Steve MacDonald: The ChasingKaz Interview - March 6, 2007

by Mike Gill

Big, bad, and bald. There is no better way to describe 2006 American National Champion, Steve MacDonald. Steve is making waves in the IFSA organization with his freaky muscular endurance and stone loading skills. With more than 20 years of lifting under his belt, he is living proof that, more than anything else, dedication is a key to success. He is a regular contributor on Elitefts and a moderator on Irongodz . Not only a competitor; Steve has promoted amateur contests where he lives, in Pittsburgh.

AT A GLANCE:

Name: Steve MacDonald

Age: 38

Height: 6"2"

Weight: 315lbs.

Hometown: Romulus NY, a tiny little town in the Finger Lakes area of Upstate NY.

Gym: Champion Fitness and the National Guard Armory, both in Pittsburgh

Placings: 1st at the 2006 American National Championships; 3rd at the IFSA Lapland Grand Prix of Finland in 2006; 1st at the 2005 Mountaineer Pro-Am (turned pro)

Favorite strongman: So hard to pick just one. Either Mariusz for his athleticism or Zydrunas for his raw power.

Favorite athlete: Earl Campbell, running back for the Oilers back in the 80's. The man defined athletic power.

3 most important exercises. Squats, deadlifts, overhead presses.

3 most important foods: Steak, pizza, milk.

Short term goal: To do well at the Arnold [Classic, 3/2-3/4] and to make top 6 at this year's World Championships.

Long term goal: To have my name brought up in one of those "10 greatest strongmen" discussions.

-- --- -- --- --

ChasingKaz: You won Nationals this year, making you the strongest man in America. Then you went to compete in IFSA in Europe. What do the Europeans do differently to prepare than your fellow US Strongmen?

Steve MacDonald: That's a difficult question to answer, due to the fact that everybody seems to have their own training methods. I know of a couple guys who focus their non-event training on Olympic lifts, a couple who focus on a powerlifting type of routine, and one very prominent strength athlete uses a very bodybuilding-esque type of gym training routine. I think the Europeans are more systematic and structured in their workouts than most Americans, because many American training routines seem to be "instinctive" in approach--which is OK, it works well for many.

CK: Most people are familiar with the title of The World's Strongest Man and its contests shown on ESPN. You compete in IFSA and most people in the USA have never heard of that organization. Do you think that could hurt you as far as sponsorships and name recognition in the sport?

SMac: I doubt that would make much of a difference in sponsorships. It's not as if we're being sponsored by huge companies like Gatorade or Nike. I think if a company is interested in sponsoring a strongman, they'll pick the athlete on more (or maybe less) of a basis than which federation he is with. Hopefully someday soon we'll start getting those larger companies interested in our great sport and factors such as TV recognition will start playing into the picture, but I don't think it's part of the picture at this time.

CK: Since most strongmen can't make a living off the sport what do you do for work outside of contests. What kind of difference do you think it would make in your training if you could devote your full attention to Strongman? What would you do differently?

SMac: I am currently bartending at a couple of places, but I've done all kinds of work over the last few years, including fitness equipment delivery and assembly, security, and personal training. Bartending doesn't really take much out of me so I don't think it really cuts into my training at all, and it might even help. Sometimes if you have no structure to your life at all you end up sleeping strange hours and getting all out of whack. I do know some guys who have full time jobs and families, and a couple who own their own businesses, and I wonder how they do it. I really give them a lot of credit. However, I will say that if I had the time and the cash flow I'd do a lot of things for myself; such as preventative maintenance (saunas, massages, chiropractic etc), anything that might help me be a better athlete or help me recover faster.

CK: You've done some pretty sick shit in the gym. There is a great video out there of top level athletes training and in it you knock out a 700 x 7 deadlift.

CK:What else have you done that didn't get put on film?

SMac: I once did a 500 lb single arm deadlift, would have liked to have that on film and a couple years ago Steve Kirit and myself were doing uphill car pulls for conditioning, sometimes we'd go up to 3 1/2 minutes of nonstop pulling, that always got a lot of interesting fluids to find their way out of our bodies.

CK: Do you think strongman will overtake bodybuilding in terms of popularity in young lifters?

SMac: I think it's possible. The bodybuilders today, man they are just so ultra freaky I think a lot of young guys look at them and think that whole look may be unattainable or possibly even undesirable. Bodybuilding really gained in popularity in the 80's and early 90's when the guys were of course huge and ripped but they still looked like something a human being could strive for, the guys today are about twice the size of the freakiest of cartoon characters and I think a lot of people look at them and think "Can this guy even comb his own hair with those arms"?

CK: What advice would you give guys just starting out with strongman style training?

SMac: Don't rush it. The human body can do some amazing things and adapt to just about anything you throw at it, as long as you give it the chance. Overdoing it leads to overtraining and injury, and since most strongman events are such energy draining, total body efforts it's easy to get into an overtraining spiral. Also, strive for balance; don't find an event or two that you're good at and work those as hard as possible while leaving your lesser events to fall further behind. Nothing kills your placing quicker than an event finish near the bottom of the pack. Believe me, there is nothing more frustrating than looking at your score sheet after the contest is over and realizing that one lousy event caused you to lose 1, 2 or even 3 places.

CK: You hinted in your www.Elitefts.com journal that the Europeans may have teamed up to keep you out of the finals. To anyone who knows the sport it seems pretty obvious that it was more than a coincidence. If given the opportunity would you team up with other Americans to keep out one of those competitors?

SMac: I think I probably would, depending on who it was. Missing the finals like that stung pretty bad, and I'd like to say that I'm above being vengeful, but I'm not. Also, I'm sure that they'd do it again given the chance so I'd just be helping to balance the universe, which is good right?

CK: What do you think the top promoters need to do to keep increasing the popularity of the sport?

SMac: I think they need to continue to find ways to make the sport more entertaining and more appealing to the man on the street. Plain numbers don't mean much to Joe TV watcher. Is he really going to be more impressed with an 800 lb deadlift over a 700 lb deadlift? Those are just numbers. But just about everybody has felt the weight of a beer keg, and watching somebody deadlift 5, then 6, then 7...that relates better to most people. Most people have had to push a car sometime in their lives, and they know it's not easy, so watching a strength athlete pull a 30,000 lb semi or bus is pretty much mind boggling.

CK:Massive numbers are being achieved all across the sport right now. Ortmeyers 500+lbs stone, Big Z putting up over 450 on the log, do you think we are near the limits of human strength or is there plenty of room yet? (After this interview was completed Steve loaded a 525-pound Atlas Stone in 15.70 seconds. This is the biggest stone loaded in a contest in the fastest time.)

SMac: I think there's plenty of room yet, the numbers over just the last few years have just exploded. A few years ago 900 lb yokes, 350 lb farmers walks and 400 lb axle and log presses were unheard of, now you can find those kinds of weights in national qualifiers and some Pro-Ams.

CK: Are you for making the events more standardized (like calibrated steel logs and precision stones) or traditional (like real wood logs, and river rocks)?

SMac: I like the idea of standardizing some of the events, it gives the athlete something to shoot for if he is close to the record and, speaking for myself, it would be great to see my name up there on the world record holder list. Of course there are some events that could never be standardized, like the tire flip and the truck pull, so I think it's a great idea to standardize the events that can be standardized. Also, most of the equipment that has been standardized by IFSA is really sharp, high quality equipment that looks good on TV and it's all nicely balanced and machined.

CK: You and I are both well in to our 30's; a time when a man's strength is supposed to be peaking. Are you surprised that there are more and more competitors in their early twenties going pro and winning contests? Why do you think they are making such great progress at a young age?

SMac: You've got me stumped on that one; I know I wasn't anywhere near that strong in my early 20's. Maybe it's just that strongman is getting more and more popular and is therefore drawing from a larger pool of talent. When that happens you are quite likely to get some variances from the norm. It's also possible that maybe these guys are just ultra freaks and are going to completely re-define strength when they hit their strength peak in their 30's.

-- --- -- --- --

Being a strongman takes a lot of hard work and Steve has been more than willing to put in his time. This past weekend (March 2-4th), in fact, he placed 8th at the Arnold Classic in Ohio. After a solid first year of IFSA competitions, I see only bigger and better things ahead for him in the next year or two. He has the potential to compete with and beat all the top athletes in the IFSA. If Steve were to transition to the Met-RX super-series, he would have a great shot at the Worlds Strongest Man title. Keep your eyes on him, he's going to impress you.

What'd you think of the interview? Have any follow-up questions you'd like us to ask Steve? Tell us about them - hit POST REPLY in the "America's Strongest Man Interview" thread of the ChasingKaz message board

Posted by Mike Gill at 12:11 PM

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