The champion is already preparing for his next contest.
2023 World’s Strongest Man (WSM) and 2023 Arnold Strongman Classic champion Mitchell Hooper wasted no time getting back to work and preparing for his next contest. Hooper shall be one among 12 men competing within the 2023 Giants Live Strongman Classic (GLSC), at the enduring Royal Albert Hall in London, England on July 8, 2023. By all accounts, Hooper gave the impression to be healthy and locked in mentally when he shared a recent training video.
On May 15, 2023, Hooper posted an Instagram Reel of himself performing standing barbell overhead presses in a squat rack with resistance bands attached to the bar and rack.
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Hooper revealed within the post comments that he measured the resistance applied by the bands and confirmed that he was working with a complete weight of 184 kilograms (405.7 kilos) at the underside of the rep and 200 kilograms (440 kilos) within the lockout position. That weight includes the barbell itself, which was loaded to 174.6 kilograms (385 kilos).
Within the video, he’s seen taking a large stance contained in the rack while wearing a weightlifting belt, wrist wraps, and elbow sleeves. Hooper performed three reps and held the ultimate repetition locked overhead for a number of extra moments before returning the bar to the rack. Within the post caption, Hooper shared why he was using this particular exercise — to construct triceps-focused lockout strength.
“Working on good, solid lockouts. Time to maintain pushing.”
This approach could also be a smart one for the Canadian strongman because one among the events listed for the upcoming GLSC is the Viking Press, which calls for competitors to perform a standing shoulder press with handles at shoulder level and heavy objects set on an apparatus behind them. The athlete must give you the option to perform the press and lockout their elbows without having to bend their knees to generate extra force — also referred to as “double dipping.”
Hooper was strategically using bands on the barbell, which offered more resistance as he pressed the burden upward. This forced him to work harder to realize the lockout. For the reason that bands applied less tension at the underside, they weren’t impacting Hooper’s shoulders as much, making this a more efficient approach to train while emphasizing strength in the ultimate lockout phase of the lift.
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With each the Arnold and World’s Strongest Man titles under his belt, Hooper could also be going into the Giants Live Strongman Classic as a favourite. He shall be facing stiff competition in the shape of Oleksii Novikov, the 2020 WSM champion who has won the previous two editions of the GLSC in 2021 and 2022, in addition to two-time WSM winner Tom Stoltman, and nine other elite strongmen who look to win the title for themselves.
Full 2023 Giants Live Strongman Classic Roster
Featured Video: @mitchellhooper on Instagram