I first realized I was a bit too much of a wimp when I got shown up by my old man.
It was about a decade ago, and I needed to pull a small subwoofer out from behind a shelf. I couldn’t budge it, so my dad had to step in and flip it over with ease. Bear in mind that he’s about twice my age and not exactly the Incredible Hulk.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCI2N0iMsJE&feature=youtu.be
I’d always been scrawny, but being out-muscled by him galled me. I’ve been tossing around a dumbbell ever since, but still struggle to lug around my bag of camera equipment. What was I doing wrong?
I decided to ask some strong people for advice.
The credible hulks
Scott Wallace seemed like a good start. This Morinville strongman and fitness coach placed 15th in his class at the World’s Strongest Man Masters tournament in Raleigh, N.C., last month, and pulled a roughly 40,000-pound fire truck some 25 feet in Morinville last Canada Day. He also has the booming voice you’d expect of someone who could probably lift small planets.I meet up with him at the Evolve Strength North gym in Edmonton where he’s training for his next competition. Arms wrapped around a cement sphere called an Atlas stone, cheeks puffed and face red, he lifts the 330-pound rock off the ground, slams it onto a chin-high platform, the rolls it off to try again. The man-crushing rock thuds to the rubber mat so hard it bounces.
Wallace said he got into weightlifting through high school football, which led to a job at the local gym in Leduc and a lifelong hobby. He signed up for a strongman competition on a whim six years ago at a friend’s suggestion, loved it, and has been competing ever since.
Wallace said he can now deadlift 700 pounds up to his knees, carry 900 pounds with a yoke, and pull anything with wheels.
“I’ve pulled everything from garbage trucks to fire trucks,” he said, and he loves the cheers of the crowd when he does it.
Wallace said he enjoys working out because he gets to see his body change for the better.
“I’m testing my body and I’m pushing my body to the limit. My goal is to make my body as strong as it possibly can be.”
It also comes in handy when opening pickle jars, he added.
Also working the Atlas stones is St. Paul’s Alyssa Anderson, who took second in her weight class at that World’s Strongest event last month and has been Alberta’s strongest middleweight woman three years running. She doesn’t look particularly ripped from a distance, but then you see her speed-walk across the gym carrying 200 pounds of iron in each hand.
“I’ve always been a competitive person,” Anderson explained, but her job as a veterinarian left little time for most sports. Weightlifting was dull without a goal, so she tried bodybuilding, later switching to strongman at a friend’s suggestion. It’s great stress relief, and it helps on the job whenever she has to yank a hundred-pound calf out of a cow.
“Everything’s just easier when you’re strong.”
Flipping a 1,000-pound tire upright is Derrek Cox of Edmonton, vice-president of the Alberta Strongman Association and last year’s national champ for his weight class in the Official Strongman Games.
Strongman is a competitive strength sport that’s growing in popularity in Alberta, with about 110 or so people involved in it currently, Cox said. While strength contests date back to ancient times, the modern strongman circuit started with the first World’s Strongest Man contest in 1977, and now includes many local, provincial, national and international events.
Strongman differs from bodybuilding and powerlifting in that it’s about strength rather than looks and puts more emphasis on athleticism, Cox said. Like CrossFit, it emphasizes functional movements like lifting, carrying, pulling and throwing. You might have to throw a 60-pound keg 16 feet in the air, for example, lift a 300-pound Atlas stone onto a platform, carry 800 pounds in a yoke, or pull a dump truck.
The strongman workout
A strongman workout is much different from a conventional one, Wallace said. Whereas a regular workout involves lots of lower weight reps for general fitness, strongman competitors do a handful of lifts with the biggest loads they can take.“Our goal is to build as much size and strength and power as we can,” he said.
Strongman competitors often train 15 hours or more a week and spend another four just to make all the meals they have to eat, Cox said.
“It’s really a part-time job that doesn’t pay and causes a lot of pain.”
They also use specialized equipment such as yokes, ropes, chains, steel logs, circus-style dumbbells, sandbags and giant tires, most of which I can’t even budge.
Wallace said he tailors his workouts based on the events in his next tournament. Each of his four-hour sessions start with a few warm-up runs of a particular event before he tries it with his maximum weight, followed by more conventional weightlifting to work on those accessory muscles.
Proper technique is vital, Anderson tells me. While bigger competitors can simply power through big lifts, smaller ones like her have to use more skill to avoid serious injury.
You also have to use safety gear. Wrist, knee and elbow guards are a must, as is a weight belt. Atlas stone lifters often smear sticky tack to their arms to improve their grip.
Even with that gear, injuries happen. Anderson has broken two fingers and once dropped an Atlas stone on her toes. Wallace has torn most of his muscles and had several surgeries, and once cracked two back molars from clenching his teeth too hard during a lift. (He and many other competitors use mouth guards to prevent such problems.)
Then there’s the food. Wallace said he has to take in about 6,000 calories a day just to maintain his 300-pound weight.
“Food costs are huge,” he acknowledged, especially once you add in nutritional supplements.
Anderson gets by on 3,500 calories a day, but tells me that’s split into about eight different meals.
“If you want to gain muscle, you’ve got to eat,” she said, to the point where it actually gets a bit annoying.
Wallace said strongman training can get expensive if you do it on your own, as weights typically cost a dollar a pound. (He had about $6,000 worth of exercise gear back in B.C.) Many competitors go to specialized gyms instead.
While you can win up to $150,000 at the global World’s Strongest Man tournament, most events offer free supplements or other products as prizes instead, Cox said. Most professional strongman athletes still have day jobs, and there’s maybe a dozen in the world who can make a living off of it.
How to get strong
I probably don’t need to lift a small car, but I’d like to be able to carry my groceries.Throwing a weight around will get me stronger, but eventually I’ll hit a wall or injure myself, Wallace and Cox said. A qualified trainer will help me set goals, stay motivated and learn the lifting techniques I need to stay safe.
I could start seriously competing in strongman if I trained enough to lift about a hundred pounds overhead, Anderson said. I could learn a lot of the needed techniques online, but Anderson and Wallace recommend I pair up with another competitor as a coach.
Wallace encouraged everyone to hit the gym and try some weights. Seeing your flab shrink and muscles grow will keep you going and build your self-esteem.
“It just changes you as a person.”
As for competitive strongmen, Anderson said it’s a very collegial scene if you care to join, as you’re really competing against yourself and how much you can lift.
“It’s just good people lifting big weights and having fun.”
I don’t think I’ll be pulling any trucks any time soon, but if I take the advice of these strong people, I might be able to arm-wrestle my dad someday.
