PELLA—Former Central College offensive lineman Spenser Remick '09 was accustomed to unofficially being the football team's strongest player, but he's going for a far more substantive and lucrative title this week when he competes in the World's Strongest Man competition in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
           
Remick, part of an elite group of 30 competitors from around the globe, begins competition Wednesday at the Burroughs & Chapin Pavilion Place. Competitors are divided into five pools of six for two days of qualifying events. The top two finishers in each group advance to the finals, staged Saturday and Sunday.
           
The event will be televised by ESPN, but on a delayed basis. Last year's event was shown in late December.
           
A Mount Pleasant High School graduate originally from Hillsboro, Iowa, Remick earned his spot after winning the Open Division of the Official Strongman Games in Daytona Beach, Florida last November. He tied for the top spot in that competition a year earlier but was nosed out on a tiebreaker.
           
"I didn't officially qualify through the contest but my performance was strong enough against other guys who have competed at that level that I was able to get enough attention to get an invitation," Remick said.
           
More than 20 of the 30 competitors this week are from outside of the U.S., although Remick said he's gone up against most of them in previous competitions. He's competed across the U.S. but also in England, Poland and Canada.
           
The 17 strongman events largely differ from traditional lifts and include the Vehicle Pull, with competitors pulling an airplane, and the Car Walk, which feature competitors carrying modified Volkswagens, as well as the more standard Dead Lift and Overhead Press.
           

"Strongman typically incorporates some time of overhead pressing and then a deadlift, some sort of grip events and then typically some sort of event where you're loading an object onto a platform or over a bar," he said. "And then they've started to incorporate more thrilling events, like throwing sandbags or kettlebells over like a 15-foot wall. That's become pretty popular. So there's quite a bit of variation and kind of a big focus on being an athlete combined with just being as strong as possible, too."
           
At Central, Remick was a part of three conference championship football squads and was a two-time all-conference honoree. He also twice received the Bruce Wendt Award as Central's top offensive lineman and won the Sterling Award as the men's strength and conditioning athlete of the year for 2008-09. In the school's strength and conditioning record book, Remick still ranks second in the back squat (740 pounds) and third in the bench press (435 pounds).
           
Remick has a long-time interest in strength events and entered his first strongman competition in 2011.  
           
"I had always watched the World's Strongest Man on TV when I was a kid and it was something that kind of intrigued me," he said. "And realizing that I was stronger than pretty much everybody in high school and then getting to college and continuing to be one of the strongest guys on the team helped me understand that I probably have the abilities to really pursue this."
           
Competing at Central was instrumental in his successful new career, Remick said.
           
"When you play a sport at Central, you really find out what you're truly capable of," he said. "Having the experience of being pushed by coaches and by your teammates, and doing things you probably didn't think you were capable of doing as a college athlete really carries over to something like this. I'm in a position to compete against 29 of the other best strongmen in the world and I don't think I would be mentally prepared to do that without some of the experiences I had at Central."
           
The competition is a grueling regimen that Remick said is even more of a mental challenge than physical.
           
"I think the biggest thing mentally is not worrying about what the other guys are doing," he said. "And really staying within what you're capable of because it's very hard to be the best at every event. So there's always going to be somebody you compete against that is going to do better in any given event. It's just a matter of staying consistent and not dropping points along the way."
           
There are no weight limits in the competition, Remick said, although there are weight classes at lower-level events.
           
Remick is 35 but said he's just hitting his prime.
           
"I would say that most of the guys are in their 30s," he said. "You'll see an occasional guy that's 25 or 26, but it takes quite a while to get well-rounded enough and strong enough to be solid at every event. And a lot of guys will compete even into their 40s if they can stay healthy."
           
Remick said he's in good condition for the week.
           
"It's hard to commit 12 to 16 weeks to training for a contest and not get banged up a little bit, but right now, everything feels good," he said.

A full-time employee of Vermeer Corporation in Pella, Remick said he trains three times a week for a little more than two hours, allowing for adequate recovery time, which is critical to success. He receives professional instruction from strongman coach Mike Westerling of Phoenix, Arizona, who sends him training programs.

"I've been working with him for five or six years and we talk weekly about how things are going," Remick said. "He prescribes all my movements and my weights and everything. We talk through what events the contest has, what my goals are, what my strengths and weaknesses are and we devise a game plan from that. That's been a huge piece of my success, especially when it comes to staying healthy and not pushing myself too hard."

He can do it all from home.

"We have a shed at our house where I've accumulated most of the equipment I need for basically every event," said Remick/ "So that's where I do probably 90% of my training and then if I ever travel for work, or we go somewhere for a weekend, I'll try to find a place that has similar equipment to what I'm used to."
Remick knows what he'll be up against in South Carolina this week.

"I would say my main goal would be to qualify for the finals," Remick said. "I'd have to be in the top two in all of my groups, but I don't know who I'm going to be competing against within my group. It really comes down to who's the healthiest and who's the most prepared and I think I'm pretty well-rounded as a strongman athlete, so that gives me a good opportunity to score good points in every event. But I'd be happy placing in the top three of my group, based on this being my first time at this level."

It will be a memorable experience regardless.
           
"Just getting the invitation itself was a huge rush and something I'll always be proud of," he said. "I've kind of told myself that I'm going to give myself a half a day before the competition to just be happy to be there. And then it's time to be ready to compete."