“You’re the friend everyone needs and no-one wants!” Work colleague to me.
That’s right, I am one of those rare people who do not care what you think, you are likely to get the truth from me anyway – love me or hate me for it! Do not mistake me for a fool, I am intelligent and calculated in terms of how I present my opinion (in most instances). I have spent some time lately identifying my values; clarifying; what is important to me, the sort of friend, aunty, girlfriend, daughter and sister I aspire to be; how I want to relate to and interact with the world, other people and myself.
The America’s Strongest Man® contest has long been held in high regard among strength athletes as the title to hold in America. As big as the show is, it is not as big as her champion this year.
Fresh of of his WSM victory 5 weeks ago in China, Brian Shaw arrived in Las Vegas with a quiet confidence. Sure he had the swagger of a champion, let’s face it, he has been the WSM victor twice and a winner at the Arnold once. But, Shaw was humble. He stopped for pictures with fans, signed autographs...
It is four weeks now until I leave for LA to compete in Americas Strongest Women. This will be my sixth contest in the United States in four years~ it is a 14 hour flight from Australia to LA. I have learnt so much about travelling and competing in this time and it absolutely critical that you fully prepare your body for this, in the week proceeding the flight, during flight and upon landing at the place of contest...
The ultimate goal of strongman is to become the perfect all around strength athlete. This means that you must have brute maximum strength, repetition strength, static strength, explosive strength, grip strength as well as functional mobility ~Josh Thigpen, The Cube Method for Strongman.
So we all know you need to be strong in this sport right? It really is fascinating to talk to the top strongmen and women about how they program themselves and other athletes into strongman/women contests. I have had two of the worlds strongest athletes write me strongwomen training programs, one man and one women and their principles were TOTALLY different.
Brian Shaw, the former Worlds Strongest Man champion from 2011 suffered an Injury at the 2012 Arnold Strongman Classic which he struggled with at last years WSM and this years ASC. However, the prolific mountain of a man dominated nearly every aspect of qualifying and continued that into finals. Shaw bested last years WSM winner Zydrunas Savickas who took 2nd and the Icelandic Giant Thor Bjornsson in 3rd. Rounding out the top five were Americans Mike Jenkins who suffered from severe food poisoning duringqualifying and fellow Shaw training partner, Mike Burke.
The 2013 Worlds Strongest Man qualifying rounds are done and the finals are just around the corner with four Americans securing spots in the finals. Those same four finalists, barring injury or unforeseen circumstance are now officially confirmed to participate in what will be the LARGEST star studded ASM in it's history.
The Worlds Strongest Man qualifying has wrapped up and a few surprises, injuries and illness helped shape what has now become the final 10. Highlights of the weeks qualifying include:
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