About 30 competitors braved wintry conditions Saturday to take part in StrongManitoba and The Forge Gym’s Novice Showdown.
About 30 competitors came out to The Forge Gym in Winkler Saturday to take part in a Novice Showdown strongman competition
The Winkler fitness centre welcomed first-time strong men and women of all ages to try their hand at the sport. The day also featured several experienced 50+ competitors.
Any opportunity to grow the sport in Manitoba is a welcome one, shared Tyler Sigurdson, who heads up StrongManitoba, the province’s largest strongman promotion company.
“This competition is everything for us,” he said. “It’s us getting the next level of guys and girls involved and getting them started in the sport, showing them how welcoming and inclusive this community is.
“It’s for people of all different ages, weight classes, men, women, and we have a team division—anybody can jump in and try this.”
Saturday’s competition included a truck pull, farmer’s carry, wagon wheel axle deadlifts, log clean and press for reps, and a sandbag and keg carry and load medley.
All these events take a great deal of physical and mental discipline to pull off, but the truck pull remains a favourite for spectators, Sigurdson noted.
“If I say that I put 300 pounds on a bar, if you’ve never lifted it, you don’t know what that feels like. But when I say that we’re pulling a truck with nothing but our hands and feet, people can understand exactly how challenging that is.”
