He’s Strongman’s T-Rex (with Evan Singleton)

I’m one of those people where if I’m getting mentally prepared for a max deadlift, do not approach me, because I’ll tear your head off. [laughs]

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 Strongman athlete Evan Singleton also known by his nickname T-Rex. Evan is relatively new to Strongman having discovered the sport around three years ago. In the short time since he’s rocketed to the top of the sports rankings and is now among the best men’s open competitors in the world.

We chat about his background in pro wrestling, bodybuilding, and more. The most fun part of the conversation for me, was an in-depth discussion of Evan’s “Jurassic Park” fandom. Strength sports and dinosaur nerds unite, because this is the episode for you.

I do want to take a second to say we’re incredibly thankful that you listen to this podcast. If you haven’t already, be sure to leave a rating and review of the BarBend Podcast in your app of choice. Now, let’s get to the show.

Evan, thanks for joining me. It’s a really busy year for you. It seems like the Strongman elite level has picked up with a vengeance. The competition, it’s so tough to keep track of everything that’s going on. You’ve had a very successful year so far. What are you training for right now and where are you training?

Thank you very much for having me on. I appreciate the opportunity. I am getting ready…I’m actually flying out tomorrow mid-day around noon. I am flying out to England to prepare for the Giant Slide Glasgow show, the first giant slide pro-Strongman show to happen in Scotland.

The roster has been released relatively recently. It’s a very stacked roster so I’m looking to really solidify that. I’m one of the best in the world by beating some good guys.

Who do you most enjoy competing against? It could be because you love them or because you hate them.

[laughs] I don’t really hate anybody except Richardson, fuck that guy. That’s a hard one because I love all the guys. I like competing against guys that are as good or better than me because it pushes me. I love competing against Brian Shaw.

I love competing against JF Caron in the Brian Shaw Classic not too long ago. I also like competing against guys that are up-and-coming with me like Trey Mitchell, Bobby Thompson, Gabriel Peña, just to name a few.

 Excellent. Now, let’s talk a little bit about your athletic background because you’re 28 years old, is that correct?

Yes, sir.

Have you turned 29 yet? 28. You’re relatively new when it comes to being a name that Strongman fans recognize, and you only discovered the sport about three years ago.

You rise from new in the sport to being truly one of the top open competitors in the world indisputably. That’s pretty darn quick. The first 25 years of your life, what were you doing as an athlete?

When I was in school, I did just about every sport. I was pushed in to do sports at a young age and I’m glad that I was. I played everything at least once. I tried absolutely every sport, but the one that I gravitated towards was amateur wrestling. I was very good at it. I took to it very naturally.

I can honestly say that a lot of my mindset with Strongman as far as pushing myself, working as hard as I do whether I succeed or I fail, I put that solely on my shoulders and nobody else’s.

I get a lot of my attitude and my work ethic from amateur wrestling. I took great pride in it and I pretty much did the same thing in amateur wrestling than I’m doing in Strongman. I went from pretty much not having any experience, not really doing very well, to going to the state championship in three years.

It’s very similar to what I did in Strongman. After I graduated in high school, I was offered a contract with WWE to be a professional wrestler. I did that for a while. I ended up getting hurt, and that pushed me out of the business.

I got out of shape. I got to about 380, 385 of bad weight. I wasn’t lifting weights, I wasn’t dieting, I wasn’t doing anything. It was just all a bad…I fell into a little bit of a depression. All of that good stuff.

When I finally got the green light from my neurologist that I was seeing in Florida at that time for my head injury, I got the green lights to go back to the gym. I looked at myself in the mirror and said, “All right. I’m going to commit to liking what I see in the mirror because right now I don’t.” I made the commitment to be a bodybuilder.

The next seven, eight months was nothing but working out every single day, sometimes twice a day. I cleaned up my diet so much that I haven’t had a cheat meal for months and I was miserable.

I actually went to New York and did my first and only bodybuilding show, and I ended up coming in third. I will take that. [laughs]

It’s funny because once I got done with bodybuilding I was like, “OK, I made the commitment to myself. I filled it out. I proved that I could do it. I have the pictures, the trophy, and the trumps to back it up.” I proved that I can do it if I set my mind to it. That being said, fuck that. I never want to do that again. That was awful.

I love the frankness because bodybuilding, it’s not just a sport, it’s a lifestyle. Every fiber of your being is committed to that when you’re doing it.

I would say that that’s how Strongman is for me now. It’s just the lifestyle of bodybuilder wasn’t fit, it didn’t really suit me. [laughs] I learned that after my first competition. I was like, “This isn’t the right fit now that I went through it beginning to end. It’s not the right fit for me.”

I’ve always loved the feeling that lifting weights gave me, so I wanted to do something different from bodybuilding that was competitive, that was centered around weightlifting, lifting weights. My options in my head were powerlifting or Strongman.

I’m in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I have that goal set in mind, and I find a gym that has powerlifting and Strongman equipment, McMillan’s Training Systems. I went in there, I took a tour. There was a guy doing log press in there, and I was so fascinated by that. In-between the sets I actually went up to him and I introduced myself. I asked him like, “Hey, what is this?”

I asked him general questions about Strongman and all of how long he’s been competing, yadda, yadda, yadda. All that. He actually invited me to jump into the log training session with him, so I did. I want to say, after about a week and a half to two weeks after that first day I was like, “Found it. This is it. I found it.”

I started training and at that same time where it clicked in my head, that was the exact same moment that I told myself…I’m one that always sets a very high standard for myself. I hold myself accountable to very high goals and high dreams, and I’m all-in in whatever I decide to do. I said after about two weeks, I’m going to pursue this until I’m World’s Strongest Man.

 Let’s talk a little bit about how you…You took to the sport very quickly, but your learning process. Do you work with a coach, training partners? Strongman is highly technical. You have a ton of different things you might be asked to do. It’s a sport built for visual entertainment, so whether it’s lifting logs, stones, carrying car parts, you never know.

How did you start learning the more technical aspects of the sport?

It’s interesting because there’s a significant amount of technical aspects, like you said.

There’s also certain mindsets that you need to try to avoid, and unfortunately a lot of people when they first start off they fall into these mindsets, “I need to be bigger to lift more weights. I need to be heavier to lift more weights. I don’t need to do my accessory work, I just need to hammer events, and all of that.”

Or, you can be one of the big open guys where it’s, “As long as I have a heavy overhead and a heavy deadlift, I don’t need to do anything else. I don’t need to do any cardio or conditioning or try to be an athlete.” [laughs]

It was a really interesting learning process, and I went through a lot of that. Eventually, I found my way to Adam and Kim Derks in Wisconsin. I wanted a little bit of help with my deadlift. Adam is one of the best deadlifters in America. His form is impeccable, so I figured if anybody could help me, it would be him.

I reached out to him, and Adam and Kim became my full coaches. Not just my deadlift coaches, but my full coaches, and I’ve been with them ever since. I have two titles and three podiums under them, and two World’s Strongest Man appearances. They guided me through a lot of the shit. Let’s put it that way.

The learning curve is steep, especially in Strongman. Let’s talk about some of your favorite events in Strongman, and then I’m, obviously, going to ask you about your least favorite, or the things you struggle with a little bit.

Let’s start with the positive here. Where do you believe yourself to be the best in the world, or among the handful of the best in the world, pretty much any given game day?

I would argue that I am one of the best if not the best in the world at yoke. I am very, very fast with a lot of weight on my shoulders, and we’re running with it. I take pride in my athleticism and again, I attribute that to my time with amateur wrestling.

I retained a lot of that coming into Strongman. As my static strength goes up, my athleticism stays just as good. I work on my cardio every single day. I would say yoke, and I’m a very big fan of circus dumbbell. I really like circus dumbbell. Out of all the overhead events, I feel like circus dumbbell is the one where I can clip the best in the world.

Let’s talk about…You mentioned your emphasis on cardio, I’m always interested when it comes to strength athletes and cardio. Obviously, we talked to a lot of CrossFitters on this podcast, and that’s a huge part of what they do.

People undervalue or maybe underestimate what elite athletes could be, weightlifters, powerlifters, Strongman athletes are doing on the cardio front. I’ve talked to Gabriel Penny a bit about this as well. I’m curious as to what you’re doing to supplement your strongman training when it comes to cardio.

When you look at the sport of Strongman, it’s not like powerlifting, where it’s static lifting only, and it’s only based on strength. In my personal opinion, Strongman is the ultimate sport, because it tests you in every single way possible as a full well-rounded athlete.

This goes into my world record versus titles’ mindset because I have no desire at all to achieve any world record. If it’s there on game day, during a full competition, I’ll go for it. I will not focus solely on a world record. I want to win titles. I want to win the World’s Strongest Man. I want to win as many competitions as I can.

In order to do that, you need to be well-rounded. You can’t go into a competition especially with the pros where everybody is doing everything they can to be the absolute best. If you want to be the best Strongman, you need to be able to run, you need to be able to sustain that stamina, and you need to be strong, you need to be athletic.

Strongman tests you as a full well-rounded athlete. It’s one of the things I love most about sport. For me personally, I will do all of my heavy lifting, whether it’s overhead day and I’m doing heavy log, I’ll do a heavy deadlift day, whatever. I always do every single day, whether it’s a rest day or a training day. I do cardio at the end of my workouts.

After all the weightlifting and accessories are done, I’ll get on the treadmill for 20, 25, 30 minutes, and I’ll go at a walking pace at a high incline to get the heart rate going, get the sweat going. I also really enjoy doing suicides. We have an area in our gym, it’s marked off every 10 feet, so I like to do suicides with that.

You might be the only person I’ve ever heard to say I enjoy doing suicides.

I’ll be the first one to say suicides are hell. I absolutely hate suicides, but I love them because I feel like they keep me very well-conditioned for what we do in Strongman, especially in events like loading medley, will throw sandbag into a barrel.

You need to be able to beeline back to that next implement as fast as possible. That’s where suicides come in and keeps my conditioning high.

Another one that I really like to do is, I like to do NFL combine drills. I’ll put the ladder on the ground, and I’ll do footwork on that because that helps me with my moving events such as yoke, farmers, frame, all kinds of stuff like that when it’s important to keep your feet a little bit closer together and do short choppy steps. I enjoy doing the NFL combine drills.

Excellent. Let’s talk about some events where you…The term might not be struggle, because you’re one of the best in the world all around. You have to be at least pretty darn good at everything. Where are some events that you’re focused on making improvement in?

To be honest, I’ve made so many improvements on so many events that were weaknesses for a long time of mine. I only have one left. Like you said, it’s not terribly weak, but compared to the other guys that possibly could be, I would say it probably would be squat.

I’ve never been a squat fan. I have problems with my knees when I do heavy squats. I find that it’s a harder one for me to improve on, but I’ve also outside of competition season when I have a little bit of time to work on myself a little bit and build my static up and all that, that’s when I’m going to hammer squats hard because I’m fully committed to being well-rounded. I want to be good at everything.

To give folks an image of your size here, because it’s important to note you have a lot of different body types even in the open division of Strongman. How tall are you? What’s your competition body weight, because I know that can fluctuate a lot over the course of a year?

I am 6’6″, and I’m between 355 and 360 pounds, and I have abs, just want to throw that out.

[laughs] It’s so interesting because you’re not the first person I’ve talked to in your division. I’ve heard different things, for the folks who have abs they flaunt it, folks who don’t have abs are like, “The other guys aren’t eating enough.” I’ve heard it both ways.

[laughs] That sounds like a JF thing to say.

It may or may not have been a certain Canadian who said that as well.

Haven’t had him on the podcast, but should. He’s had a stellar couple of competition seasons in Strongman. He’s someone who’s been on the scene for the better part of a decade, maybe longer. It’s now coming into his prime in many ways.

I feel like JF as good of a competitor as he is, as strong as he is, and as long as he’s been around. He’s a very underrated, overlooked competitor. It’s nice to be able to see him finally getting a little bit more spotlight than he deserves because he busts his ass, and he works so hard for it.

Who do you think maybe besides yourself…Jury is still out on whether you’re overrated or underrated because for a lot of things, you’re so new. I think that you have to have like…

You’ve had two World’s Strongest Man appearances. You have some great titles under your belt, but you have to be around for a few years, before people are calling you overrated or underrated. It’s easy for me to say this because we’re recording remotely. I’m out of arm’s reach right now. I’ll say something to piss you off.

[laughs] Everybody’s tough online.

I’m the worst. Who do you think is underrated besides JF in your division?

I would say Kevin Ferris. I don’t necessarily know if it’s his size that gets him overlooked, because he’s always the smallest guy on the field or what it is, but Kevin is a dangerous competitor. He’s got a very good grip. He’s very athletic. His static is coming along.

He got fourth at the Shaw Classic. He got like two or three…I think he was two points ahead of me. Kevin Ferris is a solid competitor. I feel like a lot of people lose that when they’re talking about some of the best in the world, especially Strongman in America.

Let’s talk about your approach on game day. You’re a very mental athlete, some of that comes from your time as an amateur wrestler. Hey, that’s maybe one of the ultimate contact sports. I’m not going to say…

Oh God, yeah. I’ll cut you off right there. I’m just going to say one thing.

Yeah, go for it.

I am fully confident in saying this to anybody when it comes to sports that they allow in like the high school level and the collegiate level, wrestling is the hardest sport by far. No sport comes close to it. I will go on record saying that. I don’t care.

There are very few people who will outwork amateur wrestlers. Very few people, maybe none. Do you think that gives you an advantage being in a contact sport, a one-on-one sport, in Strongman where you’re basically doing things in a vacuum?

Yes, we’ve seen some cookie events at “World’s Strongest Family,” we’ve seen tug of war, we’ve seen some…you have to go head-to-head with someone, but that’s the rarity. That’s once in a blue moon. Do you think it gives you an advantage? If so, how do you leverage that advantage?

I do think that it was an advantage because a lot of the mindset that I had when I was amateur wrestling has been able to quite smoothly transfer over in Strongman.

If you’ve seen me compete or have heard people talk about how I compete, I’m a very aggressive and intense competitor. A lot of people have referred to me as the new Bill Kazmaier because I got so worked up…

That’s not a bad comparison to get earlier in your career.

I definitely take that as a compliment whenever somebody says that, absolutely. He’s one of my idols, but I’m a very angry and intense person when I’m competing. I’m one of those people where if I’m getting mentally prepared for a max deadlift, do not approach me because I’ll tear your head off. [laughs]

It’s good to know. I’m glad we discussed that now.

 [laughs] I’m that guy that right before I lift, I’ll bang my head on something like a steel pillar or something. I’ll do my smelling salts. I’ll let go a loud yell. Then I’ll go do the lift. That’s me. I’m that guy.

I used to do similar stuff to that before wrestling matches to get myself pushed into that…The way that I describe it, and it makes sense to me, is I kick start my fight-or-flight instinct. I have fight instinct in me.

I do that head butt then I’ll do the smelling salts and all of that good stuff. Literally, everything that is in my mind before that is completely gone. I have tunnel vision. The only thing that I see is, literally, the bar right in front of me, and the only thing on my mind is kill. It’s the only thing I’m thinking.

I’m going to take this in a completely different direction. Speaking of aggression, your nickname is dinosaur-based?

Yes.

You go by T-Rex. People can’t see this, but you just threw up a tattoo on your hand, a talons tattoo.

T-Rex claws.

T-Rex claws. It’s actually a sweet tattoo, I should say.

I’m talking you and I can see a Jurassic Park poster behind you. It’s a classic, the original Jurassic Park movie poster.

Yeah. Again, I’m going to interrupt you for a second. All the interviews that I do, what you obviously can’t…Everybody at home can’t see it, but I’m an avid Jurassic Park, vintage Jurassic Park collector. I’m actually in my room full of Jurassic Park memorabilia.

Oh my God, that is outstanding. OK, dinosaurs, you got to talk about dinosaurs. Because dinosaurs are awesome. My science core in college, by the way, I took a class called Dinosaurs, because I didn’t know how to do actual science. I’m a fan.

No, I’m kidding. Paleontology is real. Science is real. Dinosaurs, how’d you get into it? How did this become a hobby obsession part of you?

Ever since I was little, the first movie I ever remember seeing in my entire life, my earliest memory of a movie was the first Jurassic Park, and I loved that movie. I was the kid who would watch the movie beginning to end on my VHS and then I would rewind it. Then I would watch it again and I would rewind it.

Probably wore that tape out, man.

I did. I wore multiple tapes out. I drove my parents, absolutely bat shit up the wall. [laughs] I’m to the point where I have the entire movie, the lines, the dinosaur sound effects, the music cues, everything. I’ve all of that memorized. All the fun, behind the scenes, facts, trivia and all that. I have all that memorized.

Honestly, paleontology has always been a minor hobby of mine. I’ve always kept up with the latest scientific discoveries, because all the information that we know from 10 years ago is near obsolete, just because there’s so many things that they keep getting discovered and found out and there’s new fossils found. It leads to deeper discoveries and things get re-looked at and stuff like that.

It’s always fascinated me. I’ve just kept up with it. The tattoo idea was some…It was an idea that I had when I was about 15 or 16, and I didn’t go out and get my tattoo until about two months before my first Strongman competition in April of 2018. I’ve had that idea for a long, long time. I finally went out and got it.

I had it for my first Strongman competition, and that’s when people started giving me the nickname T-Rex. They started calling me T-Rex when I would catwalk by them. I ran with it, and I turned it into a little bit of a persona.

You don’t get double T-Rex claw tattoos without hoping in the back of your mind that people might start calling you T-Rex.

[laughs] I am sticking to my guns that I did not give myself that nickname. It was given to me. Whether I wanted it or not is irrelevant.

Favorite piece of Jurassic Park memorabilia you have?

Oh, that’s a difficult one. Right here, I have the original good china that they use in the first movie when they were having the dinner scene or the lunch scene after the velociraptor ate the cow. Talking about…

Like from the actual movie, what was used on set?

There it is.

Wow, that’s awesome. I know folks can’t see this when they’re listening but that is a…He literally bought the bowls, folks.

Oh, yeah. The bowls, the cups, the dinner plates, everything. I also have the original Jurassic Park board game stone. It’s original shrink wrap.

Wow, I style myself a bit of a nerd.

 [laughs] When it comes to Jurassic Park, I might have.

He got me on a few levels there. This is awesome.

What else do I got? There’s one more. I probably have to give it to the trading card collection from the first movie, different trading cards that you would pick up.

Folks, he’s got a beautifully organized trading card collection. It’s in a three-ring binder. It’s in the 9-Pocket Card lay ultra pro. I know what that’s called. I’ve collected some cards in my time. The ultra pro card sheets. That is impressive.

I have to say I think some of the intensity you’re becoming known for as an athlete shows in your collection as well because everything’s well-organized, that the room you’re in is immaculate, decked out.

Thank you very much.

What a cool thing. That’s one great thing about this podcast, is I get to dig a little deeper than just like, “Oh, what do you do as an athlete?” People are multifaceted. It’s not every day I meet a bigger paleontology nerd than myself. Very cool.

Got me. Probably the last one would probably be the when dinosaurs ruled the earth.

The banner.

Yeah, it’s a replica of the one that was used in the movie. I really liked that one.

What’s your favorite dinosaur? Is it the T-Rex?

 It’s T-Rex, [inaudible 26:03] easily.

I will say not to make this a paleontology podcast fully, although that’s a different idea. It’s a misunderstood dinosaur, one where most people have an idea of when we grew up seeing them in museums, very upright, very kind of status.

Dragging on the grounds.

Probably not how it was.

Pretty much exactly has is not how it was. [laughs]

Also, folks, this is going to be a disappointment for some. They might have had feathers. They might have been a little bit fuzzy. What you see in the movie Jurassic Park, probably not what they looked like.

[laughs] They probably didn’t look anything like that, but because of the success of the movie, obviously, that image burned in everybody’s subconscious as what dinosaurs look like.

I wonder how many paleontology careers that movie or the original book, the Michael Crichton book, I wonder how many scientific careers that sparked?

Probably lots. [laughs] Everybody that I know that takes paleontology itself — like minus Jurassic Park — very seriously. It said that they have roots related to the movie.

Evan, thanks for sharing a bit of that side of your life with me. I appreciate it.

My pleasure.

Moving back over to Strongman real quick, what are some events that you have coming up? You mentioned the Glasgow competition, any other events that are on the horizon that we should pay special attention to and watch you in?

Yes, sir. I’m also getting ready for the Arnold UK. It’s the inaugural, so it’ll be the first one that’s going to be in Birmingham, England. I’m really looking forward to that one. It’s going to be a great show.

It’s going to be during an expo just like the Arnold Columbus. I’m very much looking forward to that. Hopefully, we’ll be able to draw a big crowd.

Excellent. Where’s the best place for people to follow along with you, your competition, career, and all that good stuff moving forward?

I would say probably Instagram. Instagram is my number one. I am @evan_trex_strongman.

See, I wasn’t making it up folks. There’s a T-Rex connection here.

Evan, I really appreciate you taking the time sharing a bit of your sporting career and also some other different parts of your personality and life. It’s been a real pleasure.

The pleasure is all mine. Thank you very much for the opportunity.