People and places: Brad Provick
Provick, lifting a tire that is bigger than some cars
by Bryan Schlosser
One of Regina’s strongest people
Regina strongman star Brad Provick recently sat down with the Carillon to talk about his love for lifting.
Why put yourself through all of this pain?
Well, for me, it started as me trying to look good in a t-shirt, so I went to the gym to lift a little bit. I knew right away that I was stronger than everyone around me, just automatically, and I got talked into doing a strongman show by this guy in the gym who I looked up to. I did it, much to the trepidation of a lot of people at work, and I did really well. At that point, I thought, well, everyone has something they’re good at, but a lot of people never find it. For me, this is one of those things. I couldn’t ignore what genetics and/or nature gave me. I just wanted to keep pushing to see how far I could take it. There’s a lot of wasted potential out there, and to me, that’s a crime against nature. If you’re good at something, you’ve got to work at it and be the best you can be, because there are so many people out there that can’t do it. I’ve been dealt a great hand and I’m going to keep doing it. Plus the people are awesome. There’s a lot of camaraderie – everyone is there to support everyone else.
How does it feel to always be the strongest person in the room?
(Laughs) Luckily – and this is a good thing – the gym I was at, I wasn’t the strongest guy there. You don’t get better if you’re the strongest guy in the gym. Now we’ve got a ton of really strong people in the gym, including Scott Cummins. Iron sharpens iron, right? The better your training partners are, the better you are. But you can’t go anywhere without someone saying something about it or making a comment, which is cool. It’s a sport that you can wear on your sleeve. You can walk around as a terrific tennis player or golfer and people wouldn’t know until they see you do it. For strongman, you stand out in the room. People look at you, thinking you play football. When you say strongman, they usually know what you’re talking about, and it becomes a real conversation piece. I never bring it up, but it always gets brought up (laughs). It’s good. But people assume that, because you’re involved in the sport, that you’re aggressive. You have to be extra, extra, extra nice to everyone around you, or they’re going to see it as some kind of alpha male attitude, which I really, really don’t want to portray.
How many surgeries have you had?
(Laughs) Let me count. One, two, three, four, five, six… seven? Seven.
What makes it worthwhile to keep coming back after these injuries and surgeries?
Every time an injury comes up, it becomes something to prove, right? You want to beat the injury. After an injury, you’re revitalized to try even harder. You think that you’d want to throw your hands in the air and go, “Screw it, I’m done with this!” But it doesn’t happen with anybody; when they get hurt, they want to at least get back to where they were, and you want to go out on your own terms. It becomes a real personal thing, and it becomes a real competition to get better. When you’re a true competitor, deep down, you have to win.
What have you learned from your time in this sport?
It sounds cliché, but when you set your mind on something… how many people really give something an honest try? I mean, like, years and years of trying something before they throw their hands in the air and say they can’t do it. I’ve seen so many people in this sport who weren’t super strong, but they just wanted to try and, through persistence, they’re doing great. Passion trumps everything, and in strongman, it’s all about the passion. No one is getting rich; no one is getting paid big money. It’s passion to compete and passion to perform. You need passion about anything in life if you want to succeed. If you don’t have passion, you won’t succeed. I learned that from strongman, that’s for sure.
