I found out quickly that I was pretty horrible at the Crossfit workouts but really good at the strength movements. So I would go to the gym between 5 and 5:30 before school my senior year. When I was a senior in high school working out in the HS gym, a substitute teacher who walked by noticed that I was decently strong so he offered to train me for free at his gym each morning before school. To start off, can you tell me how you got into Strongman?
Linnea: Thanks so much for your time, Rob! It’s great to meet you. Every weekend, somewhere in the US, Strongman athletes get together at gyms, or in driveways, on blacktops, to lift odd, heavy things all day and cheer each other on. The most famous practitioners are men in the heavyweight class, men like Hafthor Bjornsson, who is 6’ 9” and over 400 lbs of muscle, but Strongman is more than that, with competitors of all sizes, ages, and genders. Strongman is a sport you may not know well, but you have likely seen it on ESPN: giant men lifting heavy stones, cars, refrigerators. I got a chance to chat with him over Skype on about his fitness journey, coming out, and what it’s like to be a pioneer in Strongman. Rob Kearney is a professional Strongman who burst onto the national stage in 2014 when he came out publicly, becoming the first out gay pro Strongman. An interview with Rob Kearney, the first out gay pro Strongman
