Why did you choose Strongman?

[Paul Marsland]

Over say BodyBuilding or Powerlifting? . For me I've always been a fan of WSM way back when I was a teen I used to watch it on British TV and saw the likes of Geoff Capes compete against my favourite the late Jon Pall Sigmarson. WSM is almost something of a traditon in my family as both my brother and Father watch it, even my Mum. It got the point that even ex girlfreinds watch it and associate me with it!! I even met Kaz when I was 18 when he came to the UK and Liverpool to do a seminar. I still have the picture somewhere....

For many years I was initally into bodybuilding as this was the thing to do, but I always had a passion for strongman and strength and it's only later on in life that I've chosen to go the competitive route and live a boy hood dream I guess.

So my question is for those of you that train strongman what is your motivation for going this route over say becoming a full time bodybuilder (I can't stand the dieting) or powerlifter?


Paul.

[Jake Peeterse]

I like you, have always watched and been facinated by WSM. I have lifted for years but never really for any purpose. Once I found out that I too could compete in Strongman at an amatuer level I all of a sudden had a REALLY good reason to be in the gym. I also love getting srtonger but before I started Strongman I never really had a reason too. When I used to watch WSM I would think damn those guys are inhumanly strong and always wanted to be assosiated with something like that. So I entered my first contest this year and can't wait till I can do a bunch more next year.

[Guillaume Dupuis]

I've always been the 'strong kid' at school, and since in Quebec we don't have such a focus on football (my high-school didn't have a football team...), I wasted the gift I had until later in life. At 23 I started pushing weights to become the next Jay Cutler, until I realised that bodybuilding was a beauty pageant for men in speedos. That completely turned me off to the whole concept: in a magazine it looks cool, but on a stage it looks completely pathetic. The previous week, my trainer had told me that I had the body type to do anything like BB, strongman or powerlifting - that got me thinking: strongman was always something I watched and loved. Strength was always a point of honor in my family and my father was always telling me stories of his grandfather deadlifting loaded hay carts, knocking-out aggressive horses in their stalls, etc.

This brings me to 2005, where I did my first amateur strongman show and meeting Hugo in person. Needless to say, the motivation that pushes me to this day came from that initial competition: unlike a lot of things in life, you can't cheat in strongman... you either lift it or you fail!

[Ian Duggan]

I like lifting weights, but my technique sucks and I hate posing.

So it kinda had to be strongman...

[dave barron]

Couldn't cut it in the Highland Games. :EP:

[Troy Zama]

it's the most FUN!!! :D

[darrenmallette]

My daughter and I started watching the WSM/All-strength re-runs on OLN about 7 years ago, when she was 3. It was really cool to watch and there was something 'real-world' about it. I did my first competition 2 years ago and was hooked. I think there is something primal, or hard-wired perhaps into our genes, maybe going back to the homo erectus or homo sabilis who probably had competitions to see who could clear the cave of the heaviest rocks and haul back the fresh kills to feed the tribe. :)

[Corey DuCharme]

Like most of us, I got hooked on glossy paged bodybuilding magazines as a kid. Somewhere along the way, I realized that the muscle monsters on those pages were quite absurd and unrealistic.

Then I was brainwashed by Muscle Media and Bill Philips, which led to wasted years in the gym and hundreds of dollars spent on EAS supplements. Arbitrary goals and lackluster results led to frustration.

I am completely pathetic in the big three powerlifts. Also, I view them as monotonous and I don't appreciate the suits, wraps and shirts used to push more weight.

Having been fascinated by strongman for a long time, I was excited to learn from this message board how to compete at an amateur level.

Suprisingly, still being completely weak in the gym, I was able to do okay at many of the events in strongman. I love the variety it offers as well.

[Jared Enderton]

I am choosing strongman for a few reasons....

powerlifting---who can master the suits, who has the best one, etc...(I know you obv. need to be strong and i am NOT bashing powerlifters, I'm just not a fan of watching it)

oly lifting---mastering 2 lifts....of course you do others, but, the same 2 lifts every competition...umm...

bodybuilding---"look" strong...(note, most of them are relatively strong)..weight cutting

strongman.. various events... no weight cutting, no problems with suits, more than 2 lifts, moving with weights, pick, push, pull, sprint, lift, drag, press, everything.

to me, strongman was and is much more appealing than the others, they seem limited(to me).

I am not bashing ANY bodybuilders, oly lifters, or powerlifters. In fact, I have even wore a bench shirt in a comp. before. and, I am still going to an oly coach. but, for the sole reason of helping me in strongman.

sorry for the rant.

[TEXAS STONEMAN]

I didn't choose Strongman. Strongman chose me!
I had no say in the matter.

[Chris Hickson]

when i started working out i always maxed out on everything everytime i lifted and then saw wsm thought i should be world strongest man
i saw wsm 2004 the train pull was the best event.

BTW how wants to be almost naked around a bunch of other almost naked guys. -Not me

[Mike Pelosi]

I remember watching Svend winning the WSM and me saying thats who I want to be...I waited a while before I got serious about it...I got into football, then trakc and field, then finally I joined a gym.

I started off powerlifting because I didn't have any impliments available then once I got to TPS I did it for about another year but just about everyone in their trains strongman so I went with the bandwagon and haven't looked past since.

However, their will be more power lifting from me in the future...my goal is to be the strongest, not the best strongman or power lifter...I think to say your "strong" you need a little bit of both in their...just my oppinnion

[David Stanley]

i've always been a fan of bodybuilding, powerlifting, and strongman. I just would rather do strongman cuz bodybuilding requires a tan and shaved body plus i don't think i'd ever want to do the stuff they have to like a week before contest time just not for me but i do respect them. Powerlifting would be fun but it's only like three contests at the max and i don't wanna wear those suits lol. Strongman is just so crazy idk it appeals to me more.

[Ryan Rhodes]

At first, because it intimidates just about everybody and only elite athletes can do it well. It's one of the most extreme sports in the world, the dark side of strength athletics and once you go black, you never go back :) . Quickly and without warning, it became my addiciton and now very few things are able satisfy me the way that strongman does.

[Jay O'Neill]

At first, because it intimidates just about everybody and only elite athletes can do it well. It's one of the most extreme sports in the world, the dark side of strength athletics and once you go black, you never go back :) . Quickly and without warning, it became my addiciton and now very few things are able satisfy me the way that strongman does.

Brilliant. Could not have said it better.

[Joshua Davis]

Couldn't cut it in the Highland Games. :EP:

Ditto

I couldn't cut it either. Not on the field, but at the bar afterwards. :LOL:

[Chris Mathison]

Because Ballet was full.

[Matt Brouse]

What else would I do...

[Brandon Clements "BC"]

After my college football career came an early end. I met Don Pope and I trained with him for a summer and then from there on out, its history.

[Brian_Worden]

Always been interested in "strength" sports.
Been watching World's Strongest Man on TV since I was young... thought... now those guys are cool!!
Two things I can't do with my body type... distance running... and body building.
I've dabbled in powerlifting (not official competition, but trained at the gym). It's fun... but i felt that powerlifting rested all on three events... and if you're off with those 3 reps...then you fail. Plus i wanted to test my "all around" strength.

[Arnell Castillo]

it's been close to a year that i've been in this sport . I played football for years and after my ball playig days were done I sat around for a couple of years doing nothin. then one day I was watching some of my old wsm tapes and said to myself " it's time to get off of your --- and do something. I have always loved the sport of strongman ever since I can remember (bout age 12 ) so since the flame to compete was still burning I decided to give it a go . I believe it is my destiny to be in this sport , and now it's just improving, growing, and learning . i've always been in athletics, but nothing has challenged my spirit like this sport has . it's flippin awesome ! lol

[Matt Schumann]

Watched WSM on espn and was hooked. Then went to a demonstration at the track of my high school where a few pro's put on a demonstration and i knew thats what i wanted to do.


I do it because its different and its something that i take alot of personal pride in....

[ADAMBAUER]

I didn't it chose me...

[Mike Martello]

Honestly, I have been training with free weights most of my life. I trains for some time; lifts that were specific to fighting and it’s physical mechanics. I put a great deal of effort into that theory. I had a workout that was perfect for me and what it was I was doing.

I never want to sound like a hard ass, however, the fact was that no matter how much “bigger” guys were then me I was always stronger. I didn’t waste any time doing flies and lifts of the like…

I was deading up 505 about 6 or 7 weeks ago and I went down to Coney Island, they had a 30 gallon drum full of cement as a stanchion. My friend were all like YO MIKE PIC THAT THING UP AND THROW IT. I figured Hey what the hell, why not. I wrapped my arms around it and it when NO WHERE! I tired again and I got it up and it went down again. Third time I got it up wanted it to the middle of the street and got busted by the cops lol.

Anyway, I kept looking at it thinking “WTF WTF???”

That’s when I called Jay Ashman and said, Bro I NEED to get involved with Strongman.

And the rest has yet to become history! lol

[IdrisH.]

For me, I chose to take up strongman because I was always looking for a sport that I could be good at. For years I played soccer and realized that it was not the sport for me (note: I still kind of like it). In addition, like so many other people have said I loved watching WSM growing up and thought it would be cool to be involved in it. I like that there is not a lot of pressure to look a certain way and that there is so much comradery. A few months ago I started researching and found the ASC and NAC a said to my self, "I want to do strongman." In a year or so, I hope to become strong enough to start participating in contests. STRONGMAN RULES!!!!!! :KD:

[Scott Markowitz]

I did a lot of sports in high school. After then, I got married and got a job and other things took over my life. I didn't lift a thing for 7 or 8 years. In the mid-90's I first discovered WSM on television, but I never thought it was real - not in the sense that wrestling or Santa aren't real, but in the sense that no normal human being could do that stuff. After my wife and I moved to Oklahoma (and I had my illustrious ten minute college football career) I got her watching it on tv. She and I went to a pro contest in Shreveport, where we met some pretty big names. Whit Baskin convinced me to play with the implements a bit (I was able to deadlift the 300# log - I didn't try to do anything else with it - and got the 315# farmers up...well, one of them using both hands, anyway). Several other spectators asked me if I was competing. Kind of inflated my head a bit (at this point I'd been lifting again for 2 or 3 years). The next summer she found a contest in Tulsa which I entered (and got killed) but where I met a guy who lived in my town. We started training together and I was hooked.

As far as why strongman over other strength sports,
1) I like to eat too much to be a bodybuilder
2) I have too many joint problems to be good at PL or OL.
3) I like strongman's rules - you either lift it or you don't.
4) Strongman is much more useful for real-world stuff
5) It scares people.

[Mac Smith]

I had a great football career (standout high school, D1, lousy pro, and a semi pro career that ended in a hall of fame induction). But I just didn't want to be defined as a football player. My god-father and his friends (OD Wilson, Scott Warman, Jim Vironan, and Steve Goggins) used to talk about how weak football players were, so I vowed that after my football career was over, I would prove them wrong!

I did powerlifting and did quite well, but I grew tired of the hundres of organizations and the ton of gear. Plus having an 81"+ wingspan always sucked to be a bench presser (at least that was my excuse, LOL)!!!!

Plus its always cool to hear your kids brag and say my dad is stronger than your dad, and its true. Lastly, it's even cooler to see the looks on the teenage boys faces when my daughter introduces them to me!!! INSTANT BIRTH CONTROL!!! LOL!!!!!

[Steiner]

Because i love it!

[Derek Williams]

I got started lifting weights when I was 12, because I was very skinny and undersized. I got picked on at school constantly because I was one of the smallest kids there. My dad told me that he could either buy me a weight set, or enroll me in karate classes. I told him that I thought that weights would be better, because if I took karate, I would still be small, and my only defense would be fighting, which will get you kicked out of school. I thought that kids might want to "try me" even more if they knew I had karate training but was that small. I would rather get bigger and stronger, and just the intimidation factor would deter most from picking on me again. Turns out I was right. The bigger and stronger I got, more and more kids knew I had them outclassed and left me alone. By senior year, nobody picked on me. The number who did had decreased steadily from 7th grade on.

In my early 20's I competed in bodybuilding. I placed top 5 a couple of times and actually once won my class and an overall. It was fun at first but there is way too much of a drug problem in that sport, IMHO. I also didn't like the egos in it. There was more backstabbing, jealousy, and prancing around than a beauty pagent. Everyone was accusing everyone else of using roids whether they were or not. I knew people who got busted and went to jail. I kind of got sick of it for that reason. Also, when Mohammed Bennaziza and Andreas Munzer died in the mid 90's, and their drug regimens were made public, I realized that maybe this is not what I want to do after all. I had no idea that the pros were using THAT MUCH. It was overkill and I just completely lost my desire to do that sport anymore.

I did some powerlifting in high school and did ok, usually placing top 3 in my weight class, but I didn't like all the gear you have to wear. I feel absolutely claustrophobic in a bench shirt. I think YOU should lift the weight, not your shirt, not your titanium coated, nuclear powered, kevlar ultra-tight knee wraps and squat suit. (Not to put down any powerlifters, but all this gear just isn't for me, that's all.) I might go back and do some raw and / or drug tested events at some point. I have been to a couple and they look like fun.

I stayed busy working and didn't lift at all or very little for a few years, had quit going to bodybuilding and power meets, and then finally one day while channel surfing, I watched a WSM contest on ESPN. It was the one Svend Karlesn won in 2001. I was really impressed with the camaraderie and sportsmanship they showed. I was also impressed with just how amazingly strong and athletic they were. This is the only sport I have ever seen where your biggest rival and competitor will come over and cheer you on in an event if he has finished and you haven't. Just the visual of pulling a train or a truck, or loading a stone that heavy onto a platform, or pressing a log is awesome to me.

It looked like a lot of fun so I thought this is the sport for me. I have yet to compete and am still just training with the weights, not implements yet. But I am a fan and look forward to trying a contest at some point in the future.

[Jonathan Macfarlane]

Couldn't cut it in the Highland Games. :EP:

Agreed. You were a dismal failure, only 2nd at the Worlds.

[Kevin Cronin]

Never had any interest in competing in bodybuilding. I always loved going heavy, so when I found Dave Tate's Eight Keys that's the program I started following. I might've ended up competing in a PL contest, if there were ever any around me ...

I had always watched WSM and loved it, then one day i found Brad Cardoza's Stones and Tires thread on t-bag, with a lot of pictures from his competitions. I never knew there were amateur competitions, so I PMed him asking for info and he told me about nastrongman. A few months later I was going through the website and saw a contest in New Haven that the promoter, April, was having open training days for. I waffled over doing the competition or not, but once I actually did it I was hooked.

[Michael Ambrose]

Did bodybuilding for 15+ years (for fun - not competition). Decided to compete in it and started training heavy. Instantly got hooked on powerlifting. Competed there for 6 years. Got stale at powerlifitng and wanted to do something fun and the opportunity for strongman presented itself in my back yard (almost literally). Now I'm addicted to it!

I guess you could argue the main reason I picked it is I have a screw loose :FF: and I enjoy being a both a sadist and masochist to myself! :BB:

[Callie Marunde]

Jesse talked me onto it. I had been competing in figure and bodybuilding. Jesse said that I should use all the muscle I worked so hard to get.

After I won nationals 2x (with a great coach) I decided to hang it up. My girlie side took over and choose bikini's over bruises :)

Callie

[LukePatterson]

BEAUTY PAGENT FOR MEN!!!! I started in Strongman in 2001. I walked into Golds Gym in Boise Idaho on a cane with a blown Disc in my back. A Man named Matt Brundage saw me come in and said, "I can fix that". I asked him how he was going to fix a back so bad....he then kicked my cane from out of underneath me and said lets get started. I trained with him for 1 year and rehabed my back as much as I could. Then I did someting really dumb....I started Bodybuilding. That is when Corey St. Clair came into the Gym. He asked me if I had ever seen WSM. I said yes. He said that I should use the muscles that I had worked so hard to get. He invited me to his gym to train or just to try it out. Holy Crap!!!! I was hooked. I won 2nd place at Strongest in the West....my first show! That was when there was no such thing as a weight class.....just open men. I took 2nd and 3rd at the 2 more shows that year and went to nationals the following year. I took 9th in my class that year......and did someting really dumb again.....bodybuilding.....due to another back injury. It has taken 4 years until I was able to squat or deadlift again. With Jesses passing I woke up once again and realized that I needed to lift heavy because that is what I love to do.....I HATE bodybuilding!!!! I was not enjoying the gym anymore.....I didnt love it. I went and saw Jesse at the MR. Olympia. i talked to him afterwards and he said...."Luke, you are so small.....are you still competing?" That was motivation enough for me. So, 2 weeks now I have been training Strongman again. I forgot how much it hurts and how rewrding it is. So, watch out for me this next year.....I'M BAAAAACK!!!! Luke Patterson

[Joshua Davis]

Truth be told, I have a long story that spans a short time defining my introduction to strongman.

I was sedentary, and well over 400lbs, right after getting married in 2001. I left my IT job two weeks prior to September 11, and as most people know; getting a job afterwards wasn't very easy. I ended up working at a home brewing and wine supply store for $1 over minumum wage, where my great thirst only helped to increase my girth (I helped myself to plenty of "samples", and even taught workshops - so other people would bring me MORE samples to test for them).

On the bright side (as if drinking beer and bs'ing wasn't a perfect job in the first place), I always had invites to beer, wine, and whiskey events in the area. One of these events was the Dunedin Highland Games Scotch Whiskey tasting that occurs the week of the Dunedin Highland Games competition. A few of the athletes were telling me, hell even harrassing me: "hey, you look strong enough, you're definately big enough, come and compete!".

I didn't compete that year, but within a week I was lifting weights and had started researching options for my diet. Within a year, I had been lifting weights seriously, and had began weightlifting and doing highland games practices.

Finally, after a year and 1/2 of lifting, diet, reading, research, and around 60lbs of weightloss, I got in touch with Tom Mitchell - the Florida NAS state chairman (through Lance Peterson's old board at Brutestrength). I went out for my first training day, got a 150lb log for a double, took a 5-foot walk with 200lbs/hand, and practically killed myself trying to flip Tom's "little tire" of 500lbs.

I was very motivated to come back out; even though I didn't think I could, two months after training with Tom I competed in the very first Clearwater-area Florida State Strongman Championships in 2003. I placed 6th or 7th in a field of 13 and had one of the greatest experiences of my life. I also weighed in for that show at somewhere south of 340lbs, marking about 80lbs of fat loss from the start.

I've been training with Tom ever since, give or take a few missed sessions for other sports such as the games, weightlifting, or fatherhood ;-)

After that I was pretty much sold on strongman.

I love the sport, I really feel accomplishment in helping people in the sport... and the fact that there are so many people out there like me, that enjoy helping as much as competing, make this sport one of the best in the world.

[ADAMBAUER]

Serious answer this time. I was half *** lifting in the gym no real ryhme or reason to the workouts. I was frustrated with the lack of results, diet sucked, loads of pop and fast food (yet no results go figure) I weighed 280 lbs as of 5/06. I followed the same non plan ( yes I am a slow learner :BB: )
Fast forward to right before Christmas of 06 and I was watching WSM repeats on ESPN. Decided to search for competitor websites, I found Phils, and the found this one, lurked around for a while and realized it was great site. Started to hear about Iowas Strongest Man started asking questions and finally someone thru down the gaunlet and asked if I was competiting and figured WTH. I entered the contest and then started to train for it, March 31 came and I meet a lot of the people on the forum and fell flat on my ***. Had ball and was hooked, the fact that DaveO. and Jesse were there gave me extra motivation. When I was struggling Jesse offer advice, and my fellow competitors were really encouraging, I was hooked, I know live for training and if I go longer than a few weeks between event training sessions I start jones like a fiend! I love the sport for what it stands for and the sportsman ship involved. After all you can't go online in any main stream sport and ask a question, the get answers from the pros and stars of the sport! Thats why I got into strongman.
BTW Im down to 250 lbs.

[Muscle Mom]

Jesse talked me onto it. I had been competing in figure and bodybuilding. Jesse said that I should use all the muscle I worked so hard to get.

After I won nationals 2x (with a great coach) I decided to hang it up. My girlie side took over and choose bikini's over bruises :)

Callie

Weren't you afraid you would break a nail?

[Guillaume Dupuis]

I chose strongman because the ballet classes was full :(

... one day I'll have my revenge!

[Jesse Snadden]

I was the one who pulled Guillaume out of ballet!

[Paul_Koskinen]

I chose strongman because the chess team told me I wasn't assretive enough.
That, and I really thought it was a chance to wear one of those oldtime strongman outfits.

[Joshua Davis]

I chose strongman because the chess team told me I wasn't assretive enough.
That, and I really thought it was a chance to wear one of those oldtime strongman outfits.

My leopard skin leotard and fake handlebar mustache have been gathering dust in my closet - I gotta get those out again.

I also have the fig leaf outfit... it's a winner too!

[Matt Lebo]

I started strongman a couple of years ago when Scott Porter approached me at the gym and asked if I wanted to try strongman. I had been training like a bodybuiler for years but always preffered strength gains over aesthetics. I went to train one night and did farmers, tire, and stones and the rest they say is history...