Holding the Standard on the Road

This past Saturday I was fortunate enough to head south to watch the DEUCE Gym community shine away from home. Karis Schnieder, Emily Russak, Mark Stanwyck, and Nick King decided to do the hard thing and put their names down for a strongman competition, which is something foreign to all four of them.

Not only did they courageously do so, they shined in a way that would have made each and every one of you proud. Sure, their performances were amazing from a pressing medley of logs, kegs, and a circus dumbbell to a stone loading series that saw PRs across the board, but they did more than perform well. Hell, Karis even took home second place in the women’s open division in her very first contest. 

What stood out most, however, wasn’t how they held the standard with their scores (which they did), but they brought an energy down there that, at least when they had anything to do with it, felt like being on the yard at 110 Lincoln. In the real world, that is extremely difficult sometimes. In the strongman world, it’s even harder still. There were smiles and hugs and positive well wishes, and we had an entire support crew of fans that gave these guys the love they needed. That is what made me most proud.

Our conversation around competition at DEUCE is an important one in my opinion, but not for the reasons we often see. In general, competition breeds progression and ultimate accountability. Our community would be complacent without it. Yet, the key mindset here is that though competition is vital to our community, it’s vital in the pursuit of it more so that the results. That means the act of competing is more important than your status or ranking.

Regardless of what you train for and how well you perform at it, DEUCE Racing is a team that is for you. You all, just like our four strongman competitors this weekend, will always be supported by the entire DEUCE community.

Go get it!

 

 

Logan Gelbrich

@functionalcoach