For Honor, For Glory and For Legacy

Chris Knodel has taken the top spot at the inaugural Bozeman Strongman competition, held May 8. Now, he has cast his gaze on future "Strong Man" Competitions.

Chest pounding, palms sweating, muscles contracting - Chris Knodel pushed through the pain and gained the first victory in his burgeoning Strong Man career. "'It's my turn,'" he told himself May 8 during the inaugural Bozeman Strongman competition. "'It's my time to step up. All that hard work and all that training, it's here right now.' You have all this weight you are holding and it sparks something in you - do or die, fight or flight. You shut out everything else and listen to your training." Knodel competed in five events: log lift, deadlift medley, yoke walk, farmers carry and Atlas stone over bar. He gained best marks for log lift and scored well in all other categories. "You surprise yourself with what you can do at a competition," Knodel said. "If you can't do it at training, you get to the competition and give it your best. Then, by God, you've done it once, twice three times. You have people cheering you on and the adrenaline rush [is intense]." The experience is almost zenful, he said. "You really don't hear a lot of the cheering. When you are doing the cheering, it is noisy and you are super loud. When it comes time for the lift, you hear your own grunt and you move the weight. You can hear your heart pounding and you just zone out and focus on the weight and how to move the weight. All that time you spent doing it, you just do it one more time." Hitting a wall and pushing through is what the sport is all about, Knodel said. "You definitely reach plateaus and you just keep pushing yourself. If you are plateaued, or missed something, it always boils back to one of three things - or a multitude of them - it is either your diet, your sleep or your hydration. If your kids woke you up in the middle of the night, maybe that's why. Or, if you missed a meal, that could be why. Life happens. You just have to take it as you can." It is helpful the Strong Man community is tight knit, Knodel said. "You go to a competition and everybody is introducing themselves to you." "They are very welcoming and excited to see everyone else compete," Knodel continued. "It is really a bunch of people who want to see other people lift a bunch of heavy weights. Your competitors are cheering you on the most. It is very empowering, people cheering you on like that. Even the people you are trying to beat are cheering you on. Everyone just wants to see you do well and push yourself. It is a very fun community and everybody is so supportive." Knodel said he felt surprised and honored to win. "You are proud. I finally won this one and I can try to go and win some more." FAMILY LEGACY Knodel, ever mindful of what he will leave behind after this life is completed, has big shoes to fill. His family is pizza royalty in Glasgow. His grandparents – Arlie and Mary Sue Knodel – purchased Eugene's Pizza in 1967, and the eatery has remained in family hands ever since. Now, the younger Knodel is carving out a legacy of his own. "My goal is to bring honor and glory to my family so that my kids can have something proud to say and look up to," he said. "It is a lost thing to bring honor and glory to your family. What do you want to do with your life? That is really what it boils down to. I don't care if you want to be a couch potato and do your own thing, it's cool with me. But, once in my life I would like to experience greatness and pass that down through my family." Knodel shares his passion for the Strong Man sport with his wife, Kara, and his children. "Your kids come out and pretend like they are lifting it too," he said. "It makes you want to push yourself a little harder. I love to be able to see my wife get into it. She is capable of way more than I am in this sport. She is strong as an ox." Knodel said he was first exposed to weight lifting competitions as a kid. "I would stay up late at night waiting for my dad to leave work at Eugene's. He would close it down and come home late. The only thing on TV was world's strongest man back in the mid-90s. We would be watching, and I would think, 'man those guys are so big. Man those guys are so strong. I thought that was so cool." Later, as an adult, Strong Man became an inspiration once more for Knodel. "I was trying to get healthier, and I was trying to find a reason to exercise. Why am I doing this because I don't enjoy it? Then I found Strong Man. It is less mundane than squatting every Monday, bench pressing every Tuesday. You get to train with a lot of odd things and it is more than just strength. You also have to have good cardio, muscle endurance and stamina." The sport translates into a lifestyle as well, Knodel said. "Sometimes it is very humbling. You miss a lift and, bummer. But, I still did my best and no one doubts you for a second. You can be very proud of yourself, even if you have failed, because you have failed at something most of the population hasn't even tried, let alone tried that hard." Such empowerment washes over into every day life, "like crazy," Knodel said. "You can walk around with confidence. There is no more question in your mind about what you can and can't do. Even if you are beat up and you are working hard - there probably are a lot more bad training sessions than there are great ones - it teaches you discipline. If you are having a really rough training week ... you just go through the motions. You get through with it and thank God it is over." TRAINING AND MORE TRAINING Knodel spent about a month training for the competition, following a brief recovery period from his last competition in April in North Dakota. "It usually takes a week to 10 days to recover after a competition before you want to get into heavy weights again," he said. "You want to let your body heal. You can start with lighter weights almost immediately afterwards, but you definitely don't want to go heavy because it takes time to recover from that central nervous system getting hit so hard." The best therapy is hydration, rest and refueling, Knodel said. "Those are really the only tried and true [methods]. If a person has inflammation, you can take an ice water bath – or got out to the lake right now. Really, after a competition it is the same recovery as after a training session. You want to make sure you are eating a diet high in protein, high enough in carbs to refill your body and enough fats." But this time was different, he said. The tried and true methods weren't quite enough. Knodel said he was almost sidelined by a shoulder injury. A quick trip to Dr. Brittne Casterline, a chiropractor, and he was right as rain, he said. "I was really struggling after North Dakota getting ready for Montana Strong Man. I had something tight in my shoulder and arms, and I thought I was injured, a legitimate injury. She found it right away, when I was telling her my symptoms. She fixed it." Back in action, Knodel focused again on diet and exercise, noting some Strong Man athletes eat between 10,000 and 15,000 calories a day. "Myself, I am by no means eating their amount, but you have to eat a lot of food," he said. "With legitimate strength training, it is taxing not only on the muscles, joints and bones - but also your central nervous system. To push yourself further and further every time - that is definitely a shock to your central nervous system. You have to eat enough to support the recovery." Knodel does not prohibit himself from sweets while training, but does enjoy such foods in moderation. "I find a way to have my cake and eat it too," he said. "My guilty pleasure is ice cream. I love ice cream. If you are getting ready for a competition and you have 15 pounds to gain, why not gain it?" A calorie, is a calorie, is a calorie, he said. "You obviously want it to be not just sugar and ice cream and cheesecake. You need chicken, steak, eggs - the good protein that has good amino acids to stimulate muscle protein synthesis. And while carbs are necessary, bread should be avoided. "They have some sugar alcohols in them," Knodel said. So, he turns to plain ole white rice. "I follow the Vertical Diet from Stan Efferding," he said. "The food most dense in micro-nutrients, so you get the most bang for your buck. And, it is very customizeable for your size, your weight and what your goals are." When preparing for a tourney, Knodel eats about every three hours throughout the day. "They are pretty decent sized meals, but it is not gorging." Besides diet, the training regimen can also be impacted by unrelated stressors such as work or family relationships, Knodel said. But, the training also acts as a major source of stress relief. "I think it is mental therapy and is great for physical therapy as well," Knodel said. "It is the only type of training that will let you strengthen your bones and your ligaments by applying more stress to them. Running will break you down. Strength training, although it does break you down at the time you are doing it, the stimulus and the adaptation recovery process makes you stronger and bigger." LOOKING AHEAD Knodel is by no means resting on his laurels. He already is planning to compete at additional contests down the road. "I would like to win more," he said. "It depends a lot on your genetics. I probably am never going to be world's strongest man. Those guys are the freaks. They can pack on muscle and strength like there is no tomorrow." Still, Knodel wants to find his limit, and then some. "I would like to find where my potential is and push it as far as I can," he said. "If I can go on to win more competitions, I will. I am definitely going to compete more and train for more. It is a lifestyle. I am trying to get better at everything - your diet, your sleep and you time with your kids and your wife." Knodel is a big advocate of Strong Man, and heartily encourages anyone in the Glasgow area to check it out for themselves. He is even happy to help get newbies started with training. "If anyone is at all interested in strong man or strength training, I am more than willing to show them the rounds." If interested, next time you see Knodel, let him know. Chris McDaniel can be reached at 406-228-9301 or [email protected].