Edit: Continue voting on beard pics if you haven’t already. Results will be posted tomorrow.
Paul is a reader on the site who is 31 years old and has been strength training for about a year. We’ve had a few posts that urge readers to commit to competing, and it motivated Paul to enter in his first strongman competition.
I had a great time, met some cool people, and had fun trying something unlike anything I had done before. If anyone is on the fence about competing in one of these, I say go for it. I went in with my only goal being to not fail an event, and I was successful in that.
Paul was in a class with lots of very strong guys even though it was the “lightweight novice” class. All the competitors weren’t rare physical specimens; one competitor who was at least 10 years older than Paul busted his ass just like everyone else in spite of pre-existing injuries.
I think a lot of people feel intimidated by strongman, powerlifting, etc. because they think they’ll be ridiculed by huge, strong guys. My experience was exactly the opposite and it was one of the only competitive environments I’ve been in where competitors were cheering and pushing each other to all do their best.
We may see videos or here stories of top competitors vying for victory in ultra-competitive environments, but local powerlifting, strongman, and Olympic weightlifting meets are always full of good natured people willing to give some advice to a beginner. Paul realized he no longer had an excuse for not competing. If fearing failure is the only thing you’re worried about, then you don’t have an excuse.
Thanks for sharing, Paul.
Edit: How awesome is Paul’s wife?
Nicely done Paul. Id love to see more of these types of events in NY. Whether it be Up State NY (Albany)
or Western NY (Buffalo). I think it could really bring a alot of underground strong men together in one place competing against one another. All the garage lifters, like my self.
Wildcard Bitches!
Great job, Paul!
Well done sir, well done.
Hey Justin,
Remember a while back, you posted a clip for the world championships?
It showed Klokov losing to Dolega, and moaning about plate wobble?
Well I am told the whole tournament was full of equiptment problems
Check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC3yEQgweJs
Can you believe this happened at a major event?
I don’t know how it happened, most lifters don’t use collars during training to no ill effect.
Also, during one of the womens events, the bar stopped spinning.
And in the mens 77kg event, an iranian lifter walked on to the platform, noticed that the plates were on loosely, so he casually walk up to it while the clock was running and reset the plates, tightened the spinlock collar, then made the lift.
So i guess this is a bad advertisment for Werksan, and a good one for Dell.
R P McMurphy
You pretty much summed it up. I can’t believe that the equipment problems were present.
–Justin
Thanks guys!
@Wildcard1989 – I kept checking http://www.nastrongman.com for upcoming events. I have no idea if they are close to you, but there are a couple competitions scheduled for West Coxsackie, NY and Highland, NY early next year.
And you have no idea how awesome my wife is. I am a very lucky guy to say the least.
I’ve had the same experience doing powerlifting where everyone just wanted you to do your best. One guy at his first meet was in the 165 lbs weight class and had his first two attempts of bench press were red lighted at 225 lbs. The whole crowd and the competitors were cheering for him and he got his 225lbs bench in his third attempt.
Well done, Paul!
Read this excellent article on SS the other day, too:
http://startingstrength.com/articles/competition_reynolds.pdf
That, plus the one on prepping for a meet and now another reminder here has got me keen to try a PL meet. Been looking into the (only) association in South Australia (affiliated w/ WDFPF) – on the website I think it says there’s 37 members and about 25 actual lifters. Yeah, powerlifting isn’t huge in Australia….
Anyway, it looks like there’ll be a meet in March next year, so I’d like to register and have a go at that. Prob won’t be able to do it till after Christmas, but it’ll happen.
That was a good article. I suggest all of you read it.
–Justin
@ Paul Sousa
“Coxsackie”. Lol…
A year ago I was morbidly obese (>300lbs ~40-45% body fat)
Now I’m 215 at ~18%. Goal for next year is compete in olympic lifting. I’m in a good place to get strong, so let’s see what numbers I can put up.
Congrats and good luck.
–Justin
That’s badass Paul, nice job. Looks like a lot of fun, I’m jealous.
Great job, Paul! Strong beard and strong lifts!
And VERY impressive achievements, asdettmer! Big high five.
I just read two articles by Jim Steel yesterday. This guy is awesome. I’d never heard of him before. Turns out he grew up right near where I’m from and also loves goose hunting. I’ve got a new role model!
http://startingstrength.com/articles/experiences_steel.pdf
http://startingstrength.com/articles/truth_steel.pdf
The experiences article was very good. I recommend that too.
–Justin
Congrats Paul!
I am interested in doing a strongman comp but I couldn’t find anything in Texas from that website Paul provided, so does anyone know where I can look to find something?
Great work, Paul!!
Anybody know of good sites for the PNW?
Thanks everyone!
As for upcoming events, I would keep checking that site as they should have more added over time. There were a lot more contests this year than what is showing for next year and I imagine they may be added without a ton of advance notice (maybe a couple months ahead of time).
Also, I would highly recommend joining the Marunde Muscle forum as a lot of pro and high level amateur strongmen post there, and contest info is also posted.
Nice lifting.
kittenSmash, are you training currently? I noticed your log on SS hasn’t been updated in a bit and it was one of the few I would lurk in to get some inspiration.
I found a Strongman event about 15 minutes away from my house. Unfortunately it’s on January 22nd and I just got a cast put on my foot on monday for damage to my Lisfrancs Ligament, which I guess is kinda a big deal. There is no tear and no broken bones but I have to keep this stupid cast on for 6 weeks with no weight on the foot at all. If I don’t have to do much rehab on it I might be able to compete but I think it will be a little too soon. If anyone has had a similar injury and has any advice it would be welcomed.
Nice work Paul, looks like you had a really good time. Also, well done on the wife :). The beard makes you about 50 x cooler, just FYI…so don’t shave it until after Manuary, at the EARLIEST.
@ Paul Sousa
Thanks man i appreciate it. West Coxsackie is like an hr. away from me. and i think Highland is somewhere near Poughkeepsie. About 2 1/2 hrs away. Ill have to look into those. Thanks again man.