Carrie Haller is the 2022 Strongman Corp National Champion 50+ women’s HW Division, and yes, she lives in Wheeling, W.Va.
So, wait, “Strongman”?
Yes, the Strongman Corporation sanctions powerlifting events and titles for males and females in three categories with 10 divisions in each. The organization does a plethora of local events throughout the year, but the national championships will be held during the winter in Las Vegas.
Haller won in Vegas two months ago.
“There was a lot of competition just to qualify for the Nationals but going in you know that the weights are going to weigh around your peak or just above your peak, so you know it’s not going to be easy,” Haller said. “As far as the competition, locally most of it comes from the Morgantown area and that’s mainly because we don’t have that kind of gyms in this area. I might be one of only two or three people who are into the Strongman competitions.
“Some of it has to do with the equipment that’s available, and I do own a lot of what I need for my workouts and I’m able to keep those implements at the Ryan Ferns Healthplex,” she said. “That’s where I work out and everyone there is really cool about it. I do have some folks come up to me to talk about the workout because it’s far from what they are doing for their own physical fitness.”
She posts videos of her workouts, too, and they are both impressive and intimidating.
“I know there are some people at the Healthplex that watch, but that’s only because of the way I work out compared to how most people do,” Haller said with a chuckle. “Not everyone goes to the Healthplex to lift enough to be sure they can carry a beer keg full of sand during an event like I do. So, when they see what I’m doing and how much I’m lifting, it makes them interested.
“I get a lot of support from other people even though most of them have no idea what I’m training for,” she continued. “When they find out I went to Vegas and won the female master’s title, they think it’s really cool that I’m doing that at this point in my life.”
And Then One Day …
Haller was graduated from Wheeling Park High School in 1990, and during those days was a student-athlete in basketball.
“And I still have that competitive edge,” she said with a smirk. “I like to win … a lot.”
That’s why, one morning in late 2019, she awoke with may have seemed like a crazy notion in her mind.
“I turned 48 a few years ago and I woke up one day and told myself that I wanted to do Strongman. Just like that,” Haller explained. “At that point, I had been doing cross-fit for about a year down at the Ryan Ferns Healthplex, and I finally came to the point to where I decided that the program had too much cardio involved. Anyone who knows me knows I don’t enjoy that much cardio.
“I just knew I wanted to lift heavy and that’s why powerlifting was good for me. It’s what I enjoy the most because it’s sumo-dead lifts and done. Training for that isn’t easy, but I enjoy it much more because I’m more like a tight end than I am a wide receiver,” she insisted. “Pretty soon after I decided to do Strongman, I put it out on Facebook and I had a friend reply to tell me to ‘Go do it’. So, that’s what I did.”
But then Covid 19 hit and mandated pandemic precautions that prevented Haller from joining anyone while training for her first competition. In fact, she was left to lift her dog.
That is not a misprint … her dog.
“Chopper is about 80 pounds and that was the heaviest thing I could find,” she recalled. “So, I did my front squats with Chopper, and my back squats, too.”
Once the restrictions loosened a bit in early 2021, Haller was able to compete in an outdoor event in Fairmont. She entered in the “novice category” and competed against only one other female.
“She was a female firefighter and she was in her 20s,” Haller reported. “And she beat the crap out of me.”
And then it was on to a competition in Morgantown, and she finished second out of three in her division. And then another second place, and another.
“I finally got tired of that and took some advice from someone I knew,” Haller said. “That’s when I started competing in the proper division for me and that’s the Master’s heavyweight division.”
That’s when it all came together.
“Even though I made the decision to do it, I had no idea how to go about it,” she admitted. “All I knew is that I had seen these huge men doing powerlifting on TV my whole life, so I really didn’t know what steps to take to get involved. Plus, I really didn’t know if I could compete against all of those 30-year-old women out there who were lifting, but that’s when I was told that I wouldn’t be competing against them because I’d be competing against myself.
“That clicked in my mind. That’s when I made contact with a gym down in Morgantown because they did a host of events that were connected to Strongman amateur competitions,” Haller said. “Once it all started making sense, I started really getting into it and having a blast. Now, I’m a national champion.”
