Hey y’all!
News travels slowly around here (or it could just be me- lol), so you might already know I competed in my first Strongman event in Oct. right here in Cary NC. And if you didn’t know…well now you know 😛
Summary Statement: It was a LOT of fun!
My buddy Nick from the gym and I decided to give it a shot and try something different. He’s a powerlifter and I’m a bodybuilder so we were both a bit out of our element, but it was still awesome.
We were two of the smallest competitors there but it didn’t matter – we got to do all kinds of “manly” stuff like pick up cars, press axles overhead, pick up rocks, grunt, drool, bleed, and all that other cool testosterone-induced stuff. 🙂
When all was said and done, I ended up in 4th place in my division, which I was pretty happy with.
It was a little weird for me though and took a different way of thinking than what I’m accustomed. In physique competitions, all the hard work is pretty much done by the time you get to the stage, and all you have to do is show up and present the results.
In contrast, in this strongman event I actually had to PERFORM! I had to do something! I had to lift and carry things! I wasn’t used to this pressure and honestly got a little nervous! (Hmmm….is that what they mean by performance anxiety? lol ;P)
Looking back, it’s really easy for me to say “I should have gotten one more rep” or “
I could have done that quicker”, blah blah blah, but at the time I thought I was gonna puke and die (not necessarily in that order) so I’m pretty sure I tried as hard as I could. Everyone was friendly, the crowd was great, and I had a bunch of friends come out to support me. What more can you ask for?
Am I going to do another one? Probably, but I’m not sure when. I’d like to focus on bodybuilding for a while now, and honestly strongman training is pretty tough on the body (the joints in particular) so we’ll see what happens…
Here’s the video: