Every iron sport could take a page from CrossFit honestly. They made it super accessible for everyone, capitalized on “functional” training and the uptick in fitness, and opened franchises everywhere in a grassroots branding effort.
Then they brought it together and the Xfit games are on ESPN for a week. Hell I watched it while getting my haircut once. And it was entertaining, due to the variety and sheer pace of the competition. Instead of watching a dude hoist a log for 60 seconds people get to see a whole damn obstacle course being raced through.
While WSM is entertaining in it’s own right, it’s obvious that unless you’re just a monster you could never hope compete at that level. CrossFit elite level athletes, while clearly peak-level humans, still look far more average (in terms of overall size) than top strongman competitors. And their structured approach to funnel athletes into the games gives everyone in boxes around the globe a shot so-to-speak.
Absolutely! I love watching strongman. I just mean that there is a “skin-in-the-game” aspect to XFit that isn’t in strongman. For instance, I’m naturally a very lean guy and am not getting any taller at 6’. You could give me all the gear, food, & unlimited training time in the world and would still never see me on the WSM stage. Top crossfitters aren’t monsters in terms of stature, they are just in peak shape.
This is actually what the WSM has been doing for decades. Tailored competitions and rule changes, and flat out banning certain competitors. TV show first, sport second.
Ok ok but I do watch golf and very rarely play at all anymore. Ive grown to love watching it. Aaaannnd the Phoenix open is awesome here to watch. I think it got over 625,000 people for the weekend. So not small.
Yup. This is what I mean when I say that the layperson “gets” weightlifting. It’s like; of COURSE you put the weight over your head. That’s how you show dominance of the weight.
I’ve mostly stayed out of this, but couldn’t resist briefly chiming in here.
I train the squat and the deadlift as my two goal/progression lifts, and honestly lack the shoulder flexibility to execute a proper snatch or the hip flexibility to perform a full clean, but I far prefer watching the sport of weightlifting to watching the sport of powerlifting.
Part of it is the execution of the lifts themselves - I hate the judging of squats in powerlifting, and as flip said, I think seeing a weight go from floor-to-overhead is a lot more intuitively understood than putting something heavy on your back, squatting down to an arbitrary depth marker, and standing back up.
Part of it is the personalities and vibe at a meet - I may be in the minority, but I find the heavy-metal atmosphere of PL meets that I’ve seen online a rather undesirable vibe; I prefer the quiet, understated nature of weightlifting meets.
One final thing that I really like about weightlifting is the progression of the actual competition. Instead of cycling through 20 lifters where one guy does his opener, the next guy does his opener, etc…weightlifting has a method that (IMO) is far more entertaining. I love the “bar only goes up in weight; if you miss a lift, either take it again right away, or risk going up again” structure of a WL meet. Something about that feels way cooler to me than seeing a flight of squats where one guy does his opener, work all the way through everyone’s openers, then strip 300 pounds from the bar and start on second attempts.
Like everything in powerlifting, this varies from fed to fed. You see the heavy metal stuff online because it tells a cool story, but I did 3 meets in NASA, where you’d get kicked out for profanity on the platform and had to use nose tork behind a curtain so that the audience couldn’t see it. And I actually thought they were a pretty cool fed, but some tough guys would watch the videos and from my meets and comment on what a joke it was that there wasn’t Eminem blasting at 200 decibels.
The format for weightlifting you’re talking about is known as “rising bar”, and I’m with you. Along with being more entertaining, it makes events go much faster. A rising bar last man standing deadlift in strongman is SO much quicker compared to doing it like a powerlifting meet.
I absolutely LOVE rising bar in strongman. It totally changes the competitive dynamic. It involves so much strategy, sizing your opponents up, etc. At my last 3 strongman shows, I’ve employed the exact same strategy, and it’s been based almost solely on what my opponents have done.
Basically, I wait until everyone has used up their second attempt before I perform my opener. I match the heaviest 3rd attempt with my 2nd to guarantee at least a tie for 1st. Then I win with my 3rd. This last show was a bit of an exception, as my opener felt light as shit, and the last 3rd that was taken was only 20 lbs better than my opener. So I went ahead and won with my 2nd and jumped 80 lbs for a fun 3rd.
It’s just a great opportunity to feel more like you’re truly going head to head against the other competitors (which you are). I feel like true head to head competition largely doesn’t exist, except in special circumstances, in the PL world. Most people in PL really don’t care about how they perform vs others at the meet, because there’s a decent chance you’re in a class by yourself, and you’re really only working vs your own previous prs, records, etc. That’s so boring to me.
WL rules aren’t total straightforward to people unfamiliar with the sport either. I saw a video from a WL meet where one seemingly good clean & jerk got red lighted and I couldn’t understand why. Apparently the jerk was “pressed out”.
That’s news to me. There are several golf courses here in Ottawa and I have never ever heard anyone say they were going to watch other people play. I know several people who play golf, some compete in tournaments, but I’m not aware of anyone watching it. Must be an American thing, here in Canada it’s hockey and beer.
Rising bar, head-to-head and max reps are all great examples of strongman catering to audiences.
Nothing more awesome than when 3/4 of the field has done their lifts then two competitors line up and blow everyone all away in 20 seconds then fight it out for the win. Crowd always loses it.
and Europe, and the Middle East, and Asia, and South Africa, and Australia, and Mexico.
It’s a huge sport worldwide, I don’t understand why you’re being intentionally dense about it. That would be like me not acknowledging how enormous Soccer is globally, just because it’s not a particularly American thing.
qualifying for nationals in powerlifting feds is a fucking joke. You don’t even have to hit close to elite in most feds. I overqualified for nationals in I think APF in the only meet I ever did by several hundred pounds. Meanwhile, it’s hard as shit to qualify for nationals in strongman. I’ve had to work my ass off to do it.
So I actually agree with the statement you’re making here, it’s just kind of a hilarious bar to set. Like, yes, not qualifying for nationals would equate to a non-impressive powerlifting total, and winning your weight class wouldn’t mean much. I actually don’t think winning your weight class in pl in general is impressive unless the competition is strong. It also means you’re a shitty lifter in general if you can’t even meet that standard.