how did most of us get inspired to do strongman

[anton axelsson]

well my insparation came from when i was a kid at about 5or 6 years old i saw jon pall and magnus ver come to my town in iceland and thay were putting on a show doing kettle bell toss and fliping cars,and after handing jon pall an icelandic yogurt and him rubbing my head and saying thank you i was hooked from that day i started trying to lift heavy things i lived on a farm at that time with my aunt and her family so every summer we would have to lift hay bails and what not good times so thats what got me inspired to do strongman jon pall was the greatest of them all

[Alex Klotz]

I saw a few of those competitions on TV when I was younger, but my main line of thought was "That's cool" but I entertained no thoughts of ever doing it.

Fast forward to last year when I started getting really serious about strength training. I was part of an online community of lifters and one of them was competing in a comp and I thought it was pretty cool, but this time I realized that it was something I could do. On a whim I searched "Toronto strongman contest" in google and found the Island Heroes contest, which is perfect for beginners like me.

[Lucjan Zolnierowski]

When I was younger I used to watch WSM on tv and all I could think of was: "Wow, when im older THAT's what I wanna do!", then my older brother started working out and I bought some weights and started lifting at home. I always valued strenght (of the body and the mind) as something very important to me. I found this site just surfing the web and someone told me to check out nastrongmaninc.com and I found a competition right here in jersey, started training with the Linden Yard Crew (they were hosting it) took rd at my first contest and just fell in love with it!

[Evan Hansmann]

I remember watching Kaz, Magnus ver, Chief "Iron Bear" Collins competeing. When I was about six years old I remember watching one contest and they were pulling a 747 airplane, and doing the Crucifix Hold with battle axes, and the barrel toss over the wall. Watching that one contest got me hooked, and I remember telling my family that night that I wanted to be those guys.

From Freshman year of High School until College it was nothing but football, and I never knew how to get started in strongman; until, January 2005 a local strength enthusiast who owned a park just outside of town was contacted by two Strongman promoters to hold a contest at his park. The man who owned the park just so happened to be a friend of my family, and one day called and told my Dad who called and told me, and its been nothing but Strongman since then.

[JMJacobs]

Stopped playing hockey, started living in the gym and decided I needed a reason to train hard. Heard a buddy talking about doing a show and checked it out. Been hooked since.

[ADAMBAUER]

For me it was a desire to quit being a pathetic slug and to stop feeling sorry for myself. I have been out of the Iowa Army National Guard for almost ten years now due to a knee injury, three surguries later, I used that as an excuse to do nothing but eat like s*** and sit on my a** and do nothing except work . I would use my knee injury as an excuse to not do anything. I would not play softball out of fear that I would get hurt again I wouldn't ride a bike because "my knee hurt" etc. etc. Keep that cycle up for 6 years I finally went to the VA clinic and got a physical and wouldn't you know it I wasn't the picture of health I should be. I changed my diet and spoke to my PT and she said in no uncertain terms if it hurts don't do it, otherwise go for it. That was three years ago. Since then I have been lifting as often as possible and wouldn't you know it the stability is great in my knee and I no longer limp when I walk. All cause of a high IRON diet . My dedication to lifting and eating well has gained me the health that I need to raise three sons along side my wife.

[Kellee_Rassau]

I love lifting heavy things. When I found out there was such a thing as strongwoman events, I was all over it. Helps that my training group are an awesome bunch of people, Stoner's Gym, Meridian, Idaho.

[IdrisH.]

Like most people, when I was younger I watched WSM on TV and always thought it was cool. When I got older I started to get interested in lifting, although I never really did much. Then during the summer of this year I decided to take up another sport after not being in one for over a year. Since I needed some motivation to lift and I have always liked strongman I decided to take it up as my sport. I have loved doing it ever since.

[Adam Witzel]

I loved watching WSM on TV whhen I was younger (i think I'm seeing a trend here :p ). I always thought it would be awesome to compete, but didn't think I'd ever be big enough. This is when I was about 8-10 years old.

Throughout highschool, I lifted on and off, but never for any real purpose. I lifted for football of course, but I was still clueless. I eventually stumbled across this site, and lurked around for a while. Found out about Ontariostrongman.com (I'm from ontario), and found out about a contest in woodstock (Run by Andy Burwell), and made it my goal to compete. I started rigging up homemade equipment, and have been hooked ever since.

At first my girlfriend thought it was cool, but that I was kinda crazy, as she had never even seen a strongman competition before. Now she's buuying me a steel log for christmas :D

[James Fernandes]

me as a powerlifter, I fell in love with powerlifting as I love the idea of lifting heavy weight, while for a year of training I did pumping work, I always trained heavy even if it was 5 reps or 10 reps,

I do love strongman, but dont think I have the potential yet, I need to build my powerlifting strength first, if I get really good at powerlifting, then I will love to give strongman a go, though not ideally built for it, Im only 5 11 tall, and arms built for benching, theyre not long enough!!!

[Chris Hickson]

I always wanted to do WSM.......but when i saw some young guys on there I said to myself i can get there by that young.

[James Fernandes]

I always wanted to do WSM.......but when i saw some young guys on there I said to myself i can get there by that young.

you want to be in WSM by what age ?

[Chris Hickson]

you want to be in WSM by what age ?
18.......but I have alot of work to do to get there haha

[Paul Neuhaus]

It was August of 2004. My buddy Lance and I hooked up with a few people and went to Hatten Park in New London WI to watch Big Tony's contest. As we were chuggin our beers and getting a little drunk, we kept saying to eachother "Dude, we sould totally do this! This looks easy!" And that's how it all started, but we quickly learned how easy it is not.

[Paul_Koskinen]

Saw a few competitions on television and thought it would be fun. It was easy finding a competition that was a reasonable distance away. First time I'd ever tried the implements and thanks to the other paricipants offering tips, I didn't look too much like an MOD EDIT.
That was 5 years ago and managed to improve a little since then.

EDIT: Sincere apologies for the inappropriate text. Wasn't thinking.

[Matt Schumann]

When i was younger i always watched WSM on tv... I eventually made a decision that i wanted to compete in strongman but never knew how. I use to come over my house after school with one of my best friends, i'd order a piza and eat the whole thing by myself (that was my idea of weight gainer at the time) watch 2 episodes of WSM (when espn actualy aired it back in the da) and then hit the gym.

My wrestling coach set up a strongman exhibtion at the schools football team. He knew i was interested in strongman and invited me to come down. THe demonstration was pretty cool, Heavy weight pro dan ford and lightweight pro brad cardoza went head to head in a few events.. After the contest my coach introduced me to Art Mcderrmott and dan ford and art told me i that they train at his house in andover MA on saturdays if i want to train... of course i didnt drive at the time and made the mistake of letting the offer pass me by. Dan ford use to wrestle for m high school and he use to show up every now and then and talk to us too but i never really got myself into training strongman,

Somehow that same year in 04 i found out that the Mass state championship had a novice division. I was coming off a really bad knee injury at the time but I said t myself " this will be easy" haha i was wrong and sucked.

thats it i guess

[Brandon Smith]

Yeah, like everyone else, my brother and I used to watch WSM growing up religiously in the late 80s and early 90s. We LOVED Kaz and JP and Magnus Ver came along and he was our new favorite. Played football and track in HS, track and some rugby in college, always watched WSM. Started working after college and saw there was a Strongman contest at the Shriner's Auditorium down the street. Turns out it was Art McDermott's show. I went one year and was impressed, but never thought I could do that and didn't know about any amateur contests.

My brother and I went to the WSMSS at Mohegan Sun last year, sat 2nd row and ended up chatting with Jesse between events and he mentioned this board. At the same time I had been back into lifting for about 6 months and shortly after the WSMSS signed up for a free trial at Art's gym right near work. Suddenly there was a full strongman gym at my disposal, all the great info here about contests, so I played around a little with the implements, mostly farmers and tire. Then I met Mike Z there, who was training for the Overcome Strength Contest in Maine. He ended up convincing me to go and I had a blast and the rest is history!

[JMJacobs]

"At first my girlfriend thought it was cool, but that I was kinda crazy, as she had never even seen a strongman competition before. Now she's buuying me a steel log for christmas :D"

Damn... hold onto that one, she's a keeper.

[anton axelsson]

so it looks like we were all inspired by the same thing,wsm and all the oldschoolers doese anyone else agree that we need to bring strongman to a diffrant level as a sport get more tv showing and more advertisement doese anyone have any good ideas?? to throw out there i think at every nas or asc sanctioned contest there should be a video camra rolling on all athletes and made into a nice documentary or something and try to get local tv stations out there and even try to get some espn or something i dont realy know i just feel that we bust ower assis just as much as the next athlete that strongman and powerlifters are over looked as a sport...

[Lance Foster]

Anton-

Great ideas!

I know one positive about the image of Strongman is the number of contests that donate the proceeds to charitable causes (such as the annual MO's Strongest Man, Nebraska's Strongest Man, and the new upcoming and hopefully annual contest, Lift for Hope in Topeka, KS Feb 2008. I am sure that there are other contests engaging in charitable works, but these are the ones I know off the top of my head).

What got me into Strongman began with watching the WSM competitions, thinking to myself that I could never do anything like that, and then having 2 uncles pass (at ages 48 and 42) from a condition similar to what caused Jesse's untimely death.

I then convinced myself to give Strongman a shot because life is too short to wait and wonder about what could be. For the past year, I have been training with the KCStrongman crew, and competed in 3 contests in 2007.

[Mike Pelosi]

Svend Karlsen

[Matt Brouse]

Karl Gillingham.

[Brandon Campbell]

TV, got in contact with liane blynn met The one and only Kevin Nee, been doing it since. LOL :M:

[Jonathan Macfarlane]

You're going to find this a bit random.


Janne Virtanen

[Zach Snyder]

posts made by John Sullivan and Brad Cardoza on another board i used to frequent. I always thought it was interesting after that.

[anton axelsson]

[QUOTE=Lance Foster]Anton-

Great ideas!

I know one positive about the image of Strongman is the number of contests that donate the proceeds to charitable causes (such as the annual MO's Strongest Man, Nebraska's Strongest Man, and the new upcoming and hopefully annual contest, Lift for Hope in Topeka, KS Feb 2008. I am sure that there are other contests engaging in charitable works, but these are the ones I know off the top of my head).

What got me into Strongman began with watching the WSM competitions, thinking to myself that I could never do anything like that, and then having 2 uncles pass (at ages 48 and 42) from a condition similar to what caused Jesse's untimely death.

I then convinced myself to give Strongman a shot because life is too short to wait and wonder about what could be. For the past year, I have been training with the KCStrongman crew, and competed in 3 contests in 2007.[/QUOT

ya i like chariti contests.. i just feel that us as athletes that bust ower ass just like anyother athlete and lay more on the line are often over looked i mean strongman goese back a long ways and has not progressed enough as a sport to be shown to the public wich is sad both for us and ower fallen brotherans nas and asc should realy focus on getting ower sport out there somehow beacause i know what inspired me and most of us to start this and i think with more covrage there could be more and we could grow into a prutty big thing...

[Ben_Ho]

My gym got a 550lb tire.I decided to give it a go.It was tough initially but I began to like it...The rest,they say,is history. :IMHO:

[Scott Markowitz]

Like most, my first exposure was watching WSM on tv in the mid-90s. I used to be a custodian at an elementary school, and we spent more time watching tv than working in the summers. I never gave a thought to competing.
Fast forward to 2002. I'd finished my BA and most of my MA and was starting law school. My wife had since become a fan - how else, but by watching WSM? - and started looking around online. She found a pro contest in Shreveport LA, and bought tickets. We trekked down (lived in OKC at the time) and hung out. We spent the extra few bucks for "floor access" so I pretty much had the run of the place - I was on the floor messing with the implements and everything else. I got to meet and hang out with some pretty big names, (Jesse, Steve Kirit, Walt Gogola, Schoonie, Dom, Hugo, Geoff Dolan, et al) but I didn't impose too much since they were competing. I did get to spend some time with Whit Baskin (who still talked to me even though I interrupted him flirting with a group of girls outside the arena). He was there doing an exhibition on the deadlift hold. I believe it was his first appearance after his accident. He encouraged me to actually go out and play with the implements. I picked up the log (set at 300# for the opener, I believe) but only to deadlift level. I tried the 315 farmers, but that wasn't happening. (I did get one up using both hands though :) ).
I guess what got me into it was having 3 or 4 different random people ask me if I was competing, which put the thought in my head that "hey, maybe I *could* do this, even if not at this level."
That was in October or November 2002. Sometime in early 2003, my wife (notice a pattern?) found an am contest in Tulsa and entered me. I finished last but I was hooked. I met a guy who coached football at the local high school and he invited me out sometime. I didn't get his number, so I didn't go for some time. Probably 6 or 8 months later, I was checking out of Home Depot and saw a woman checking out who was wearing a NASS shirt. I went up and talked to her, and it was James' (the coach) wife. She said he and some guys were training at the high school right then. I stopped by and talked to them, then went home and dropped Kristal off and put on some suitable clothes and got back in time to nearly kill myself on the medley they had set up (~500 tire, 500 sled - with no handles, you just pulled the chain, and heavy keg carry, all for 10 yards) but I did finish it my first time touching any of those implements. Thus began my first experience with a strongman crew. We had one stone (~240, I think), FW, Yoke, 8" log, and the most brutal Conan's wheel known to man - it was a telephone pole with one end sitting on the ground and weight hanging off a chain wrapped around it. We picked up the other end in our arms and walked.
I've also made the trek to Durant a couple of times to train with Whit. It's a different world training with a guy who's been there and done that. The first time I was there, I'd never beaten anybody at any contest, and I was at a WSM competitor's house using the same stuff he'd trained on to get to the big show. I was really proud of myself when I was able to tie him on an event.

[IdrisH.]

Like most, my first exposure was watching WSM on tv in the mid-90s. I used to be a custodian at an elementary school, and we spent more time watching tv than working in the summers. I never gave a thought to competing.
Fast forward to 2002. I'd finished my BA and most of my MA and was starting law school. My wife had since become a fan - how else, but by watching WSM? - and started looking around online. She found a pro contest in Shreveport LA, and bought tickets. We trekked down (lived in OKC at the time) and hung out. We spent the extra few bucks for "floor access" so I pretty much had the run of the place - I was on the floor messing with the implements and everything else. I got to meet and hang out with some pretty big names, (Jesse, Steve Kirit, Walt Gogola, Schoonie, Dom, Hugo, Geoff Dolan, et al) but I didn't impose too much since they were competing. I did get to spend some time with Whit Baskin (who still talked to me even though I interrupted him flirting with a group of girls outside the arena). He was there doing an exhibition on the deadlift hold. I believe it was his first appearance after his accident. He encouraged me to actually go out and play with the implements. I picked up the log (set at 300# for the opener, I believe) but only to deadlift level. I tried the 315 farmers, but that wasn't happening. (I did get one up using both hands though :) ).
I guess what got me into it was having 3 or 4 different random people ask me if I was competing, which put the thought in my head that "hey, maybe I *could* do this, even if not at this level."
That was in October or November 2002. Sometime in early 2003, my wife (notice a pattern?) found an am contest in Tulsa and entered me. I finished last but I was hooked. I met a guy who coached football at the local high school and he invited me out sometime. I didn't get his number, so I didn't go for some time. Probably 6 or 8 months later, I was checking out of Home Depot and saw a woman checking out who was wearing a NASS shirt. I went up and talked to her, and it was James' (the coach) wife. She said he and some guys were training at the high school right then. I stopped by and talked to them, then went home and dropped Kristal off and put on some suitable clothes and got back in time to nearly kill myself on the medley they had set up (~500 tire, 500 sled - with no handles, you just pulled the chain, and heavy keg carry, all for 10 yards) but I did finish it my first time touching any of those implements. Thus began my first experience with a strongman crew. We had one stone (~240, I think), FW, Yoke, 8" log, and the most brutal Conan's wheel known to man - it was a telephone pole with one end sitting on the ground and weight hanging off a chain wrapped around it. We picked up the other end in our arms and walked.
I've also made the trek to Durant a couple of times to train with Whit. It's a different world training with a guy who's been there and done that. The first time I was there, I'd never beaten anybody at any contest, and I was at a WSM competitor's house using the same stuff he'd trained on to get to the big show. I was really proud of myself when I was able to tie him on an event.

That is an awsome story Scott. :KD: Did you remember to thank your wife? :D

[donstrong]

svend svend svend watching him at wsm2000 2001 2002 the intensity power and love for what he was doing.When all the other guys are in pain and look like they are hating life he screaming and partying and just truly enjoying what hes doing. I saw that and said that looks alot more fun than just bodybuilding by it self........ :BP:

[Barney Shannon]

My son did alot of strongman type training in HS to help his wrestling and football. Right now, he is only wrestling in the occational greco or freestyle tournament so strongman fills the void. Me? I train with Conor just for fun and because I'm too ugly to try bodybuilding. :rolleyes:

[AaRoNSnider]

Watching Whit Baskin's car deadlift hold was the main thing that got my attention.I had previously thought that WSM was only old foreign guys.After that I saw a couple of interviews with Kaz on a Christian t.v show,and saw Juoko Ahola.I found the old strongestman.com web site,and read the articles,bios,interviews,and forum over and over again.