The Atlas Stones are a trademark of Strongman. In a race against time the athlete must place five stones upon five platforms. The stones typically range in weight from 250lbs to 385lbs. As the stones get heavier, the platforms decrease in height. Placing all five stones is a major accomplishment and takes a lot of training.
I personally have a 235lb stone that I use to train for speed. At the gym where I train, we only had one stone--a 330lber--that we would load and unload to simulate a competition medley. We had only one, that is. This past July, Glen decided to make a big stone: a 410lb, slightly oblong beast that is scary huge. After its creation, it sat in the corner for a few weeks taunting us, its insides fully hardened.
Glen was the first to attempt loading it. He stacked two tractor tires on each other and covered the hole with plywood. He applied a tacky resin to his arms and threw himself down on the stone. A few seconds later gravity gave up its hold and the stone crept up. He struggled and strained until he'd hauled it into his lap. Then, in a slow awkward motion, he raised it up and placed on the tires.
We all screamed and yelled as he walked around the room trying to catch his breath. Even though Glen is a professional strongman, he is still considered a lightweight. At the time, I outweighed him by 30lbs. I felt pretty confident in my stone loading abilities. I wanted to be next. We rolled it off the tires and I prepared myself physically and mentally to move that rock.
I threw myself down on top of the stone, wrapping my arms around it. With the technique I had applied hundreds of time to the 330lb stone, I pulled. Then a very strange thing happened. That stone didn't budge. Not even one inch off the ground. I couldn't have pulled a piece of notebook paper out from under it. I stood up frustrated. The boys were yelling at me. "Come on Big Mike! Get it! Don't quit." So I didn't. "I had a bad grip on it" I said to myself. So once again I bent over, grabbed it, and pulled even harder. Again, nothing happened.
I was dejected, confused, and pissed off. It was the first time in four months of strongman training that I had failed at something I attempted. I may not have been the fastest or knocked out the most reps, but I always got at least one rep. I quit on that stone for the day and went on with my training. And that stone, the big stone, began to haunt me.
I didn't try it again for three weeks. During those three weeks I simulated picking up the stone as best I could. I did bent over rows heavy. I used 400lbs for reps. I worked my lower back muscles to make sure they could handle the stress. Twenty one days later I confronted the stone again. I did the same rituals, thought positively, and gave it 100 percent. This time though the stone came up off the ground. I pulled it up an entire inch before it slipped and thundered back to its home. "You've got to be fucking kidding me" I thought. If I hadn't seen Glenn load it myself I would have thought that it was impossible. I can deadlift over 600 lbs. This felt like one hundred times that. I walked away disgusted, again.
The summer came and went. I trained harder than ever. All my other lifts improved. By the end of summer, I could load the 330lb stone eleven times in a row without a problem. I finished second at two large contests. I flipped a car and I pulled a 59,000 lb semi tractor trailer, but I still could not get that big stone more than a few inches off the ground. It just sat there, all 410 pounds of it.
I began to obsess about it. I would think about it when I got up and when I went to bed. I asked every strongman I knew if they had any advice. Many did not because very few have loaded a stone that heavy. I even emailed Travis Ortmeyer (who has loaded the world record 520 lb stone) for advice. He wrote back and said I should just stand over it and dive bomb it.... Pretty much exactly what I have been doing.
For eight more weeks I kept at it and I kept failing. The size and uneven weight of the stone made it next to impossible to get straight off the ground. I was getting it a good three inches up now but it may as well have been zero because 3 inches was still about forty inches shy of where it needed to be; and almost doesn't count.
My obsession grew. Obsession is what you need to be successful at something that is extremely difficult. I began to visualize myself putting the stone on the tires. I would see it happen in my mind until I was nearly convinced that I had already done it.
On November 11, 2006 I walked into training and declared that I was going to load the big stone today, before I did anything else. I went through my warm up and set the tires. Glen wandered back and asked if I was going to work the big stone... I said I was and he said he wanted to as well. Good, I thought, some extra motivation. I couldn't let him beat me again.
I was warm, my arms were covered in tacky and the stone sat at my feet. I committed to it in my mind and then grabbed that stone. At first it didn't want to move, but I kept at it. A few seconds later it was a full foot off the ground. The crew was yelling but I could barely hear them. I pulled harder and harder until it was at my knees and then: Wham! Next thing I know, it was back on the ground. "Oh man, not again" I thought.
"Man! You were inches from having it in your lap! You can get it Mike, get after it again"
I stepped away, caught my breath, and returned. My mind went blank and I grabbed that stone, pulling with every fiber of my being. It came up one inch per second it seemed like, until I pulled it into my lap. I knew the guys were cheering me on, but I couldn't hear them; hell I couldn't think.
I started to stand up, bear hugging the monster. Pulling my arms up, I was just inches from the top of the platform. I pushed forward and pressed the stone between me and the tire. It was forcing the air out of my lungs and I was starting to get light headed. I reached my arms under it and pushed as hard as I could. Then it happened. Four hundred pounds stopped pushing on me, it stopped testing and teasing me and came to rest on top of a nearly four foot high stack of tires. I had beaten it. I raised my arms in triumph. The rush was unbelievable. After a few seconds, I brought my arms back down and flipped off the stone with both hands. Back to business.
We need to make a 450lb stone.
Posted by Mike Gill at 10:58 AM