So You Want to Be a Strongman? Tips for Beginners with Spencer Graham

Matt invites former STRONG Gym coach and now owner of GP Athletics in Springfield, MO, Spencer Graham, to the podcast to discuss how lifters can get started training in the sport of strongman.

Strongman is probably the most entertaining sport in the world of strength and power. Athletes regularly perform feats of strength with brutally heavy objects, some spectacular (like pulling a fire engine, or a plane) and others mundane (like throwing barrels or flipping tires). Yet it’s the juxtaposition of amazing feats of strength with commonplace objects that gives strongman it’s fun, wild, and unpredictable spirit. What would you rather see — 45 lifters all squatting, benching, and deadlifting, one after another, or two enormous men racing with refrigerators strapped to their back?

The sport of strongman requires impressive physical attributes as well. Athletes must be very strong, of course, but also athletic. They must be able to balance with awkward implements, move explosively, and posses a high level of conditioning… while being very, very strong of course.

That said, it has never been easier to enter and learn the sport, and there are a number of good resources for beginners wishing to transition from barbell lifting into competing at strongman.

Spencer Graham’s gym, GP Athletics: https://www.gpathletics.net

Spencer on Instagram: @gp_spencergraham

https://www.instagram.com/gp_spencergraham/

Strongman builds on a base of barbell strength, so see what strongman training involves.

If you want to train for the long haul without guesswork, work with a Barbell Logic strength coach.