Strongman Chad Coy has competed in 120 strongman events and shares his learned wisdom gained throughout his career.
Strongman Chad Coy describes himself as a “second tier” competitor – but this majorly downplays his impressive athletic career and his contributions to the sport. Coy has competed in over 100 strongman competitions, 120 to be exact at the time of this writing. He’s been lifting since the 1980s and considers himself an eternal student – learning from every strongman and athlete he trains with. That’s why he has become a valuable source of information for aspiring strength athletes and a perfect guest to share that wisdom on the podcast. In our latest episode of Legends Of Iron, Chad Coy explains the most important keys to success in strongman.
Chad Coy, like many strength athletes, started his athletic career as a football player. He never played in professional leagues – but he did take the sport very seriously. He played football since he was a little kid. Eventually, he discovered a love for weightlifting during football practice. This led to a discovery of powerlifting and eventually strongman. By the 1990s, he was convinced he found his passion. Fast forward to today and he has now competed in 120 strongman competitions.
He’s also good friends with our hosts Jon Andersen and Nick Best. The two reconnect on this week’s episode to catch up on insider strongman stories while also talking shop about key advice that can only be earned through decades of consistent competing. Let’s jump into it.
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The most important key to strongman success – consistency & recovery
When asked what the most important key to success is in strength sports, Chad Coy admits that his answer is not an exciting one. However, that doesn’t mean that it is devalued in importance. Consistency is the absolute most important factor in being a successful athlete.
But it’s important to really zone in on what consistency really means. Chad Coy explains how he has only missed 23 training sessions since he started taking athletics seriously in 1980. Thats only 23 missed days in over 40 years. He knows the exact number. That’s the level of dedication and consistency you have to bring to the table in order to be successful. In order to play in the big leagues.
It’s a rare sort of mentality. That’s what makes being a pro athlete a true accomplishment. If everyone could do it – we wouldn’t have sports leagues or competitions as we know them today.
Chad Coy also discusses that you have to be consistent with your recovery. One of the biggest rookie mistakes is to avoid rest in order to fit more training into your schedule. But rest is vital for your muscles to recover. It is only during recovery that your muscles grow back stronger. By denying recovery – you den yourself growth.
This is a fundamental fact. It’s one that many athletes learn quickly as they advance in a sport. However, even intermediate athletes overlook one very important aspect of recovery. This is especially true for extreme strength sports like powerlifting or strongman. Not only must you make time to rest for muscle recovery – you also have to provide yourself enough rest for joint recovery.
Far too often strength athletes loose the long tail end of their career due to injury. It’s because they push their body too far during their early career to be the best. Patience is important. It’s vital to push limits and be the best. But it’s also important to think ahead and ensure you can still be crush weight and winning competitions 10 years from now.
In sports like strongman, you will be spending a lifetime lifting extremely heavy weight. So it is vital to take care of your joints. To ensure that you will not develop a serious injury that pulls the carpet out from under your career.
Crazy feats of strength, crazy stories, and crazy strongman personalities
Chad Coy also talks insider stories with Jon Andersen and Nick Best. There is a brotherhood between athletes in a niche sport like strongman. There’s also a large collection of personalities. Coy reminisces with Andersen and Best about some of the most impressive feats of strength he ever saw at a strongman competition.
He also shares his top three picks for the most crazy strongman personalities. Spoiler alert – all three spots are taken by one specific competitor – Brian Schoonveld. Chad Coy shares some truly hilarious and intense stories about one of the larger-than-life strongmen to compete in the modern era.
Chad Coy Wrap Up
Chad Coy has always considered himself forever a student of strongman. He also believes that it is important to give back. He always makes sure to teach others as much as he was taught throughout the years. He has also dedicated his time to coaching the youth who aspire to be strength athletes in the future. He considers it his calling and a great way to give back to the sport that gave him so much.
You can watch Chad Coy talk in detail about his life and strongman career in our latest episode of Legends Of Iron. Make sure to check back every other Thursday for new episodes only on the Generation Iron Fitness Network or wherever podcasts are downloaded.
