How Long It Takes to Become World’s Strongest Woman (w/Donna Moore)

I just saw the ladies there, like Kristin. Some of the European of the strong women. I thought to myself, right, this is where I want to be, this is what I want to do. I’m going to have to get better at this if I want to compete with them. That was the turning point.

Welcome to the “Barbend Podcast”, where we talk to the smartest athletes, coaches, and minds from around the world of strength. I’m your host, David Thomas Tao, and this podcast is presented by Barbend.com.

Today I’m talking to Donna Moore, a British legend in the sport of strongman and a three-time World’s Strongest Woman.

Donna has been competing in the sport since 2012 and in today’s episode she shares her unlikely origin from strongwoman, including a seemingly random competition invite through Facebook as well as her future aspirations, which include competing in a completely different body weight category.

Along the way, Donna shares some of her favorite and funniest competition stories and provides some insight into what it takes to start from the beginning and work your way to the tippy top of a strength sport.

But before we get to that, I want to give a quick shout-out to today’s episode sponsor, Athletic Greens. I first tried Athletic Greens way back in 2012, it was already a massively popular daily supplement and since then they’ve undergone dozens of formulation tweaks, each an improvement on the last.

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Donna, thanks so much for joining us. You are one of the most accomplished athletes in the sport of strongman one of the most accomplished strongwomen in the past, period. I was this in the past few decades, but it all started somewhere. How did you first find strength sports and how did you first find Strongman?

The first time that I found Strongman was by chance really. I had been going to a regular gym for a while, just doing what seems like gym style classes, things like that and got sign posted by a guy called PD Ashley, who works for Cerberus Strength in Inverness. That’s where I used to live.

He showed me to another couple of gyms and got me in the way to squat, bench, dead, overhead press, more of that style of training.

To cut a long story short, somebody on Facebook, which is hard to believe, in 2012 sent me a message and asked me if I would consider doing a strongwoman competition. It was going to be a different location in Scotland. I just thought, “Yeah. Why not, really?” I’m always up for a challenge.

I’ve always thought that it looked like fun for boys, watch the World’s Strongest Man. I did remember watching Jill Mills in the early 2000s when the World’s Strongest Woman was on actual television here in the UK and think to myself, “God, that’s amazing! Look at her! She’s just fabulous!” At that time didn’t necessarily do anything particularly about it.

That was my first introduction, seeing it on the TV and thinking it was awesome and then obviously, being invited to do it in 2012. That was in a rainy car park. It always rains, whenever I go to Scotland, always. [laughs]

Whenever I’m outside also, it always rains. That was my first foray into it. There were some lovely ladies there from actually all over the world, Germany and Iceland. I remember limited YouTube that it was then, watching one of the ladies. Her name was really cool, Annette Wonderweapon. That was her actual German name. Watching her on YouTube…

That’s better than a comic book. That’s perfect.

Yeah. That’s the best name ever, isn’t it? I remember watching her on YouTube and I was like, “Oh, my! Oh my days! What even am I doing! Look how amazing she is!” She was so lovely and they made me feel really welcome. I had a really great, hard, wet day. [laughs]

It just kind of got, “This is what I would love to do. I’d love to get into this a little bit more, find out a bit more about it.” The journey started basically there. We are where we are right now. [laughs]

 I love how, when you ask people about their first Strongman competition, it’s always in a parking lot or car park. It’s always either raining or it’s 110° F. I don’t know the Celsius conversion in my head. It’s always like, there are no bathrooms and there’s someone recording on their phone. The conditions are the least optimal thing in the world.

It was also Max that basically marks every event. That was also lengthy. When it’s your first competition, and you’ve never done any of the events before, you don’t even know what Max is. You think, “Right, OK, I’ll take the next jump” and then, “Oh, I might not make the next one after that.” Let’s take that as well.

The best take done before I know it, done it, I thought I walked my quota of the yoke for my whole life that particular day. That’s probably why we don’t go on so well. It was a steep learning curve, but it was really enjoyable.

My mom would come to watch me and she brought my kids along. They were obviously all freezing and wet as well, but it was a good day. I enjoyed it. It was a good experience. Just like actual fun. I loved it.

Your kids were there at the start of your competitive strongman career? How have they been? Are they interested in the sport or is it like, “Ah, this is something mom does, parents are not that cool.” What is their perception?

When I was starting out, they were younger, it’s more cool, but as they got older, it’s probably less cool. Also, as opposed to getting deep desensitized to it. Like you say, “That’s what my mum does” that kind of thing.

They’ve taken it all in their stride, but they asked me, “How have you done this?” or watch the video. My daughter’s older, so she would watch on the live streams and stuff like that, and then obviously we can WhatsApp and things now. We’ve got a bit of a dialogue going sometimes when I compete. That’s nice but they’re not into strongman.

That’s OK. Everyone has their thing.

Yes. They just sick of it, I think.

OK. Let’s talk about your first time competing at the international level. I guess that was an international competition in that there were people from all over the world and there are athletes from all over the world but what was the first competition you remember where you went, “Oh, I could be one of the strongest women in the world, if not the strongest.”

Was there a moment that you remember where you’re like, “Oh, I’m very good at this.”

I’m not sure if I’ve thought around it like that way but I’ve got more of a moment when I thought to myself, “Oh, if I want to be better at this, if I want to be good at this, then I need to sort my shit out.”

I ended up in Finland, and it’s the first time I’d ever met Kristin Rhodes in real life. I was all like, “Ah,” myself. It was in Helsinki, I found they call it Hell in Helsinki. To be honest, it wasn’t a successful thing for me. I couldn’t really lift any of it. The only thing that I did well right on was Conan’s wheel, but I think it’s generally because I’m still…even then it was like athletic.

We’d move in and carrying on the front load sort of thing. I saw the ladies there like Kristin, and some of the European or the strongwomen and I thought to myself, “Right, this is where I want to be. This is what I want to do and I’m going to have to get better at this if I want to compete with them.”

That was the turning point for wanting to be better and changing the way that I trained and approach the sport rather than more just like…it is still, I suppose, technically a hobby. As an actual athlete, I wanted to be really good at the sport. That was the time or moment for me there really.

What are some of those changes that you made as you made that transition from hobbyist competing to, “Hey, I’m going to take this seriously and try and be one of the best in the world.” What were some of those changes?

I was implementing a more structured training program, and paid more attention to each individual event. Breaking the techniques down a bit. Literally, being more aware of what I was doing, rather than just being a strong person lifting the heavy things.

Being more technically proficient in what I was doing, and actually thinking about what I was going to do and what I wanted to accomplish. Having a bit of a plan. I work better with things like goals to be set.

We come back from there and set up obviously for whatever competition would be next and to work to make myself be better and more consistent. There we go, consistent at all of the events rather than just being good at…I was starting to say. I wanted to be good at everything so that you don’t really have one event that’s really awful but they’re all pretty good. [laughs]

That’s what I did, just worked at those kinds of things to make it be a better overall performance. Obviously, I had to push myself to be able to lift more weight because there is somewhere on Facebook a terrible picture of me lifting a deadlift. It’s all over the place, I don’t even know what it was.

When you look back, it’s all part of the learning curve that you wouldn’t want to lift that stuff like that ever again. [laughs] To see anybody else have to lift thing like that ever again.

We’ll get back to the conversation in just a moment. But first a quick shout out to our episode sponsor, Athletic Greens.

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Which event these days, I heard in strongman, athletes say you’re only as good as your weakest events. Because you can set records in some events, but if you have events where you’re at the bottom of the pack you’re just not going to win competitions. That’s the difference between being an athlete who set records and being an athlete who wins championships.

Right now, what are the events you consider you’re strongest and what are the events that you are still focusing on attacking as “weak”? As you’re pretty darn good at everything so it’s all relative, but I curious about those two categories.

Thank you. I do try to aim to be as consistent as possible at about everything. I’m always on a Log Lift as a work in progress, I would have said, especially after recent times of WUS. I was like, “Oh, that didn’t quite go according to plan but, hey ho.”

I like Atlas Stones, quite like the front carries and [indecipherable 12:23] “Oh, I like this,” “Oh, I’m quite good at that.” One of my main weaknesses was actually yoke. So I would always say it would be one of my least favorite events to do.

Recently for WUS, it was a heavy yoke for max distance but in a time limit as well so you have to balance beam fairly quick but without making any mistakes and covering as much distance as possible. Also it was such a fast turnaround with events. I was recovering from the event before then going into this event with no warmup, and I actually won a yoke event.

To me, that’s one of my biggest accomplishments so far to date that I managed to win a yoke event in a big competition. I’m seriously happy with that. That would have been the best outcome altogether. I would work really hard to make that be better.

When you say WUS, you mean World’s Ultimate Strongman, right?

Yes, sorry.

Tell us about that competition. That was your most recent competition, right?

Yeah, it was. That was all a bit tricky because it was supposed to be in the USA, but the USA won’t let us folks get in from the United Kingdom and other places so we had to change to Dubai. This time, WUS gave the ladies the same kind of treatment as the guys.

We got our trip paid for, hotels paid for, a nice time basically in Dubai and also the same platform as the guys to have this sport streamed on the Internet with Core Sport, I think it was on Rogue. From that perspective and given this sport a platform, it was a great thing to be involved with.

The whole experience for us, as the women, I will probably speak for us all with that, it was great just to have that kind of same treatment and to show the sport off on the Internet and streaming systems for everyone to see. Also, it was fairly well received as well in the comments that people did enjoy watching us as well. We got a good performance.

It was interesting. We’ve all got different dynamics and can bring different things to the table. It was a really great experience and a very fast-paced competition. It was great to be there with the guys and have the same standards, basically.

Who are the competitors who you really like competing against? Do you have any folks when you see them on a competition you’re like, “Yes! Love seeing this person, love throwing down with them.” You’re smiling so I know there are a few.

Obviously everyone knows Jessica Fithen mainly because she’s absolutely hilarious. You know you’re going to have a great time when Jessica and her mom, Joyce, rock up. I really enjoy seeing her mom, too. Plus, we haven’t seen each other for such a long time in a real life so it was nice to see Jessica now.

Annabelle from the UK, Andrea, it was just a really great mix of people. My little Sunny, my love from Germany, we have a lot of history together without competing. It was really great to be there with her as well. I’m really lucky with the ladies that they have there.

Nadia, I’ve never met before, and Cori only briefly before, so it’s just a really nice group of ladies as well. It was fantastic.

I’m glad you mentioned Jessica Fithen because she’s been in the podcast before and she was so fun and she’s just such a cool person to talk to. That she’s actually coming back on the podcast. I’m recording with her two days after we record this podcast. I’ll ask her the same question and she’ll say something really snarky.

She’s probably be like, “Oh, yes, no.” She’ll say something like, “Oh yeah, Donna, yeah,” whatever. [laughs]

I’ll mention Donna Moore and she’ll be like, “Who? Sorry, I don’t know a Donna.”

Yes. Literally she probably will.

Let’s talk about this Strongman community because it’s something that is…I think that your introduction to competing in Strongman is the perfect example of how grassroots it can be. It’s literally someone on Facebook reaching out to you and being like, “Hey, you seem like you like lifting weights. Do you want to come try this out in a car park somewhere in the rain in Scotland?”

Obviously, that was about a decade ago, but the community is still very tight knit. How do you think this strongman community has changed in your, call it 9 to 10 years, in the sport?

First of all, it’s grown. That’s the nicest thing about it. You know strongman was quite prevalent before but now the womens’ side of the sport has really, really taken off with people that have wanted to come to the sport. Even if people didn’t want to compete, but actually just take a strongman training.

If you get groups together in the gym and you’re having a great time with some events out together. I think it’s a great community to be a part of. It’s really supportive and very lucky to never really have any negative aspects about it all. I’ve always had a really nice time everywhere I went.

I think it’s a really great community to be a part of. That’s so nice to see it growing. Also being on television so people know what strongman is. They know the names of the people and obviously so much more that the guys, but like people here would know who Luke and Tom Stoltman are.

10 years ago, if you would have said, “Oh, name some strongmen.” Then people maybe wouldn’t been able to name any in particular. Unless you really just follow this sport, but people know who Luke and Tom are, Eddie Hall obviously as well. I’m obviously speaking from a British perspective. It’s really great that they’re on people’s radar.

That also again brings more people to the sport, and for women, as well, to see the guys. Then also with any of the guys, they’d be like, “Oh look, there’s a girl that does it. Wow, that’s really cool.” Which obviously, they’re going to say.

It’s such a great platform and I really hope people would join in and find out how much fun it can be. That’s my biggest thing for it. Let’s get it to grow and find new people who can feel so much better about themselves in a nice, caring community as well. It’s lifting the cool things, really. [laughs]

I think people outside the strength community might see it as ironic, that one of the most welcoming groups in strength is made up of people who just lift rocks, basically. [laughs]

That’s because lifting rocks is the best thing to do. Gosh! If everybody tried it, they would know that. Come on! My friends at work would be like, “Just lifting the rocks?” Yeah. If you lifted rocks and you pulled trucks you would know how much better your life is.

OK, here’s the question that I’m only being half serious, because it seems like the trend these days. Who are you boxing? Who’s going to be your first opponent is your boxing debut?

Well, now you mention that…

I’ve started going to muay thai boxing, just as something else to do as a bit of conditioning and something to do with my partner, so the only person I’m currently punching is him. That can be quite satisfying. Although… [laughs]

But in a legitimate setting. It’s in a legitimate, condoned setting. It’s OK if it’s muay thai.

Yeah, yeah. It’s an actual place. We’ve been doing that. It’s been actually really difficult because, as you’ve seen with all the other people who who are boxing that it used to be strong and rigid. There’s a very big problem. We try not to be as strong and rigid and pivot and move this and move this bit of my body.

My brain is like, “What? We’re just meant to stand still.” Or run a short distance. But still, really bracing. Now, we’re not doing that. What are you doing, crazy lady? But yeah, something different to do and it’s a bit of a extra conditioning. Why not? [laughs]

Do you think…

Go ahead.

No, no, carry on. Sorry.

I’m going to say obviously that’s a trend across the sports now. Everyone’s making a trend. A lot of folks are making the transition over to boxing because there’s a lot of publicity behind it and then a lot of boxing purists are very upset about that, frankly. Did you watch the fight card that had Hafthor and Stefi Cohen and some of these other athletes? I’m curious.

We were still meant to be in Dubai, but we actually had to come back a day early because one of the other ladies, Annabelle, was competing at Britain because she’s also mad the day after. We were all coming back to the same place so we just all came on the same flight.

I didn’t watch it live, but I did watch some of the snippets of it all and some of the guys that were doing the boxing, they were in Dubai obviously with us. They’re actually pretty cool guys and Stefi was there. It’s interesting to see, but I haven’t watched the whole of the stream of it, like the snippets of it.

The Hafthor fight was about 40 seconds long. You’re not missing too much there. Stefi’s fight was a bit longer. There was boxing involved, I should say. I find it I just…I don’t know, throwing someone in the ring with Hafthor unlike a couple months’ notice after he’s been training for a year in boxing.

He was up for it. Devin, he’s a lovely chap as well, he’s really pleasant. Hopefully he will get the Eddie fight too at some point, if that materializes. That would be interesting to watch, but that’s a strong person watching other strong people boxing perspective. [laughs]

Do you have to cheer for Eddie? Because you are a cornerstone of the British strongman community?

I’m trying to find a diplomatic answer, but I don’t really…my partner is technically in love with Hafthor, to be honest. And so I feel that…

…I would have to switch to Iceland a little bit. No, I’ll be cheering for them both. It’s a big thing to be doing and their training and dedication to change, especially their body type and everything. It’s a big thing, so good for them if that’s what makes them happy.

What’s next for you in strongman? Are there any, do you have any particular goals in the sport that you haven’t hit, things that you are still very adamant about accomplishing that are not on your very lengthy resume right now?

I would actually like to come down a weight class, which is probably what I’m going to do, to middleweight, although I have mentioned that maybe — I know not a lot of people would agree with me — but they’re like another, another class after 82. Just because some of the other heavyweight women are so heavy, that the disparity in the body weight is actually a lot.

If you’re competing in a weight class, you’ve got people that are, you know, obviously with people weight cuts, but still around the same body weight as you. Whereas I was obviously compete with people who can be quite considerably heavier than me. So it does start to you know, widen the widen the gap a little bit. So currently, I would like to get down to 82 and do a competition at that, at that class, if there was no 90.

But the Arnold, if it goes ahead, that’s my my next thing on the horizon. I’m not going to the official Strongman games this year.

That was a very big decision for me to decide not to go. And so I just feel like I was not even going to try and defend my last title there. But at the present time, it’s the best decision for me. So we’re just having to leave that one to the side, and then work forward towards the Arnold if it goes ahead.

I’m not really sure if there was another Atlas Stone record or something like that, then maybe I feel that I would be able to move the Circus dumbbell record on a little bit more as well. I really enjoyed that as a press event. Just see whatever else is coming up that’s like fun and cool to do, you know, maybe get another [indecipherable 25:31] Stone, although they’re very tricky.

Just the fun things, you know I’m really lucky to have to say that I achieved the things that I wanted to so now can just have some fun and get out there and get their spot promoted, basically.

Fantastic. Well, where’s the best place for people to follow along with your training, upcoming competitions, maybe add a new body weight category in the not-so-distant future, best place for people to keep in touch or follow along?

I just really use my Instagram. So that’s just donna_moore_strongwoman. Really, most of my correspondence and stuff goes through there. There is Facebook as well. So occasionally, I would pick up Facebook Messenger messages, but generally Instagram’s the way to go.

Yeah, it all started on Facebook with a Facebook message and then you were off to the races from there. So I love that story. Well, thank you so much for sharing a bit about your history in the sport. What’s next? And hey, a little bit of boxing commentary. We had to fit that in. I really, really get this.

All right, have a good one.

You too.