Strong Man Of The Month

Bill Kazmaier
Born: Dec. 30, '53
Height: 6' 3"
Weight: 350 lbs
Home: Wisconsin USA

Bill Kazmaier won the World Strongest Man title three times, in 1980, 1981, and 1982. After these victories, Kazmaier chose not to compete in the 1983 WSM due to it being held outside the USA. Bill was not invited back to compete in the WSM contest again until 1988, where he finished second to Jon Paul Sigmersson. Bill finished fourth in his final WSM appearance in 1989. In the world of strongmen, the legend of Bill Kazmaier lives on due to his incredible super human strength and his ability to get a crowd hyped up as he impressed them with his raw power.

Benefits of Olympic Weight Training

You might be asking yourself what is Olympic Weight Training?
Olympic training consists of two main lifts, the Snatch and the Clean and Jerk. There are variations of these lifts that are often used to train in the Olympic style, lifts like Power Cleans, Overhead Press, and Front Squats all fall into the category of Olympic Weight Training.
Olympic weight training is favorable for training optimal technique in athletes that want to increase there performance levels in all sports. Including football, baseball, basketball and the like. Olympic lifting has been proven to enhance an athletes strength, agility, speed, and focus. You might be wondering how Olympic lifting can accomplish all these feats, Olympic training trains the body to explode and use its maximum possible force. The techniques of the lifts train the bodies fast twitch muscle fibers. These fibers are what give the body the potential of speed, explosiveness, and power. The more we train these fast twitch muscle fibers the faster and more powerful the body will be. Fast twitch muscle fibers are directly related to an athletes ability to jump, the more you have the higher you can jump. An athletes vertical jump is a universal tool in assessing ones overall athletic ability. In 1968 at the Mexico City Olympic Games the first testing of the sprinting and jumping abilities of all athletes were recorded. They tested all Olympic athletes by there vertical jump and a 25 meter sprint. The Olympic Weight Lifters out performed the world class sprinters and jumpers in these exercises. This only goes to prove that Olympic weight training is a great overall body work out that prepares the body for all kinds of physical activity. Olympic weight training is also a good supplement to any weight loss plan. Olympic Training aids in the process of metabolizing fats, burning tons of calories while performing the exercises. Olympic weight training also increases an athletes stamina resulting in optimum performance. I have incorporated a large amount of Olympic Style training into my own routine of Cardio and weight training. I have seen a big change in the way that I feel and the weights that I can put up. I have been on my active training regimen for four weeks now and have dropped my own weight from 420 pounds to 375 pounds by incorporating these core full body workouts into my training. In closing I would just like to add that Olympic Training is the best type of training that I have found to achieve an overall strong body, when used with a good clean diet and cardiovascular training there is nothing better.

Strongman Of The Month

Jón Páll Sigmarsson

(April 28, 1960 – January 16, 1993)

A strongman, a powerlifter , a bodybuilder and a weightlifter from Iceland who won the World's Strongest Man Competition four times (1984, 1986, 1988, 1990). His achievements in powerlifting also include Icelandic records in the bench press and the squat, but his best performances were usually in the deadlift event, in which he set the European record many times.

A quote from Jon "there is no point in being alive if you cannot do the deadlift". In a tragic irony, he died at the age of 32 while performing this exercise in the gym. He will always be remembered as one of the greatest strength athletes of his time.

A Grand New Year January 2009

Let me first start by apologizing for dropping of the map for the last 2 months. The holidays did a number on me. Now that the toughest part of the year is over it is time for a great new beginning. I started a new training program on the 12th of this month. My beginning weight was 420 lbs, as of today I weighed in at 390 lbs I am pretty stoked with my new program. Matt, Ben and I have really started training hard again with great benefits. Ben is gaining strength by the day and Matt is still the ultimate in strength. He is a great coach and is helping us achieve the gains required to begin in the wonderful world of strength.

I will post some pictures of some of the things that we have been up to in this new year. I will also do my best to keep this blog up to date. I now have the Internet at my home so it will be easier. Thanks again for checking us out here at the Southeast Idaho Strongman Blog.

Good News

Well this week has been great. I finally was able to get things together and join the World Gym in Idaho Falls Idaho. The weather turned bad fast this year in Southeast Idaho and I had to take a hiatus from working out. But, now everything is back on track Matt, Ben, and I all had a great work out on Monday working on our upper body strength. It was really fun and exciting.

Strong Man of The Month

In Loving Memory

Jesse Marunde

6'5'' 290 lbs

Sequim, WA

Strongman History:

Jesse burst onto the scene in 2002 and placed 5th in the nationals at just 22 years of age, which was his first ticket to the World's Strongest Man competition. In 2003 he showed he was no fluke, finishing 4th place and returning to the WSM competition once again. In 2005, Jesse was the runner-up at WSM, placing 2nd only to Maruisz Pudzianowski of Poland. Sadly Jesse passed away on July 25, 2007 He was a great American competitor and we will all miss him.

StrongMan of The Month

Magnus Samuelsson

6'4" 330 lbs

Sweden

Strongman Histroy:

"Winner of the 1998 World’s Strongest Man, this farmer from Sweden can do it all. He is especially well known for his hand and arm strength and is believed to have the strongest arms in the world"(http://www.xtreme-strongman.com/magnussamuelsson.html).