Four-time World’s Strongest Man and three-time Arnold Strongman Classic Champion Brian Shaw is officially in the 2020 Arnold Strongman USA contest, which will take place on January 18, 2020 in Santa Monica, California. Shaw announced the news himself in a video released on his “Shaw Strength” YouTube channel.
“I have officially decided that I am going to qualify for the Arnold Classic. I’m going to Santa Monica here coming up in January and hopefully, you know, there I will be able to get my qualification spot to the Arnold in Ohio.”
Shaw joins 2019 World’s Strongest Man Martins Licis and the rest of the lineup with the hopes of clinching the last qualifying win before the 2020 ASC in Columbus, Ohio. Although Shaw is a past champion to this contest, only the current champion (Hafthor Bjornsson) receives an automatic invite for the next contest. All others have to qualify by winning an event or earning enough points in the Arnold scoring system.
Shaw competed at the Arnold Europe in September but failed to win. That was the only Arnold event in competed in since last year’s ASC so he doesn’t have enough points in the system. The only way for Shaw to make it to Columbus and attempt to win a 4th Arnold title is winning next month. Licis is the defending champion of the Santa Monica event and also needs to win in order to get in to the Ohio contest.
Shaw is looking to rebound from 2019 which he felt was below his normal standards when it comes to competition. In the video, he explains why he feels his year wasn’t as it should have been.
“I was not very happy this year. I’ll be honest with all of you. I made a pretty big commitment with the TV show on History Channel (Strongest Man in History) and I knew when I committed to that that I would be on the road a lot. And when I’m on the road that means I’m trying to figure out meals, trying to figure out training in an unfamiliar gym that probably doesn’t have the equipment that I need, working 13 hours a day, there’s a lot of factors with that and on top of that, I mean, I had to do so many appearances this year which is a blessing for sure but on the other hand, it is detrimental to my training and to my performance.”
Shaw also recently changed his nutrition strategy in 2019, going back to a plan that he felt was more successful in recent months. In the rest of the video, he is seen working on the log clean and press as well as the bag toss which are events in Santa Monica.
Featured Image: Instagram/shawstrength