ever competition at 18: 210kg squat, 142kg bench, 265kg deadlift 09:36 – From national-level competitive swimmer to the weight room 14:32 – Winning Hereford's Strongest Man with almost zero event-specific training 16:15 – The training pyramid: general prep, bodybuilding, then sport-specific work 27:41 – A day in Harvey's life: milking cows at 6am, GPP, farm work, evening lifting 29:38 – The book that changed his training: Zatsiorsky's Science and Practice of Strength Training 32:29 – Years of knee pain, an Arnold Classic bench press win, and rebuilding to a 360kg squat 36:40 – Building his own powerlifting club in Monmouthshire 40:37 – His #1 advice for beginners: stick to 5x5 at 75% Support the show
