All photos by Matthew Nourse

On 29-30 May I went to the World’s Strongest Man Experience at the Excel Centre in London. The event comprised a two-hour competition featuring some of the biggest stars in WSM – including current World’s Strongest Man Zydrunas Savickas – preceded by an opportunity to meet the strongmen on the exhibition stand, have your photo taken, get your programme signed and generally marvel at these man mountains.

I thought it was a great idea for strongman fans, allowing you to experience in person what you’ve only seen on the telly at Christmas! The coolest part for me was getting to rub shoulders with the strongmen on the stand (not literally of course, as I’m only 5 ft 5) and interviewing Zydrunas Savickas (see the clip here).

Of the Brits, Terry Hollands, Mark Felix, Jimmy Marku and Darren Sadler represented in style. Laurence Shahlaei was also on the bill but pulled out in order to compete in a qualifier for the WSM 2010 finals (he successfully qualified!).

It’s worth saying that some of these guys are competing every couple of weeks. Terry Hollands, for example, did a Strongman Champions League event in Finland two weeks before, and another SCL event in Ireland two weeks after. Although these weights seem superhuman, it’s all in a day’s work for the professional strongman.

World Record from Felix

On the Saturday before the main show we were treated to a world record attempt by Mark Felix in the left handed deadlift.

Mark is well known as an absolute deadlift and grip monster, current Rolling Thunder world champion (Rolling Thunder is a notoriously difficult revolving deadlift handle). So I don’t think anyone was in any doubt that he would take the record easily. It stood at 221kg; Mark went for 225kg and got it.

He could probably have smashed the record and lifted more, but he did have a whole two days of strongman competition ahead of him, so perhaps he held back a little.

The events

After Felix’ new world record, the competition itself got underway. The line up included: Zydrunas Savickas (Lithuania), Terry Hollands (UK), Darren Sadler (UK), Stefan Solvi Petursson (Iceland), Thomas Nowotniak (Poland), Jimmy Marku (UK), Kevin Nee (USA) and of course Mark Felix (UK).

That’s a lot of power to fit into a small arena!

The competition was adjudicated by strongman legends Geoff Capes and Svend Karlson, and hosted by Caroline Pearce (aka Ice from Gladiators). She was a good choice of host, I thought. It’s nice to have a woman amidst all the testosterone; moreover one who isn’t a) just the female foil to a male host, and b) not just a pretty face. Pearce, who is an ex-athlete herself, has presented a few strongman events now and is getting to grips with the specifics of the sport. Could she be the Gabby Logan of strongman? I don’t see why not!

Events

The events were:
•    Farmers walk 160kg each hand – 15m
•    Dumbbell clean and press 93kg – reps in 60 seconds
•    ‘Axle’ deadlift 330kg (16 inch deadlift with olympic bar) – reps in 60 seconds
•    Log press 130kg – reps in 60 seconds
•    Atlas stones

A menu of classic strongman events here. Due to space constraints, the events chosen tended towards the static. However, as many events were a particular lift for reps, it was a good opportunity for strength fans to witness the strongmen’s technique, particularly in the overhead events – which for many of us recreational strongmen/women is our nemesis!

I was particularly interested in the dumbbell press, as I have seen many people struggle with this event. The event favours the short-armed guys, so Jimmy Marku and Darren Sadler did well. Savickas, who has excellent overhead strength, won this event.

Clip: Savickas dumbbell clean & press 93kg – 7 reps

Clip: Darren Sadler dumbbell clean & press – 6 reps

As you might expect, Mark Felix destroyed the deadlift event – this after getting a world record in the left-handed deadlift. Straps are allowed in strongman deadlifting, as it is not intended to be a test of grip.

Clip: Mark Felix deadlift 330kg – 14 reps

The 130kg log press was done in a head-to-head style. In the clip below, Jimmy Marku goes up against Mark Felix.

Clip: Jimmy Marku log press 130kg

We finished with the atlas stones, always a crowd pleaser. Professional strongmen these days are very adept at this event, which involves an unusual technique not normally seen in lifting. You pick the stone up off the floor with a rounded back (‘sacrilege!’, a fitness instructor would cry!) and wrap your body around the stone in order to roll it up your chest before pressing it onto the platform.

The stones is usually the last event in a competition and can therefore decide the overall winner if places are close. So it behoves the professional strongman to get very good at this event!

Although height is a factor, as the platforms for the stones can be quite high, a number of the shorter strongmen have proved that you can still be competitive at this event if you work hard. Darren Sadler, the shortest guy in the competition, put in an incredible performance in the stones.
(Watch Darren do a 10-stone lifting demo in 2007 and you’ll see what I mean)

On the Saturday ‘Big Z’ Savickas came out on top, with Terry Hollands second and Darren Sadler, the shortest and lightest guy in the competition an impressive third. I’m told that Savickas and Hollands also came first and second respectively on the Sunday too.

It was a pity Laurence ‘Big Loz’ Shahlaei couldn’t be there as I’d have liked to see how he stacked up against Hollands – both British men are really in form at the moment. They will both be competing in Europe’s Strongest Man in London on 19th June though, so perhaps we’ll see a fine competition there!

I also spoke to Jimmy Marku about his training but he wasn’t giving anything away! As reigning UK’s Strongest Man, he’s clearly got game. And with Mark Felix getting yet another record under his capacious belt, things are looking good for British strength at the moment.

I also liked newcomer (to me, anyway) Stefan Solvi Petursson, an Icelandic strongman with a big personality who clearly has fun and communicates well with the crowd. He was one of the tallest strongmen and won the stones event with a lightening fast time.

All in all, this was a great event for strongman fans, getting up close and personal with the athletes, watching them compete at close quarters and seeing what quality we have in the British camp.

The sport of Strongman

One of the most interesting and exciting things about strongman for me, both in terms of competing and spectating, is the range of techniques and facets of strength and fitness that are employed. To be a winning strongman, there’s a lot you need to be good at. If you’ve got a monster deadlift but are weak overhead, you will suffer in the events. So it a real spur to work on your weaknesses.

When I spoke to Geoff Capes he commented that, “strength is only measured with the disciplines you give them to do and the guys are actually competing in the event. Change the event, change the disciplines, you’ll get a different result.”

Naturally, strongman is a punishing game. You’ve got to train the lifts in the gym and focus on getting stronger, but you’ve also got to practice your event technique. Although the equipment is more sophisticated these days (we don’t just hike into the forest and chop down a tree for the log press any more), it is still easy to bruise, bash, scrape and generally injure yourself as you train.

American strongman Kevin Nee, who had to pull out of the WSM Experience competition after a couple of events through injury, and has endured two bicep tears and a pec tear in his career so far, talked about the dangers of doing too much too soon:

“Some advice for those who are starting out in the sport, just don’t rush it too much, take your time, stick with it, stay dedicated and you will get stronger”.

There seems to be good camaraderie between the strongmen, who see each other regularly on the circuit. I saw a lot of big physiques and big lifts but didn’t see any big egos. Even Savickas, whom I assumed would be rather intimidating, was great fun to talk to and modest about his achievements.

Perhaps it is too easy to be humbled in this game. Of course you must have self belief and you must be dedicated to the goal. But it is a sensible strongman who refuses to entertain the hubris of an enormous ego.

More on this topic

WSM athlete profiles
Another review of the event by The 5th Stone blog

More from gubernatrix

Strength revelations: what I’ve learned from strongman
Lifting and carrying: are you getting enough?
Five secrets of more effective training

Often trying something new can make certain movements, concepts or sensations really click for you. Recently I had a go at a Strength & Power event – inspired by strongman but scaled for all weight classes. I turned out to be the only female in the event, competing against the guys in the sub-75kg weight class.

Aside from being a fun day, I discovered in the training and then on the day itself  a number of things I’d never fully grasped before about strength. Part of the fun in fact was these ‘light bulb’ moments, things that perhaps people have told you or you’ve read about, but until you actually experience them you don’t really grok what they mean.

So here are some of my strength revelations from that day.

Pushing through the sticking point

There are events in strongman – and in powerlifting – where, when you start pulling, the load just does not move. It’s tempting to give up at this point and think that you are not able to move it, but if you keep pulling you can eventually overcome that inertia and get it to shift.

I had never before experienced so completely the difference between pulling hard for a second or two and pulling hard for several seconds, despite the fact that I’ve been deadlifting for years.

It is similar to the experience of learning to push through the pain barrier when running. Years ago when I first started going for runs, I would basically run until I got really out of breath and felt like I couldn’t run any more and then I’d stop. The point at which I got really out of breath got further and further away, so I thought I was doing okay. Only when I started training with British Military Fitness did I learn how to keep running past the point that I thought I couldn’t possibly continue.

The mind always gives out before the body. You’ll pass out before you die.

The same applies to lifting very heavy weights. Most people, naturally enough, will try to lift a weight and if they can’t shift it within a second or two of trying they will assume that it is too heavy. But it takes time to develop the kind of force you need to shift that weight. You don’t have access to it instantly.

One of the starkest examples of this is in the truck pull. Overcoming inertia and getting that truck moving is one of the most prolonged efforts in strength sports. You dig your toes into the ground and push and strain for what seems like an age and just when you think you are never going to manage it, someone calls out – oh joy! – “It’s moving!” and you have that Beethoven’s Fifth moment at last (towards the end of the 3rd movement going into the 4th movement; listen from when it goes really quiet and you’ll see what I mean: it’s the orchestral expression of a truck pull).

A max deadlift is also a perfect lesson in this force-time curve. There is the isometric phase, where you are exerting force but the load remains static, then eventually it starts moving.

I realised that I hardly ever pull for long enough in the deadlift.

Travelling with weight

This is something I discovered while training for this event and I’ve mentioned it recently. Moving from A to B with a heavy load is an awesome workout. What it does to your heart and lungs is akin to hill sprints – I kid you not.

Shouldering a very heavy sandbag (close to bodyweight, if not more) and running even a few metres is punishing.

How many times do we actually travel with weight in the gym? We tend to do all our lifting rooted to the ground like ancient trees. Become Ents! Start moving.

Incidentally, how many times do we actually travel with weight in everyday life? All the time! We rarely pick something up only to put it back down again in exactly the same place. I mean, where’s the use in that?

So is strongman starting to make sense now? Dan John has been talking about this for years but it sounds a bit strange and a bit too simple so most people, including me, have ignored it. Dan’s “things that I believe can help anyone improve on the road to health and fitness” are:

1. Pick stuff off the ground
2. Put stuff overhead
3. Carry stuff for time and distance

I’d gradually made forays into the first two but for me, number three was the missing link.

Here’s an important point though. This stuff has to be heavy. Picking up a sandbag that weighs the same as your briefcase and running with it won’t have the same effect. That’s just like commuting. We’re all at different stages along the road of strength but don’t be afraid to make it challenging. You won’t die, really.

(There’s a fun workout on Bodytribe’s Strength Rituals DVD that involves shouldering a sandbag filled with your bodyweight from a prone position, then standing up with it and running across the room. Really tough, and a great lesson in how conditioning workouts don’t have to be ‘light’.)

Your deadlift isn’t your biggest lift

Most people think that the most they can lift off the floor is what they can deadlift – right? Well, that’s what I used to think anyway. But the powerlifting deadlift is not the strongest position for the body to be in.

One of the events in this Strength & Power competition was a farmer’s walk with 65kg in each hand. This was more than twice my bodyweight and equivalent to my lifetime best deadlift (which I had not done for several months) and not only did I have to pick it up but I had to carry it 15 metres.

I honestly thought I would not even be able to pick these bad boys off the ground, and I approached the event with this attitude in my head.

But lo and behold, that farmers walk position is way stronger than the deadlift position. Dare I say it, it was easy carrying over two times my bodyweight across a car park! Or at least, by far not the most difficult thing I did that day.

It is in fact possible to deadlift more with one hand than half of your two handed deadlift – something else I’ve mentioned recently. And great fun to try!

The one handed deadlift used to be a popular competition lift and is still done in some circles. In fact in the days when feats of strength were popular spectator sports, all kinds of lifts were performed which makes today’s range of standard lifts look extremely limited. One handed lifting is hardly ever done and yet it is possible to move a great deal of weight if one has the training and the technique. One handed lifts of over 1000 lbs have been recorded.

The secret of core stability

Well, one of them anyway. If you aren’t sure where your core is, stand up and press something heavy overhead. Your torso will either engage or collapse. That’s your ‘core’.

Once again, I refer you to Dan John’s three pillars above.

Strongwomen?

If there’s one strength sport even more male-dominated than powerlifting, it’s strongman. The name says it all.

I don’t particularly mind about the name (Germaine Greer strike me down for saying so!). Just because its known as ‘strongman’ doesn’t mean it’s not for girls; strongman is just a technical term. I’m not even that bothered about using the term ‘strongwoman’ since this could imply that its something different from ‘strongman’.

In his latest DVD, Dan John says “There’s no right and wrong; never put a moral dimension on strength training”. I’ll add to that by saying “never put a gender distinction on strength training either”.

My recent event was called a ‘Strength & Power Invitational’ and I competed against the guys in the appropriate weight class. Gender wasn’t an issue at any point. Long may it continue.

More from gubernatrix

• Review: Everything’s Over My Head by Dan John
• Testing your one rep max
• Assistance exercises
• How competitive are you?

Photo credits: All photos by Emmie Bates apart from the first photo which is by Chris Barclay

Gubernatrix sneaks a go with the 100kg sleeper

Hey, this functional training stuff really works! I’ve just spend the weekend moving house and apart from some help unloading  (including from my awesome 80-year-old aunty who is of a generation that could actually do stuff) I basically did it all myself.

I was expecting to feel very tired and achey afterwards but this didn’t happen. I put it down to the fact that as well as good ol’ powerlifting training I’ve been doing a lot more lifting and carrying recently. Inspired by the great DVDs from my main men Dan John and Chip Conrad and the world of strongman, I’ve been incorporating more overhead work, farmer’s walks, super heavy holds and the like into my workouts and it is definitely having an effect.

Of course the real test will come in the Crossfit Reading/FKUK strongman event that will see me strutting my heavy stuff on November 21st but in the meantime, I shall continue to shift things around as I try to fit my life into ever smaller spaces.

If you’re not incorporating the lifting and carrying of heavy objects into your training, I highly recommend it. It will make your life easier (believe me) and it’s a lot of fun.

Farmer’s walk

Here’s a tip if you are short of space in your gym for walking and carrying: use the stairs. Going up and down the stairs a few times carrying a set of heavy dumbbells will burn your legs and fry your grip. Not unlike my cooking.

Use farmer’s walks at the end of a workout as a bit of GPP and grip training combined.

One-handed deadlift

One-handed deadlift

Have you ever tried a one-handed deadlift? This classic used to be a popular competition lift – and is still practised by fans of the old time or ‘odd’ lifts. Indeed a Left Handed Deadlift was the BWLA Lift of the Quarter last quarter.

It is possible to lift with one hand more than half of your regular two-handed deadlift and you might surprise yourself with what you can achieve. Standing astride the bar (below) is allowed, as well as the normal straight-on stance shown to the right.

Steve Angell with a 200kg+ one-handed deadlift

Suitcase deadlift

A great idea for core training: get up off that mat and do a suitcase carry instead. Simply carry a heavy weight in one hand while keeping your body perfectly perpendicular to the ground and feel how much the muscles of your torso need to engage to keep you from collapsing sideways.

If 80-year-old Aunty Olga can pick up my 14kg kettlebell in one hand, you can too.

DVD inspiration

I pimp these DVDs because I love them and they demonstrate a great variety of lifts and workouts with a strength bias.

Everything’s Over My Head from Dan John has, as the name suggests, a lot of olympic lifting-inspired overhead work but my favourite part is Carried Away which features every possible combination of carrying you can think of. Seriously, when was the last time you actually lifted a weight and moved around with it? We tend to do all our lifting rooted to the ground like ancient trees. Let’s make like the Forest of Fangorn and start moving.
Read the full review here.

Strength Rituals from Bodytribe features an exciting array of odd and one-handed lifts. Windmills, bent press, one-handed snatchs and turkish get ups sit alongside one-handed work with clubs and kettlebells. It’s all heavy and therefore all good. There is also an explanation of how such lifts can usefully be incorporated into a workout programme.
Read the full review here.

Get these DVDs together at a 15% discount! See here for details.

A shout out for The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban, whence I obtained the black and white one-handed deadlift picture above, a wonderful compendium of old time lifting and physical culture. And also to Steve Angell, many times champion in All Around lifting, who let me use his straddle one handed deadlift pic.

Apparently Channel 5 have decided they no longer want to show Britain’s Strongest Man. A petition has been started to persuade the channel to keep it on.

Sign the petition

I am sure there are plenty of BSM fans out there who have enjoyed watching the competition. Strongman as a spectator sport has broad appeal. It is more entertaining for non-practitioners to watch than powerlifting or olympic lifting and it taps into the age-old desire of human societies to pit their strongest people against each other.

At grassroots the sport of strongman is gaining in popularity in the UK largely due to the television coverage. There are so few strength sports on TV that for Channel 5 to drop the show would be a real blow for strength sports in the UK.

If you live in the UK and you value strength sports, please sign the petition. We need to let Channel 5 know that there is demand for this show.