WHAT IS HAPPENING TO STRONGMAN!? (MAJOR INJURIES) 

Before ASC: most stacked lineup ever. what a year it's gonna be. Before WSM: well, it's a two horse race.

Too many big competitions now to keep relying on the same handful of athletes. Also the payouts are so low that guys that rely on the money compete when they’re battered and broken. Something has to change in the money and types of events, Rogue has gone full sadist mode lately and picking events that lead to injuries.

I think its fascinating a comp that needs 30 competitors give some of their athletes such short time to train. Injuries can always happen, but it's their lack of planning and having a backup plan that is fascinating. They should have like 10 guys back up that got told waaaay in advance. Lucas Hatton got asked like a couple of weeks ago and apparantly said no.

Is this happening because the athletes wants too much too fast? Brian, Zydrunas, Hafthor were competing for years in the WSM before they became at their absolute best. But now many of the guys wants to jump from 10th place into the podium.

Don't forget strongman training is healthy if you are just training for yourself but if you want to be the top that is when the risk comes in just like any sports

The answer is far too obvious, isn't it? The sport has grown to a point where you must take whole pharmacies of PEDs to compete (to be 150+ kg). Guys bump in and out of injuries, and to get back to competition level fast, means more and more PEDs. Tendons can't develop that fast. Guys like Novikov who started PEDs early did not allow his tendons to grow far enough before competing at world level, hence the many injuries now. Too much PED everywhere, simple as that.

I welcome new guys to the field. Let the injured guys heal up. I don't need to see new world records in every big comp. Great sober perspective you guys are offering. Important realities, these injuries, long recoveries, and realistic expectations. I'm a hobbyist lifter and in 2019 had an acute onset of sciatica with / lower-back issues. The original injury was decades ago from doing squats w/o warming up or stretching. I heard the horrific "pop" sound. So beginning in 2019 I had to do MRI's and two years of careful physical therapy, never pushing too hard. I've now recovered 95% to before 2019. I now spend 45 minutes a day warming the area before letting it bear weight in the gym. Thanks again for the great content!

Its very interesting to get your in-depth experience, especially from a very decorated guy like Vytautas. Great insight overall, love the channel and I usually listen to your stuff very quickly as soon as I have to do some housework or go for a walk :)

Big bodies, big weights, something got to give. And its usually the athletes that suffer. I know everyone wants to see 1000lb deads but we're losing the best men. Stress on muscles, and heart, too heavy weights. You have to go back to the days of more stamina, flexibility and speed events. Now at about 30-35 yrs old, getting hurt and done.

I think the problem is they know what the events are in advance so they push to there limits in training those events. It the events were more random then they concentrate on being all round strong like in the older strongman days like 80s and 90s and probably not push individual events to the same limits so theoretically less injuries.. I think it would make for less predictable competitions also

Perhaps it’s time for athletes and promoters to unite on safety and health as well as a more defined season. We have one day shows, one day shows with WR attempts, week long shows and several two days shows through a 10 month period. We also have different athletes in terms of size and strength. Where do you place the heavy shows that only certain athletes attend and where do you put the lighter shows that are completed in 3 hours. Is it a strength event, endurance, power and should there be weight classes? Where do you put grip and stone events? Where do you put WR deadlift, log and Axel? Arnold, Rogue, Shaw and Giants should flesh that out and tell WSM how it’s going to be.

Very interesting video, I agree with some of the other comments about guys pushing too many "supplements" too quickly aiming for the very top before their connective tissues are really ready, including with rehab from injuries. As fans, are our expectations of how frequently athletes should compete too high? Also the first video I've been recommended from you - excellent production value. Thanks

I'm wondering if the old attitudes towards super creatine and strength building are haunting the younger athletes who came up under those regimens. And the lack of proper, immediate care for these injuries, either because of local medical issues or $$ to do so, depending on where they live.

Its not a dull time for the sport. Its a great time. Dont mean injuries, but all the many new faces will get the spotlight that they have deserved. Its a changing of the guards. It happens every 5 or so year's. Crowder for example is a monster that has deserved invite for years This will be the most interesting wsm heats in many years. Most years we know exactly who will win which group and who will most likely be in the stone off. This year there are so many who could. Its still is a strong lineup overall. Just not as many big names. No one here knew of hooper 2.5 years back, now look at him

Once again, great video guys!

Well the bar is set really high now to be a top level athlete. Its so hard on the body not to give with those tremendous weights they have to lift. I think the guys need to be more strategic in picking a few shows to compete in and allow more time for their bodies to recover properly.

I had a brachialis issure due to shoveling extremely sticky snow. (it stuck to the shovel like no snow I have ever dealt with) Almost three years later things seem to be mostly fine again. (it wasn't a muscle thing so much as a pain thing) It wasn't even from lifting the shovel it was from trying to shake the snow off of it. I never went to a doctor so I don't know. I just know that palm down that arm hurt like hell. (in the elbow area but it wasn't the elbow) Such a weird sensation and I still don't know how to describe it.

It may be due to heavy training and events seemingly close together I hope all the athletes get better soon

New sub, great content man.👍

I hate to say this but we are seeing the twighlight of Oleskii, Martins, Mateusz and Janashia's careers. Also, aside from their riduculous size and power, another aspect of the Shaw, Z, and (especially) Thor was how little they got injured. This also led to their shocking longevity. If you look at the history of strongmen, most of the top competitors only lasted about 5-7 years at the top level, at best. In other words: most of these post Shaw-Z-Thor guys are lasting about as long as you'd expect them.

Well said bros

All these injuries suck lately. Hope they all get back to peak shape soon. Apparently there’s another one that’s pulled out of worlds injured that’s unannounced yet according to big loz on his live last night

Part of a problem with when recover your mind can create a mental block

The problem is that they have major competitions to close together they need to space them out more

Stay safe guys

A lot of them do seem to be coming back from injury very quickly. I think a lot of them use bpc-157 now which does work but I think makes them rush back

it's so easy to tear biceps lifting stones in a rush (yes, in a rush) instead of 5 stones. why not 3. and it heaviness based instead of time based.

It's heartbreaking to see when you think about how much effort they have put into it for this one big competition, and then it's all gone in a split second. Inconvenient for us and the promoters, yes, but it really sucks for them. 😐

I'm going to tell you something big guys when you hurt yourself that pain only gets worse as you get older, I'm 60 now and can barely walk, I was no where near as strong as you guys but for my body weight I could lift some pretty good weight, every time I hurt my myself it just got worse all my pain now is from nerves and arthritis, to me once the injuries start it's time to stop

It's a shame these people are out but at the same time it's gonna be great seeing other strongmen getting there chance instead of the same names every time. Also for all you people out there saying they should cancel the comp because these big names are out you people are whats wrong with this sport pathetic cheer leaders I don't care about names or what country there from I enjoy seeing the best person putting in a great performance on the day

Fudge tunnels- that's it I'm suiting up!

Will be interesting to see whether Hooper keeps going if he ever has a major injury, I doubt he would come back since he’s already achieved pretty much everything

2024 - the year of the biceps

Well on the bright side, we have Tom, Hafthor, and Mitch, so good comps to be looking forward too

What’s with the Achilles injuries? Bish now too

I suspect we're going to see some great newcomers battle it out for third (being Mitch and Tom)

Martins's earlier time off worked because it was the pandemic and he trained properly. All this travelling around the world will ensure his yet another comeback will be bad. As for Mateuz and Novikov, peaking that early seems to be taking its toll now. Out of the current top guys, Tom seems to be the only one who hasn't faced any major injuries.

In a couple years, we will be going through the next generation of strongman. We will start falling in love with a bunch of new younger athletes coming up.

The top guys being so good is maybe making up-coming athletes choose to try get too strong to quickly with some extra special creatine 😊. Tendons and ligaments take much longer to get stronger than muscles do. You can also maybe look at the quality of modern day "creatine" that's maybe better quality than what was on offer 10 or 20 years ago.

💪💪💪

👍 Torn both my biceps.

Lalas brothers are gonna get the call from Colin this week!

Not only strongman injuries but Fan injury.. Meaning if your a fan of Mateusz it hurts too.... Cause i want to see him compete and do well.. So it hurts everyone even.. Fans

How do you avoid/prevent bicep tears after coming back from a tear and surgery?

I always thought that these newer guys were pushing it too hard. doing 1000lb deadlifts for example. Can’t be good the the body

I hope Kieliszkowski does win but realistically, given how dominant Hooper is now, how he’s continuing to get injuries & how he can’t get his deadlift up to a consistent 430 kg, I think he’s destined to be listed as the 2nd strongest man never to win WSM after Riku Kiri & Derek Poundstone.

Think Shaw has been taking a few calls this week with all these injuries? Sad for the athletes, not sad for WSM. That show has not been interesting for a few years now.

Nice bideo

I’ve never been injured in my time in strongman, but I did tear my hamstring doing sprints in the backyard with my kids 😂

Olympic lifters in the clean you don’t use biceps. Even with power clean. It takes training to create the habit of not using the biceps. I think it is possible to pull the axle to the belly without the biceps. But I can imagine with the axle not being used as often in strongman as the clean is used in Olympic lifting, it must be difficult for a strongman to learn not be using the biceps in the axle clean. With the Achilles ruptured scar tissue forms with tendon repair for life. Elasticity is lost that can never be regained. Injuries combined seem to throw the body out of balance. Never good as new.

They all have to push themselves way harder than ever to even try to compete with Hooper

Love the video boys. I think Martin's should retire. I hate to say that as he was one of my favourites, but I think after his last rogue comp he should have been done. He looked beyond broken that comp with his hip and don't think he will ever come back full time. I would love him to do youtube, train up and comers, and do commentary at shows

Maybe also mention that these Strongmen athletes at the top level are taking PED - (Performance Inhancing Drugs) and therefor they can train their body more times a week than a natural athlete... but the tendons in the human body does not want to play that same game, they need more recovery time (at least as far as I know)

Bicep tears and tendonopathy are by biggest fears,

Do you think strongmen are not training general weigtlifting and lower weight reps seperate of competition event lifting. All I see in strongman videos is training event lifts with minimal warm up and general lifts. I know we see only what they want us to see but it appears its time off or deload and event lifting training. The ratio of all round weight exercise vs strongman lifting might be off. The body all round needs to be conditioned.

If im correct Rauno has done in both his achilles and he has a 476 deadlift masters record and ruined WSM for Brian 😅😅 seriously tho i do gym and when i feel something i feel like something is going to pop 😢😢

There should be no surprise, these athletes fly a bit too close to the sun if u know what I mean, when u put such insane stress on your body something will give way sooner or later, body was not meant to deal with lifting such insane weights, especially tendons, muscles u can grow but tendons stay more or less about the same, like in car u upgrade the power by putting a big ass turbo but u don't upgrade the transmission ... Like with anything in life if you are operating something at 110% for too long you will get lucky until you are not, you are playing Russian roulette pretty much. This sport is like redlining an engine, you are taking a gamble if engine will blow up or not.

time for new blood to come in..........taking time off because of serious injury is a major set back for any athlete........its a shame but injury prone....and its game over...........

I think the shows are too heavy. Early 2000's the shows were lighter and guys competed more. Not everyone can be like Brian Shaw and do two shows a year, they need to earn a living

In 2018, I dislocated my shoulder playing American 🇺🇸 Soccer ⚽️. I tripped running 🏃 and feel down. My dislocated shoulder was popped back into the socket. Then my arm kept popping out randomly after that. My doctor found that I had broke my Later-jet. The Latarjet operation, also known as the Latarjet-Bristow procedure, is a surgical procedure used to treat recurrent shoulder dislocations, typically caused by bone loss or a fracture of the glenoid. I had my surgery in 2019 and was in an Arm sling for 9 months and 4 months of PT. I even broke my middle finger tip called Mallet finger that injury where if you jam your finger on a ball.

So many very high-level shows with massively high standards. Athlete careers are much shorter than they used to be, in any sport. Competing at the highest levels is going to hurt you eventually if you wnat to be the best. But we still do it.

Is there an argument to be had that a lot of these shows are to close to each other not allowing the athletes time to recover from the last event/show it’s not like they’re doing light weight in any of these! You’ve had esm a couple of weeks out from wsm then you have shaw’s show right after and we’ve only just had Arnold’s these guys are exerting themselves to levels of weight and stress on the body that 95%of the population couldn’t even comprehend let alone move

I'd really like Evan or someone else to roll in and win. If Mitch wins again, there's a good chance he'll go hard for the remaining comps this year and then retire and focus on business.

its a dull time in the sport. Really bummed to see shane injured.

Shane Flowers is next athlete to suffer the same he also tore his bicep 😢

Hope for WSM, they get a good show in spite.

Do you miss Lithuania?

Martins said Mateusz are both in denial 😢

I wonder if WSM will start treating fans properly by having a live stream. I wonder if WSM will treat athletes properly by having a proper reserve list so that athletes can prep properly when the inevitable injuries happen weeks before the show. WSM is the 3rd or 4th best competition in the world these days. I hope they shake a leg and improve because the nostalgia factor of the competition is excellent.

Plus shane flowers out unfortunately. And another one yet to be announced 😔

WSM must come back to old fashion style like 2000 year doing competitions less weight for reps and there willbe no injury, but right now steroids not comare with weight used more and more and more we have 510 kg deadlift what now 600 then 700 ???this is sick there is a end of human body possibility

Trenboloni sandwich can go a long way....

It’s happening across all sports. There’s a very clear contributor to this but nobody wants to talk about it. So I won’t 😂

go back to the old school days. WSM can offer spots to wrestlers, football players, olympic weighlifters, powerlifters, bodybuilders.

Damn mixed grip. Yuck.

Novikov should not have entered Europes. Probably would have torn at Worlds but at least it may have healed a little more. Mateusz should just retire unfortunately, poor guy can't stay healthy and has pretty much been perpetually injured for years. Strong as heck but his body breaks too easy.

For years we’ve been spoiled, getting to watch the best strongman in the world and now it’s going to be the most boring WSM ever.

Too many guys got the clot shot? Probably causing some havoc.

Let's get Brian outta retirement. Just a thought. Lifting these massive weights is definitely a injury prone business. Hopefully everyone stays healthy through WSM.

maybe it's time to retire the stones for a while. it's getting too boring now and causing injuries

Need some new blood.

I think strongman as a career is a bit odd, seeing as people became strong due to generations of doing the same work and marrying strong. Now that PED has taken away that pedigree, we get glass cannons and acid reflux influencers

Why are we all acting shocked that doing the most intense physically challenging sport in the world is ending up injuring people ? Lmao

Too many PED’s.

Pretty dull time for the sport :/

Shane had no chance anyway

No weight category is ruining strongmen 200kg guys conpeting with guys weighing 150-160.. totally unfair, and unhealthy to have 200kg weigh. Also less attractive to watch, as events are made for them, 5-10meters all events... Also lighter guys are getting way more injuries, as body doesnt keep up with high weights. Strongmen pre 2010 was way more fun to watch

Working beyond the bodies natural capacity is asking for trouble, pure and simple 🧃🧃