From classroom to weigh-rack: Mitchell Griffin is a Strongman

Michael Alber
Web Editor

Exercise science major, Mitchell Griffin, is a strongman on Hudson Valley’s campus. He has competed on a national scale at 18 years years old, and plans to compete in multiple competitions this year.

The sport of the strongman competition, where athletes test their strengths in different ways, has been gaining national recognition recently.

Griffin started out his interest through arm wrestling classmates during recess.

“I was always kind of naturally strong, so I started beating kids and I was like, ‘Hey this is pretty fun,’ so I discovered that arm wrestling was actually a professional sport in itself.” he said. “Granted they’re not like football or baseball players, they don’t make a lot of money, but it was a sport, and initially it was what I wanted to do.” he added.

At first, he wanted to compete in arm wrestling, but then he discovered the Strongman Corp. and United States Strongman competitions through clips online.

Griffin said, “Being on the internet and Youtube, you discover a lot of things, that’s where I came across powerlifting, so I started watching videos on that, ultimately brought me to Strongman videos, and I took to that immediately and said ‘This is what I want to do.’”

Griffin’s interest in strongman was able to grow from support between his family, friends, and his gym teachers. While attending New Lebanon Jr./Sr. High School, he used the high school weight room every day after school, and eventually co-founded a fitness club during that time.

“A year after I started messing with weights at home, and whenever I could, when the weight room was open I would go in there. That turned into starting a fitness club with Mr. Christiansen. It wasn’t big, but we did get t-shirts made for the club made and everything,” said Griffin.

He’s said that even after high school, his efforts have left has an impact on his alma mater.

According to Griffin, some students there displayed interest in getting more fit, and possibly even competing in competitions as well.

He gained the trust of the gym teachers there, saying “I even taught some gym classes in the weight room actually, when the gym teacher wasn’t there, they’d have a class in the gymnasium, and they would have me in the weight room with some kids to teach there.”

After a couple of years lifting weights and testing his strength as a hobby, Griffin soon came across a local competition in Syracuse, where he signed up as a novice, and won first place in his class.

Griffin said “It was April of last year, and I was looking online for strongman competitions, because I was curious and never seen one in the area before. I was actually able to look at the events there were going to be, and the weight classes, and the weight they would have to be able to lift.”

Griffin continued, “I realized that I could do this, so I went to my mom and she said ‘Oh, you want to go see the competition?’ I said ‘No I want to be in the competition.’ I was as surprised as her to have that come out of my mouth.”

After his win in the novice class, it gave him the confidence to be a real competitor in the open class. Once someone wins first place in the novice class, they are no longer able to compete as a novice anymore. Later that July, he tied for first place in an open class competition in New Hampshire. Due to tie-breaker rules though, he placed in second.

Soon after, he qualified to compete in the Strongman Corp. Nationals over in Las Vegas. He was competing with 200 other strongmen all around the nation with his mother in the audience through those days of competition.

“It was different from anything I’ve ever experienced, it felt like I was in a movie or something.” said Griffin.

“It was never dark there because there’s so many lights on all the time, like you’d be out there at midnight and it would be really bright there.” he said. “It was nice, but it was stressful. There’s all this stuff going on around me and I was there just to compete.”

Griffin ranked in one of the last positions during the competition, however that’s not going to stop him from this year to qualify for the nationals once again.

He said, “I’m going to compete as a teen this year, because nationals was fun though I was competing against anybody, and it didn’t go so well.” He added, “I plan to win, but I don’t anticipate qualifying outside of the top three.”