AUGUSTA — The details are seemingly endless — but in the end, there’s one theme that binds them all.

There’s the shouts of encouragement between competitors who are battling for the same title; there’s the way the numbers climb as the competition progresses; behind it all, there’s the rigorous strength training they’ve been doing for years, perhaps decades. No matter what, the Central Maine Strongman competition is about building.

There’s an interesting dichotomy that comes with sports, one that says your success means someone has failed. A team winning a game or match means the opposing team must lose; a golfer winning a tournament means hundreds of other golfers did not; a coach or general manager recruiting a top player means others missed out. 

At Central Maine Strongman, though, that notion goes out the window. The people who lift the heaviest or move atlas stones the fastest instantly move from attempting their own success to cheering on the very people trying to outdo them. Look no further than Teejay Sinclair and Benjamin McCoy both of Augusta, who, while tied for the men’s middleweight lead early in the day, were building one another up as they shared tips and words of encouragement.

“You want to better yourself, but you want to lift everybody else up around you,” Sinclair said. “I want everyone, whether I’m going up against or whether you’re the smallest girl or the biggest guy, to do as best as they can. You cheer on everybody, and everybody cheers on you.”

As the day goes on, the feats of strength get bigger. The lifts go from seemingly smaller weights — not that somebody like me could ever call a 350-pound deadlift “small” — to 400, 500, 550, 600 and more. Just when you think someone’s performance is so impressive it can’t be beat, someone else comes along and builds on it.

The human body has a breaking point, but as humans, we have an innate desire to push ourselves to it. It can leave us exhausted, delirious, emotional and even broken, which is why we don’t live in such a state. Getting there can produce results that are truly special, such as Nate Roy deadlifting 785 pounds in what was seemingly the final lift of the day before coming back a minute later and lifting a competition-best 805.

The people lifting the barbells, carrying the kegs, tossing the sandbags and hauling the massive stones to wooden platforms didn’t get bodies like these overnight. It’s a process that takes years of building your biceps, quads, calves, deltoids and just about every muscle in the human body, some of which these competitors forget they have until they feel them burning.

33 Nate Roy, of Biddeford, competes in the deadlifting event during the Central Maine Strongman 14 on Saturday at GEvoluion in Augusta. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

It’s not just about getting bigger through workouts; competitors have to get bigger through what they eat, too. David Wildes of Liberty has been referred to by fellow competitor and organizer Chad Mitchell as “a 10,000-calorie man. That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but Wildes’ actual intake is nothing to downplay — and his routine, though not flashy or fancy, is one that more than gets the job done.

“I’d say it’s more like (4,500) on a good day. I try to keep it cost-effective, so it’s a lot of chicken, a lot of rice or whatever proteins are on sale,” said Wildes, whose 18-inch deadlift of 725 pounds was tied for third among all competitors. “My biggest challenge is that I work at Planet Fitness, which is not necessarily heavy-guy friendly, but I’m not obnoxious, and I don’t make a lot of noise, so the staff there lets me do my thing. I’m very lucky.”

The day is a buildup to the last event, the stone platform load. It’s one you might have seen if you’ve ever seen World’s Strongest Man on ESPN2 at 3 in the morning. Contestants take heavy stones weighing hundreds of pounds and have to lift them onto large platforms. It’s a test of strength that gets tougher as it goes on; each stone weighs more than the last, making endurance just as important as raw, physical strength.

If you ask any of the competitors, though, they’re almost sure to tell you the stone platform load is their favorite. It’s an iconic event, one mastered by the likes of Magnús ver Magnússon, Tom Stoltman and Mariusz Pudzianowski, and the way the strongest competitors can lift, carry and place stones totaling more than 1,000 pounds in quick succession leaves them with feelings of satisfaction.

“The stones are a lot of fun,” said Mitchell, who was originally a rugby player in South Africa before developing an affinity for strongman competitions. “The stones leave you very nice and bruised, which is why I have tattoos everywhere, but everyone loves it. There’s a reason we save it for last.”

More than anything, the day is a testament to what the human body is capable of achieving. We see that a lot in sports, whether that’s a baseball player driving an 100-mph pitch 400 feet, a runner completing a marathon in a little over two hours or a gymnast twirling through the air countless times before landing perfectly. Humans love to do the undoable, and as we progress, those barriers fall.

It happens because of the building — not just the countless hours, days, weeks, months and years it takes to produce a body capable of superhuman strength, but also of how athletes such as those in the Central Maine Strongman build each other. They do their best, and it’s a best that wouldn’t be possible without each other.

“It’s the most family-oriented individual sport there is,” Mitchell said. “In another sport, you’d never have two guys trying to beat each other hanging out, talking technique and cheering each other on. That’s beautiful to me; it’s why I love it.”

« Previous

Next »

Related Stories