Steve Justa: the Paul Anderson of Sustained Strength

Meet the Man Who Alerted Us to the Chink in Our Armor

Unlikely Avatar: all dressed up with nowhere to go, the godfather of sustained strength at home on the farm getting ready for a walkabout with 800 pounds. He often smoked a cigar during his “strength-endurance” torture sessions.

Paul Anderson and the Absolute-Strength Template

Paul Anderson was the patron saint, the avatar of absolute strength. He roared out of the rural backwoods of the deep South and upended everything that preceded him. Anderson made his bones as an Olympic weightlifter, winning the gold medal at the 1956 Olympic Games, less than five years after taking up the sport.

Until Anderson came along, Olympic weightlifters did the three lifts, press, snatch, clean, and jerk, exclusively. Want to get better at the press, snatch and clean, and jerk? Do more presses, snatches and clean and jerks. Anything else was considered a superfluous waste of time. The uncontested athletic consensus of the time was that the quick lifts were so technical and precise that hours and hours of practice doing the three lifts, with ever-increasing payloads, were the only training required.

Anderson came along and, to paraphrase, said: my technique sucks and will always suck. I think I can outlift everyone using bad technique. I am just going to get strong as hell and see if I can bull these weights overhead, technique be damned.

Yes, he practiced the Olympic lifts, but he spent more training time squatting, deadlifting, bench pressing, dumbbell pressing, and barbell rowing. He drank two gallons of whole milk a day and pushed his bodyweight upward, sumo-wrestler-like, until he reached roughly 360 pounds.

Paul proceeded to start bulling-up world records. Strength-history accounts describe Anderson pressing roughly 402 pounds during the 1950s Soviet tour. The fawning Russian press dubbed Paul “the wonder of nature.” Anderson became a Cold War symbol of impossible American strength.

Anderson inadvertently helped create the modern absolute-strength training template: core exercises done using a full range of motion for low reps; squat, bench press, deadlift, heavy rows, and curls. Heavy eating was combined with compound multi-joint exercises, exercises that required groups of muscles to work together in muscular synchronization. These movements moved maximal poundage short distances and built maximum muscle. Anderson used this strategy to grow ungodly strong. He was on another strength planet, compared to his strength contemporaries.

The Missing Third of the Strength Equation

Olympic weightlifting birthed the explosive strength training template, best exemplified by the whippet-lean, lightning-fast Olympic weightlifter. Anderson birthed the absolute strength training template, exemplified by the muscled-up, uber-strong powerlifter. We were still missing 33% of the optimal strength equation and did not even know it. While we identified and practiced absolute strength and explosive strength, no one in my world practiced strength-endurance because no one had identified it as a missing component.

Steve Justa Arrives from Nowhere

In 1998, the Paul Anderson of sustained strength emerged: an unlikely-looking dude with an incredible list of feats. Steve Justa exploded onto the strength scene. Randy Strossen, editor / owner of MILO magazine, had the foresight and wisdom to read Steve’s manuscript and publish Justa’s Rock, Iron, Steel: The Book of Strength. This was unprecedented in that Justa was nobody from nowhere. He had never won a national or world title in anything and did not inspire anyone with his physique.

He looked like a villainous professional wrestler, the overweight meatball that always loses. Steve lived on a farm in fly-over country, Harvard, Nebraska, and periodically smoked a cigar during his training. Yet Randy Strossen, as sophisticated a dude as has ever been associated with strength publishing, saw the brilliance in the manuscript Justa submitted. This was a strange book written by a strange man hailing from a strange place about a strange topic.

Justa’s rationale for writing the book was pointing out what he saw as a giant gap, a chink in the armor of strength athletes, an unaddressed weakness. He championed “strength-endurance,” sustained strength, a topic no one in our hardcore strength subculture really thought about prior to 1998. Justa not only pointed out the need for strength-endurance, he developed a system for infusing the body with locomotive-like sustained strength.

Strength-Endurance Becomes the Missing Link

In the 1990s, the hardcore elite were diligently training absolute strength and explosive strength. Hardly anyone trained sustained strength because hardly anyone thought about it. The need was not yet perceived. A strength-endurance philosophy did not yet exist, nor was there a strength-endurance Paul Anderson.

The concept of purposefully engaging in exercises and drills that demanded a sustained output of power and strength for extended periods was a totally foreign concept. At the time, any strength set that lasted past 60 seconds was derisively labeled “aerobics.”

Purposefully training and taxing the cardiovascular system was associated with the Ken Cooper / Jane Fonda / Richard Simmons brand of exercise, the effete dance aerobic class. In the old hardcore strength world, cardio was stigmatized as odious, noxious, feminized, and not suitable for uber-alpha strength athletes.

Steve Justa showed us a different flavor of cardio, a totally masculine approach. He would bear-hug a 225-pound cement block and walk with it for half a mile without setting it down, all the while smoking a cigar. This was MAN cardio.

Strongman, MMA, and Sustained Strength

Two dissimilar athletic events came into prominence in the 1990s that changed a lot of minds and opened a lot of eyes. Each placed a supreme value on strength-endurance, i.e., being able to put out a high level of strength for extended periods. The first was strongman competition and the second was the emergence of mixed martial arts.

Both absolute strength and explosive strength evolved because of their relationship with two sports: powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting. Strongman and MMA placed a premium on strength endurance.

Strongman events were tailored to cater to TV audiences, and TV demanded that strongmen create longer events that would hold the viewer’s attention. To really determine the world’s strongest man, insofar as absolute strength or explosive strength, you would have competitors do a single rep in whatever event the promoter dreamed up. Making contestants struggle for 90 to 120 seconds to please TV audiences makes this, factually, a competition to determine the world’s strongest strength-endurance athlete.

A modern mixed martial artist trains sustained strength as a central physical quality. MMA created a new breed of athlete, one that required “a bigger gas tank,” i.e., an ability to not gas out. The goal is to be able to exert significant power deep into a 3- or 5-round fight, each round 5 minutes in length. When the modern MMA trainee loads up a wheelbarrow with weight plates and pushes it up a hill, he is doing a Justa-style drill.

Justa pinpointed the moment he decided to become a strength-endurance disciple: he saw a famous powerlifter bench 505 pounds for eight reps and still be huffing 30 minutes later. Justa’s question, in essence, was simple: what good is strength like that in a survival situation?

Steve Justa’s Crazed Feats

Steve Justa was the Paul Anderson of sustained strength. His credentials lie in his feats, unrivaled and unreal. This is science-fiction stuff. This man made an art form of struggle. Check out this partial crazed list of his incredible feats:

• Wearing a 200-pound chain-mail vest, walked for two miles in 50 minutes.
• Created a 30-pound walking staff and walked 14 miles, never stopping or putting it down.
• Created a 100-pound chain-mail vest and wore it to work shoveling grain for weeks at a time.
• Dragged a 540-pound railroad tie one-eighth of a mile in 25 minutes.
• Picked the 540-pound railroad tie off the ground, shouldered it, and walked for 30 feet.
• Picked up and shoulder-carried a 315-pound barrel for one-eighth of a mile.
• Pushed a 570-pound rock one-eighth of a mile in 25 minutes.
• Carried a 220-pound rock for 1.5 miles in 90 minutes.
• Picked up 500 pounds on a 2-inch-thick-handle barbell and walked 50 steps.
• Carried a 250-pound barbell for a mile, taking 18 breaks.
• Carried a barbell loaded to 700 pounds for 20 steps backwards.

My favorite Justa tale was when he created a 100-pound chain-mail vest and asked his boss if he could wear it to work and wear it while he worked. His job was a backbreaker: a worker in a grain silo pushing and shoveling grain all day long. His boss said, sure, as long as you don’t pass out and die. Justa wore it to work every day for a month.

Another crazed tale was when he purposefully walked with an 800-pound barbell on his back for 20 steps outside through ankle-deep mud. Justa, hardly a fearful man, dubbed this his scariest feat. I laugh a bit when I see someone moan about the difficulty of handling “the beast,” the famous 104-pound monster kettlebell. In 1995, Justa created a 300-pound kettlebell that he swung around like it was a 40-pound dumbbell.

Rock, Iron, Steel, and the Justa Method

Justa was a clear communicator. He spoke unvarnished plain-speak. His prose style was great and the message surprisingly sophisticated. He was quite comprehensive in his sustained-strength approach: he created drills for carrying weight, dragging or pulling weight, G-force training, and power aerobic isometrics. He had drills for running with weight and stressed periodic singles for strength.

Steve explained the hand-and-thigh lift, the quarter deadlift, the back lift, partial movements, the shovel lift, the pitchfork lift, and the barrel lift.

I would assume the book is still available through IronMind’s e-book channels. If you are a serious strength trainer, shag a copy. This book is a great read and one of my top-shelf classics.

Equipment Notes for Sustained-Strength Training

Sustained strength does not require fancy equipment. It requires load, distance, duration, grit, patience, and progression. Still, the tools must match the drill and the lifter.

Readers and facilities can compare dumbbells, barbells, Olympic weightlifting bars, weight plates, selectorized gym equipment, and plate-loaded leverage gym equipment.

A basic strength-room setup that supports traditional loading and hard assistance work might include Intek Silverback cerakoted steel dumbbells, American Barbell urethane Olympic grip plates, the IRON COMPANY 5150 Olympic weightlifting bar, or TKO solid steel head urethane encased barbells, when those tools match the lifter, room, floor, loading, and intended use.

The equipment does not create sustained strength. The lifter, the load, the distance, the duration, the recovery, and the willingness to struggle create sustained strength.

Safety Note for Heavy Carries, Loaded Walks, and Sustained-Strength Drills

This article preserves Marty Gallagher’s RAW strength-history perspective and Steve Justa’s extreme sustained-strength examples. It is not individualized medical, rehabilitation, tactical-training, strongman, MMA, equipment-rating, or programming advice.

Heavy loaded carries, weighted walks, backward barbell walks, railroad-tie drags, stone carries, heavy kettlebell swings, chain-mail vest walking, loaded wheelbarrow pushes, and sustained-strength drills can stress the feet, ankles, knees, hips, spine, shoulders, grip, and cardiovascular system.

Do not copy Steve Justa’s extreme feats casually. Build gradually. Use stable loads, safe terrain, suitable footwear, secure collars when using barbells, enough space, conservative progressions, and assistance when needed. Avoid smoking during hard training. Stop or scale back for chest pain, dizziness, faintness, unusual shortness of breath, numbness, sharp pain, uncontrolled implement movement, grip failure, heat symptoms, confusion, or any symptom that feels different from normal training effort.

The useful lesson is not to carry 800 pounds through mud. The useful lesson is that absolute strength and explosive strength are incomplete if the athlete cannot express strength for time, distance, and repeated effort.

Related Strength Reading

For the broader three-part strength framework, read Strength Training Modalities: 3 Types of Strength. For another Marty Gallagher article on how muscular strength is defined and expressed, read Muscle Strength Defined.

RAW with Marty Gallagher, J.P. Brice, and Jim Steel Podcast.

About the Author: Marty Gallagher

As an athlete Marty Gallagher is a national and world champion in Olympic lifting and powerlifting. He was a world champion team coach in 1991 and coached Black's Gym to five national team titles. He's also coached some of the strongest men on the planet including Kirk Karwoski when he completed his world record 1,003 lb. squat. Today he teaches the US Secret Service and Tier 1 Spec Ops on how to maximize their strength in minimal time. As a writer since 1978 he’s written for Powerlifting USA, Milo, Flex Magazine, Muscle & Fitness, Prime Fitness, Washington Post, Dragon Door and now IRON COMPANY. He’s also the author of multiple books including Purposeful Primitive, Strong Medicine, Ed Coan’s book Coan, The Man, the Myth, the Method and numerous others. Read the Marty Gallagher biography here.