6 Pack Says…(motivational quotes w/ pics)

 

 

 

Motivational Quote: Hugo Girard

“You know you’re alive when you have expectations, goals, and dreams. I can’t understand somebody who doesn’t have any passion…something to get them working harder or achieving something.Life is too short not to have any passion. It’s passion that keeps you alive, keeps you dreaming, keeps you wondering, keeps you trying.”

– Hugo Girard (World Champion Strongman)

Hugo Girard

 

Hugo Girard (born December 20, 1971 in Sainte-Anne-de-Portneuf, Quebec) is a Canadian strongman. Girard is a Strongman Super Series world Champion, a four-time World Muscle Power champion and a six-time Canada’s Strongest Man.

Contents  [hide]  1 Strength career 2 Profile 3 References 4 External links

Strength career

Prior to his career as a strongman competitor, Girard worked as a bouncer in a popular Quebec City nightclub on weekends while attending community college. In the early 1990s, he went to Los Angeles in order to either pursue a career as a professional bodybuilder or as an actor. After a few months, Girard came back to the province of Quebec where he was later hired as a police officer for the city of Gatineau.

Girard focused on Strongman competition, and became a 6-time consecutive finalist in the World’s Strongest Man competition from 1998-2004. Hugo’s highest placing was 4th place at the 1999 World’s Strongest Man contest.^[1]

In 2002 Girard reached the high point of his career to date, winning the 2002 Strongman Super Series overall title. Hugo has also won the World Muscle Power Championships 4 times, in 1999, 2001, 2003, and 2004.

Girard dominated strongman competition in Canada for several years. He was the Canada’s Strongest Man champion from 1999 to 2004. He was also the North America’s Strongest Man champion in 2001 and 2002.

Beginning in 2004, injuries began to plague his career including back to back injuries to his achilles tendon in 2005, the first of which took place at the 2005 Arnold Strongman Classic forcing him to retire from the contest.^[2] These injuries required a long period of rehabilitation, and nearly a year and a half to fully recover. At one point Hugo was in a cast up to his waist.^[3] Hugo’s comeback took place at the 2006 Mohegan Sun Super Series event. After winning the first event, he tore his patellar tendon in the second event, the Conan’s Wheel and was forced to retire from the contest.^[4] He attempted to compete in the North America’s Strongest Man Competition in 2007, but withdrew due to injury. Hugo was able to bounce back in 2008, winning Quebec’s Strongest Man.^[5] This win qualified Hugo for the 2008 Canada’s Strongest Man contest. Hugo was leading the contest after the first day, but suffered yet another injury on the second day of competition and tearfully announced his retirement from strongman competition.^[6]

Girard broke several records during his career, some of which are still standing today. He has held records in events such as the log press, apollon’s axle press, crucifix hold, farmer’s walk Atlas stones, bench press, truck pull and squat. He has also pulled an 80-ton Boeing 737 for a short distance.

Due to his strength, Girard is often compared to fellow Quebec native Louis Cyr, a dominant nineteenth-century strongman who was considered the strongest man in history at the turn of the century. Girard has trained several other strongmen in the Ottawa and Gatineau regions, including Travis Lyndon and Jessen Paulin, who has participated in the World’s Strongest Man competition and succeeded Girard as Canadia’s Strongest Man in 2005 and 2006.

Girard is currently a member of the organization of the Gatineau Hot Air Balloon Festival that takes place every Labour Day weekend. He is also the current president of the Canadian Federation of Strength Athletes. In addition to his career as a strongman, Girard served as a police officer for 12 years.

Hugo was the subject of a documentary film called “Strongman: Hugo Girard” in 2002. The film shows Hugo’s training for the 2002 North America’s Strongest Man competition, which he eventually won. The film also features his training partners Jessen Paulin and Travis Lyndon. The film was directed by Alan Black and released by Top of the World Films.^[7]

Profile

• Biceps: 55 cm (22 inches)
• Neck : 53 cm (21 inches)
• Calves: 55 cm (22 inches)
• Chest: 158 cm (62 inches)
• Quadriceps: 85 cm (33 inches)
• Height: 189 cm (6 feet 2 inches)
• Weight: 150 kg (330 pounds)

References

1. ^ http://strongestman.billhenderson.org/bios/hugo.html
2. ^ http://ironmind.com/ironmind/opencms/Articles/2005/Mar/Hugo_Girard_In_a_Cast_Up_To_His_Waist_.html
3. ^ http://ironmind.com/ironmind/opencms/Articles/2005/Mar/Hugo_Girard_In_a_Cast_Up_To_His_Waist_.html
4. ^ http://ironmind.com/ironmind/opencms/Articles/2006/Jun/Hugo_Girard_Update.html
5. ^ http://www.ironmind.com/ironmind/opencms/Articles/2008/Jul/Hugo_Girard_Wins_Quebecxs_Strongest_Man.html
6. ^ http://ironmind.com/ironmind/opencms/Articles/2008/Aug/Louis-Philippe_Jean_Wins_Canadaxs_Strongest_Man____Hugo_Girard_Injured____Retires.html
7. ^ http://www.topoftheworldfilms.com/strongmanmovie/

External links

• Hugo Girard’s website
• United Athletes Magazine Interview with Hugo about the importance of determination in sports.
• Official website for STRONGMAN a documentary about Hugo Girard

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Canada’s Got Talent, the “REAL” auditions you didn’t see

It seems every one is tuning in to Canada’s Got Talent to see the “auditions” rounds of the TV show. In every talent show on TV it is the “auditions” episodes that get the most ratings because the viewers never know what to expect. They might see a future star in the making take stage with a historic act, or a comically bad performance that ends up just as historic.

The “auditions” you see on TV however are not really the auditions of these shows at all. The real auditions take place months before. It would be unmanagable for the tv producers to tape all 20,000 competitors for Canada’s Got Talent live on stage in front of the 3 celebrity judges, then edit all that footage for the TV shows. As a competitor of the show Canada’s Got Talent, here is a look at how the real auditions took place…

Rachel Brown of Insight productions, the company that produces Canada’s Got Talent, contacted Ontariostrongman.ca site administrator, Grant Buhr, who put a posting on the Ontario Strongman forum asking any strongman interested to contact her about auditioning for the show. That is when I seen the following message Grant passed on to the strongmen…

“I’m a producer on the new series \”Canada\’s Got Talent\” and I\’d like to encourage some strongmen to apply – there have been some great acts done on the American version of the show, and I know Canada has the talent to top it! Please email me for further information, or go on the website gottalent.ca”

This was in August of 2011.

Certain acts that needed a lot of space to perform, or needed large props, were allowed to film thier act and bring the video to the audtion. The film could only be 2 minutes in length, and had to be completely unedited. An act like Lucas Wilson, the escape artist, or the group Project Dunk who jumps on a trampoline to dunk basketballs would likely bring in a video of themselves performing their acts.

I towed an airplane.

It was September of 2011, with my video in hand I arrived at the Roger’s Centre with my friend Louis Szpeflicki. The line up was incredibly long, and filled with all types of characters. Once inside the building we all sat in the bleachers and waited for our competitor numbers to be called. 10 competitors at a time would be taken away and asked to wait outside of a VIP box overlooking the baseball field.

Louis Szpeflicki's mobile photo of 6 Pack Lapadat at the Canada's Got Talent auditions held at the Rogers Centre in Toronto

There were several VIP boxes going at the same time with a TV producer in each. In groups of 10 we entered the room and took turns performing in front of the TV producer. In my group I was the only act that was not a signer. Out of the 9 singers in the room, 6 or 7 were good enough for radio.

6 Pack Lapadat hamming it up for the cameras at the Rogers Centre

After our auditions, the group was leaving the VIP box when I was asked to stick around to do an interview to be filmed by a TV crew. The TV crew filmed me lifting and pressing over my head a large steel crowd divider with my shirt off. They also filmed me posing for the camera, and showing off my muscles. Portions of this was shown on TV.

6 Pack Lapadat posing for the video cameras at the "real" auditions for Canada's Got Talent, held at the Rogers Centre

I was then told I would be notified via email if I made it to the next round, billed then as the Toronto “showcase” round. I was told this round would be in front of 3 celebrity judges, and filmed for television. While me being asked to hang back for a filmed interview and segment was a good indication I was advancing, it was far from certain. As it turned out, a number of competitors who were asked to do the same never made it to the showcase rounds.

It was in early November I was informed by an email that I had made it to the top 500 (from the original 20,000). My performance for the showcase round of Toronto would be filmed on December 5th of 2011. I had 3 weeks to put together a strongman act that could be performed on stage and still WOW thousands in a packed Toronto Convention Center, over a million viewers at home, and hopefully the 3 judges.

But that my friends, is another story for another article…

2 Guinness World Records in 1 Day!!!

 

July 16th was a day the record books were re-written. It was my best day, and my worst day. It is a day I’ll never forget. 

I started out my day at 8am in the morning doing a radio show interview. It was the typical questions you’d expect, asking about the records I was going for, and the cause I was raising money for. I casually told them I was roughly a half hour away from attempting the one hour squat record which stood at 122,000 pounds. Later that day I would go for the one hour deadlift record which was 90,000 pounds. 

After a brief discussion about my powerlifting background and previous feats of strength for charity they wished me luck on my efforts and I was off to Goodlife fitness in Guelph. 

 

The first one hour squat record started a little after 9am. Never before in the gym had I ever lasted the full one hour while attempting to break this record. We had figured out the pace I would need to break the 122,000 pound record. Yet, I had never been able to keep up the pace over the course of the hour. 

 

 

 

The first half hour of the record attempt was grueling enough. By the half way mark I was tightening up in my legs, and had pain shooting up from my lower back. I gave the signal to my seconds to take off 30 pounds total from the bar I was lifting to lighten the load. This meant I would have to increase the amount of reps to reach my goal of totalling over 122,000 pounds squated over an hour. 

Initially it was a gutsy move, but it proved to be beneficial as I managed to hang onto the right pace up until the last-minute of the record attempt. Then with 30 seconds left, and still slightly behind of the record I blasted out 21 reps and sealed my place in history. I fell forward with the bar crashing onto the rack, and me colliding with the floor. 

 

There I layed as the ground spun underneath me over and over. I was too dizzy to get up, and could hardly catch my breath. I had lost 5 pounds of sweat, and was greatly depleted. The media snapped shots of me as I covered my face. After a few moments I got my breath back and my wits about me. I was helped up by my seconds and put onto a chair where I did an interview with the press. 

 

 

After fielding a variety of questions I was helped back to the dressing room where I took a minute to collect myself. It’s hard to put into words how it feels to be pushed to the brink so close to breaking. The strain you put on your body is a lot, but the battle quickly becomes mental. If you can imagine doing the squatting movement with no weight on your back for an hour straight you can picture how the burn in your legs would feel. Imagine doing it with enough weight on your back to total 122,000 pounds after hundreds of reps of squats are completed in that hour. Your body is close to shutting down, and your mind is fighting against it to keep going. 

The officials tally the results to find I broke the record!

Back in the locker room I am unable to even take my own shoes off.

I went back home to rest and eat what I could before my second record attempt in Hamilton at Ivor Wynne Stadium in front of 21,ooo screaming fans. What I ended up being able to eat was only a couple smoothies and some fruit and vegetables. It was not much, but with all the nervousness in my system I could not force much down. I had just taken a World record that some one else worked hard for. They likely took time off after the record attempt and left all the energy they had into that record. It likely sapped all their strength. They must have felt exactly as I felt. But my day was only half over… 

The crowd at Ivor Wynne Stadium was over 21,000 strong

I showed up at Ivor Wynne Stadium feeling like I had very little in my tank. I did an interview in front of the crowd in mid-field and told them I had taken a World record earlier that day and that I was sure I was about to take another one for them. They cheered my bravado. I was convinced I was just trying to talk myself into doing this again. I knew I was heading into hell one more time. 

 

My chief second, Aras Kvedaras, taped my feet as I got ready for my second World record attempt of the day. I was positioned on the side of the field under a tent so I was blocked from the mid-summer sun. Despite the tent, I lost more fluids through several more pounds of sweat. 

 

 

 

 

Minute after minute ticked by, and hundreds more reps were belted out as I broke another record. This time I deadlifted more than 95,000 pounds with the end of the record concluding during the football game’s half time. The crowd cheering my name as I belted off the final reps. Once again I had to seal the victory with a final salvo at the final 30 second mark. I  belted off so many more reps that I destroyed the old record by 5,000 pounds in that final half-minute. A lot can happen in less than a minute. 

 

 

 

With the half time on and my record complete I did an interview for the fans and asked them to please donate to the McMaster children’s hospital of Hamilton on my website. They cheered the cause and gave me a round of applause. Then they took to the field and I gave autographs and took pictures with them. My team tossed 6 Pack t-shirts into the stands for the kids (and some adults!) 

 

 

 

The Nationals approach…is it possible?

The Canadian Nationals of powerlifting are this saturday. It’s an event I have not missed in the past 3 years. It’s an event that is the apex of powerlifting for any Canadian lifter. It’s also my biggest dilemma closing in on my Guinness World record attempts.

Training for these Guinness World records has consumed my life and changed the entire way I weight train. My powerlifting training prepped me for one single lift of the heaviest weight in the squat, bench press, and deadlift. Hours of lifting heavy weights for sets of 3 repetitions, over and over with hundreds of pounds acclimatize your central nervous system for heavy lifting.

Your central nervous system is much like your engine, and your muscles and bones the body to your car. Your central nervous system is why you can have two individuals both the exact same weight (say 200 pounds) and the exact same muscularity and muscle density, and by all optical judgement be the exact same to look at. But it’s not the muscle mass alone that makes some individuals stronger. That is only the body of the vehicle. The body of the vehicle may be designed for speed, but its the engine that really separates fast cars from others.

That is why some people gravitate towards powerlifting. In weight training, they discover that for whatever reason they are built to lift heavy weights. Their central nervous system is hardwired for their bodies to generate lots of horse power. More so than other peers who train as much, and often, and are the same size or bigger.

But the central nervous system (CNS) is a funny thing.

Powerlifting training gears your CNS for such heavy lifting. These Guinness World records I am attempting in July are records of muscular endurance, and switch the fast/slow twitch fibers I am recruiting in my muscles.

In training for the Record Day this July 16th, I have been lifting a relatively light weight (compared to my powerlifting training) for hundreds of reps over the span of hours straight. Although still weightlifting, it is actually the opposite of powerlifting training.

I have noticed in my training that my muscular endurance has improved greatly. The first few days of training like this were some of the hardest days I have ever endured. Training with a trash bucket next to me because I felt as though I was going to puke was standard protocol. I would sweat 3-4 pounds of water out of my body, and my muscles would tighten up as soon as the training day was over. It felt more like I was running a marathon than weightlifting.

I trained nothing but low weight/high rep squats and deadlifts for the past month with only one powerlifting day a week.  At first I didn’t notice much difference on my powerlifting day. A month later, the difference is impossible to ignore or deny. I no longer need a trash can by my side, as my conditioning has risen to the best shape of my life in terms of muscular endurance. My one lift strength however has dropped dramatically.

While it was standard practise to train with over 400 pounds on my back as a good working weight for repetitions a month ago, today it is a labouring task I can only do for a few sets.

An injury to my left hand has also considerably weakened my grip strength. hundreds of deadlifts a day every day have taken its toll. The left hand has been giving out when I go for what was a short while ago a fairly light deadlift.

My chief coach, Dr Aras Kvedaras, warned me this would happen. Dr. Aras is a master in understanding the human anatomy, and in some circles is so good he is nick named “the witch doctor”. He has been working with me to keep me healthy and as injury free as possible. Considering the work load I am putting my body through, he has a tough assignment.

He foreseen the lost of heavy lifting strength as muscular endurance grew. He encouraged me to bypass powerlifting, and if possible such feats of strength like towing airplanes and school buses. The ladder I may not be able to bypass as I have commitments to do such feats of strength to help hype the record attempts. These eye-popping  feats of strength bring in National media attention and, in turn, corporate sponsors to raise money for sick children. After all, raising money for sick kids is the reason for all of this anyways.

It’s a hectic schedule, and at the end of the day it is a game time decision. I won the Provincials, and I am already on the Nationals roster. My path is all clear for me to compete should I choose to.

This week I’ll monitor my body’s strength and have to make a tough decision come saturday.