Mitchell Hooper has made a name for himself in the online space not only because of his Hulk-like strength and stamina but also for his popular social media presence. When he’s not competing and lifting insanely heavy weights, he spends time making content at his gym. And this time, he wanted to try a new workout routine that strayed far away from his usual strongman exercises.
Popular content creator Sam Sulek is known for his extreme gains and intense exercises, often finding himself amid discussions about PEDs. Yet, Hooper’s curiosity surrounding his routine was enough for him to try his chest workout.
All in all, he focused on three of his exercises, all aimed at going to failure, something that he wasn’t quite used to. He began the segment with Incline Smith machine presses, moved on to the cable chest flys, and ended the routine with pec decks.
Throughout his routine for the day, he didn’t miss taking a dig at Sulek’s internal joke with his community about approaching women at the gym. Known for his reserved nature, the bodybuilder refrains from talking to women in the gym, and Hooper wanted to understand why. But when he did ask the women in his gym if they’d want anyone approaching them during their workouts, the response was a resounding ‘no’.
“Well, I guess that gives us the lesson. Sam’s got it right. Just, don’t…it’s easier that way.”
Moving on to the workouts, since these exercises and combinations of sets and weights were not Hooper’s usual stack, he found it difficult to push through the day. In total, he performed 11 sets of the three exercises, going to failure during each one of them.
Hooper made sure to tweak the exercises whenever he could to make them a bit Strongman-specific. This gave him an edge over the bodybuilder’s routine and helped him ease into something unfamiliar. He chose to hinge over and perform the chest flys to help mimic the movement of picking up an atlas stone instead of doing a regular chest press.
In the end, he successfully finished all three exercises with the desired number of sets and reps. However, Hooper noticed that he lacked in adjusting to the kind of movements necessary to perform these workouts.
“There’s a process of learning how to do a movement that I just don’t go through on this stuff. So it would take four to six weeks to get the perfect stimulus…”
Rocking his 325 lbs self, Hooper’s Strongman-specific physique went through a lot as he ended the video with a pose down. Yet, it’s not like he’s unfamiliar with the routine, owing to his extensive experience.
Mitchell Hooper once stunned as a lean athlete
The Canadian icon wasn’t always as humongous and well-built as he is currently since his career had taken steep turns before ending in strength sports. After wrapping up his studies in Kinesiology, he took up strength and conditioning coaching for athletes before moving to physique shows.
Pictures of his before and after Strongman sports have always stunned fans, as Hooper’s transformation has been insane. Going from physique shows to running marathons, his weight has gone through drastic changes. Yet, with the help of his medical knowledge and scientific approach to sports, he has been hale and hearty throughout his career.
