Broke the state record definitely got a little more left in the tank. Got excited and looked at the bar lmao lost some upper back tension. 700 coming soon

Hello Strongman Reddit,

I spent last weekend volunteering at the SCL Florida competition, organized by Ilya Khazov and Lily Starobin, and felt like this would be an appropriate place to discuss how it went. Brace yourselves, as this is a long one.

Firstly, let's talk about the athletes. One of the main criticisms that I hear and agree with about the Giants Live and post-Covid Arnold circuit is just how difficult it is to get involved. The amount of hoops that people have to jump through to even get a glance from the promoters is incredible. A highly positive trait of the SCL circuit is that it feels like they really have their ear to the ground when it comes to discovering and inviting emerging talent. This is also a two way street. Many of the guys this weekend were in preparation for OSG, so they're not immune to the allure of a Giants Live invite, but they were also willing to step up and take a professional opportunity when presented with one. Within this lineup there were WSM finalists and people who just earned their pro card a few weeks prior. All were welcome to compete and all showed that they belonged at this level. To further iterate my point, here is the breakdown of athletes, based upon their placings:

1. Andrew Langelaar: SCL Ohio and SCL Florida Champion; Magnus Gimli Champion
2. Tristain Hoath: 2 x Canada's Strongest Man; WSM Finalist
3. Austin Hamm: 2025 3rd at America's Strongest Man; 2026 3rd at Arnold Pro
4. Dillon Gartner: America's Strongest Man competitor
5. Evans Nana Aryee: Multi-Time WSM Competitor;  Multi-Time SCL Winner
6. Tyler Thompson: 2025 3rd at Arnold Pro/Am; America's Strongest Man Competitor
7. Uriel Gutiérrez: Arnold South America 2026 Champion
8. Kane Francis: 2022 England's Strongest Man; Multi-Time SCL Podium
9. Kyle Banta: 2nd at Magnus Gimli Qualifier
10. Péter Juhász: 5 x Hungary's Strongest Man
11. Jesper Hansson: 2 x 3rd at World's Strongest Viking
12. Trent Herman: Arizona's Strongest Man and 2026 Arnold Pro/Am competitor

Next, the events themselves. There was a fire truck pull, a Kratos Bar 13" deadlift, a super yoke, a log lift, and they finished with an atlas stone series.

The first event was a 74,000lbs firetruck, lent to us by the Lake City Fire Department. I had the pleasure of helping the guys set the slack for the rope, so now I'm able to see myself in the background of a bunch of pictures with these guys fighting for their lives. Whether is was the location of the road, or just something in the water, apparently this pull turned out to be the hardest truck anyone in the lineup had ever pulled. Andrew Langelaar gritted out 4.5 meters, just ahead of Jesper Hansson and Tristain Hoath, who finished with 4.05m and 3.9m respectively. I had predicted that Hansson and Langelaar would do well, but I was genuinely shocked at Austin Hamm's fourth place finish, tying with Nana. Hamm gives up a solid foot in height to Hansson and is much better known for his upper body power than his lower (more on that later), so watching him grit out 2.85m against a truck that stopped most of these guys in their tracks was quite impressive. I also noticed that most of the men pulling were very upright, as opposed to the more horizontal positions that you see at events like The World Truck Pull Championships, also hosted by SCL. I believe that this was a skill/experience issue with a lot of the guys who don't have as much experience with these kinds of events.

After a brief and torrential rain delay, it was onto the deadlift. The guys had worked up to about 320ish kilos in their warmups when we had to stop for the rain, which meant that after 20 minutes, they had to resume where they left off and work back up to the competition weight of 831lbs. Having seen Hoath's 13' deadlifts at WSM, I had a feeling that he would do well, which was proved right by this second place finish at 6 reps. Tyler Thompson's gritty 3 reps were a pleasant surprised. He just pulled 885lbs for a big PR at Great Lake's Strongest Man last week, so seeing him rep low 800s was impressive. I had seen Langelaar's last heavy double from the floor at approximately competition weigh a week prior, so I had a feeling that this would go well for him. With the advantage of going last, he pulled the 7 reps that he knew he needed to win, claiming another 12 points.

The third event was the 1020lbs super yoke, 10m down and 10m back in the town square. As it is a tropical climate, the ground was tilted ever so slightly towards the drainage pipe in the middle of the square, which seemed to make for slightly unstable footing. My role here was to stand at the end of the 10m line and shout at the athletes to turn. A daunting task for someone not blessed with the loudest of pipes, but one that I only had to execute a handful of times, as this was a tough run for the guys. The warmups went from 245->445->645->845->1020lbs, which appeared to be a big yoke weight for a lot of these athletes. However, this is a professional show, so you can expect the weights to be heavy. When I had dinner with Dillon Gartner the night before, he told me that yoke was his best event, which he proved right, securing a second place finish right behind Tristain Hoath and 20 seconds ahead of Langelaar in third.

Next was the 335lbs log lift, which had Austin Hamm's name written all over it. Again, the angle of the flooring was a little bit of an issue, as athletes that dropped the log from overhead had issues with it bouncing away from them. Hamm lowered his log under control of each rep, allowing for him to continue with a smooth clean and press for all six of his winning presses. Another athlete that impressed me at this event was Kyle Banta. As I mentioned before, the footing was a little tricky for the athletes, due to the slight slope. Kyle had a good first clean, then spent over 10 seconds in the rack position fighting to stabilize his feet before getting one solid lift in. Additionally, Uriel Gutiérrez's press had less leg drive than his fellow competitors, although it allowed him better stability with his feet, granting him a respectable 4 reps.

The final event was the atlas stone series, which ran 120-140-160-180-200-220kg, heavier than any Giants Live setup and even above the WSM stone run weight. After rather disappointing days by their standards, Kane Francis and Péter Juhász loaded the first four stones in respectable runs in just over 25 seconds. This also proved to be the best event for Trent Herman, who managed to load three stones on the day. The newest pro on the scene, Trent managed to win the crowd with his enthusiasm, earning many "USA USA USA" cheers over the course of the day. The stones ended up being Andrew Langelaar's third event win in a rather dominant performance, reminiscent of his win at SCL Ohio just last month.

So, what is there left to say that hasn't been already? My biggest takeaway is that you should take the opportunities that are available to you. I'm speaking to both athletes and fans here. Everybody in this sport, at some fundamental level, wants to be at World's Strongest Man. Of the hundreds of athletes that compete in this ever-growing sport, only 25 of them will be invited in a given year. So why not explore other routes? To the best of my knowledge the SCL final has a payout of similar proportions to the WSM, so the box on compensation is checked off. One of the main criticisms of Giants Live and WSM is that they host their competitions in the same country year in and year out, especially in the post-Covid era. That SCL hosted two shows in the same country in a calendar year, SCL Ohio and SCL Florida, is highly anomalous. This is the highest level truly global strongman federation, with events occurring in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. So if you are a good enough strongman, I believe that you should take the opportunity to travel the world and compete in exciting locations for a good payout. Realistically, there is a short window of your life when you will be in your physical prime. Why sit around and wait for an invite that may or may not come when avenues such as SCL, the Magnus Series, PSL (Europe), etc. exist? To the fans...volunteer. Not everyone has the means to hop on a plane so they can take off athlete's shoes after truck pulls or reset thousand pound yokes. But if there are local shows near you, go be an extra body stacking plates, spotting, supporting, etc. It's a rewarding way to give back to the sport that we all enjoy so much and also a great way to meet new and interesting people.

That's enough from me today. Congratulations to all of the athletes and job well done to my friends, the organizers and my new friends and fellow volunteers. Onto the next one.

https://strongmanarchives.com/viewContest.php?id=2355

https://strongmancl.com/

These weekly discussion threads focus on one implement or element of strongman training to compile knowledge on training methods, tips and tricks for competition, and the best resources on the web. Feel free to use this thread to ask personal/individual questions about training for the event being discussed.

This week's topic: Olympic Lifts

Been training with one of the competitive guys at the gym for the last 10 weeks or so, done a handful of yoke over this time, but got 260kg (572lbs) for 15 meters, was over the moon but oh my lord was I shattered after

Been struggling with the jerk for a minute. At ~140 or below, the movement is pristine, snappy, etc. At 160 or above, it becomes kind of a shitty push press where I just spread my feet for some reason and doesn't seem to be adding anything to my pressing (for reference, I've hit a 185 triple push pressing).

Maybe I just need more Google skills, but does somebody know where to find the results for the weight classes Natural Worlds from this year? Also, what the events were would be awesome too.

Wanted a faster run after making a few mistakes in Ohio, beat my time by ~ 3 seconds

I have a comp in 2 weeks. My first.

I just had unplanned oral surgery yesterday and was told not to do any strenuous exercises for 7 days or it may dislodge the clot and cause a dry socket. I asked specifically about weight lifting and the surgeon said wait a week to lift heavy weights. Online it only says 48 hours.

Has anyone experienced something similar? Did you lift within a week? Any problems?

Any suggestions on keeping my progress? The comp has a max deadlift component. I just got consistent a week ago with hitting a deadlift PR every try. I am afraid I will lose it sitting on my ass for a week and that a week will not be enough time to get it back for the competition.

Edit: sounds like the general consensus is to take the week off and stretch. Will do. Thank you everyone

“Hope is such a splendid thing”
-Goldman

Wanted to go for 5 but the fatigue from two prior sets of 170kg and 185kg for 5 stopped me

These weekly discussion threads focus on one implement or element of strongman training to compile knowledge on training methods, tips and tricks for competition, and the best resources on the web. Feel free to use this thread to ask personal/individual questions about training for the event being discussed.

This week's topic: Truck/Harness and Arm-Over-Arm Pulling

I tried Atlas Stones for the first time ever at an event here and somehow managed to eventually get 136 kg on the barrel 😂 I really enjoyed it and I’m now thinking about joining a gym where I can train with stones regularly.
I was wondering how much of a difference tacky makes when lifting stones, and how quickly you can generally expect to progress with them once you start training consistently?

Cheers,

Nils

First time playing with a pair of (not properly sized) briefs prepping for SCL Florida. Ordered the proper size for the show, should be a good time

Please post and discuss pro strongman in this thread, including single-lift highlights, vlogs, memes, etc. To help users find and discuss videos, consider using bold or large text for the name of the creator/athlete and video title.

Videos that are explicitly instructional (eg. a how-to tutorial, informative podcast, interview, etc.), official world records, and full-length contest broadcasts may be posted to the front page as self/text posts, including a description of the content, short notes, and any relevant timestamps to encourage discussion.

Strongman Contest Results

Upcoming Major Competitions

The FAQ

New to Strongman?

Map of Strength Athlete Friendly Gyms maintained by u/DaBizzle

Weekly Discussion Thread for training talk, individual questions, chatting and other things that do not warrant a front page post.

and at the same time testing the new grip shirt I got from my mom😁💪

This was a 501 deadlift from the other day and it’s getting stuck right at my quads, I’m debating whether or not wearing something like tights or something like some of the pros do because I can feel it stopping when it makes contact with skin. Need opinions and recommendations thank you.