Strongman 101

The ever popular "steps to success" and "you can do it" articles and blogs have recently cast their shadow in the world of strength sports.  Many being written by so-called, or should I say, self-proclaimed athletes, who are no more athletes than I am a world famous chef.  Everyone, including myself, critiques the uneducated CrossFit coaches that pop up, but the "created by social media"...dare I use the word again...athlete, with their two cent opinions, are being embraced and praised.

So, I figure with one year and four months, and upward of a dozen comps experience, I have just about reached the level of all-knowing veteran. Yes, I am being sarcastic.  But even with my minimal experience, I know the life of a strength athlete is a lot tougher than the picture being painted.  On that note, here is my "life is tough, suck it up" version of a list for Strongman.

1.  Just Commit.
If you want to compete, pay the entry fee, and get to work.  A year and a half ago, I signed up for my first comp with zero knowledge or background in strongman, and did so simply because it looked like fun.  I had just enough time to get some basic "how to" on the different events, and run a yoke...twice.  It has been one tremendous journey since that day, so I say this in the nicest way possible...nut up or shut up.  Fear of failure, or the "it's too heavy syndrome" is just your ego telling you that you do not want to look like an ass in front of a large group of people.  Fellow competitors will have a lot more respect for you if you join them in battle rather than kicking back on the sideline, and/or talking a big game.

2.  Implements & Events Vary.
No matter how much you practice, or how good you become within the comforts of your training space, it is rare to find an exact replica of your equipment at a contest.  Do not be surprised when the yoke is wider, a stone is lop-sided, the axle bar has a fresh coat of paint, etc., etc.  The inconsistencies in the equipment are just as common as a change in the events on the day of the contest.  That is strongman.  Shit happens.  Learn to adapt.  Save yourself, and your fellow competitors, from the on-slaught of excuses that are building in your head by preparing for anything and everything...obviously, within the limits of the equipment that will be provided at the competition.
As far as equipment goes, you need to locate the closest Home Depot, lumber yard, and car salvage facility.  That is it.  If you can find a cheap welder, that is an added bonus!  Almost everything you need to train for strongman can be pieced together in one way or another at a very low cost.  It does not require the mind of an engineer, just a little creativity.  If, by chance, you have money at your disposal, I will be happy to recommend the best equipment manufacturers...as well as a place to store it within walking distance of my house.

3.  Gear.
Knee sleeves, wrist wraps, tacky, and about a million other items are wonderful to have, but are they absolutely necessary...no.  (And yes, I include tacky as optional.  Take the advise of my coach:  Learn to lift stones without it...it will make you better in the long run.)  As with any other sport, these additional items are not cheap.  My personal recommendation is to invest in a good belt, knee sleeves, and several roles of athletic tape to get started.  With competition experience, you will learn what else you might need, or want to invest in.  Truck pulls do not require rock climbing shoes, stone loading does not require stone sleeves, overhead pressing does not require ten ply elbow sleeves...stick with the basics until you have an understanding of the movements of the sport.  With the money you save, you will be able to enter more contests, or travel to a larger one.

4.  Comfort Food.
There are no grass fed, free range, gluten free, non-grain, veggie filled, pop-tarts.  But you will see a lot of them at a competition.  If you haven't noticed by now, strongmen and women eat...a lot.  There are no specific dietary boundaries.  Everything under the sun is free game.  There is no one standing around waiting to ask about your Paleo to cheat meal percentages.  If you choose to consume Big Red Zero and Chunky Chips Ahoy, then so be it.  You eat to fuel your body for a day of competition or training...whatever works, works.

5.  Patience.
You may possess incredible raw strength.  You may be technically proficient.  You may be a great competitor.  You may have the greatest training crew or coach on the face of the planet.  Problem is...can you put all the pieces together for a single sixty second event?  How about five events?  And then what about a two day competition?  Most people are not born with every single factor associated with being a successful competitive athlete.  It takes time, and a whole lot of practice, to develop the physical and mental strength to become more than a weekend warrior.  Most will not achieve over night success, so be patient with your training.  Learn and practice the basic elements of an event, from the actual lifting technique, to transitions, to foot speed.  In other words, check your ego, unload the implement, and do it right, with light weight.  This process will be very beneficial in the long term.

6.  Love or Hate.
If you love strongman, you will know it by the completion of the first event in your first competition, or possibly the first day lifting a stone or carrying a yoke.  It is definitely not a sport for everyone.  Some will fail to find the challenge in it, while focusing on their short-comings.  Some can't handle getting beat up day in and day out.  And others are looking for a pay day, that of which strongman will unlikely provide.  If you love it, you will find any way to train, make room in your training schedule for torturous event days, research every available article and video in order to get better, and possibly employ the help of a coach.  Then, you will spend more time trying to perfect techniques, and alternative ways to train for events for which you do not have proper equipment, than you ever spent studying for high school algebra.  If you hate it, you will turn the overpriced stone you purchased into a yard ornament, and settle for a return to the local globo gym.

7.  Learn.
You live.  You learn.  You fail.  You learn some more.  Not every contest will be your best.  Even if you do come out on top, there will be, in the back of your mind, something you could have done better.  If not, you need to re-read the point I made about checking your ego.  There will always be that one event where you had a specific rep count planned, but you failed to hit it, or a specific time frame in which to finish, but didn't make it.  These are the things that make you better, and push you beyond what you thought was possible.  Embrace the learning curve of failures and mistakes.
Finally, learning the technical aspects of this sport may require a coach of some sort.  If your thinking about hiring one for programming, nutrition, or specific event training...DO YOUR RESEARCH. Hiring someone based on a well-known name, number of contest wins, or the fact that they are strongman certified by a self-proclaimed elite fitness company, does not mean they are capable of educating a tree stump.  Behind the walls of a Google search engine and social media is more info than you truly need to make a well educated decision. Use it.  It is not every day that you find a multi-time world champion, proven programer, and technically proficient instructor, right in your backyard.  But if you do the research, there is no telling what you may find.

Reno/Tahoe

Following a delayed connection in San Diego, I finally reached the once grand city of Reno, Nevada...up to this point, a place I had only heard about in stories.  I loaded up my bags on a hotel shuttle, along with my coach, and a well-known 120lb powerlifter out of Cali, sat back and enjoyed the fifteen minute ride to Circus Circus.

Let me start by saying this...based on the hotel name alone, I expected the worst.  If you have ever been to the one in Vegas, it is pretty damn nasty, and full of screaming kids.  The one in Reno is quite the opposite, except for the kids occupying the game area on the weekends.  I may not recommend Reno as a vacation hotspot, but if you are there, Circus Circus is definitely a highlight.  (I will be waiting on my commission check for that plug.)

Friday morning more than 200 athletes were scheduled to weigh in from 10am to 1pm and 5pm to 7pm.  I made my way downstairs around 9am, knowing there would be a crowd of men and women in the midst of last minute weight cuts.  From the top of the stairs, there were several groups standing around talking, with a line of mostly women woven through the center.  About half way down the stairs, I discovered an additional four to five rows of athletes, seated, facing an empty folding table...most looking completely miserable spitting in cups and wearing more layers than a southerner in a snow storm.

I was greeted with an invitation to the back of the line, as I hugged a fellow competitor from the northwest.  I am sure my face said it all, but glad my thoughts (I am not standing in a fuckin line!) did not come out of my mouth. I spoke to several other strongwomen that I had not seen in a while, then headed back up the stairs to enjoy a big breakfast, leaving behind an enormous crowd of starving athletes, and a two to two and a half hour wait.

Yes, the line to spend two seconds on a digital scale had reached a waiting period that exceeded my tolerance level by about two hours and twenty-seven minutes.  And yes, my breakfast at a cafe inside the casino was delicious.  My coach and I spent about an hour or so after breakfast wandering around the three connected casinos.  I dropped twenty bucks on the upcoming NE Husker game...they were +7 and covered with a five point loss.  My all-time favorite penny slot machine, Texas Tea, stole another twenty, and then paid out $54 on the bonus game.  With an extra fifty in my pocket, that was the end of my gambling for the weekend.

One last check on the line to weigh-in, still 2+ hours, and we were off to rent a car to drive up to Tahoe.  The hike down to the rental company allowed me to see enough of Reno to realize that it has not changed or been updated since the early 70's.  And currently, not a place I would venture out in after dark.  Enterprise hooked us up with a fat red convertible for the day.  A quick stop at the hotel to pick up the most recently named America's Strongest Woman, who had survived the weigh-in, and we were off to Tahoe.

A forty-five minute drive southwest, lined with enormous pine trees and out of season ski slopes, landed us in the town of King's Beach, and on the north side of Lake Tahoe.  Although the roads of this small town were under construction, the waterfront area was very serene.  The ice cold lake was not ideal for your water sports enthusiast, but the backdrop of mountains, one even snow-capped, was a sight-seers dream come true...in the most literal sense.  We snapped a few pictures, loaded up, and headed east to a town appropriately named Incline Village.  The town sits more than six thousand feet above sea level on enormous cliffs, and apparently is known as the tax escape for California's wealthy.

Lakeshore Drive took us through a residential area with scenic views of Crystal Bay.
As we turned back toward the highway, we stumbled on a small shopping strip that included an even smaller restaurant.  However, the five table-top deck out front, nestled under the pine trees, was a huge selling point...that and we were hungry.  Kicking back with a table full of food and good friends in this quiet little town...I could not have asked for a more relaxing and enjoyable day.

The final leg of our afternoon getaway was a windy, and slightly chilly drive on a mountainous road back to Reno.  Once back in the valley, I hit up the 5pm weigh-in...with no wait.  I walked right in, got on the scale, picked up my competitor ID, had my number tattooed on my arm in sharpie, and got a gift bag packed full of four random sample supplements.  The always entertaining, aka filled with dumb questions, rules meeting finished off the day.  All that was left was sleep, and two days of competition.

Nationals: Events

Nine months of strongman preparation all boils down to one weekend.  Past wins, PR's, and personal achievements no longer matter.  If you can't execute in these six events, you go home feeling like you have been run over by a bus, and start the process all over.  For me, it will be three months of strictly training powerlifting (squat, bench, and deadlift), with occasional strongman events thrown in for good measure.  The return to event training will coincide with my first contest of 2015.

I went into this year's competition with much higher expectations of myself, after spending most of 2014 gaining strength in my basic lifts, and working on various event fundamentals.  But as it turns out, I made several small mistakes that dropped me to the back of the pack early.  On the very first event, the press medley, I attempted the light, 125lb, keg clean and press on a slight downhill.  I successfully wasted precious time by throwing myself backward three times...finishing the lift on the third attempt, and leaving myself very little time to get reps on the mini-circus dumbell.  I was able to lock out two reps, but my judge did not allow the second one at the buzzer.  However, one rep still gets points, and keeps you in the game.

Event #2 was a 500lb yoke for sixty feet.  This is one event I had drilled myself with in training, and had no doubt that I could post a solid time.  Well, that did not happen.  I struggled out of the gate, and did not get my shit together until close to the half way point.  My struggle to control the yoke took its toll, and my fatigued body decided dropping the yoke prior to the finish line was a good idea.  Just for the record...it's not.  I finished the event with a less than stellar time, which more than tripled the time of my practice runs.  In the coming year, I will continue to increase the weight and my speed on this event, so I do not repeat this performance.  However, as a side note, at Nationals last year, I made it about eight feet with the same weight...so, I consider sixty feet quite an improvement.

Event #3 was a nightmare-ish carry medley.  Many women were looking forward to this event...I was part of the minority.  My hands pay a hefty price with any carry event, so they are definitely not on my top ten list.  With a sixty foot keg carry at a reduced 150lbs, a forty foot farmers that was no where near the planned 200lbs per hand, and twenty feet of a 225lb duckwalk, I crossed the finish line by bunny hopping the duck walk implement over the line.  Nightmare over.  I am planing to practice heavy kettlebell swings for next season, and launch that damn duck walk implement versus having to walk with it.  Trust me, if it was legal, I would absolutely do it.

The final event of day one was the car deadlift...and a big fat zero on my score sheet.  If I had to pick one event to zero, it would not have been this one.  Dumbell, yes...deadlift, no. I don't use straps often, but for this event, it was a given.  However, I failed to strap my left hand in tight, and paid the price for it.  After such a long day of events, my legs felt solid, but with each attempt, my left strap would slide, and I no longer had a grip on the bar.  At the time, I was pretty pissed off with myself; but deep down, I knew it was a simple mistake that could be fixed.  But I won't lie...it was not easy going to bed that night knowing my goal of a top five finish was officially over...not that it wasn't prior to this event, but a zero pretty much solidified it.

The twelve hour, four event, competition day had drained almost everything out of my body...mentally, physically, and emotionally; but just as it ended, day two began.  As the two-event final day kicked off, I knew climbing out of a hole was not possible against the best of the best at Nationals.  What I did not know, is that the first event would be my best of the weekend.  The sixty foot, 1150lb wheelbarrow pick-up and push was a bit of an untested event...I mean, how many people have 500lb steel wheelbarrows laying around?  I knew the keys would be getting off the starting line quickly, controlling the implement, and not letting go.  Grip was not an issue, I could have held on for a trip around the block.  I guess spending a few dollars on the Iron Mind expand your hand bands after cracking my thumb was worth every penny.  My initial pick up of the weight was a bit slow, but once in motion, I had no control problems, and finished in just over fourteen seconds.

The final event of the competition was throwing, or rather "placing" three kegs of increasing weight over a bar.  The weight of the kegs was dropped by 25lbs a piece to 100, 125, and 150, but the bar was raised to 54".  I was given a nice little tip before the event to turn the handles to the side, allowing for a quicker pick-up.  It definitely saved me a few valuable seconds.  The first two kegs went over in about ten seconds, but the final keg and I battled it out for an additional twenty seconds.  Those little mistakes cost me yet again.

The long two day event to crown America's Strongest was over.  I ended my weekend with two pretty solid performances, going out on a much higher note than the previous day.  My final ranking was fifteen out of twenty-six middle-weights.  There is always so much to think about after a competition like this...but honestly, I am just happy to be able to be among those twenty-six strongwomen.  It was an incredible group of competitors this year.  There are not many times where you can find over fifty women in competition with each other, sharing a small competition space, sharing pain, sharing laughs, that have just one single thing in common...but that is strongman...or, should I say, strongwoman.