Oh no, here it comes again.

Every single time I train for this, right before the pull, I’m swearing like a sailor. Its because its painful, very painful. And as I get ready I’m thinking about how painful its going to be.

I’m talking about pulling vehicles by my hair. As mentioned in a recent post, Strongman Picnic, I’m set to perform in less than two weeks from know.

I’ll be pulling a fire engine. Its big. Much bigger than what I’ve been pulling. So in training for it I do what you do in any other training. I make it progressive. More weight at first then I had do switch to more of an incline when I was pulling the biggest vehicle I had available.

I’ve also played around with the setup and my technique as its not likely something I’m going to get coached in.

Back to the pain…

This is an area familiar to strongmen. Pain tolerance.

Bend a piece of steel or a horseshoe across your leg? That’s going to hurt. And the first few times you do it, it’ll leave bruising (sometimes massive amounts). You’re might even be strong enough to bend that steel if only your leg could take the drive.

One tip I received in learning to bend nails is once you get to the point where its starts to hurt and you want to quit, that’s where you need to double your efforts and crush it. That’s the point were the nail WILL bend.

You’re not seeking this pain. In some feats of strength its not so painful. But in some it is. Many feats can cause rips in skin, various bruises, just plain pain or much more.

Dennis Rogers once drove a nail through his hand…backwards. Usually the feats works without much effort. In this case it was not so.

It comes with the territory.

There I was a few days ago in my last training session. Maybe it was my recent haircut even though it was just a tiny trim. Maybe it was the hair attachment setup which felt wrong this time. Maybe I’ve just been doing too much volume.

Whatever the reason this one hurt more. And I lost more hair. I always lose some when doing this stunt. (I like to think that all the weak ones must go.) But this time there was more. Here I could hear the hair rip from my head at one point in the pull.

When I finished a few large chunks came out. Nothing noticeable as far as how I look is concerned and I seem to have plenty left. But certainly not comforting.

Such is the life of a strongman.

In strength,
Logan Christopher

P.S. I wrote an article over at Straight to the Bar. Lift weights? So what? Check it out.