Going out strong

I started lifting when I was 16 as part of my high school football team’s weight-training program, and from the first day I picked up a barbell, I knew that pursuing strength would become a great passion of mine. 

As I learned more, I became drawn to the sport of strongman. Watching classic competitions on ESPN of those athletes carrying large boulders, pressing safe-like containers above their heads and pulling airplanes showed me what the human body can accomplish. I started strongman training eight years ago, and now I do about three competitions a year.

Once I became a biochemist and studied how the human body works and moves, I realized that we all practice strongman principles, we just don’t know it.

When we watch strongmen like Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson (who played The Mountain in “Game of Thrones”) or trailblazing strongwomen like Jan Todd, we might feel that their strength is beyond our reach, and, honestly, it probably  is — I’m 6-1, 285, and I can only pull a school bus — but their techniques aren’t out of our reach. In fact, we do strongman lifts every day! 

It’s not about what you lift, but how you lift, and these three techniques are as applicable to lifting a toddler as they are to lifting a boulder. If you do them right, you should feel the bulk of the work in your posterior chain (hamstrings, glutes and legs), erectors (spine) and latissimus dorsi (back). Remember to always lift within reason and never overestimate your own strength.