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The Vertically Challenged Athlete and Maximizing Extension for Strongman

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  Short People: A Guide to Loading Objects as a Vertically Challenged Athlete  Life isn’t fair. We all have certain predispositions that both benefit us… and can make certain tasks extremely difficult. In strongman, we have events that we naturally take to, and some that we struggle with. In the vertically challenged community, members benefit in events such as the 18 inch deadlift, or even pulling/pushing events for reps. However, once the vertically challenged individual moves to a loading event set to a certain height for all athletes, challenges arise. In other words, the blade cuts both ways.  One of my favorite strongman athletes of all time is Vytautas Lalas. Standing at 5’10, he was often (if not always) the shortest competitor at worlds. Lalas overcame his height deficit throughout his career. He achieved an Arnold win and a 2nd place finish at Worlds. Not bad for a guy often 6 to 10 inches shorter than his competition!  In this article, we are going to cove...
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Is it you or the Program?

  Is it you, or your Program? You can have the fanciest, most cutting edge program in the world. You could take the 10 greatest minds in strength sports and kinesiology, have them write you a perfect program, and you could still stagnate as an athlete.  I spend a lot of time ripping on the fad of folks doing one strongman, powerlifting, or olympic lifting show, then charging people for programming… with little experience or credentials.  This time, I’m going to shift my target, and provide some feedback to those program hoppers out there who can’t seem to understand why nothing they throw at the wall works.  Signs it IS the Program Okay, so sometimes it is the program. There are some pretty tell tale signs that you have a lazy, good for nothing “coach”. Here are the signs… You send them videos, and get little to nothing back. It seems like there is little to no changes in your programming based upon what is sent. Even worse, they don’t ask for videos.  They set ...
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The Plague of Overthinking in the Social Media World

The Plague of Overthinking in the Social Media World I trained for 2020 and 2021 SC Nationals with no program or coach. I trained for Clash and 2024 USS Nationals with a deadlift coach, but otherwise made my own programming for events and overhead press.  Insta-fluencer “science” and programming suggestions have resulted in chronic overthinking among strength athletes. With so many “coaches” out there, we have moved away from the simple strategies, that quite frankly, work. This isn’t a slam dunk on legitimate coaches , but rather a reality check for folks getting into any strength sport, thinking they need the perfect program to make progress. Success in training really comes down to a few simple elements, which I will outline in the article.  Deciding on a Compound Lift to Push, and Sticking with it  Boring is most often best. In my opinion, the best cookie-cutter template created is 5/3/1. Simple, effective, and can be run over and over again. Jim Wendler has even prod...
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