Every now and then you have to put yourself in a new environment. Somewhere that forces you to grow, gives you an opportunity to learn, this time for me was my first crack at strongman.
Yep strongman, that stuff you see on TV or facebook with those big beasts of humans picking up cars, stones and carrying huge weights.
But, why would I take on something like strongman?
Well over the last few years we’ve been including more strongman style training with our clients and the Newstrength systems to help build functional strength. So after tinkering and playing with these exercises, the opportunity to try out a competition came up and I thought it could be a bit of fun to take on the challenge.
So after a massive day competing in a new sport I came away with a few lessons about strongman and training that I’ll be taking forward and wanted to share with you all.
Get Strong First For Strongman (or anything pretty much)
Sounds pretty self explanatory hey!
Strongman unlike most other strength sports works off set weights for events, this made for an interesting day as some of the competition weights were damn heavy and left some people not being able to score on certain events.
One of the things that worked into my favour was over the last 11 years of training I’ve managed to build up a foundation of strength and athleticism that can carry over to most athletic endeavours. This belief has set the core for our Newstrength training philosophy; a strong, athletic and resilient person will be able to transfer those skills into whatever sports they like.
Although, I did have the luxury of working with some of the implements in training you can’t out technique your way through a strength sport event like strongman, you need to have a foundation first and then technique allows you to reach your peak potential.
Always A White Belt
I went into the day with one goal, complete as many events as possible. Even though there’s a first place, I knew I wasn’t going to be contending for that in a strong under 90’s field. But, it didn’t matter about coming first.
I think too many people have a mental block about not wanting to compete unless they are going to win. Ultimately, it means they never get started because they aren’t willing to put themselves back into the position to be a beginner.
The problem with that is as a beginner you get to learn more about yourself and how to approach challenges and adversity, which I feel is one of the most important lessons to learn in life.
I went in just wanting to keep up and finished the day qualifying for NSW Strongest Man later this year. Had I not been willing to be a beginner again I wouldn’t have put myself in there with a chance.
There’s Always Another Level When You Need It
The hardest thing with strongman I feel is the need to come up and down in adrenaline all day. You finish one event amped, ready for the next one only to wait an hour before it started.
The first few times it’s not too bad but before you know it the body starts clutching at straws to bring yourself back up again.
After the car deadlift, I didn’t think I had much left in the tank and was a bit worried about the medley to finish the day. Warming back up I felt sluggish but I knew that I needed to move if I was any chance of sneaking my way into 3rd place overall.
One person out from my turn it all started to click, my body ramped back up and I felt ready to go again. I pushed through the medley as fast as I could up until I couldn’t move the 125kg stone at the finish.
I ended up moving much quicker than I thought I had left but it wasn’t quite enough to sneak in there missing out by 1 second.
The lesson here though is no matter how fatigued I felt, I found I had another level to go to when it mattered. Now I know I’ll have it in the tank next time I need it.
New Experience, New Friends, New Pathways
All in all after a massive day competing, the biggest takeaway is every time I try something like this I meet awesome people who are willing to help, learn more about myself and ultimately expanded out my beliefs on what my potential is.
I think they’re 3 things that everyone could benefit from adding to their lives and if it can come from something as simple as getting out of your comfort zone then what are you waiting for?
I know I’ve already lined up my next challenge.