NAS Champs

Roger Ortmeyer

Personal

Born: November 4, 1946
Hometown: ....born in Springfield, Illinois..grew up in Brentwood TN and Dallas TX
Current Location: Cypress TEXAS.....Houston is a suburb
Occupation: Athletic Nation Men's only fitness Gym...owner with Travis
Interests: Strongman, old muscle cars, and fitness training for men who sit around and wonder what happened....all this is good, but my real passion is my family.

Stats

Let's start with traditional stuff: DL 465, squat 405, Don't bench
now for the stuff that really counts:
YOKE.....550 60 ft. 16 sec. 500 beltless for 100 ft in 29 secs.
FARMERS WALK....235 / 120 ft with a turn 21 secs.
STONES.......set of 5 to 310......26 secs.......have loaded a 330 to 4 ft, but not lately
WEIGHT OVER BAR....42 lbs for 15 ft on first attempt
FRAME CARRY...540 for 60 ft (2006 Masters)...12 seconds
CONAN'S WHEEL...450 for 220 ft.
axle press 200........once........log......to hell with it !

Competition History

7/03
Texas Strongest Man
Dennison TX
3rd

5/04
Music City
Nashville,TN
yes

7/04
Masters Nationals
St Louis MO
16th out of 19

5/05
Kansas Strongest Man
Salina, KS
3rd Heavyweight Masters

9/06
Masters Nationals
St Louis,MO
1st over 50 Ltweight

8/07
Monsters of the Southwest
Dallas TX
4th ltwt open

9/07
Masters Nationals
McPhearson,KS
1st over 50

Getting Started

Travis had gone with Marshall White to the Texas Strongest Man contest the summer of '02. and had decided that was what he wanted to do with his life. The first piece of equipment was an old 700# tire and some grusome farmers implements that had to be ducttaped to hold the weights on...early stone were the garden variety found on the side of the road...truck pulls were made with a harness left over from an oilrig emergency jump chute, but served the purpose. (I think we gave that to Dane my nephew for Christmas one year after going to Ironmind to get the real hrness).I began hanging around with Travis and Marshall on Saturday mornings, and really liked this real life use of strength. Sonja, my wife thought I was a nutcase. I jumped into competition with little more than a desire to see if I could match up against the equipment....I broke my big toe on the first event, a dump truck pull that Chad Smith had set up for the Texas Strongest Man contest in Dennison, TX. (Chad did his patented VW carry for the crowd).....Travis won, and I didn't finish last because one of the competitors got hurt and couldn't finish..BUT I WAS HOOKED...We went about accumulating Atlas Stones from Chad's grandfather Smith, who also made us a Conan's Wheel.

Next came the UNIT, a storage facility in Cypress TX where we store all manner of junkyard cast off pipes,tires, and implements that you don't need a lock to keep thieves from stealing. Luckily for Travis and me, the guys like Josh Thigpen, Jim Glassman, (both pros),Jason Hehr(Texas Strongest Man), Tim, Mic, Albert, Mike,Chris, Joe,Marshall White( graduate pro from the UNIT),and not to be left out, Estella, and poet lautete, Ashley , all train there regularly, and nobody gets cut any slack At the UNIT, if you start an event, you finish even if it takes all day, period...

If you want to push yourself and most people don't even understand what that means until they truly are consumed with Strongman training, get with a group that will not tolerate less than your best effort. I don't mean try, I mean do....no excuses, no missing training, no I'll try. I am the only member of the UNIT that can say "I can't", but they make me do it anyway ...a**holes!...... I got the Barbie Award once for having to miss a Saturday for attending a funeral out of town that day.......

Goals

My personal goals are simple: train and compete with the young studs and beat them @ anything, then never let them forget it....ever.....Oh, and win the over 50 strongest man contest into my 70's......

In a broader context, to promote the awareness of Strongman as the ultimate challenge of mind and body against the unmovable object.