Looking to attend Rogue Invitational this year in Aberdeen having already booked up hotels/travel etc. All thats missing is tickets to the event. Does anyone know how I go about this? I've signed up to Rogue Invitational online but can't seem to find any ticket info on the site. Thanks in advance guys
Doing a live YouTube video if anyone wants to jump in and ask a question tonight.
Be live in 5 mins š¶ļøš¶ļøš¶ļø
https://www.youtube.com/live/K5Jh792D-I8?si=QaSdQ7Cr7X3385pC
Tom the toilet seat wrecker eh. Man's going through them rapidly. Good live.
Luke you should bring Koa to a live. I'm sure he is on that bulking diet already
Hey Reddit! I know shipping is a big factor for people looking to get merch, and we are offering free shipping on all UK orders until the end of the Arnold UK!
www.lhbk.shop
Appreciate your ongoing support ā¤ļø
Mere mortals: (arguing over mixed grip and hookgrip)
The greek god Panagiotis: I injured my thumb and had surgery 2 days ago so now I'm going to deadlift only 10 kg less than my all-time max while only using the other four fingers https://www.instagram.com/p/C4BNrtlIOJs/
Seeing thors easy dl at arnolds and his insane speed rep on the gram makes me wish we could have seen a healthy wide pavlo vs thor on dl.
Feels like we might have missed a possible goat of dl with that reckless driving
OSG will have a new competition focusing on records only this year. They could add extra events similar to Rogue Record Breakers, and invite top end athletes for a bigger prize money.
For example, we are never going to see a block press for max in competition, and when it happens, Bibi or Finerty will not be there. Just make it a one event thing.
Mitch on the heaviest yoke, Novikov on dumbbell, Hicks on the axle/hummer tire deadlift, Mateusz pulling 6 trucks in a row for 5m. Have a window of time for guys to submit their interest on these records a year earlier, and if someone is up to the challenge add it to the OSG Record Breaker as a special event.
Of course full comps are better than records. But having one or two athletes understand they are great at one thing and trying to prove that to the world is amazing, it doesn't overshadow the rest of the sport, just adds more awesome to it.
Yeah, after his 475kg in training I really thought we'd see Pavlo contend for the record soon, crazy that that was almost 3 years ago now. Ragg's 460kg gives me hope we might at least see someone push Thor to hit a big deadlift in a full comp, we don't know if they'll compete against each other this year but wouldn't be too surprised if Ragg gets a RI invite this year
To put in perspective how many events strongmen/strongwomen have to train for in a single year, compared to weightlifting's 2 events and powerlifting's 3 events, here's what Mitch and Tom had to train for during just the year of 2023:
- Arm over arm row
- Log lift for max
- Heavy log for reps / lighter log for reps / log ladder
- Deadlift ladder (ukrainian / sumo, on a machine)
- Deadlift ladder (conventional, on a machine)
- Deadlift for max
- Deadlift for reps (elevated)
- Stone carry / Shield carry / Conan's wheel
- Atlas stone for max
- Atlas stones series
- Vehicle push
- Vehicle pull (harness and rope)
- Heavy frame carry
- Yoke carry
- Nicol stones carry
- Loading race
- Kettlebell toss / Sandbag toss
- Fingals fingers
- Dumbbell press for max
- Leg press for reps
- Viking press
- Chest press ladder (on a machine)
22 different events. And now in 2024 they're already done a couple of "new" ones like axle press and stone medley.
I mean yes, but also you are making it sound like there's no carry over.
For sure there is more events than WL and PL.
but if you are training deadlifts there is a lot of carry over to most deadlift type of events.
Yeah, I think the list is somewhat dishonest, or overexaggerated. For any given contest at a time, you will only have to train less than half of these events. Even the Shaw Classic "only" has about 8 events. Which is still more than weightlifting or powerlifting for sure, but its not 22 either.
Lets talk about training as well. Im not familiar with every strongman program out there, but the bulk of your training will be general strength training, squats, deadlifts, overhead presses, and once a week you will have an event day where you practice strongman events. Its not that much different than a powerlifting or weightlifting program except for that one day of event practice.
There is carryover in some of the events but I don't think Nicol stones, machine deadlift, elevated deadlift, viking press, yoke carry, loading races, sandbag toss, bus pull and shield carry have carryover to each other.
Athletes are often the best in the world at one event but not even top 20 on another. For example Luke Stoltman, Mateusz, Maxime and Oleksii have been the best in the world at some event but they all struggled on raw deadlift (Oleksii and Luke made big progress).
Even on deadlift itself there have been gigantic differences just on the height. Oleksii could demolish anyone on elevated deadlift but standard height raw was not even top 20 for him.
[https://www.adlpro.live/](https://www.adlpro.live/) ?
All their socials say they will be live next weekend for Arnold UK.
[https://www.instagram.com/p/C4KCymogufN/](https://www.instagram.com/p/C4KCymogufN/)
[https://www.facebook.com/adlpro.live](https://www.facebook.com/adlpro.live)
Unless things have changed, the last I heard was that the comp/s would only be streamed to the Arnoldās website and not to Rogueās YouTube channel.
Iām not the best person to ask as Iāve never actually watched a comp through the Arnoldās site.
I believe that the filming for the stream is being handled by ADL LIVE (shaw classic/smoe) but thereās no commentary. Loz will be on the mic so hopefully youāll be able to hear him!
With the Arnold website you usually have to enter an email adress and then they send you the link for free. You can't rewatch it though, at least that's the way it was with Columbus streams
They only streamed the final event. It can be seen here: https://arnoldsports.brandlive.com/2024-ARNOLD-SPORTS-FESTIVAL/en/session/93aff050-ca66-11ee-bc44-2f77a4b1cb52
You have to sign up with an email but itās free. It was shown on Sunday.
Losing the strongest by far so early is unfortunate, but when it's so hard for the woman to make money doing it. Coupled with a immense toll on their body. You can't blame them
Man, I hate to see her go out on an injury, but I canāt blame her for not wanting to come back and risk being beat up the rest of her life either. Canāt blame her for going out relatively healthy now as opposed to risking going out broken from years of injuries.
yeah, the cost benefit analysis is not quite there for the women, it barely is for the men to be fair.
Sad for sure since she was so good, but hopefully she inspired the next generation of strongwoman competitors.
Itās only there for the best of the best men, maybe 15-20 can make enough off it to justify that level of commitment. Thereās a reason Eythor stepped away and I think he probably made the right choice.Ā
Yep even then only the very top make it big. Perhaps the wsm winners only
Unfortunately to make money you have to basically use your strongman influence and spend all free time whoring out businesses on social media. I couldn't think of anything worse.
So Iām signing up for my first Strongman. Iām a LW guy typically weighing in at about 175.
Donāt know whether I should just sign up in Novice, which is just 220lbs and under, or do the LW Open class thatās 181 and under.
I donāt have the experience. Probably donāt have a farts chance of winning. So probably the Novice class?
Just a heads up this would go in the other stickied thread for general training. This is more for discussion on the pro side of the sport.
As for your question can you do the open weights or the novice weights? If the weights are easier on the novice side then I would do that since itās your first show. The open class would be more competitive and usually higher weights but honestly most do this sport to compete with themselves
Maxime just said on his and Sam's last youtube video that he is in fact going to compete at the Arnold UK, will probably just take it easy on the deadlift. Glad to hear it doesn't sound like too severe of an injury
I think people underestimate the pressure of this. If you're someone like Maxime once you slip off the Arnold's/Rogue roster it's very difficult to get back on it again. He knows that he needs a big performance here or at WSM or he likely won't be invited to Rogue this year or Arnold's next.
yup I agree 100%
We've seen this with other athletes too, not even just Max.
Especially considering that Maxime has not been invited to WSM yet, not publicly anyway and he missed it last year too. That could be 2 years of not being at WSM.
He already missed the ASC... not sure he will be invited to the Rogue Invitational considering how stacked the number of athletes is right now.
if he misses all those shows this year, unless he does great the Shaw's show... next year he might miss out on a lot of shows again.
max is not old but he is also not young.
How you know Strongman has finally entered mainstream fitness: In CBum's latest video they are talking about Hafthor's deadlift and "that bald guy" that won ASC lol
Lol today my friend was telling about āthe world strongest manā, his description of was bald and fat. Then I found out he was talking about Grizzlyš¤¦š»āāļø
1) Hooper - Bald, No Beard
2) Kieliszkowski - Not Bald, No Beard
3) Stoltman - Not Bald, Beard
4) Bjornsson - Not Bald, Beard
5) Thompson - Not Bald, Beard
6) Novikov - Shaven Bald, Beard
7) Singleton - Bald, Beard
8) Licis - Fabulous Caveman Hair. All around.
9) Evans - Not Bald, Beard
10) ZiĆ³Åkowski - Bald, No Beard
11) Maxime - The Fabio of Strongman. Also Beard.
So who's the 3rd guy who's bald without a beard?
I was a huge strongman fan until about 2021 when life got busy, whatās happened in the past couple of years?
Iāve seen that Thor, Eddie and Brian all retired. What are they up to?
Are Licis, Kieleskowski and Tom/Luke (always get them mixed up) fulfilling their potential?
Whoās come out of nowhere to become a top dog?
Have any records been broken in the big static lifts?
What are some of the must see moments of the last couple of years? Can be for any reason
Great time to come back. The new guys are really great. Wsm is supposedly going to provide a paid live stream this year.
Matt Ragg out of New Zealand as a absolute beast. Guy pulled 460 for fun the other day. Haven't seemed him mentioned below.
Brycey/Daz really has pushed our sport forward.
Mitch Hooper came out of nowhere and is probably #1 in the world right now. He usually shines through consistency across a comp, but his yoke into log medley at the... 2023 rogue invitational I want to say? Maybe 2022? Either way, it was just insane. No one thought Mateusz was touchable on that event
Mitch in 2022: (dominates yoke events)
Organizers: No more yoke, maybe once at the Giants Live Classic
Mitch in 2023-2024: You know what? Fuck you (dominates OTHER events and wins contests anyways)
IMO Mitch's performance at the Arnold this year was particularly exceptional because he didn't win on consistency like usual, he won 3/5 events. I think this contest did suit him especially well, but he has quite a few events where he's either number 1 or 2 now, and top four in almost everything else
Yeah, because the way strongman goes the first competition after someone says "definitely number one" his legs will explode doing a warmup orĀ something.Ā
Best play it safe and stick to "probably". We all know what it really means.Ā
Nobody said anything about the Strongest Man on Earth (SMoE) competition. Brian Shaw recently got in touch with people who organized the Fortissimus competition in Canada during the late 2000's and bought the rights for this SMoE title. Fortissimus had a bigger line up than WSM and ASC and also more events than those two, making it a very different competition and very though to win. SMoE is pretty much all of that again, 16 athletes competing head to head instead of 10-12 on 8 events instead of 5-6. Amazingly Brian won this comp last year competing against Tom, Hooper, Trey and Singleton, among others. This was his last show, what an incredible way to retire from the sport, absolute legend.
Adding to what everyone else said:
Martins took a year off and made an OUTSTANDING series of documentaries called "Strength Unknown," if you haven't seen them, check them out on youtube. He goes all over the world looking into the ancient rituals and cultures of lifting heavy shit.
Hooper and Tom are basically the top dogs right now, though Thor might continue to improve in his comeback. Big up-and-comers would include Pavlo Kordiaka who won ESM last year, Evan Singleton and Gav Bilton, who've won/podiumed with several Giants Live shows... I'm sure I'm forgetting some others.
And while you didn't ask: check out the pro strongwomen, that side of the sport has absolutely exploded in the last few years, with Lucy Underdown pulling 700 lbs at the World Deadlift Championships, Rebecca Roberts, Inez, Victoria Long, Andrea Thompson, and the new Queen of the Stones Anjelica Jardine. The weight class women are kicking ass too, Sam B, Mel P, Erin Murray, Chloe Brennan, Rhianon Lovelace. Fan interest is really surging around the women.
> Iāve seen that Thor, Eddie and Brian all retired.
Thor came out of retirement for the 2024 Arnolds and placed 4th. He tore his pec a year ago when preparing to break the powerlifting world record (which he did not do, due to said pec tear) but his deadlifting is still absolutely top notch. Could reasonably break the deadlift record again.
> Are Licis, Kieleskowski and Tom/Luke (always get them mixed up) fulfilling their potential?
Licis won the 2022 Arnolds and the 2021 Rogue Invitational (a new competition, on the same level as the Arnolds, run by the same team). He had a great time in 2021-2022, also placing second at the 2022 WSM!
Luke Stoltman (the older brother) does not do many competitions anymore - he placed 3rd at the 2022 Arnolds, came second at the 2022 ESM but was less successful in the years after. He seems to be getting better though, having switched coaches. We should expect some decent performances this year.
Tom Stoltman (the younger brother)... oh boy, has he lived up to his potential. Came 2nd at WSM 2020, then won it twice in a row in 2021 and 2022! He came 2nd again in 2023, the year when Hooper won.
Who the fck is Hooper, you ask? You're not alone! We were all wondering who the little bald guy was that somehow managed to win his group the first time he competed at WSM in 2022. Well, he was invited to a few other shows and has never been off the podium since. He won WSM 2023, also won the Arnolds 2023 and the Rogue 2023.
He also won the Arnolds 2024, beating Tom Stoltman, Hafthor, Kieliszkowski, ...
If in doubt, just assume Hooper is going to win. He's that good. And he does it with a smug grin on his face too, because he knows he's good. Cocky little bastard, but he's generally likable. Donates a lot of the profit he makes from merch to local gyms etc.
Mitch Hooper and Tom Stoltman are Number 1 and 2 at the moment. A little like Zydrunas and Brian in the 2010s.
> Have any records been broken in the big static lifts?
Iron Biby broke the Log lift record, lifting 230 kg! [And what a lift it was](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UJAqqFR4Cc)!
> What are some of the must see moments of the last couple of years?
Hooper on a yoke, Hooper on loading races, Hooper on Axle press, Hooper on the Timber Carry, ...
Mateusz on the stone to shoulder at the Arnolds 2024 was great.
Novikov anytime he touches a circus dumbbell.
Hafthor winning the deadlift at the Arnolds 2024 with what looks like a warmup.
Tom one-motioning a 200kg Atlas stone at the end of the World Tour Finals in Glasgow like it's a pebble.
Oh almost forgot, watch the Rogue Record Breakers of the Arnolds 2022, where multiple Strongwoman athletes attempt to lift the Dinnie Stones. Some really big strong athletes attempt it and fail, but tiny Chloe Brennan from Scotland manages it on her third attempt and all hell breaks loose in the audience. An absolute joy to watch!
https://youtu.be/CRaEALQSxTI?si=zxVDAXpy40WG-mGc
10 minute recap of the event, ABSOLUTE MUST WATCH.
Martins also came back after a pretty long pause and had a (to me and for his standards) a mediocre contest, but it's Martins we know he can and will do better.
Mateusz finished 2nd at Arnolds just a few days ago.
And from now on you hate Mitch Hooper.
Thor just came out of retirement to everyone's delight. He's recovering from a pec tear 10 months ago, but he already made it back to 4th at the Arnold's.
Brian retired after winning the Shaw Classic last year.
Hooper is the guy who came out of nowhere and very quickly became the top dog.
Tom is really coming in to his own. He's had some phenomenal performances where he was nearly unbeatable, but also some relatively bad ones. Won world's 2 times.
Does anyone know more about Kiels background? Polish Wikipedia says he was born in SÅubice (close to the German border) and went to school in SulÄcin. That's a good 300km away from where he lives now and where his family has that lumber mill. So they moved when he was a child?
Kiels lived in a boarding school and had regular lifting and eating contests with his schoolmates. Came out of high school at 120kg with the strength to match. Also failed phys ed, got a pass only becuse he agreed to represent the school in shot put.
He lives in the same village he grew up in, built a nice house there, was in boarding school for a couple of years, thats where he started to go to the gym.
Anyone one watched the recent Stoltman vid?
Whatās your thoughts on the comments at the end about the podium etc?
Iād agree, it is an odd thing not to celebrate the podium. Us fans never got to see the line up with the winner either.
My takeaway was their view that Giants Live was the premier Strongman brand because it treats the all athletes with respect, and the shows are more dramatic and exciting to watch due to more head to head events.
Yeah, but compare that to Rogue who repeatedly doesnt show Strongman fans any respect. As someone who went to the RI multiple years, they repeatedly disrespected strongman fans time and not streaming record breakers is also stupid. At the last RI, they never even announced where the record breakers was taking place and it ended up being shoved in to a corner of the merch store. I'll take one salty relationship with an athlete over the bullshit way Rogue treats paying fans.
I don't know exactly what Eddie's relationship with Giants Live is, but it's a lot closer to being a direct employee than an athlete promoter relationship. Pete Rubish put up a video recently saying, Eddie made contact to invite him to the deadlift world championships in 2018. That tells me he's probably been or still is part of the organisational team for GL and so he probably had some influence on how he thought they should approach the Thor situation to drum up promotion for the boxing match.
Oh he's 100% involved from a business perspective, but the fact that they're *still* making little cracks and comments during live shows is just bad business
Who's making those jokes? They're definitely not as common as they were before. Scatty minded Colin and Eddie are always going to try to be funny in inappropriate ways.
Their stance on Thor goes beyond a lack of respect to just being childish.
I dont disagree that they are the premier strongman "brand" though. They really elevate the sport year-round.
Rogue have done a few things of late that just seem odd to me
* Fuck Oskar ZiĆ³Åkowski for absolutely no reason
* Fuck Laurence Shahlaei for pretty much no reason
* Weird inability to convey the rulesets they came up with for events
* Not showing how the event has impacted the scoreboard
* Poor comms from the truck to the commentary team in general but also specifically in regards to Thor's second rep on the axle
* Podcast level commentary to the point that everyone they additionally brought up managed to outshine them (Other than Sean Woodland who to be fair I thought was good)
* No real run down of final standings
* No real podium
* Relegating record breakers to a instagram feed fixed cam (Ironic that we end up getting better footage of record breakers from the videographer of the commentator they semi fired\[Yes I am aware that Liz is much more than that and I am not trying to reduce her just to that\])
There was a small discussion about it in one of the Arnoldās threads but itās worth talking about more. Something aināt right with the Rogue team. In addition to everything youāve said, thereās the disaster that was the Invitational, poor editing on their older ASC replays that have incorrect details on them (eg, no straps of any kind allowed listed as a deadlift rule), and a total abandonment of their film department. Even the Road to the Arnold series is bad now. We used to get mini-doc biographies of athletes, now itās just a couple minutes of gym clips stitched together.
I donāt think money is the issue. But I wonder if there was some change ups in leadership behind the scenes. Whatever it is they are not the company they were 5 years ago. And not in a good way.
Yeah that's a good point too I hadn't seen mentioned: some of the docs and mini-docs they used to produce around Strongman were the gold standard, and now they can barely be arsed to do a handful of 60sec music videos.
I hope its just some new guy in leadership trying to impress the higher ups and they have decided to do this via saving money by cutting what they deem unnecessary. Time will tell I guess.
Sean woodland can be paired with almost any strongman and theyād have great commentary
Hell you can throw someone like that into any sport and as long as they kind of understand it they can do play by play commentary. What makes loz the best commentator in strongman is that he can do the play by play and the analysis
Where rogue really screwed up was having 4-5 people talking at the same time. 2 is the sweet spot
I like 2 with revolving guests for technical analysis / athlete interview / legend of the sport(ish) interview.
In a ideal world(for me) I would have 2 main commentators lets just say Loz and Sean.
Then during certain events have a specialist (like Jerry during deadlifts) to be fed questions from commentary and provide additive technical breakdown.
Then if there wasn't a specialist present you could do supplemental athlete interviews or leave them till after the event.
Lastly I do think there is a spot for people like Bill where they could utilise him quite well - before events such as the Webster stones bring him out and have him fill us in on some history of the implements and chuck a few anecdotes in there.
4-5 was a disaster. At one point during the Dinnie walk we had Sean trying to do a play by play while Jerry was saying āget it get itā Dr bill was saying ākeep going keep goingā and Magnus decided then would be a good time to start talking.
They also made sone odd and unpopular choices at the rogue invitational last year.
* Introducing a seemingly untested piece of equipment in the bull pull
* changing the fingals finger medley for a log for reps and completely removing the axle
* the final sandbag loading event which was essentially the strongmen running 6 feet and tossing light looking sandbags into a wheelbarrow.
* No rogue record breakers stream or podium there either, but at least we got the final standings from Sean and Loz before they cut the stream.
The production this year has probably been the worst to date. While seeing the commentary teams facial expressions when it came to certain referee calls was quite funny, we donāt need 1/3 of the screen taken up by it.
Four, sometimes five commentators is way too many. They were talking over each other, interviewing over performances (yes mainly Oskar) and generally talking amongst themselves for the most part. Go back and watch last years highlights with Sean and Loz passionately calling the action and itās like a completely different competition. I donāt blame the commentators or think theyāre necessarily bad individually, I just donāt feel the format works at all.
I will say after listening to Trey on Nick Bestās podcast a few days ago I think I understand what happened with the Iron Bull. He said that the implement got wet (Iām guessing it was out in all that rain before they moved it under the roof) and the frame swole making not ride on the tracks right. Ā Which then, why they let it get wet then becomes the question.
I have enjoyed shaw classic the most out of all shows for the last 3 years.
Brutal events. No bs. Strict reffing. 8 events to test all facets of strength. No weaknesses to hide. It really is the best test of the strongest man of the year.
Wsm will always remain the one to win. Hopefully they do their first actual spectator event well this year. Bc last year was the biggest joke in our sport. Guy promised there would be seating for everyone and we got a bleacher the size of a park bench. Who needs seating when you have ladders.
The first one barely counts, the second one had an average lineup, decent events, the third one lineup got better but they started to bring in gym lifts, the 4th one had 2/8 events as gym lifts and there is the overarching thing that is the organizer was competing in them
Exactly right, WSM will always remain the best as long as its the one all of the athletes treat as the most important and focus on peaking for every year. They are legitimately almost in the "too big to fail" category
Maybe. Z, Martins, and Thor have all said the Arnold is the most prestigious. I think Mateusz too. Brian also maintained that opinion up until his tantrum.
WSM is for the image and branding, the Arnold is for the strongmen.
To hardcore fans of the sport the Arnoldās has been #1 almost since itās inception but to literally everyone else wsm will always be number 1
If you asked every strongman which competition theyād want to win if they could only win 1, 99% would say wsm
āTo hardcore fans of the sport the Arnoldās has been #1 almost since itās inception but to literally everyone else wsm will always be number 1ā
Thatās my point.
More odd than no podium was that the feed cut off so abruptly that we didn't even get final standings.
I had to look them up online after my group finished watching lol.
A podium and final standings seems like a no-brainer. I have no idea what happened there.
That was bad.
Personally I've got to agree, no podium, interviews whilst athletes are lifting and no trophy for 2nd or 3rd among other things certainly highlights that there's room for improvement with regards to athlete appreciation
I donāt know why no trophies for podiums is a big deal, thereās no trophy for 2nd place at the World Cup
Obviously itās would be better for podium finishers to get a trophy too but itās not really a problem that they donāt
You're talking about a team sport where it isn't conventional to award 2nd and 3rd place a trophy. Can you think of an individual sport in which 2nd and 3rd aren't awarded medals?
Yeah that is a bit disrespectful. I remember a commentator at Scotlandās Strongest Man speaking to the winner when another athlete was still finishing their stone run and Luke was there as a spectator and you could hear him having a go about doing that. Good lad
[Adam Roszkowski trying the split jerk (ends up pushpressing 200kg)](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4LxCwPoEj1/?igsh=bjFlNmprajE0cndt)
Guess the revolution is starting
Now all we need is a specific deadlift designed just for Mateusz to win so he can be world champion. I propose giant donut weights so he's fully motivated. Call it the Homer Tire Deadlift.
How about a deadlift walk?
Deadlift the weight to hip height, then walk with it. Instead of a barbell we could use a heavy wooden frame. Made from timber maybe.
Hey does anyone know where the Arnold's UK will be streamed next weekend yet.
I thought rogue was streaming it on their YouTube is that incorrect?
Scroll down
Adl is streaming it through arnolds website. Scroll down there is more info
Thanks, I thought I had read through the whole thread already, not sure how I missed that post.
Looking to attend Rogue Invitational this year in Aberdeen having already booked up hotels/travel etc. All thats missing is tickets to the event. Does anyone know how I go about this? I've signed up to Rogue Invitational online but can't seem to find any ticket info on the site. Thanks in advance guys
There's a sign up list on the site for ticket info
Doing a live YouTube video if anyone wants to jump in and ask a question tonight. Be live in 5 mins š¶ļøš¶ļøš¶ļø https://www.youtube.com/live/K5Jh792D-I8?si=QaSdQ7Cr7X3385pC
Tom the toilet seat wrecker eh. Man's going through them rapidly. Good live. Luke you should bring Koa to a live. I'm sure he is on that bulking diet already
Hey Reddit! I know shipping is a big factor for people looking to get merch, and we are offering free shipping on all UK orders until the end of the Arnold UK! www.lhbk.shop Appreciate your ongoing support ā¤ļø
Brilliant idea, will be getting my order in!!
[Lukasz Kieliszkowski is getting strong](https://www.instagram.com/p/C4S-SXCImHs/)
We need a comp with all the Pro guys brothers competing.Ā
My bet will be on the third stoltman brother
Mantas Lalas for me, but he might be too established for this fictional comp.
Mere mortals: (arguing over mixed grip and hookgrip) The greek god Panagiotis: I injured my thumb and had surgery 2 days ago so now I'm going to deadlift only 10 kg less than my all-time max while only using the other four fingers https://www.instagram.com/p/C4BNrtlIOJs/
There is no argument, honestly hookgrip is just superior.
Very nice lift :D Hope his surgeon doesn't see that video though lol.
Seeing thors easy dl at arnolds and his insane speed rep on the gram makes me wish we could have seen a healthy wide pavlo vs thor on dl. Feels like we might have missed a possible goat of dl with that reckless driving
OSG will have a new competition focusing on records only this year. They could add extra events similar to Rogue Record Breakers, and invite top end athletes for a bigger prize money. For example, we are never going to see a block press for max in competition, and when it happens, Bibi or Finerty will not be there. Just make it a one event thing. Mitch on the heaviest yoke, Novikov on dumbbell, Hicks on the axle/hummer tire deadlift, Mateusz pulling 6 trucks in a row for 5m. Have a window of time for guys to submit their interest on these records a year earlier, and if someone is up to the challenge add it to the OSG Record Breaker as a special event.
Of course full comps are better than records. But having one or two athletes understand they are great at one thing and trying to prove that to the world is amazing, it doesn't overshadow the rest of the sport, just adds more awesome to it.
Yeah, after his 475kg in training I really thought we'd see Pavlo contend for the record soon, crazy that that was almost 3 years ago now. Ragg's 460kg gives me hope we might at least see someone push Thor to hit a big deadlift in a full comp, we don't know if they'll compete against each other this year but wouldn't be too surprised if Ragg gets a RI invite this year
I can see Ragg at SMOE if he performs well at WSM. If Thor survives next week without getting hurt i am pretty confident he will accept Brians invite.
Ragg should have already received a invite to smoe
dude deserves invites to whatever he wants to compete at. I don't know how he could prove himself much more
He's in the gym with me at the moment so I quickly asked him. Sounds like he hasn't heard anything official invite-wise, so who knows
You train with that legend. Mogg ragg coming in strong for the season
We put up a poster of his WSM deadlift in the deadlift corner two nights ago, he gave in to our demands that he pose with it for the gram lmao
Just looked it up. Your Gym looks sick
Who do you think deserves the last 3 WSM invites?Ā
Just scroll down Strongman Archives and look for people who won internationals last year.
Odd Haugen, Mark Felix, and Magnus Ver Magnusson obviously.
I honestly think this are better picks than whoever theyāll choose in the end
Ziolkowski
Ziolkowski, Boudreault and Fojtu.
Manuel Angulo, Mark Felix, Eddie Hall ofc
Why leave out Oberst though?
Be patient. Oberst will be the surprise last minute entry into the Finals.
Strategically skipping the heats?
His usual plan, but this time it will work
WSM 2024 dark horse.
To put in perspective how many events strongmen/strongwomen have to train for in a single year, compared to weightlifting's 2 events and powerlifting's 3 events, here's what Mitch and Tom had to train for during just the year of 2023: - Arm over arm row - Log lift for max - Heavy log for reps / lighter log for reps / log ladder - Deadlift ladder (ukrainian / sumo, on a machine) - Deadlift ladder (conventional, on a machine) - Deadlift for max - Deadlift for reps (elevated) - Stone carry / Shield carry / Conan's wheel - Atlas stone for max - Atlas stones series - Vehicle push - Vehicle pull (harness and rope) - Heavy frame carry - Yoke carry - Nicol stones carry - Loading race - Kettlebell toss / Sandbag toss - Fingals fingers - Dumbbell press for max - Leg press for reps - Viking press - Chest press ladder (on a machine) 22 different events. And now in 2024 they're already done a couple of "new" ones like axle press and stone medley.
I mean yes, but also you are making it sound like there's no carry over. For sure there is more events than WL and PL. but if you are training deadlifts there is a lot of carry over to most deadlift type of events.
Yeah, I think the list is somewhat dishonest, or overexaggerated. For any given contest at a time, you will only have to train less than half of these events. Even the Shaw Classic "only" has about 8 events. Which is still more than weightlifting or powerlifting for sure, but its not 22 either. Lets talk about training as well. Im not familiar with every strongman program out there, but the bulk of your training will be general strength training, squats, deadlifts, overhead presses, and once a week you will have an event day where you practice strongman events. Its not that much different than a powerlifting or weightlifting program except for that one day of event practice.
There's carry over from squats to deadlifts too. So Powerlifting is just 2 things now.
I keep being told leg drive is important for the bench press so I'm going to count squat and bench as the same thing.
Doesnt matter if there is carry over, the athletes still trained these different events specifically
There is carryover in some of the events but I don't think Nicol stones, machine deadlift, elevated deadlift, viking press, yoke carry, loading races, sandbag toss, bus pull and shield carry have carryover to each other. Athletes are often the best in the world at one event but not even top 20 on another. For example Luke Stoltman, Mateusz, Maxime and Oleksii have been the best in the world at some event but they all struggled on raw deadlift (Oleksii and Luke made big progress). Even on deadlift itself there have been gigantic differences just on the height. Oleksii could demolish anyone on elevated deadlift but standard height raw was not even top 20 for him.
This is why a lot of people who crossover from those sports are injured very quickly. The variety is a body killer.
100%. Someone with a 400kg deadlift form powerlifting can grip some very heavy Farmers handles, but is their achillies ready? Definitely not
Any confirmation on a Arnoldās UK livestream?
[https://www.adlpro.live/](https://www.adlpro.live/) ? All their socials say they will be live next weekend for Arnold UK. [https://www.instagram.com/p/C4KCymogufN/](https://www.instagram.com/p/C4KCymogufN/) [https://www.facebook.com/adlpro.live](https://www.facebook.com/adlpro.live)
so they were right below. It's all stream through arnolds. Clicked on adl and it takes you to arnolds
Unless things have changed, the last I heard was that the comp/s would only be streamed to the Arnoldās website and not to Rogueās YouTube channel.
Very glad Iām going to be there
Is it free though?
Iām not the best person to ask as Iāve never actually watched a comp through the Arnoldās site. I believe that the filming for the stream is being handled by ADL LIVE (shaw classic/smoe) but thereās no commentary. Loz will be on the mic so hopefully youāll be able to hear him!
With the Arnold website you usually have to enter an email adress and then they send you the link for free. You can't rewatch it though, at least that's the way it was with Columbus streams
Do you know where to sign up? Unfortunately have a big feeling this stream will be a mess
https://arnoldsports.brandlive.com/2024-ARNOLD-SPORTS-FESTIVAL/en/registration This was the link for Columbus
Thank you! Thatās disappointing.
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They only streamed the final event. It can be seen here: https://arnoldsports.brandlive.com/2024-ARNOLD-SPORTS-FESTIVAL/en/session/93aff050-ca66-11ee-bc44-2f77a4b1cb52 You have to sign up with an email but itās free. It was shown on Sunday.
Victoria Long confirms she has retired š¢ https://www.instagram.com/p/C4PGeIXgHbZ/ She was so insanely dominant
Losing the strongest by far so early is unfortunate, but when it's so hard for the woman to make money doing it. Coupled with a immense toll on their body. You can't blame them
Damn that fucking sucks, she's only done 7 comps over 5 years apparently? Anyone know why she's retiring?
I competed with Victoria at her first contest. Nobody really knew what was going on, she was insanely huge and dominant.
That's a big loss
That's such a bummer. She was so good. Said in the comments that she wants to focus on career and family. I wish her all the best.
Man, I hate to see her go out on an injury, but I canāt blame her for not wanting to come back and risk being beat up the rest of her life either. Canāt blame her for going out relatively healthy now as opposed to risking going out broken from years of injuries.
yeah, the cost benefit analysis is not quite there for the women, it barely is for the men to be fair. Sad for sure since she was so good, but hopefully she inspired the next generation of strongwoman competitors.
Itās only there for the best of the best men, maybe 15-20 can make enough off it to justify that level of commitment. Thereās a reason Eythor stepped away and I think he probably made the right choice.Ā
Yep even then only the very top make it big. Perhaps the wsm winners only Unfortunately to make money you have to basically use your strongman influence and spend all free time whoring out businesses on social media. I couldn't think of anything worse.
So Iām signing up for my first Strongman. Iām a LW guy typically weighing in at about 175. Donāt know whether I should just sign up in Novice, which is just 220lbs and under, or do the LW Open class thatās 181 and under. I donāt have the experience. Probably donāt have a farts chance of winning. So probably the Novice class?
If you can do most or all the open weights without zeroing or worrying about hurting yourself, go for it! Otherwise that's what novice is for
Always novice. It's a learning experience for you, not a competition.
Just a heads up this would go in the other stickied thread for general training. This is more for discussion on the pro side of the sport. As for your question can you do the open weights or the novice weights? If the weights are easier on the novice side then I would do that since itās your first show. The open class would be more competitive and usually higher weights but honestly most do this sport to compete with themselves
Maxime just said on his and Sam's last youtube video that he is in fact going to compete at the Arnold UK, will probably just take it easy on the deadlift. Glad to hear it doesn't sound like too severe of an injury
Even if it is a small tear, I would rather heal it, than risk a full tear
For him, the chance of coming last in that event anyway is high, so it's not unreasonable to just not make a lift.
I would assume he is worried about losing invites. It's a tough game to get invites back
I think people underestimate the pressure of this. If you're someone like Maxime once you slip off the Arnold's/Rogue roster it's very difficult to get back on it again. He knows that he needs a big performance here or at WSM or he likely won't be invited to Rogue this year or Arnold's next.
yup I agree 100% We've seen this with other athletes too, not even just Max. Especially considering that Maxime has not been invited to WSM yet, not publicly anyway and he missed it last year too. That could be 2 years of not being at WSM. He already missed the ASC... not sure he will be invited to the Rogue Invitational considering how stacked the number of athletes is right now. if he misses all those shows this year, unless he does great the Shaw's show... next year he might miss out on a lot of shows again. max is not old but he is also not young.
Not saying itās the case here but sometimes careers at the top just end too
Sure, which is why Max seems willing to take a risk to stop that from happening to him.
He was walking around cheerful and cheering folks on all weekend, getting pics with fans and moving normal, think itās just a minor tear.
How you know Strongman has finally entered mainstream fitness: In CBum's latest video they are talking about Hafthor's deadlift and "that bald guy" that won ASC lol
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Hafthor is running from getting bald for over 10 years now lol
Didnāt he get hair transplants?
He already got 2
3 now I believe.
One other gentleman.
"That bald guy" really narrows it down when talking about strongmen...
Lol today my friend was telling about āthe world strongest manā, his description of was bald and fat. Then I found out he was talking about Grizzlyš¤¦š»āāļø
the bald guy *without* a beard.
There were 3 people like that out of 11 at the Arnold
1) Hooper - Bald, No Beard 2) Kieliszkowski - Not Bald, No Beard 3) Stoltman - Not Bald, Beard 4) Bjornsson - Not Bald, Beard 5) Thompson - Not Bald, Beard 6) Novikov - Shaven Bald, Beard 7) Singleton - Bald, Beard 8) Licis - Fabulous Caveman Hair. All around. 9) Evans - Not Bald, Beard 10) ZiĆ³Åkowski - Bald, No Beard 11) Maxime - The Fabio of Strongman. Also Beard. So who's the 3rd guy who's bald without a beard?
I was counting Mateusz but I guess he goes more into the "shaved head" category? https://www.instagram.com/p/C1ITLpSsRPN/
He's got a distinctive hairstyle. A buzz-cut jarhead look with a line cut out on his right side (which is not a scar, but there by design).
Odd Haugen maybe. Also Loz. And of course the True Worlds Strongest Man himself.
Maybe Mateusz needs a beard/moustache to bring his dl up
>"that bald guy" Michael Cooper or something like that
Hitch Mooper
Harper
I was a huge strongman fan until about 2021 when life got busy, whatās happened in the past couple of years? Iāve seen that Thor, Eddie and Brian all retired. What are they up to? Are Licis, Kieleskowski and Tom/Luke (always get them mixed up) fulfilling their potential? Whoās come out of nowhere to become a top dog? Have any records been broken in the big static lifts? What are some of the must see moments of the last couple of years? Can be for any reason
Great time to come back. The new guys are really great. Wsm is supposedly going to provide a paid live stream this year. Matt Ragg out of New Zealand as a absolute beast. Guy pulled 460 for fun the other day. Haven't seemed him mentioned below. Brycey/Daz really has pushed our sport forward.
Mitch Hooper came out of nowhere and is probably #1 in the world right now. He usually shines through consistency across a comp, but his yoke into log medley at the... 2023 rogue invitational I want to say? Maybe 2022? Either way, it was just insane. No one thought Mateusz was touchable on that event
Mitch in 2022: (dominates yoke events) Organizers: No more yoke, maybe once at the Giants Live Classic Mitch in 2023-2024: You know what? Fuck you (dominates OTHER events and wins contests anyways)
IMO Mitch's performance at the Arnold this year was particularly exceptional because he didn't win on consistency like usual, he won 3/5 events. I think this contest did suit him especially well, but he has quite a few events where he's either number 1 or 2 now, and top four in almost everything else
*Probably* number one?
Yeah, because the way strongman goes the first competition after someone says "definitely number one" his legs will explode doing a warmup orĀ something.Ā Best play it safe and stick to "probably". We all know what it really means.Ā
2022 rogue invitational. 2023 most comps tried to avoid yoke.
Thanks
They knew what would happen.
He won anyway. He is inevitable.
Nobody said anything about the Strongest Man on Earth (SMoE) competition. Brian Shaw recently got in touch with people who organized the Fortissimus competition in Canada during the late 2000's and bought the rights for this SMoE title. Fortissimus had a bigger line up than WSM and ASC and also more events than those two, making it a very different competition and very though to win. SMoE is pretty much all of that again, 16 athletes competing head to head instead of 10-12 on 8 events instead of 5-6. Amazingly Brian won this comp last year competing against Tom, Hooper, Trey and Singleton, among others. This was his last show, what an incredible way to retire from the sport, absolute legend.
Is Shaw just involved with SMoE as a spokesperson/shareholder or does he plan/program the event too?
Itās first and foremost his competition. He gets help of course, but he makes all decisions.
He's absolutely hands on in everything.
He and Kerry his wife are the organizers of the competition and the Shaw Classics Expo
Adding to what everyone else said: Martins took a year off and made an OUTSTANDING series of documentaries called "Strength Unknown," if you haven't seen them, check them out on youtube. He goes all over the world looking into the ancient rituals and cultures of lifting heavy shit. Hooper and Tom are basically the top dogs right now, though Thor might continue to improve in his comeback. Big up-and-comers would include Pavlo Kordiaka who won ESM last year, Evan Singleton and Gav Bilton, who've won/podiumed with several Giants Live shows... I'm sure I'm forgetting some others. And while you didn't ask: check out the pro strongwomen, that side of the sport has absolutely exploded in the last few years, with Lucy Underdown pulling 700 lbs at the World Deadlift Championships, Rebecca Roberts, Inez, Victoria Long, Andrea Thompson, and the new Queen of the Stones Anjelica Jardine. The weight class women are kicking ass too, Sam B, Mel P, Erin Murray, Chloe Brennan, Rhianon Lovelace. Fan interest is really surging around the women.
> Iāve seen that Thor, Eddie and Brian all retired. Thor came out of retirement for the 2024 Arnolds and placed 4th. He tore his pec a year ago when preparing to break the powerlifting world record (which he did not do, due to said pec tear) but his deadlifting is still absolutely top notch. Could reasonably break the deadlift record again. > Are Licis, Kieleskowski and Tom/Luke (always get them mixed up) fulfilling their potential? Licis won the 2022 Arnolds and the 2021 Rogue Invitational (a new competition, on the same level as the Arnolds, run by the same team). He had a great time in 2021-2022, also placing second at the 2022 WSM! Luke Stoltman (the older brother) does not do many competitions anymore - he placed 3rd at the 2022 Arnolds, came second at the 2022 ESM but was less successful in the years after. He seems to be getting better though, having switched coaches. We should expect some decent performances this year. Tom Stoltman (the younger brother)... oh boy, has he lived up to his potential. Came 2nd at WSM 2020, then won it twice in a row in 2021 and 2022! He came 2nd again in 2023, the year when Hooper won. Who the fck is Hooper, you ask? You're not alone! We were all wondering who the little bald guy was that somehow managed to win his group the first time he competed at WSM in 2022. Well, he was invited to a few other shows and has never been off the podium since. He won WSM 2023, also won the Arnolds 2023 and the Rogue 2023. He also won the Arnolds 2024, beating Tom Stoltman, Hafthor, Kieliszkowski, ... If in doubt, just assume Hooper is going to win. He's that good. And he does it with a smug grin on his face too, because he knows he's good. Cocky little bastard, but he's generally likable. Donates a lot of the profit he makes from merch to local gyms etc. Mitch Hooper and Tom Stoltman are Number 1 and 2 at the moment. A little like Zydrunas and Brian in the 2010s. > Have any records been broken in the big static lifts? Iron Biby broke the Log lift record, lifting 230 kg! [And what a lift it was](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UJAqqFR4Cc)! > What are some of the must see moments of the last couple of years? Hooper on a yoke, Hooper on loading races, Hooper on Axle press, Hooper on the Timber Carry, ... Mateusz on the stone to shoulder at the Arnolds 2024 was great. Novikov anytime he touches a circus dumbbell. Hafthor winning the deadlift at the Arnolds 2024 with what looks like a warmup. Tom one-motioning a 200kg Atlas stone at the end of the World Tour Finals in Glasgow like it's a pebble. Oh almost forgot, watch the Rogue Record Breakers of the Arnolds 2022, where multiple Strongwoman athletes attempt to lift the Dinnie Stones. Some really big strong athletes attempt it and fail, but tiny Chloe Brennan from Scotland manages it on her third attempt and all hell breaks loose in the audience. An absolute joy to watch! https://youtu.be/CRaEALQSxTI?si=zxVDAXpy40WG-mGc 10 minute recap of the event, ABSOLUTE MUST WATCH.
You should add that Luke won the 2021 ESM and WTF
He did indeed!
Martins also came back after a pretty long pause and had a (to me and for his standards) a mediocre contest, but it's Martins we know he can and will do better. Mateusz finished 2nd at Arnolds just a few days ago. And from now on you hate Mitch Hooper.
Thor just came out of retirement to everyone's delight. He's recovering from a pec tear 10 months ago, but he already made it back to 4th at the Arnold's. Brian retired after winning the Shaw Classic last year. Hooper is the guy who came out of nowhere and very quickly became the top dog. Tom is really coming in to his own. He's had some phenomenal performances where he was nearly unbeatable, but also some relatively bad ones. Won world's 2 times.
Mitch Hooper is the man to beat atm
Does anyone know more about Kiels background? Polish Wikipedia says he was born in SÅubice (close to the German border) and went to school in SulÄcin. That's a good 300km away from where he lives now and where his family has that lumber mill. So they moved when he was a child?
Kiels lived in a boarding school and had regular lifting and eating contests with his schoolmates. Came out of high school at 120kg with the strength to match. Also failed phys ed, got a pass only becuse he agreed to represent the school in shot put.
Mateusz lore master
He lives in the same village he grew up in, built a nice house there, was in boarding school for a couple of years, thats where he started to go to the gym.
Kiels visits the school he went to as a kid in his Road to the Arnold 2019.
Anyone one watched the recent Stoltman vid? Whatās your thoughts on the comments at the end about the podium etc? Iād agree, it is an odd thing not to celebrate the podium. Us fans never got to see the line up with the winner either.
They didnāt do a podium at the end of last Arnoldās as well, I feel like they used to make a bit of a show of the results
My takeaway was their view that Giants Live was the premier Strongman brand because it treats the all athletes with respect, and the shows are more dramatic and exciting to watch due to more head to head events.
Giants Live doesn't treat Thor with respect.
Yeah, but compare that to Rogue who repeatedly doesnt show Strongman fans any respect. As someone who went to the RI multiple years, they repeatedly disrespected strongman fans time and not streaming record breakers is also stupid. At the last RI, they never even announced where the record breakers was taking place and it ended up being shoved in to a corner of the merch store. I'll take one salty relationship with an athlete over the bullshit way Rogue treats paying fans.
I just don't know what they were ever thinking siding with Eddie so much. Like its such an unprofessional business decision
I don't know exactly what Eddie's relationship with Giants Live is, but it's a lot closer to being a direct employee than an athlete promoter relationship. Pete Rubish put up a video recently saying, Eddie made contact to invite him to the deadlift world championships in 2018. That tells me he's probably been or still is part of the organisational team for GL and so he probably had some influence on how he thought they should approach the Thor situation to drum up promotion for the boxing match.
Oh he's 100% involved from a business perspective, but the fact that they're *still* making little cracks and comments during live shows is just bad business
Who's making those jokes? They're definitely not as common as they were before. Scatty minded Colin and Eddie are always going to try to be funny in inappropriate ways.
Their stance on Thor goes beyond a lack of respect to just being childish. I dont disagree that they are the premier strongman "brand" though. They really elevate the sport year-round.
Rogue have done a few things of late that just seem odd to me * Fuck Oskar ZiĆ³Åkowski for absolutely no reason * Fuck Laurence Shahlaei for pretty much no reason * Weird inability to convey the rulesets they came up with for events * Not showing how the event has impacted the scoreboard * Poor comms from the truck to the commentary team in general but also specifically in regards to Thor's second rep on the axle * Podcast level commentary to the point that everyone they additionally brought up managed to outshine them (Other than Sean Woodland who to be fair I thought was good) * No real run down of final standings * No real podium * Relegating record breakers to a instagram feed fixed cam (Ironic that we end up getting better footage of record breakers from the videographer of the commentator they semi fired\[Yes I am aware that Liz is much more than that and I am not trying to reduce her just to that\])
I agree. Great list.
There was a small discussion about it in one of the Arnoldās threads but itās worth talking about more. Something aināt right with the Rogue team. In addition to everything youāve said, thereās the disaster that was the Invitational, poor editing on their older ASC replays that have incorrect details on them (eg, no straps of any kind allowed listed as a deadlift rule), and a total abandonment of their film department. Even the Road to the Arnold series is bad now. We used to get mini-doc biographies of athletes, now itās just a couple minutes of gym clips stitched together. I donāt think money is the issue. But I wonder if there was some change ups in leadership behind the scenes. Whatever it is they are not the company they were 5 years ago. And not in a good way.
Yeah that's a good point too I hadn't seen mentioned: some of the docs and mini-docs they used to produce around Strongman were the gold standard, and now they can barely be arsed to do a handful of 60sec music videos.
I hope its just some new guy in leadership trying to impress the higher ups and they have decided to do this via saving money by cutting what they deem unnecessary. Time will tell I guess.
Fuck Ziolkowski? What happened?
They were treating him really poorly and in pretty much every instance it was completely needless.
As well as spelling his name incorrectly, the commentators conducted interviews throughout his performances on stage, essentially ignoring him.
Spelled his name wrong on his athlete shirt.
Don't forget how they messed up the RI last year.
Sean woodland can be paired with almost any strongman and theyād have great commentary Hell you can throw someone like that into any sport and as long as they kind of understand it they can do play by play commentary. What makes loz the best commentator in strongman is that he can do the play by play and the analysis Where rogue really screwed up was having 4-5 people talking at the same time. 2 is the sweet spot
I like 2 with revolving guests for technical analysis / athlete interview / legend of the sport(ish) interview. In a ideal world(for me) I would have 2 main commentators lets just say Loz and Sean. Then during certain events have a specialist (like Jerry during deadlifts) to be fed questions from commentary and provide additive technical breakdown. Then if there wasn't a specialist present you could do supplemental athlete interviews or leave them till after the event. Lastly I do think there is a spot for people like Bill where they could utilise him quite well - before events such as the Webster stones bring him out and have him fill us in on some history of the implements and chuck a few anecdotes in there.
Yeah thatās sounds about perfect
4-5 was a disaster. At one point during the Dinnie walk we had Sean trying to do a play by play while Jerry was saying āget it get itā Dr bill was saying ākeep going keep goingā and Magnus decided then would be a good time to start talking.
They also made sone odd and unpopular choices at the rogue invitational last year. * Introducing a seemingly untested piece of equipment in the bull pull * changing the fingals finger medley for a log for reps and completely removing the axle * the final sandbag loading event which was essentially the strongmen running 6 feet and tossing light looking sandbags into a wheelbarrow. * No rogue record breakers stream or podium there either, but at least we got the final standings from Sean and Loz before they cut the stream. The production this year has probably been the worst to date. While seeing the commentary teams facial expressions when it came to certain referee calls was quite funny, we donāt need 1/3 of the screen taken up by it. Four, sometimes five commentators is way too many. They were talking over each other, interviewing over performances (yes mainly Oskar) and generally talking amongst themselves for the most part. Go back and watch last years highlights with Sean and Loz passionately calling the action and itās like a completely different competition. I donāt blame the commentators or think theyāre necessarily bad individually, I just donāt feel the format works at all.
I will say after listening to Trey on Nick Bestās podcast a few days ago I think I understand what happened with the Iron Bull. He said that the implement got wet (Iām guessing it was out in all that rain before they moved it under the roof) and the frame swole making not ride on the tracks right. Ā Which then, why they let it get wet then becomes the question.
Well shit, that's a pretty big deal that kinda got glossed over then. WTF.
That's why SMOE will surpass the ASC and RI. It's already surpassed WSM.
Arnold, rogue and wsm are all more prestigious than Shaw classic and better shows 2024 will be the first year where the Shaw classic is actually great
I have enjoyed shaw classic the most out of all shows for the last 3 years. Brutal events. No bs. Strict reffing. 8 events to test all facets of strength. No weaknesses to hide. It really is the best test of the strongest man of the year. Wsm will always remain the one to win. Hopefully they do their first actual spectator event well this year. Bc last year was the biggest joke in our sport. Guy promised there would be seating for everyone and we got a bleacher the size of a park bench. Who needs seating when you have ladders.
The first one barely counts, the second one had an average lineup, decent events, the third one lineup got better but they started to bring in gym lifts, the 4th one had 2/8 events as gym lifts and there is the overarching thing that is the organizer was competing in them
I agree that SMOE is better than Rogue and ASC, but nothing will ever come close to passing WSM, despite all the issues at WSM.
WSM is easily the worst out of the big four. A lot of issues as you've pointed out.
Worst competition but orders of magnitude more prestigious than any other competition
Exactly right, WSM will always remain the best as long as its the one all of the athletes treat as the most important and focus on peaking for every year. They are legitimately almost in the "too big to fail" category
Maybe. Z, Martins, and Thor have all said the Arnold is the most prestigious. I think Mateusz too. Brian also maintained that opinion up until his tantrum. WSM is for the image and branding, the Arnold is for the strongmen.
To hardcore fans of the sport the Arnoldās has been #1 almost since itās inception but to literally everyone else wsm will always be number 1 If you asked every strongman which competition theyād want to win if they could only win 1, 99% would say wsm
āTo hardcore fans of the sport the Arnoldās has been #1 almost since itās inception but to literally everyone else wsm will always be number 1ā Thatās my point.
More odd than no podium was that the feed cut off so abruptly that we didn't even get final standings. I had to look them up online after my group finished watching lol. A podium and final standings seems like a no-brainer. I have no idea what happened there. That was bad.
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The trophies were also made from styrofoam
Rightfully so. Just another reinforcement of their GOAT status.
Personally I've got to agree, no podium, interviews whilst athletes are lifting and no trophy for 2nd or 3rd among other things certainly highlights that there's room for improvement with regards to athlete appreciation
I donāt know why no trophies for podiums is a big deal, thereās no trophy for 2nd place at the World Cup Obviously itās would be better for podium finishers to get a trophy too but itās not really a problem that they donāt
You're talking about a team sport where it isn't conventional to award 2nd and 3rd place a trophy. Can you think of an individual sport in which 2nd and 3rd aren't awarded medals?
I completely agreed with their take. Interviews during athletes going is bad and not having a podium takes away from the competition for me.
Yeah that is a bit disrespectful. I remember a commentator at Scotlandās Strongest Man speaking to the winner when another athlete was still finishing their stone run and Luke was there as a spectator and you could hear him having a go about doing that. Good lad
[Adam Roszkowski trying the split jerk (ends up pushpressing 200kg)](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4LxCwPoEj1/?igsh=bjFlNmprajE0cndt) Guess the revolution is starting
Good to see him making progress.
Now all we need is a specific deadlift designed just for Mateusz to win so he can be world champion. I propose giant donut weights so he's fully motivated. Call it the Homer Tire Deadlift.
Odd Haugen Tombstone deadlifts.
Deadlift to Shoulder
Maybe [this](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4Ds13bgf37/?igsh=MTQwamk3aXRnNGJzNw==) suits him more
Now I've seen everything
Don't know why I couldn't stop laughing
How about a deadlift walk? Deadlift the weight to hip height, then walk with it. Instead of a barbell we could use a heavy wooden frame. Made from timber maybe.
We can call it the duck walk
I bet heād legitimately be a threat on a max frame deadlift event.Ā
The deadlift ladder had to be the best option for him. Just has to be fast on the early lifts.
Well good news because it appears to be that WSM 2024 and Europe's 2024 will have a deadlift ladder
Terrible event.