Page 18 - Men’s Health - USA (December 2019)
P. 18
WE DO THINGS
EVERYONE CAN,
WITH A WHOLE
LOT OF WEIGHT.
—MARTINS LICIS
your groceries—without thinking about
form. “It’s really the most functional
training there is,” Licis says.
And after years on the fringes of
ESPN2, strongmen have found their
spotlight, powered by the popularity of
the Mountain,Thor Björnsson, on Game
of Thrones. Strongman Brian Shaw has
more YouTube subscribers (1.07 mil-
lion) than Zac Efron (984,000). Licis,
29, views all this as an opportunity for a
sport that’s long seemed intimidating.
“Strongman training is for everybody,”
he says as he hoists a 140-pound circus
dumbbell on his shoulder and leans to
the right side, a deceptively challenging
exercise called a windmill.
That’s true, as I discover during three
days with Licis. Sure, he does exotic
lifts like the log clean and press and
circus-dumbbell moves, but most of his
exercises boil down to a millennia-old
action you do every day—you pick some-
thing up, take it somewhere, and then put
Moves like the Atlas stone lift (above) and the windmill (right) help Licis and other strongmen build
otherworldly core strength without doing situps, crunches, or planks. it down. “Strongman contests have been
around since day one,” says trainer and
fi tness historian Dan John. “There’s a
I’m watching in awe, as are his two train- matter-of-fact tone he uses in every rock. Let’s see who picks up the rock best.”
ing partners. None of us are bothering to discussion. “It felt good.” The fi rst organized strongman
spot Licis. How do you spot a man with When you’re the planet’s strongest competition in the U. S., John says, was
more than a quarter ton on his back? human, you need bigger challenges likely the Highland Games in 1836, which
Licis inhales a massively deep than 605 pounds. Licis and his fellow continued a Scottish tradition that had
breath, puff s out his belly, then lowers strongmen know that, which is why they begun seven centuries earlier. Strong-
into a squat, butt just inches from the pull airplanes and push cars—and why man competitions never attracted much
fl oor, lower back rounded. You’re never they’ve evolved their own style of train- attention, though, until ABC aired a show
supposed to round your back when ing. In most workouts, you position in the ’70s called Superstars, which pitted
you squat, conventional wisdom says. your body perfectly to lift your weight, top athletes against bodybuilders like Lou
Licis’s badassery says otherwise. He but strongmen pick up everything from Ferrigno in events such as weightlifting.
stands back up, squeezing his glutes giant stones to dumbbells any way they These contests were “made for TV,” and Ben Mounsey-Wood (illustrations)
so hard his tight shorts ride up. He can, building resilient bodies that can the interest they drew led to the creation
does this six more times. “That wasn’t handle challenges from all angles. They of the World’s Strongest Man competition
hard,” he says in the same understated, pick up heavy weights the way you grab in 1977. Suddenly, everyone was taking
16 December 2019 / MEN’S HEALTH
