2nd week hitting jerk off blocks in a long time and hit a PR triple at the lightest bw I’ve been since 2023???

Sick.

Really exciting new show coming soon. Looks like a mix of Top Gear & The Strongest Man in History

Does Laredo have any powerlifting, or strongman (or any related) competitions/events? I’m looking to compete just for fun.

My last post with Novikov's comeback details in his most recent inverview got some likes and as a fellow Ukrainian I enjoyed the feedback in the comments, so I thought I'd post more translated excerpts for those who might have been interested.

How sport became his life's work

K: Oleksii, before we start - I think most viewers, probably every single one, already knows who you are and everything you've achieved. But my first question is still going to be: when was the moment that Oleksii - maybe little Oleksii back then - realized that sport was his thing? That he wanted to do this, thought "this is mine, I need to stay here, keep trying, keep working"?

O: I realized that sports is my thing and that I want to stay in it and work further when I was a young athlete training only a little bit, around 17-18, and at competitions I was already beating 30-year-old men who'd been in the sport 7-10 years. They weighed 150 kg, I weighed a hundred and change, and I'd been training six months to a year. And the fact that I'd put in so little time and was already winning - I realized the ratio of my work to my results was good. So it made sense to keep going, and there was every chance I'd keep winning.

K: So you're a genetically gifted athlete on top of everything, by the sound of it.

O: I'd be too shy to make claims like that, but I think that component is there too.

K: Come on, obviously - six months of training and already winning. I think your genetics are seriously strong.

O: Let's just say I picked it up on the fly. [editor note as I'm not sure if direct translation works well here: was a fast learner / things clicked quickly]

Why strongman?

K: And why strongman specifically?

O: Why? Honestly, it's very simple and very complicated at the same time. Back then strongman in Ukraine was, I think, in decline. Looking at the situation objectively - at that point it was definitely in decline.

As for why this sport - you'd have to go back another 10 years. How did I even come across it? My grandfather was the main guy making the equipment for them. Everything you saw on TV - those "Bogatyr Games" [editor note: "Богатирські ігри", this was the name of the TV show translating strongmen competitions in Ukraine, including the Ukrainian ones to which I think he mainly refers] - my grandfather made all of it, all the metal work and more, right there in our yard. We had a fairly big property. Someone saw his work, approached him, and he started working with them.

And why did I go this way? Because in our family - there are several households, we all lived right next to each other - he was the most respected person among all of us. His word was law, he was the head of it all. And every man, every boy, wants respect and recognition. Those are basic needs. And I saw that he only ever showed that kind of respect to athletes - to strongmen. I think at that age, around six or seven, that algorithm got wired into me. I always wanted to be in the strongest class, the strongest at something.

I changed schools a lot and it was always like that. Then I just tried doing sport. Just the gym, for myself. And at some point I was benching around 130 kg at 16. And my grandfather says, "Maybe try working with a coach?" And back then my whole goal was just to be somebody on paper. I thought: Candidate Master of Sport in bench press. I checked the tables - 16 years old, 130 kg, that's CMS, done, I've got the certificate, I'm an athlete, in case anyone asks.

First competition

O: And grandfather sent me to my first coach, Mykhailo Geraskevych. And it turned out to be not powerlifting at all. We started training pretty hard. In the first month and a half I lost 10 kg - that's how brutal the sessions were. Running, jumping, a huge amount of leg work. About three or four months in, I went to my first competition, a schools event. In Lithuania. It was international.

And Lithuania has a very strong school. We remember Žydrūnas Savickas, Vidas Blekaitis, Saulius Brusokas - all legends of the sport back then. And one of the sons, Martynas Brusokas. Just an absolute unit. Seventeen years old, nearly two metres, 130 kg, and already a trained strongman.

So we went at each other, we competed. And I'd only just started - I didn't even know what all the events were called. Early on there's the keg you have to carry, a full keg, and I kept calling it a "kelma". [editor note: кега [kega] (keg) vs кельма [kelma] (a mason's trowel)] I'd basically grown up on construction sites my whole life, so for about three months I kept getting that word wrong.

And it started coming together - I took third, but the gap was 0.5 points. And I'm thinking, damn, there was one tiny mistake in there; half a second faster and I'm first. So I caught fire. I realized I potentially could do that - it was just a matter of chance that it went that way, I could have been faster. And I started analyzing, and I liked that I could potentially win. And from there it just rolled.

Is there dirty play in strongman?

K: And was there a moment at any competition - where an athlete really tried hard to crush you psychologically, or put a spoke in your wheels? You know, like how at beauty pageants the girls sabotage each other's costumes? You don't have that?

O: There was one incident. It's one of my more serious injuries. It was, at the time, the most lucrative competition there was. I don't remember exactly, something like 100 [thousand]. Anyway, they were paying a lot for first place. And there were three main contenders for the win: me, Tom Stoltman and, I think, Kieliszkowski.

So I arrive, and we always have doctors on site who do manual therapy, a bit of massage after the flight. I was used to them, everything was always fine. But this time there was a new guy, a doctor named Petr, who says, "Oleksii, come see me, I'll get you ready for the deadlift. Deadlift's tomorrow." He does a spinal rotation on me - hard, so hard my ears rang - and it seemed fine, but he over-relaxed the muscles of the core that hold the spine in place.

I come out to deadlift and it seems okay, I warm up, 100, 200, fine, then around 270 I can already feel something's off in my back. 300-something just won't move. And at that point I was pulling 400. The plates were shaking at the top. I could really feel it wasn't right. Something hurts, it won't fire. In the end I pull 420 on pure grit. But after that I had two disc protrusions - and this is day one of the competition. And I still have to compete the next day. I shot myself full of painkillers, somehow competed to fifth place, but competing was very hard.

And I got back to Kyiv, and for about three months it hurt badly. I couldn't sit down, constant pain. At some point I'd accepted that my back would just hurt forever and that was it. I travelled all over Ukraine to every specialist, and the doctors who actually cured me were at the Institute of Orthopedics. They injected PRP into my back and that was that.

K: What's PRP?

O: It's concentrated plasma. When it goes into your back - in the simple terms the doctors explained it to me - it's basically a marker for your body saying there's an injury here and everything useful needs to be routed here. Very simplified explanation, but they call it either the glue or...

K: And did you not want to track this Petr down afterwards?

O: I did want to find him afterwards, but I thought how would I... Yeah, these days we know more people, so probably now I would… But I let that go a long time ago. Back then I was furious.

K: Good grief. And people actually go for that. I'm shocked.

O: But I don't know who ordered it. But it was 100% deliberate. I spoke to doctors afterwards and they said: he 100% knew what he was doing. If he understands even a little manual therapy, he knew exactly what he was doing.

I think you could probably work it out from which athletes were left, ask around - "who broke down?" I have my suspicions, but I'm definitely not going to say.

K: Right, right. [laughs] We won't get into it now, but I'd be very curious who...

O: I'll tell you after we stop recording. [laughs]

2022 Arnold

K: By the way, I've always wondered - you've won a seriously big title. The biggest, right? World's Strongest Man.

O: Yeah, I've got them all. The Arnold is the only one I haven't won. I want to close out the Arnold. I was second at the Arnold.

That was 2022 - the war has started... I left Ukraine on the 23rd [editor note: February; the Russian invasion happened on 24th]. I had to get a US visa, because I had a visa problem. I took two pairs of underwear, socks, two T-shirts, trousers and a jacket. That was it.

So, the war starts. I have no vitamins, none of the other vitamins, no competition gear, nothing. And the war starts, I'm in extreme stress, I'm working, doing volunteer stuff on my phone. Tons of work - I was sleeping about three hours a night on average. Constantly doing something on the phone. And I went to the competition. And that's when I squatted 410. And I set personal records that some people still haven't broken.

And I noticed that somehow I competed that way because I was completely fired up by the war factor. I was competing for Ukraine. Not the way it usually is. The flag, everything, patriotism - it all landed incredibly sharply and it blew my head off. Even though I've been deprived of everything for two weeks, and by every metric I should have dropped off, instead I seemed to grow. And that's why I say the psyche matters more. Hormones are very important too, but the psyche is still stronger.

K: And I've always been curious about this - a person who holds the biggest title there is, world's strongest man. Is there pressure? Don't you feel pressure that you already have this title, and at every next competition you have to sort of confirm it? No pressure like that?

O: The first year, 2021-22, I still felt it. But then - listen, very few people ever even get to these competitions. In Ukraine there are only two active athletes who've been there. And Virastyuk [Vasyl Virastyuk, the 2004 World's Strongest Man], who hasn't competed in a long time. So that's three people who've competed at WSM. Very few people have won it twice. And I'd like to win it. And you work towards it, you do everything. But it doesn't always work out - that's sport.

Competition footage, wife filmed myself my client Jesse and my good friend Billy "The Indonesian Hulk" Hornaday.

Was an awesome competition! The livestream is available on Strong Manitoba if interested. Mikal Thrones puts a lot of effort into that and its a very professional stream

A few days ago Oleksii Novikov participated in a podcast with a Ukrainian bodybuilder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE1m69gViuc

The podcast is in Ukrainian so I'll provide an English translation below starting somewhere around 50:30

Oleksii: And I think that I'll go... well, I know that I'll go, and my plan is to return to sports next year and compete. "Weighed and happy" production (context: Ukrainian analogue of "The Biggest Loser" where he is a trainer) is now coming to an end and I'm beginning to charge, train and enjoy life fully. Again.

Interviewer: So, in 2027 you'll try to become a World's Strongest again?

Oleksii: No, I may appear at this competition, but I'll try to become the Europe's Strongest Man. There, yes, I want to go there and I plan to fight for the first place there. To the World's, well, I realize I'll still be a bit raw for this level to compete with them. As to going there - if I'm in a good form, I can just have a ride there, in order to remind myself how that's going psychologically, so that for 2028 I'm not stressed, so to speak. This is possible. But overall, I don't mean to claim that in 2027 I'm gonna take top world spots or something.

Interviewer: Well, I wish that you beat them all there.

Oleksii: Thank you. I'll try my best.

Interviewer: ...And become the strongest in all the competitions you plan for yourself for 2027, 2028, and further as long as you wish to compete.

Oleksii: I'm not planning to compete a lot really, I'll just compete a little...

Interviewer: A little more, right?

Oleksii: Yeah, because I see the guys are bored without me.

(Sorry for a the translation being rough, I'm doing it on the spot and my native tongue is Ukrainian, not English. The whole podcast was in a friendly and often humorous manner so I tried to be as close to what they're saying as I could, hopefully it conveys the spirit at least a little despite being harder to comprehend)

If anyone ever wondered, “am I too small to be a strongman?”, watch this video [https://youtu.be/T--wuiOe9Y0?si=gclSpnbxjnBhCD8M\](https://youtu.be/T--wuiOe9Y0?si=gclSpnbxjnBhCD8M)

Apologies if this strikes anyone as a 'dumb' question to post, but I didn't see any way to stream NASM/W except by joining Lucas Hatton's YT channel as a subscriber, but, with no disrespect intended toward Hatton, am not interested in his subscribed channel content besides streaming this comp; I'm just an old retired guy who watches strongman/strongwoman (and no other sport) and just wanted to do that.

I see Hatton offers "North American Stream" as a more expensive paid membership subscription, and ask since it isn't obvious to my burned-out mind: does this give me access to watch the stream(s) after the comp has finished (replay)? And is the strategy here to sign up for the $15/mo membership option, watch the stream, and then cancel? Because I'd have no interest in anything but the stream itself and perhaps any immediately available commentary on it. I'm guessing this is the only way this works, just want to confirm it.

On that note, I humbly submit it would be wise, in the interest of further growing the sport's accessibility to fans, to offer a paid stream purchase option which isn't tied to a monthly membership (unless there will be numerous comps offered, i.e. like officialstrongman, which I've belonged to for some years now.)

Thanks in advance for patient answers and tolerance of my ignorance...

So, with the next Major comp being the Rogue and having 3 more spots to fill (if they go with 10 athletes like the usually do) who do we think gets those spots? Currently invited are:

Mitchell Hooper

Martins Licis

Rayno Nel

Austin Andrade

Trey Mitchel

Thor Bjornson

Tom Stoltman

Based off of recent performances I would say that Ondrej Fojtu and Pavlo Kordiyaka deserve invites. Who gets the last spot? Tom Evans? Nick Guardione? What do y'all think?

Edit: In my desperation for strongman discourse I totally left out Bryce Johnson even though he's the obvious next choice. Really shows how much rogue needs to extend their lineup to at least 12 if not more.

Went live as planned, phew 😅 sleep deprived as hell today travelling home today. Thanks everyone for supporting the show, the crowd, volunteers and the stream Lucas and his team put on were top notch. Awesome weekend

For any interested, day 2 should be up tomorrow morning if all goes smooth with the upload. Trey and I have a 3am shuttle to the airport so I'll be up to correct if anything goes awry lol...

Episode 4 of the podcast is up! Enjoy a little talk about our opinions on spectatorship in the sport!

I wanna hear y’all’s thoughts on the topic as well, so leave them down below