Two very close friends of mine inspired me to write this article. The first is a barrel-chested man who goes by the name Ron Slusarski. Ron is my mentor, coach, advisor, training partner, and friend. He was a world class professional Strongman in the early to mid 2000s, competing against and training with the likes of Chad Coy, Don Pope, Magnus Ver, Odd Haugen, Brian Schoonveld, and Mariusz Pudzianowski, just to name a few. The other is Tomas Rodriguez, the current top-ranked, 300-lb amateur Strongman in the nation. He was an All-American wrestler and former NFL player and is one of my other training partners and close friends. I will get into why they inspired me to write this a little later on.

In this article, I will unveil the truly hidden secret to becoming a successful strength athlete. You will be in shock and awe when you learn what I'm about to uncover, as this secret has been closely guarded for centuries.

I have heard it a million times—“What’s the secret to a huge axle press?” or “What’s the secret to loading that 450-lb stone?” or, the best one yet, “What’s the secret to getting huge?” These types of questions have come from people in all walks of life. I always hear my junior high and high school students, my high school athletes, and people who are just starting to train ask these questions. I hear it on a regular basis from college athletes, average gym rats, and low to mid-level powerlifters and Strongmen. Every once in a while, I hear this question being asked by top level amateur and professional Strongmen, powerlifters, and other high level athletes. I often see posts on boards and forums and hear comments about how the most decorated strength athletes will never talk about their super secret training methods, and if they do, they will always leave out their true key to success. This always makes me chuckle.

Every time I hear these questions, a million things go through my mind. Should I tell them about specific lifts, certain rep ranges, technique issues, nutritional requirements, supplements, and recovery techniques, or should I direct them to specific books, articles, programs, methods, gyms, or websites like EliteFTS.com? There are so many things that go into being a successful strength athlete. It's almost impossible to list them all, right? Wrong.

Before I unveil the super secret secret, I have to pick on Tomas, whom I mentioned earlier. He is a truly gifted athlete. He was a state level sprinter, football player, and wrestler in high school and a Division I All-American wrestler and football player in college. He spent some time with the Giants and Broncos and now is right on the verge of turning professional in Strongman. With all his success in athletics, he still sometimes thinks there is some legendary, Knights of Templar guarded, super secret secret to becoming a great strength athlete. He once skipped a training session with us and sought out this answer from Brian Shaw when he was in our area (northeast Ohio). Unfortunately, his quest was thwarted by the evil wizard known as ‘miscommunication’ and he was unable to meet up with the mythical man giant himself.

In our next training session, Tomas came back empty handed. “The secret is lost forever,” he thought. “What ever will I do?” Little did he know, our coach, Ron Slusarski, who also knows the hidden secret, was going to tell him the answer to what he had been searching for.

Now comes the part of the article where I too will reveal the super secret secret to success. Prepare to be enlightened, dumbfounded, and amazed beyond belief. The super duper hidden for generations secret to success is...hard work!

There you have it. I've unveiled the legendary secret—hard work. No bitching, no whining, no complaining, just suck it up and deal with it, old fashioned, balls to the wall, hard-nosed training. Everything boils down to this. You could have the fifty best coaches in the world, the best protocols, the best nutritionists, the best doctors, the best gym with every band, chain, board, box, implement, or dumbbell you can think of, but without hard work, none of this will make any difference whatsoever.

And boy did Ron tell him. He told him this secret in a much more edited, fire breathing, R-rated way, but you get the point. Tomas got the point as well.

Many novice lifters and athletes won't like hearing this answer and will still truly believe that there really is a super secret secret to becoming a successful strength athlete. As they grow older and wiser, they will come to realize that they have known this secret for years. There isn't any replacement for hard work. Are you working hard?