NAS Northeast Wisconsin Strongman Challenge Pro-Am

I don’t think I have ever trained as hard for a contest as this one. I was all set to go to the Utah’s Strongest Man Pro-Am in June, but a hamstring tear made that impossible. I also strained my other hamstring coming into this show. Even with the injuries, I knew I was very strong for this contest and if my body could hold up, I had a chance at winning.

1. Frame Carry: We had to carry a 750# frame for 50’. Grip events have always been my weak point, especially frame carries as I can’t get the frame in a good position in the palm of my hand. As such, I knew this would be a hard event for me and I knew I would have to make up my points on the other events. I moved the frame around 10’. I could have kept picking the weight and moving it a few feet at a time, but my hamstrings did not like that, and I was not going to gain any substantial points here. I finished in the bottom third here and knew I had to turn up the volume after this.

2. Max 12” Log: My log training was going great for the contest. Due to my hamstring injuries, I could not focus too much on lower body movements and really focused on making my upper body stronger. We had four attempts, so I played it conservative and opening at 300#. After that easy attempt, I went on to 320# and got that with no problems. I really wanted to hit 340# at this contest so when it was loaded on the log, I was ready to go. After I cleaned it, I actually missed it and dumped the log. I still had time on the clock so I cleaned it again and came back and nailed that weight. My attempt at 360# was a little anti-climatic and I tried twice to get the weight overhead to little avail. My 340# press, however, was a PR and it gained me some good points.

3. Car DL for reps: We were asked to deadlift a Jeep Grand Cherokee. In case it was not enough weight, Jason Bergmann decided to add a couple hundred pounds to the back of the trunk. It proved to stymie just about everyone. Athlete after athlete bombed the massive car until my training partner Ricky LaRocca came up and got two reps! I followed his performance with one rep. This put me in second place for this event and catapulted me to first place overall in the amateurs, putting me in prime position to win my pro cad.

4. Super Yoke: We had to carry an 800# yoke for 80’. It was very light and easy and the times reflected just that. Many places were separated but just a few seconds. I wanted to hit 17-18 seconds, and when I finished I saw my time was 17.46 seconds. I was pleased with this result, and more importantly, I earned enough points to keep my overall lead.

5. Atlas Stones: The stones for this contest were very heavy (300-420#) and they had to be loaded onto 48” platforms. Going into the stones, the only person who could really challenge me for the pro card was Josh Biggers and since he had to go before me, my goal was to beat whatever he did so I could win. Biggers began to cramp on the first stone, and when he only managed two stones, I knew all I had to do was load three stones to win. I proceeded to load three stones (300, 340, 360#) in about 25 seconds, clinching me my pro card. I began to go for the fourth stone (395#), but my head was not really into it and Ricky jumped in and told me to stop. I had already won and my body was shot so there was no use really going after that fourth stone.

I was elated to have won my pro card. I know a lot of people were upset that the car DL was too heavy, but on this day, I was able to complete all the events set in front of us and I earned my pro card.

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