I dont want to take anything away from the bad asses who set all those records but Larry Williams might be the closest the sport has ever had to an elite athlete. Maybe Kazmaier too.
Truly elite athletes usually go on to play pro sports, or even at the college level.
Fast forward to Hall who I would consider an elite athlete and the record books are about to have some new numbers.
Yeah; it us what I am getting at. You can compete in PL and get a plastic trophy or compete in strongman and get cash. Talent follows money. It is why the world deadlift competiton is won by a strongman every year, despite the deadlift being only 1 of 3 movements in powerlifting.
Those squats are mind blowing.
Good to see Eddie finally win WSM.
It looks like the events were good ones for him. Squat and Deadlift in the finals. No carries or throwing in the finals.
That said, he won the deadlift, pressing, and squatting. He held his own in the Truck Pull and finished the stone series. It’s hard to argue that he shouldn’t have won.
As to Thor’s complaint, the call looks marginal. Thor uses a lot of jump in his ankles. On the other hand, Eddie struggled a fair bit on his last rep. I wouldn’t be sure he could have gotten another. He presses mostly with his upper body and once it gasses it’s not coming back within 60 seconds.
Sad to see Big Z struggle. His squats were still quite good, though, so he may come back.
Lockout is definitely slowing. Reps 11, 14, and 15 were all a grind to lockout. Not saying he definitely wouldn’t have gotten it. But I wouldn’t say it was a sure thing either. Keep in mind he didn’t have time for another rest. He would have had to go right back in it and grind another to lockout. Triceps on fire by that point.
I truly don’t understand your enthusiasm to see a guy who competes in an already-fringe sport to compete in a more-fringy sport. Powerlifting sucks. There’s no money in it. It’s filled with drama queens and people who bitch about every red or white light they don’t agree with. It’s boring. I could understand wanting to see a guy like LIlliebridge compete in strongman. I have trouble understanding the fervor going the other direction.
It sucks to you.
I like to see what is possible. We have seen some amazing PL numbers put up but we haven’t seen an elite athlete try it.
Imagine what could be possible?
Besides, he is going to lose a ton of weight and retire from WSM anyways, he can do PLing at any weight.
of course he can, but I still don’t see any incentive there, and that’s why I don’t think he’ll do it. He’s already got the biggest deadlift in history, and I doubt he gives any shits about the conditions powerlifting puts on that lift. He’s never expressed an interest in being ‘the worlds strongest powerlifter’. he wanted to be the worlds strongest man, period. competitive powerlifting would be such a step back for him. You’ve already suggested that, with minimal effort or specific training for it, he could put up record numbers. So why even do it if it’s not a real challenge? I don’t see anything in his personality that would lead me to believe this will ever be a goal.
And I also don’t see why you or anyone else would want to see it. Like, would it actually be that cool to see him squat, say, 1080? Is that way cooler than seeing another dude squat 1050? Powerlifting is so limited, it doesn’t push the envelope the way strongman does. Strongman is a more fan-friendly sport, and it’s infinitely more challenging. I totaled elite in powerlifting at my very first meet. I got my ass handed to me in my first several strongman comps. So yes, it sucks to me, and I bet it sucks to Eddie as well.
If elite athletes competed in powerlifting your numbers wouldnt be considered elite. This is why I want to see Hall compete. To see what could be.
I dont think the concept of wanting to see what a human is capable is so hard to grasp? It is the same reason all sports are watched, isnt it?
i guess that’s what confuses me. That’s what I feel like I’m watching with strongman, because the lifting feats are so much more challenging. To me, things like his max log, axle, deadlift, stone, yoke, etc demonstrate what a human is capable of better than a bench press and squat that are performed to relatively arbitrary standards. The fact that strongman has less rules is appealing to me. Like, ‘get this weight over your head however you can do it’ is a better barometer of real strength than ‘the bar must touch your chest and then you have to wait for a lift command and the bar cant dip at all and you cant heave it but if you heave it a little we’ll probably pass it but if you rack it too quickly after you press because you didnt hear the command you’ll also get a red light.’
and GOD help you if you were wearing the wrong kind of underwear.
Don’t think s, he’s done a “powerlifting meet” before (it was unofficial and he forgot his squat shoes so only did push pull) and from what the organizer has said on facebook sounds like he may be interested in doing a big dogs powerlifting meet in the future, prize money there is fairly decent.
He’s also talked about getting the bench WR and that he thinks it is within reach with some specific training.
More generally from hearing him talk about his goals he seems focused on his legacy and being up there with the likes of Kaz and Z, which to me would require some powerlifting records to his name
that tells me all I need to know about his thoughts on that, lol. he doesn’t give enough shits to bring the right shoes.
What powerlifting records do those guys have? As far as I’m aware, neither has any powerlifting record. Maybe with a specific federation or something, but that’s a pretty lame accomplishment when compared to winning WSM. What those guys DID do was win multiple WSM contests. I haven’t heard him talk about wanting to have a similar legacy as those guys, but if that is an interest, winning WSM once and then taking a couple PL records wouldn’t get him there.
Kaz held the all time total for a while. He came into strongman after dominating powerlifting.
That said, I couldn’t tell you WHAT his total was, but I CAN tell you he won WSM 3 times until he was banned from the sport for 5 years to give the other guys a chance…which really tells you all you need, haha.
this makes sense to me. Powerlifting is an awesome way to develop a strength base that will translate well to strongman. but that’s how I view it. As a platform to enter into a bigger, better sport.
I could see Eddie going for a number of single lift records (both strongman and PL) plus win europes and the Arnold classic.
I don’t think anyone is expecting him to move to powerlifting, but may well set a few goals in the sport
Do you believe Z’s accomplishments in powerlifting have anything to do with his legacy? Or is that well behind his Arnold and WSM accomplishments?
I honestly have no idea what Eddie is planning to do going forward, but I think at this point I should address why I’ve disagreed in large part to the notion that he wants to keep setting records…
Training is hard on the body, and so are the drugs. My speculation is that he has run a whole shit ton of gear to accomplish the goals of 1100 deadlift and winning WSM, and he wants to stop. This will affect his strength drastically, and it won’t take long to happen. I honestly don’t think he’s going to be as strong as a lot of you guys think he will be as soon as 6 months from now. I think he’s going to drop a lot of bodyweight, and I think he’s going to lose a lot of strength, at least temporarily.
So as far as things like the Arnold go… I don’t think he’ll chase that right now, particularly if my assessment is correct. I think it’s entirely possible that he’ll get the itch again in a year or less, and start working towards a new strength goal, but who’s to say.
What do you think he will do now he’s done with WSM then? Competing on a national level will probably be fairly easy for him. I think he’s won the UK’s strongest man like the last 5 years or something and the last one I watched he absolutely dominated.
I would find it interesting to see how he would do if he applied himself to powerlifting but I do find strongman more entertaining. It perhaps would be a step back but surely not competing in WSM is too.
Just took a look at the events for WSM 2017 — it’s practically the best WSM event/lift lineup (in a while) for a more static/powerlifting-type guy like Eddie Hall, as opposed to Brian Shaw / Thor Bjornsson (who excel better where more “movement”/“athleticism” is required).
Where were the farmers walks?? Keg tosses? Sandbag carries? Yoke walks?
IMO we should separate out the “powerlifting” parts such as squats from WSM into a separate competition (except for deadlifts, those we can keep in WSM!). And if we are to keep the “press” movements in WSM, then the goal is max (locked out) weight/reps PERIOD, with zero restrictions whatsoever on “jerking” or double-dipping or whatever you want to call it.
But yeah, sure — if you want to bias the lifts lineup towards static lifts and powerlifters then yeah it’s Eddie Hall’s advantage over other strongman “types” like Brian Shaw and Thor Bjornsson.
IMO Eddie Hall is the best “powerlifting” type strongman, Brian Shaw is the best “athletic” type strongman (though, Thor is close to that too). And unlike WSM, at least powerlifting competitions are fully consistent on exactly what lifts and how those lifts are to performed. WSM only guarantees some heavy truck/plane pull and atlas stones (maybe even a deadlift) — and WSM 2017 was the most biased event lineup for static/powerlifting-type lifts in a while 
When Brian Shaw is considered athletic 
…
Remember the 90’s up to the late 2000’s, when strongmen were dudes with 6 packs that could deadlift over 800 but still do lunges up the great pyramid of giza with your girlfriend on one shoulder?
Yeah…good times…