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Okay, let’s start off by saying everyone is annoying sometimes. Some people can’t shut down their annoyingness to save their damn life. These rants are mostly about them, but if you fit the bill, sorry not sorry. Here’s a few things I’ve been noticing recently in the world of strength sports and “super serious, hardcore, bad to the bone athletes”.
First off, why do the “athletes” these days feel they need to do such stupid shit to draw more attention to themselves? Are they afraid that just putting in the work isn’t enough? Why can’t they realize that the world is just impressed with the accomplishments in their respective sport? We don’t care what your pronouns are. We don’t care what color you dye your hair this week. Really don’t give a crap if you got vaxxed. Nor do we want to try and keep up with your ever-changing Instagram handle. We care about your progress and good old fashioned hard work. It makes us happy to see your PR’s, training, and competition posts. Face it, that’s what we literally all have in common. All of us that compete in strongman want to see strongman related things. Plain and simple.
Speaking of plain and simple, I’ve seen a huge change in the sport of strongman over the past decade and I can honestly say, it’s so annoying. Back in the day we just had fun training and competing. It was special to show up to a contest and have that “family reunion” feeling when seeing friends from around the country. The work spoke for itself. You could tell by performance whether someone had been taking their training, nutrition, etc. to the next level. Nobody needed to document their life minute-by-minute on social media. That’s how so many great memories were made and why so many great stories still circulate through the “old crowd”. Nowadays nobody seems to be plain and simple. As if it’s not marketable. But why do you feel like you need to market yourself so heavily? It’s almost as if you annoying ones feel the need to sell out to get ahead. Pathetic.
Paving the way for others in a sport takes WORK. Yes, marketing yourself helps, but does it help the masses? Everyone preaches “jUsT bE yOuRsElF” but are you really being true to yourself by the actions you take on your social media presence? Is your life really that perfect? Are you really that confident? Or are you projecting what you wish your life was like by masking your inner demons on social media platforms? Do people need to know when you brush your teeth and what products you use to do so? No. We can figure out our own shit. Do people need to see you flailing around your living room, dancing like a flowerchild, to express your emotions about how wonderful your 3-month marriage has been? Nope. We’re good. Do we need to know which protein source you chose for yesterday’s lunch? Nah. In fact, we’re so completely okay not seeing these things that we scroll right on past it. Or unfollow you. I prefer the latter. I guess I’m trying to say that most people aren’t real anymore. They crave so much attention that it often backfires and those that post the most miss out on everyday life. They can’t see all the good happening right in front of their faces because it feels better to get “likes and comments” than it does to engage in a face-to-face conversation. Or heaven forbid compliment someone else. I mean honestly compliment them and express happiness without the slightest bit of envy. Pathetic.
Now, don’t get me wrong, there’s some legit athletes doing this social media thing right. They have it down to a science and are making not only themselves, but their hard work, talent, and sport stand out. They know how to post in a business-like manner, and it totally works! I appreciate the very few that pull this off. They draw the right kind of attention and get noticed by promotors, sponsors, and other athletes. Now that’s the way to get better opportunities in strongman. Wait, what do I mean by the right kind of attention? Let me be clear. The CLEAN kind of attention. These men and women don’t need to dirtbag themselves up to get noticed. They don’t need to put an ex on blast for what went wrong in their relationship. Don’t need to post sexualized pictures of themselves. Don’t need to threaten other athletes or call them out over an upcoming competition. Don’t post discount codes to beg for sales but simply to promote a business or product. Don’t need to make false claims of being the best of anything or the potential best of anything. Don’t need to lie about how heavy something was that they lifted in their videos. Don’t need to notify everyone when they wake up and how many birds were chirping their name upon waking. They realize that we care about what we have in common, strongman. And if they do post about their personal lives, it is tasteful and not very often. It’s as if any posts about their personal lives are meant as a journal entry. A keepsake for themselves to reflect on when needed. A nice memory that might pop up when they feel down. Not a teenage-like diary for the rest of us to cringe when reading. Pathetic.
Sadly, some of you will never change though. Some of you will continue to cry for attention because just being normal isn’t enough in your mind. Standing apart from the crowd is the only play you have left. Having a steady life and relationship isn’t fun for you. Joining your local swingers’ chapter then bragging about it on your greasy group chat is more fun for you. Having a job is boring for you. Getting a job, that doesn’t involve running an OnlyFans page, is even more boring for you. Begging for people to donate to your GoFundMe to pay for your next competition is way more fun for you. Being grateful is absolutely no fun for you. If you were truly grateful you would be giving back to the community that helped you find your way in this world. Instead, you continue to leach from it and hope that somebody, somewhere, will feel so bad for you that they buy you a supportive brace to help heal an injury because you complained long enough. That is your kind of fun. Your preferred parasitic type of fun. We all have our struggles, setbacks, and yet we all come through the other side. Weird, right? We put our heads down, do the work, and keep going. Nothing fancy or extreme about it. Because we don’t need to be fancy or extreme to accomplish anything. We need to be CONSISTENT. We need to be REAL. We need to be HUMBLE. We need to be HONEST. We need to be KIND. We need to be PRODUCTIVE. We need to FOCUS. But, then again, that’s boring for you. What’s the fun in being a good person when you could just criticize others for being what you wish you were? Stop lying, stop playing the victim, and stop being fake. Pathetic.
