Athletes Train For Monaca Strongman Competition

MONACA (KDKA) - A fitness club in Monaca has gone beyond barbells and rope climbing.

Two dozen fitness buffs will compete Saturday in a strongman event.

It was once a service station, but the guys aren't changing tires, they're flipping them.

Rick Daman shouts encouragement needed to shoulder 600 pounds of vulcanized rubber. Others pull their own weight and then some.

Daman's strength training is an old-time fitness club. No air conditioning, just strength and sweat. The focus is on high school and college athletes.

"High school wrestling, high school football, college football, college wrestling. We have a lot of sports," Daman said. "Get them in an environment where they can gain a competitive atmosphere, and just get better at their craft."

That competitive atmosphere will heat up Saturday, in a strongman event that benefits the Epilepsy Foundation.

"We have about 25 athletes and we have 25 sponsors and we're ready to go," Daman said.

"Pushing the tires takes a lot of momentum, a lot of weight," Preston Johnston said.

Beaver Falls graduate Dean Dinell played in the recent Pennsylvania-Ohio All-Star Game.

"I was really much more explosive, quicker. I felt much better than I was in high school," Dinell said.

The event will begin at 10 p.m. on Saturday. Click here for more information.

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