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Friday, May 18, 2012
Covering Dallas, Monmouth, Independence, Falls City and surrounding areas since 1868
Alex Whitaker with an approximately 310-pound Atlas stone, a concrete ball used in strongman competitions.
December 06, 2011
MONMOUTH -- People tend to stop and watch whenever Alex Whitaker is strongman training around McArthur Stadium on the Western Oregon University campus.
But that's bound to happen when you're pressing logs overhead or throwing beer kegs 20 feet into the air.
Today, it's the yoke walk. Whitaker loads up what looks like a gym's squat rack with plates totaling 700 pounds. He's going to "sprint" 100 feet with it balanced on his back.
"I usually practice in the parking lot," he said, readying himself along the straightaway in front of the bleachers. "But it's good out here, too. They've got music."
There are WOU athletes out here practicing. Somebody on the football field sees Whitaker and calls out "lightweight!" -- a joke or simply living dangerously.
Whitaker stands 6 feet, 5 inches, and weighs 310 pounds.
People pause to watch as he braces the cross bar behind his neck and shoulders, then speed walks with his cargo.
"This is the first time I've gotten to do this in about two months," Whitaker said afterward. "I'm warmed up now."
Whitaker will hit the weightroom beneath the stadium, a favorite haunt and a place he's seen often as a former head strength and conditioning coach for Western's football team.
He's easygoing right now. That mood intensifies when there's a competition looming. Then the focus is single-minded.
"I want to be bigger and stronger than any person I've ever seen," he said. "I want to be a freak, really."
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"You tell somebody you deadlifted 700, 800 pounds, and they might say `wow,'" Whitaker said. "They can't really comprehend that weight.
"You tell them ... `I can deadlift a car' and they have a million questions," Whitaker added.
Whitaker, 22, is a 2011 WOU graduate and co-owns Valley Sports Nutrition in Monmouth with friend Matt Noack. He also competes in North American Strongman events across the West Coast.
NAS is the precursor to "World's Strongest Man" -- you know, that league often featured on ESPN with giants pulling trucks or lifting boulders?
Whitaker competed in the NAS national championship during his first year of "strongman" in 2010. He qualified again in 2011, though didn't participate due to an injury.
Whitaker competes in the keg carry at Washington's Strongest Apple IV, a North American Strongman event in Des Moines, Wash., on June 4.
"I plan to be on the World's Strongest stage in two years, I'll be one of the youngest guys there," Whitaker said.
Dione Wessels is the CEO of North American Strongman, based in Missouri. The popularity of the sport has grown by leaps and bounds because of an amateur-to-professional setup and competition based on performance and merit, Wessels said via e-mail.
"They're seeing it as more obtainable to get to the top as opposed to being handpicked or having to be a celebrity," she said.
Participants range from college athletes and weightlifters to farmers and accountants, she said.
Being large helps, as does having a chip on your shoulder, Whitaker said.
Growing up in Astoria, Whitaker said he was always one of the biggest kids in school -- ironic, given that his dad stands 5-6. But he was chubby and "not that great of an athlete." Friends had to taunt him into playing high school football, he said.
He was self-conscious in the weightroom at first. That faded when he began breaking school records -- he was squatting 600 pounds at age 17. Whitaker trained with a local powerlifter and wound up one of the nation's youngest pros himself.
When he was 20, friends and peers began suggesting Whitaker try "strongman" competitions. He balked initially.
"I used to make fun of it," Whitaker said. "Then it got to the point where I was watching it ... they were doing incredible things and it was fun to watch."
On a whim last year, Whitaker entered the Golden State Strongman Challenge in Fresno, Calif., giving himself three weeks to train instead of the normal 12.
His first event was pulling a 45,000-pound semitruck 100 feet using a chain and harness. Whitaker said he still has a vivid memory of the competitor right before him snapping his Achilles tendon.
"They were like, `Whitaker, you're up next,'" he said. "I thought, `This is nuts.'
Neither Whitaker or anybody else made much headway with the truck; "they actually messed up and put it on an incline." But he surprised himself and took third overall.
"It was awesome, I've never experienced anything better than that feeling in my life," he said.
Whitaker was hooked and would end up driving to meets across the West Coast in the months after, placing high within the heavyweight class.
It's a sacrifice. Whitaker spends about 2.5 hours a day, five or six days a week, in or around the weightroom at McArthur Stadium. He trains twice a day during competition cycles.
He's also got to support his frame, meaning downing 4,000 to 8,000 calories a day.
Whitaker practices a "yoke walk" at McArthur Stadium with a purpose-built rack carrying 12 45-pound weights, making the whole apparatus weigh about 700 pounds.
"I don't keep track because I know I don't get enough," he said. "What's the point of counting when all you need to know is `eat more, more, more.'"
Time is more scarce now since opening Valley Sports Nutrition in September with Noack, a childhood friend, former WOU football player and sometimes strongman training partner.
"We'll get ourselves through the work week and then Monday is nuts all over again," said Whitaker, noting his day is split between the office and the gym.
Whitaker plans to embark on another circuit of shows across the West this winter to get back to the NAS championships. His passion does take a toll on his personal life, he admitted.
"I've given up relationships, friendships ... I didn't get the college experience at all," he said. "Everybody kind of takes a backburner to this one thing."
But "I'll always have time to do the things everybody else can do," he continued. "I'll barely have time to do the things nobody else can do."
Who: Alex Whitaker
Age: 22
Height: 6 feet, 5 inches
Weight: 310 pounds
WEIGHT ROOM PRs
Bench press: 650 pounds
Squat: 1,000 pounds
Deadlift: 750 pounds
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Strongman competitions include a variety of lifting, carrying and pressing events, ranging from an axle clean-and-press to the truck pull and tire toss. Below is a sampling of events and Alex Whitaker's best performances in them to date:
* Yoke Walk -- A yoke, composed of a crossbar and two weighted uprights -- 700 pounds or more -- is carried across the shoulders for a set distance. Whitaker -- 850 pounds over 100 feet in 13 seconds.
* Atlas stone -- five stones, ranging in weight from 300 pounds to more than 400 pounds, must be placed on platforms of ascending heights. Whitaker -- stones loaded in 28 seconds.
* Deadlift -- Lift the back of a vehicle straight up off the ground until knees lock in standing position. Whitaker -- Toyota Camry, 10 lifts in 60 seconds.
--Craig Coleman
ACEBOOK