Arnold Classic

[Hardartery]

Duffalo/Bow bar for the squat, it appears.
Also, Licis is injured but hoping to recover before the contest in 3 weeks.

[MarkKO]

I don't follow strongman much, so I'm not sure if it's me or does Licis seem to get injured a lot?

[Hardartery]

I don't follow strongman much, so I'm not sure if it's me or does Licis seem to get injured a lot?

LOL. To my knowledge, and I admittedly did not follow the sport for quite a while when I stopped competing, he has has a shoulder injury and now a vague back/spinal injury. In between he got hit by a car while riding his bike which screwed up a bunch of stuff and sidelined him for a while. Outside of that, I don't know. I know injuries like the current one are not just common, but normal when competing at more than a local contest level. JF Caron has an active hernia right now, and won the Forca Bruta over the weekend in Brazil (I think that translates to "Brute Force", but I don't speak Portuguese or Brasiliero, I'm guessing based on Latin word roots and Spanish). They all have something messed up to some degree, especially during the season, it's just a matter of how bad it is. The surprising thing is that there aren't more guys with painkiller or opioid problems during and after the sport.

[MarkKO]

I don't follow strongman much, so I'm not sure if it's me or does Licis seem to get injured a lot?

LOL. To my knowledge, and I admittedly did not follow the sport for quite a while when I stopped competing, he has has a shoulder injury and now a vague back/spinal injury. In between he got hit by a car while riding his bike which screwed up a bunch of stuff and sidelined him for a while. Outside of that, I don't know. I know injuries like the current one are not just common, but normal when competing at more than a local contest level. JF Caron has an active hernia right now, and won the Forca Bruta over the weekend in Brazil (I think that translates to "Brute Force", but I don't speak Portuguese or Brasiliero, I'm guessing based on Latin word roots and Spanish). They all have something messed up to some degree, especially during the season, it's just a matter of how bad it is. The surprising thing is that there aren't more guys with painkiller or opioid problems during and after the sport.

I suspected this might be the case but wasn't sure.

[bobmen10000]

I don't follow strongman much, so I'm not sure if it's me or does Licis seem to get injured a lot?

I used to follow his youtube channel fairly closely - from shortly before he won world's strongest man to a year or so after - and Licis has suffered a lot of injuries, particularly upper body even before being struck by the car. At the time, I thought it was just the result of pushing himself so hard in such a relatively short period of time and needing to take it easy(ier), which seemed to be what he was doing but the accident complicated things - trying to open a gym in California during covid likely didn't help much either in terms of his mental health - still seems really chipper though. As said above, injuries for high level strongman tend to be common but not all of them are as forthcoming as Licis on social media.

[MarkKO]

I don't follow strongman much, so I'm not sure if it's me or does Licis seem to get injured a lot?

I used to follow his youtube channel fairly closely - from shortly before he won world's strongest man to a year or so after - and Licis has suffered a lot of injuries, particularly upper body even before being struck by the car. At the time, I thought it was just the result of pushing himself so hard in such a relatively short period of time and needing to take it easy(ier), which seemed to be what he was doing but the accident complicated things - trying to open a gym in California during covid likely didn't help much either in terms of his mental health - still seems really chipper though. As said above, injuries for high level strongman tend to be common but not all of them are as forthcoming as Licis on social media.

Interesting. I had considered that last part as well as a possibility.

[Hardartery]

I don't follow strongman much, so I'm not sure if it's me or does Licis seem to get injured a lot?

I used to follow his youtube channel fairly closely - from shortly before he won world's strongest man to a year or so after - and Licis has suffered a lot of injuries, particularly upper body even before being struck by the car. At the time, I thought it was just the result of pushing himself so hard in such a relatively short period of time and needing to take it easy(ier), which seemed to be what he was doing but the accident complicated things - trying to open a gym in California during covid likely didn't help much either in terms of his mental health - still seems really chipper though. As said above, injuries for high level strongman tend to be common but not all of them are as forthcoming as Licis on social media.

My experience from time in the athletes area, everybody has a niggling something and nobody talks about it until after the event that it affects. You know sometimes. Like Jesse Marunde had an ongoing patellar tendon problem one year and the athletes were all aware but he didn't talk about it on forums or anything. Most of the guys have at least one or two things at any given time, but they don't share for several reasons. The guys that were most forthcoming were kind of looked at as trying to have an excuse out there in case of a bad performance. The truth is, it's a bit of a macho "Man up" mentality amongst competitors. It's just part of the deal, stuff hurts. Some events hurt to do. I had all kinds of minor strains and pulls competing. Sometimes they affected things, sometimes they didn't. we went out and did stuff anyway, even if it was a very ill-advised move. For example, Novikov was talking in a recent video about the last Arnold that he did - they actually took him to a hospital against his will during the contest between events because he was puking blood. He got fluids and a painkiller and went back to the contest and did the rest of the events. The only thing abnormal about that is that the promoter MADE him stop and go to the hospital. If Licis is admitting to something, it means that either he gets views for doing that and wants to build the channel, or it's actually a serious injury and he may end up having to withdraw so he kind of wants a heads up out there for the alternate (Bobby Cox I think).

[MarkKO]

I don't follow strongman much, so I'm not sure if it's me or does Licis seem to get injured a lot?

I used to follow his youtube channel fairly closely - from shortly before he won world's strongest man to a year or so after - and Licis has suffered a lot of injuries, particularly upper body even before being struck by the car. At the time, I thought it was just the result of pushing himself so hard in such a relatively short period of time and needing to take it easy(ier), which seemed to be what he was doing but the accident complicated things - trying to open a gym in California during covid likely didn't help much either in terms of his mental health - still seems really chipper though. As said above, injuries for high level strongman tend to be common but not all of them are as forthcoming as Licis on social media.

My experience from time in the athletes area, everybody has a niggling something and nobody talks about it until after the event that it affects. You know sometimes. Like Jesse Marunde had an ongoing patellar tendon problem one year and the athletes were all aware but he didn't talk about it on forums or anything. Most of the guys have at least one or two things at any given time, but they don't share for several reasons. The guys that were most forthcoming were kind of looked at as trying to have an excuse out there in case of a bad performance. The truth is, it's a bit of a macho "Man up" mentality amongst competitors. It's just part of the deal, stuff hurts. Some events hurt to do. I had all kinds of minor strains and pulls competing. Sometimes they affected things, sometimes they didn't. we went out and did stuff anyway, even if it was a very ill-advised move. For example, Novikov was talking in a recent video about the last Arnold that he did - they actually took him to a hospital against his will during the contest between events because he was puking blood. He got fluids and a painkiller and went back to the contest and did the rest of the events. The only thing abnormal about that is that the promoter MADE him stop and go to the hospital. If Licis is admitting to something, it means that either he gets views for doing that and wants to build the channel, or it's actually a serious injury and he may end up having to withdraw so he kind of wants a heads up out there for the alternate (Bobby Cox I think).

I just assumed that they all had ongoing injury issues that weren't enough to stop them competing; that's par for the course for any sport. What struck me was Licis being injured enough to pull out.

[Hardartery]

I don't follow strongman much, so I'm not sure if it's me or does Licis seem to get injured a lot?

I used to follow his youtube channel fairly closely - from shortly before he won world's strongest man to a year or so after - and Licis has suffered a lot of injuries, particularly upper body even before being struck by the car. At the time, I thought it was just the result of pushing himself so hard in such a relatively short period of time and needing to take it easy(ier), which seemed to be what he was doing but the accident complicated things - trying to open a gym in California during covid likely didn't help much either in terms of his mental health - still seems really chipper though. As said above, injuries for high level strongman tend to be common but not all of them are as forthcoming as Licis on social media.

My experience from time in the athletes area, everybody has a niggling something and nobody talks about it until after the event that it affects. You know sometimes. Like Jesse Marunde had an ongoing patellar tendon problem one year and the athletes were all aware but he didn't talk about it on forums or anything. Most of the guys have at least one or two things at any given time, but they don't share for several reasons. The guys that were most forthcoming were kind of looked at as trying to have an excuse out there in case of a bad performance. The truth is, it's a bit of a macho "Man up" mentality amongst competitors. It's just part of the deal, stuff hurts. Some events hurt to do. I had all kinds of minor strains and pulls competing. Sometimes they affected things, sometimes they didn't. we went out and did stuff anyway, even if it was a very ill-advised move. For example, Novikov was talking in a recent video about the last Arnold that he did - they actually took him to a hospital against his will during the contest between events because he was puking blood. He got fluids and a painkiller and went back to the contest and did the rest of the events. The only thing abnormal about that is that the promoter MADE him stop and go to the hospital. If Licis is admitting to something, it means that either he gets views for doing that and wants to build the channel, or it's actually a serious injury and he may end up having to withdraw so he kind of wants a heads up out there for the alternate (Bobby Cox I think).

I just assumed that they all had ongoing injury issues that weren't enough to stop them competing; that's par for the course for any sport. What struck me was Licis being injured enough to pull out.

It's the stuff you do at the comp that really shows the inner meathead. The things that we would try and pull off with tape and wraps to get around minor injuries and keep going when it would be clear to any sane human that the wise course would be to stop.....

[MarkKO]

I don't follow strongman much, so I'm not sure if it's me or does Licis seem to get injured a lot?

I used to follow his youtube channel fairly closely - from shortly before he won world's strongest man to a year or so after - and Licis has suffered a lot of injuries, particularly upper body even before being struck by the car. At the time, I thought it was just the result of pushing himself so hard in such a relatively short period of time and needing to take it easy(ier), which seemed to be what he was doing but the accident complicated things - trying to open a gym in California during covid likely didn't help much either in terms of his mental health - still seems really chipper though. As said above, injuries for high level strongman tend to be common but not all of them are as forthcoming as Licis on social media.

My experience from time in the athletes area, everybody has a niggling something and nobody talks about it until after the event that it affects. You know sometimes. Like Jesse Marunde had an ongoing patellar tendon problem one year and the athletes were all aware but he didn't talk about it on forums or anything. Most of the guys have at least one or two things at any given time, but they don't share for several reasons. The guys that were most forthcoming were kind of looked at as trying to have an excuse out there in case of a bad performance. The truth is, it's a bit of a macho "Man up" mentality amongst competitors. It's just part of the deal, stuff hurts. Some events hurt to do. I had all kinds of minor strains and pulls competing. Sometimes they affected things, sometimes they didn't. we went out and did stuff anyway, even if it was a very ill-advised move. For example, Novikov was talking in a recent video about the last Arnold that he did - they actually took him to a hospital against his will during the contest between events because he was puking blood. He got fluids and a painkiller and went back to the contest and did the rest of the events. The only thing abnormal about that is that the promoter MADE him stop and go to the hospital. If Licis is admitting to something, it means that either he gets views for doing that and wants to build the channel, or it's actually a serious injury and he may end up having to withdraw so he kind of wants a heads up out there for the alternate (Bobby Cox I think).

I just assumed that they all had ongoing injury issues that weren't enough to stop them competing; that's par for the course for any sport. What struck me was Licis being injured enough to pull out.

It's the stuff you do at the comp that really shows the inner meathead. The things that we would try and pull off with tape and wraps to get around minor injuries and keep going when it would be clear to any sane human that the wise course would be to stop.....

To a point, sane people don't win much.

[Hardartery]

Licis claims to be okay now. Did a double with 875 in the most recent video. He's claiming Duffalo bar squat to boxes Not a Box Squat, boxes like the O-lifters use sometimes instead of squat stands. Kinda weird setup for Max Squat, but I guess. To the point about everybody always carrying some kind of injury, he also claims the MRI they just did shows multiple disc hernias of some sort, but he's pretty sure they are old and from something else not related to the most recent thing he did in training. So. Yeah.

[mouse]

Late to this discussion but Martins also had some other weird none training related health shit in the last couple years other than getting hit by a car. Let's not forget part of his rehab stuff was dealing with some nerve issue on one side and that time one of his kidneys (or something, I forget) decided it was time to peace out and basically gangrened inside him...

It's been a bit of bumpy ride... but he seems to be looking good minus that back tweak.

[mouse]

If you would have told me end of Day 1 that Rob Kearney would be sitting at #1 I'd have called you nuts...

What an absolute unit that dude is to pull off a +3x BW squat to lock up 2nd and then another 2nd in CDB only behind quite possibly the best dumbbell presser in the world right now...

Id love to see Rob podium this year...

[Hardartery]

Well. JF Caron wins the Squat. Comfortably. 966 lbs, like a warmup, just did what he had to to win, actually said he had planned on over 1000. Kearney second, Licis third, Novikov no far off here with a 906 lbs. Stoltmans did not come out great, Luke made a mistake on the third attempt selection and ended up last.
Novikov won the Dumbell. Like, LOL won. 7 reps. next was Kearney with 4 and then a traffic jam at 3 and at 0.
Kearney is first overall going into day 2, Novikov is in second and Caron is third if I remember right. Caron scratched on the DB, but was pointing at his shoulder and walked away with time, so who knows what happens tomorrow. It sounded like Makarov got booed, which is not real fair to him. Pritchett is there helping Novikov, he wrapped his knees for him and stuff.

[TimK]

So, I’m actually at the Arnold. Pretty cool, my fiancé planned this trip as my Christmas present. Novikov got a standing ovation when he was announced for his first squat and by far the most applause and cheers overall out of all the competitors, for obvious reasons. It was a pretty awkward then when Marakov came out and you could tell Magnus and the other announcer were trying to skirt around the subject. I didn’t hear anyone booing him though. I guess there might have been someone out of the entire crowd but he definitely got cheers on this third squat.

BTW, choosing a squat event was a terrible idea. So boring sitting there waiting for knees to be wrapped, etc for two seconds of lifting. My ass was so sore from sitting on those wooden bleachers for 2.5 hours. Then the circus dumbbell event was over in like 30 minutes, it was ridiculous.

Novikov killing it on the circus db was definitely the highlight of day one.

After that we went over to the strongwoman stage and got to see Andrea Thompson do an 800lb hummer tire deadlift which was awesome (and much closer to our eyeballs).

Took a selfie with Hafthor in the background because I didn’t want to wait in line for an hour. Also Daniella Melo sat a couple of rows in front of me at the start of the squat event and I took a piss next to Magnus Ver Magnusson in the bathroom

[sklunk]

I am also at the Arnold. Never been to something like this before so it’s really cool to see some strength celebs in real life. Saw Julius Maddox just hanging out on the sidewalk as soon as I stepped out of the parking garage, and Mike T was 3 seats away at the master’s USAPL meet. I’m totally starstruck.

[Hardartery]

So, I’m actually at the Arnold. Pretty cool, my fiancé planned this trip as my Christmas present. Novikov got a standing ovation when he was announced for his first squat and by far the most applause and cheers overall out of all the competitors, for obvious reasons. It was a pretty awkward then when Marakov came out and you could tell Magnus and the other announcer were trying to skirt around the subject. I didn’t hear anyone booing him though. I guess there might have been someone out of the entire crowd but he definitely got cheers on this third squat.

BTW, choosing a squat event was a terrible idea. So boring sitting there waiting for knees to be wrapped, etc for two seconds of lifting. My ass was so sore from sitting on those wooden bleachers for 2.5 hours. Then the circus dumbbell event was over in like 30 minutes, it was ridiculous.

Novikov killing it on the circus db was definitely the highlight of day one.

After that we went over to the strongwoman stage and got to see Andrea Thompson do an 800lb hummer tire deadlift which was awesome (and much closer to our eyeballs).

Took a selfie with Hafthor in the background because I didn’t want to wait in line for an hour. Also Daniella Melo sat a couple of rows in front of me at the start of the squat event and I took a piss next to Magnus Ver Magnusson in the bathroom

That's pretty sweet. One of these days maybe I can be close enough to go when it's happening. I'm stuck with the Youtube feed, I'm glad they didn't actually boo - it sounded like they were on the feed. Max squat is a dume idea for a live show, they never have it streamlined like a good PL meet and it always burns a mountain of time, even with the ascending bar rule.

[mouse]

BTW, choosing a squat event was a terrible idea. So boring sitting there waiting for knees to be wrapped, etc for two seconds of lifting.

I said this back when it was announced and got shouted down by a bunch of armchair WSMs who roll their 315 deadlifts...

Who's laughing now?


I lol'd when Magnus interviewed Novi after (I think) his second squat and Novi didn't so much answer as he just went on a quick tear about Ukraine and Magnus just kind of goes "Er... well... good job!"

I already told my wife were ditching the kids with her mom and going next year...

We should plan Arnold 2023 Exodus meet and greet hahaha

[mouse]

Poor JF...

[Hardartery]

Poor JF...

Seriously. Dude can't catch a break.