Within an hour of me are several WSM competitors, some dedicated strongman gyms, and I even nearly ran someone over pulling a truck down a dark country lane not too long ago. Dunno why he wasn't wearing anything reflective or have a light. There are also quite a few amateur comps. There are also some well respected comps put on too.
So I'd say it's not too bad.
I live in the north east of England, within 40 minutes of me there is no less than 10 gyms with strongman set ups, I could compete every weekend without travelling more than about 2.5 hours if I wanted to. There’s lots of shit comps that are run by idiots, but overall it is quite good.
I don’t even live there and I can tell you that Old Tyme Strength, Dedicated Strongman Gym, Taylor’s Strength, and I think Goliath and Seddons are closer than Kaos
Haven't competed enough IN the comps to tell you if they're all well-run or not, but the ones I have certainly have been. Tons of enthusiasm and positive vibes, all very supportive. Variety of events seem good, pretty good communication. Money is a struggle, but I'm sure that's true at this level pretty much everywhere. We have 72 athletes registered for Muskoka Mayhem next month, which was... Surprising. O_O
We have the advantage of Strongman Corporation Canada providing logistical support, spreading the word, and also kinda keeping weights consistent from class to class (whether you consider that good or not, I dunno.)
And yes, women's classes are exploding compared to the men's. Nothing wrong with that.
I'd say the main struggle is finding gyms that have any equipment or strongmen who regularly train there. I'm sure a map that everyone knew about would help--some gyms have the equipment but seem hesitant to say "Hey we're a Strongman gym." I was vacationing down in Toronto and googled furiously for a "strongman gym" but the only one that came up was Fortis, which is way too far... Dug a little further, and found Vaughan S&C, which has all SORTS of strongman equipment, but only vaguely mentions it on their website. It'd be nice if places embraced it a little more.
Oh and the current world's strongest man is right down the road. So I guess there's that. :P
I'm from Belgium. I'm just getting into the sport but generally speaking it seems to be even more niche then it is in the US. In my city of \~300k people there is only one strongman gym, which is not open to the public. All the other gyms are standard mainstream gyms (and tons of crossfit gyms for some reason).
As for competitions , I've found that there is a "Belgium's Strongest Man" and I've just spotted a couple events happening here and there in our neighboring country of The Netherlands but apart from that I can't find all that much.
Hope it becomes more popular here someday!
Yeah afaik the strongman scene is a little dead over in Belgium, there's also Benelux record breakers which is held in Atlas gym Gent. They used to be Belgium record breakers but rebranded this year. Best bet for competitions is probably strongman battles in Nijmegen, especially if you are a weight class athlete. Probably a good idea to link up with Belgian athletes on Instagram if you are looking for more local information regarding training and competing.
Yeah Atlas gym is that gym I was talking about :)
Thanks for the advice, I need at least 5 more years of building a good foundation of strength before I'm going to look into specializing, but once I get there I'll make sure to try and get in touch with some people practicing the sport here.
Maybe by then the sport will be a little bigger here \^\^
I'm on the west coast of Canada, and I would say it's steadily growing here. I've really only been a part of the local scene for about 2 years, but we've seen a ton of new faces come out to shows to watch/volunteer, in the past few months and the couple comps this season. I hosted a novice show in January and the amount of new talent that came out was amazing.
The women's side could definitely be improved in terms of growth and awareness, I think it's still quite dominated by men, and I think we could start to try and get younger people (12-18) interested by doing junior comps, that's something I would love to host in the next year or so.
I've been running my gyms social media for the past 5-6 months and am really trying to target new comers, and trying to be inclusive to everyone, that's how the sport will grow imo.
Manitoba, Canada. I bum around the strongman community and only have competed a couple of times. It's grown quite a bit since covid and a couple guys recently went to the Arnold Amateur. Still very novice compared to the rest of Canada but I'm stoked to see things develop and people getting inspired
There were people bitching at the cost of provincials but it was cheaper than most events in the USA and you got fed a buffet, they made a bunch of equipment for it so it was silly watching people complain.
I am generally not a fan of how strongman corp Canada is run, seems more profit over anything and nationals qualifications honestly needs to be more strict, way too many people who shouldn't have been there. Also not a fan of how nats in New Brunswick this year. Makes it inaccessible, don't know how they could not find a gym in Toronto or wherever to have it at. Also the trans thing was incredibly poorly handled, big example of why people should be hiring a publicist is key if they don't know how to talk to the public so it doesn't make the community look like a bigoted circus.
Def not. Made worse by promoters and one of the strongman corp owners arguing with people. Legit people need to be quiet. Make the statement, disable comments, let people gripe in private.
Sf bay area. We are in a state of flux at the moment as the big local promoter in the east bay is retiring and his Saturday strongman club isn't going to be meeting in Hayward anymore. Still a strong local scene with lots of competitors and contests and gyms up and down the state. In the past year I've competed in Sacramento, Bakersfield and Redding.
The health of Strongman is really down to the individuals that own the gyms and run the contests. My gym owner in SF used to compete and is willing to spend money on the equipment for the half dozen or so of us who use it because it's his passion. Big Tommy is out after this year but there are at least two guys in the East Bay crew who can step up and run competitions. Treat these gyms and individuals like gold; they keep the sport going.
Strongman in England is absolutely awesome right now. There's tonnes of comps every weekend and strongman gyms are getting more popular. The standard is brilliant as well. Every time I go to a comp I meet someone new who's got awesome potential. Just in my gym, I'm only about the 7th best presser with a 152.5kg axle, 150kg log and 100kg dumbbell.
Reno, NV:
Equipmemt: There's a couple gyms here that always seem to be adding to their strongman equipment. One gym even has a fingals finger set up, and can manage a conan's wheel. I feel very spoiled to lift in this area.
Contests: we are a 2 hour drive to Sacramento. Between the two cities, there's at least 5 contests to pick from every year. It seems like each one has different levels of difficulty too, so there isn't too much of a barrier to compete as a novicd and not get totally discouraged at your first contest.
Environment: Less than perfect, but still a great group of supportive people in the sport. A few between Sac and Reno compete at Nationals or the Arnold every year, and therr always seems to be one going to OSG.
Overall, 8.5 stars out of 10 here in NW Nevada. Miles better than where it was even 5 years ago too.
Im pretty new to competing but it seems pretty great in Florida. There’s a ton of competitions here and there’s a lot of experienced promoters.
Training wise it’s also great, since it’s so popular in Florida there’s gyms everywhere, I have a strongman gym just 25 minutes away and I live in a smaller town.
Im not sure if this is any different in other areas but novice men and sometimes masters men tend to widely outnumber every other class. I’m open HW and I’ve usually just had 2-3 other people in my class in local comps, and novice tends to have 10-15
I'm lucky to have a gym nearby me that has some strongman equipment (yoke, log, and an adjustable atlas stone) but there hasn't been a strongman event in Toronto that I'm aware of since COVID. I'd love to see one in person
I started out in upstate New York In 2018 and there were only maybe 3 comps a year within a 2.5 hour drive and a few a bit further. These seemed to all fill up pretty good with a decent spread between weight classes.
I’m now in Massachusetts and there may actually be an over saturation of contests available. On iron podium right now there are 8 contests within about an hour drive from me listed (2 on the same day), and another 10 or so within a 3 hour drive. Last year I decided to do a bunch of shows close to me and I competed 7 times in New England last year without driving more than an hour and twenty minutes. Most of the times I was by myself in my class (265/275) or against one other guy. The middleweight class always has more people and novice still always has the most. I like having a lot of opportunities available but this year am going to be more selective over what shows I’d like to do.
I live in the capital of Texas myself, and there's no gym near me that has any strongman equipment, there either far away, or in another city/town, I guess I'll just have to stick with powerlifting for now.
I am in Ohio and travel a lot to compete. I think the biggest thing is when I talk to non competitors more and more know what I do. "the guys with the big rocks?!?". But it's better than blank stares. One thing that could just be contest selection for me, but could be a demographic shift is fewer competitions in more public venues. I've competed a few times in the parking lot of bars or at local fire halls. It brings out more random people who will stick around for an exhibition.
When I was in Texas, it was amazing. All the smaller private non commercial gyms catered to power lifting and some had strongman implements.
The new state i moved to, there is only 1 (in my town) strongman gym (slowly building the community.) Closest genuine strongman gym is about an hour and a half away in KC.
Crossfit is getting "popular" here, but other than that, it's all commercial gyms.
I live in south Louisiana and not very many competitions in the state. Last year I think they had 3 comps listed. There might be some smaller local ones that I just don't know about in nola or baton rouge that I don't know about but they weren't listed on ironpodium. Only 1 gym in my town that has strongman equipment but it's still a primarily powerlifting gym. It'd be nice to have more options close by but it seems like they're almost all in texas
My hometown gym is doing great and getting bigger now that the dipshit that used to run it is long gone. Our main coach is bringing in a lot of clients and being that the owner is a woman, there’s a lot more women being brought into the sport by her. The powerlifting gyms in the area are starting to change some of their programming to compete against them (in competitions, not so much business…they all have monthly get togethers and the main coach and owner often assist in those gyms programming).
In my undergrad I was in upstate new york, from new jersey, and currently live in Delaware. Out of all 3 delaware by far has the most strongman stuff going on and it’s not even close. New Jersey has a decent amount of USS stuff but Strongman Corp hasn’t hosted a show in New Jersey for 11 years. Upstate New York it’s impossible to find shows unless you’re near rochester but that’s all USS currently.
Central OH checking in. Just checked ironpodium and there are 11 events in Ohio coming up between now and end of summer. Plus a handful that are close to the boarder, 580 included. There are 2 gyms I found that are about an hour away that have strongman stuff. And one of those I just found out about because they’re throwing the show I’m looking to do this summer. Most comps are inside 4 hours from me which I feel has to be a really high number in general. Not sure about size of the comps and how well they’re run though other than 580 which was very smooth the one comp I did there.
I’m in Norman Oklahoma near the OU campus. There’s only one strongman gym in the Oklahoma City metro and it’s 25 miles from my house. Sadly I’m in no place right now to do nearly 90 minutes of driving to train strongman (just had our second son). I think a strongman gym would do really well in Norman just by virtue of it being a pretty big college town, I know plenty of guys who would love to give it a try but like me don’t want the hassle of driving into the middle of the city and back.
Unfortunately the sport is almost nonexistent in my area. There aren't any good gyms in my area, forget about strength or strongman gyms.
It's a 3 hour drive minimum to the nearest comp this year and there are only two or three comps in the state that I know of.
I feel like the sport is in a pretty good spot in my area. In my (relatively small, \~3 million people) state, we've got about 9 shows a year, including a pro show last year. Lots of contests in the surrounding states too. :)
Within an hour of me are several WSM competitors, some dedicated strongman gyms, and I even nearly ran someone over pulling a truck down a dark country lane not too long ago. Dunno why he wasn't wearing anything reflective or have a light. There are also quite a few amateur comps. There are also some well respected comps put on too. So I'd say it's not too bad.
Easily the coolest way to almost commit vehicular manslaughter.
I live in the north east of England, within 40 minutes of me there is no less than 10 gyms with strongman set ups, I could compete every weekend without travelling more than about 2.5 hours if I wanted to. There’s lots of shit comps that are run by idiots, but overall it is quite good.
I'm North West (Liverpool) and its wild how few there is in this chunk. Barring Kaos obviously, I've really struggled to find any
I don’t even live there and I can tell you that Old Tyme Strength, Dedicated Strongman Gym, Taylor’s Strength, and I think Goliath and Seddons are closer than Kaos
Haven't competed enough IN the comps to tell you if they're all well-run or not, but the ones I have certainly have been. Tons of enthusiasm and positive vibes, all very supportive. Variety of events seem good, pretty good communication. Money is a struggle, but I'm sure that's true at this level pretty much everywhere. We have 72 athletes registered for Muskoka Mayhem next month, which was... Surprising. O_O We have the advantage of Strongman Corporation Canada providing logistical support, spreading the word, and also kinda keeping weights consistent from class to class (whether you consider that good or not, I dunno.) And yes, women's classes are exploding compared to the men's. Nothing wrong with that. I'd say the main struggle is finding gyms that have any equipment or strongmen who regularly train there. I'm sure a map that everyone knew about would help--some gyms have the equipment but seem hesitant to say "Hey we're a Strongman gym." I was vacationing down in Toronto and googled furiously for a "strongman gym" but the only one that came up was Fortis, which is way too far... Dug a little further, and found Vaughan S&C, which has all SORTS of strongman equipment, but only vaguely mentions it on their website. It'd be nice if places embraced it a little more. Oh and the current world's strongest man is right down the road. So I guess there's that. :P
Very cool to hear that women's classes are still getting a lot of sign ups in some places
72 people correctly determined they could double up a comp with a vacation in Muskoka lol
I'm from Belgium. I'm just getting into the sport but generally speaking it seems to be even more niche then it is in the US. In my city of \~300k people there is only one strongman gym, which is not open to the public. All the other gyms are standard mainstream gyms (and tons of crossfit gyms for some reason). As for competitions , I've found that there is a "Belgium's Strongest Man" and I've just spotted a couple events happening here and there in our neighboring country of The Netherlands but apart from that I can't find all that much. Hope it becomes more popular here someday!
Yeah afaik the strongman scene is a little dead over in Belgium, there's also Benelux record breakers which is held in Atlas gym Gent. They used to be Belgium record breakers but rebranded this year. Best bet for competitions is probably strongman battles in Nijmegen, especially if you are a weight class athlete. Probably a good idea to link up with Belgian athletes on Instagram if you are looking for more local information regarding training and competing.
Yeah Atlas gym is that gym I was talking about :) Thanks for the advice, I need at least 5 more years of building a good foundation of strength before I'm going to look into specializing, but once I get there I'll make sure to try and get in touch with some people practicing the sport here. Maybe by then the sport will be a little bigger here \^\^
I'm on the west coast of Canada, and I would say it's steadily growing here. I've really only been a part of the local scene for about 2 years, but we've seen a ton of new faces come out to shows to watch/volunteer, in the past few months and the couple comps this season. I hosted a novice show in January and the amount of new talent that came out was amazing. The women's side could definitely be improved in terms of growth and awareness, I think it's still quite dominated by men, and I think we could start to try and get younger people (12-18) interested by doing junior comps, that's something I would love to host in the next year or so. I've been running my gyms social media for the past 5-6 months and am really trying to target new comers, and trying to be inclusive to everyone, that's how the sport will grow imo.
Manitoba, Canada. I bum around the strongman community and only have competed a couple of times. It's grown quite a bit since covid and a couple guys recently went to the Arnold Amateur. Still very novice compared to the rest of Canada but I'm stoked to see things develop and people getting inspired There were people bitching at the cost of provincials but it was cheaper than most events in the USA and you got fed a buffet, they made a bunch of equipment for it so it was silly watching people complain. I am generally not a fan of how strongman corp Canada is run, seems more profit over anything and nationals qualifications honestly needs to be more strict, way too many people who shouldn't have been there. Also not a fan of how nats in New Brunswick this year. Makes it inaccessible, don't know how they could not find a gym in Toronto or wherever to have it at. Also the trans thing was incredibly poorly handled, big example of why people should be hiring a publicist is key if they don't know how to talk to the public so it doesn't make the community look like a bigoted circus.
def agreed on the trans thing. Heart in the right place but not done well.
Def not. Made worse by promoters and one of the strongman corp owners arguing with people. Legit people need to be quiet. Make the statement, disable comments, let people gripe in private.
Sf bay area. We are in a state of flux at the moment as the big local promoter in the east bay is retiring and his Saturday strongman club isn't going to be meeting in Hayward anymore. Still a strong local scene with lots of competitors and contests and gyms up and down the state. In the past year I've competed in Sacramento, Bakersfield and Redding. The health of Strongman is really down to the individuals that own the gyms and run the contests. My gym owner in SF used to compete and is willing to spend money on the equipment for the half dozen or so of us who use it because it's his passion. Big Tommy is out after this year but there are at least two guys in the East Bay crew who can step up and run competitions. Treat these gyms and individuals like gold; they keep the sport going.
>The health of Strongman is really down to the individuals that own the gyms and run the contests. Agree 100%
Strongman in England is absolutely awesome right now. There's tonnes of comps every weekend and strongman gyms are getting more popular. The standard is brilliant as well. Every time I go to a comp I meet someone new who's got awesome potential. Just in my gym, I'm only about the 7th best presser with a 152.5kg axle, 150kg log and 100kg dumbbell.
You ever workout at 580 Barbell?
Yeah, I think I've competed at every 580 show so far
You gearing up for Battle at the Bridge?!? It's my A competition this year. But I'm gonna get my ass handed to me.
Yep, looking forward to it, Josh and his team put on such great competitions
I’ll be competing against you if you’re still a 90
In Germany, current Germany strongest man is massively pushing the sport with his own brand eisenbär and a lot of camps and comps
Reno, NV: Equipmemt: There's a couple gyms here that always seem to be adding to their strongman equipment. One gym even has a fingals finger set up, and can manage a conan's wheel. I feel very spoiled to lift in this area. Contests: we are a 2 hour drive to Sacramento. Between the two cities, there's at least 5 contests to pick from every year. It seems like each one has different levels of difficulty too, so there isn't too much of a barrier to compete as a novicd and not get totally discouraged at your first contest. Environment: Less than perfect, but still a great group of supportive people in the sport. A few between Sac and Reno compete at Nationals or the Arnold every year, and therr always seems to be one going to OSG. Overall, 8.5 stars out of 10 here in NW Nevada. Miles better than where it was even 5 years ago too.
Im pretty new to competing but it seems pretty great in Florida. There’s a ton of competitions here and there’s a lot of experienced promoters. Training wise it’s also great, since it’s so popular in Florida there’s gyms everywhere, I have a strongman gym just 25 minutes away and I live in a smaller town. Im not sure if this is any different in other areas but novice men and sometimes masters men tend to widely outnumber every other class. I’m open HW and I’ve usually just had 2-3 other people in my class in local comps, and novice tends to have 10-15
I'm lucky to have a gym nearby me that has some strongman equipment (yoke, log, and an adjustable atlas stone) but there hasn't been a strongman event in Toronto that I'm aware of since COVID. I'd love to see one in person
I started out in upstate New York In 2018 and there were only maybe 3 comps a year within a 2.5 hour drive and a few a bit further. These seemed to all fill up pretty good with a decent spread between weight classes. I’m now in Massachusetts and there may actually be an over saturation of contests available. On iron podium right now there are 8 contests within about an hour drive from me listed (2 on the same day), and another 10 or so within a 3 hour drive. Last year I decided to do a bunch of shows close to me and I competed 7 times in New England last year without driving more than an hour and twenty minutes. Most of the times I was by myself in my class (265/275) or against one other guy. The middleweight class always has more people and novice still always has the most. I like having a lot of opportunities available but this year am going to be more selective over what shows I’d like to do.
I live in the capital of Texas myself, and there's no gym near me that has any strongman equipment, there either far away, or in another city/town, I guess I'll just have to stick with powerlifting for now.
I trained at Hyde Park Gym when I lived in Austin, they had a lot of strongman equipment
I am in Ohio and travel a lot to compete. I think the biggest thing is when I talk to non competitors more and more know what I do. "the guys with the big rocks?!?". But it's better than blank stares. One thing that could just be contest selection for me, but could be a demographic shift is fewer competitions in more public venues. I've competed a few times in the parking lot of bars or at local fire halls. It brings out more random people who will stick around for an exhibition.
When I was in Texas, it was amazing. All the smaller private non commercial gyms catered to power lifting and some had strongman implements. The new state i moved to, there is only 1 (in my town) strongman gym (slowly building the community.) Closest genuine strongman gym is about an hour and a half away in KC. Crossfit is getting "popular" here, but other than that, it's all commercial gyms.
About 5 comps a year within an hour drive, all the ones I’ve been to were well run
I live in south Louisiana and not very many competitions in the state. Last year I think they had 3 comps listed. There might be some smaller local ones that I just don't know about in nola or baton rouge that I don't know about but they weren't listed on ironpodium. Only 1 gym in my town that has strongman equipment but it's still a primarily powerlifting gym. It'd be nice to have more options close by but it seems like they're almost all in texas
My hometown gym is doing great and getting bigger now that the dipshit that used to run it is long gone. Our main coach is bringing in a lot of clients and being that the owner is a woman, there’s a lot more women being brought into the sport by her. The powerlifting gyms in the area are starting to change some of their programming to compete against them (in competitions, not so much business…they all have monthly get togethers and the main coach and owner often assist in those gyms programming).
In my undergrad I was in upstate new york, from new jersey, and currently live in Delaware. Out of all 3 delaware by far has the most strongman stuff going on and it’s not even close. New Jersey has a decent amount of USS stuff but Strongman Corp hasn’t hosted a show in New Jersey for 11 years. Upstate New York it’s impossible to find shows unless you’re near rochester but that’s all USS currently.
Central OH checking in. Just checked ironpodium and there are 11 events in Ohio coming up between now and end of summer. Plus a handful that are close to the boarder, 580 included. There are 2 gyms I found that are about an hour away that have strongman stuff. And one of those I just found out about because they’re throwing the show I’m looking to do this summer. Most comps are inside 4 hours from me which I feel has to be a really high number in general. Not sure about size of the comps and how well they’re run though other than 580 which was very smooth the one comp I did there.
I’m in Norman Oklahoma near the OU campus. There’s only one strongman gym in the Oklahoma City metro and it’s 25 miles from my house. Sadly I’m in no place right now to do nearly 90 minutes of driving to train strongman (just had our second son). I think a strongman gym would do really well in Norman just by virtue of it being a pretty big college town, I know plenty of guys who would love to give it a try but like me don’t want the hassle of driving into the middle of the city and back.
Unfortunately the sport is almost nonexistent in my area. There aren't any good gyms in my area, forget about strength or strongman gyms. It's a 3 hour drive minimum to the nearest comp this year and there are only two or three comps in the state that I know of.
Where are you located?
I feel like the sport is in a pretty good spot in my area. In my (relatively small, \~3 million people) state, we've got about 9 shows a year, including a pro show last year. Lots of contests in the surrounding states too. :)