This is a Hot…Hot…Hot (103 degrees) Hot!

My nephew Ryan Malin…Hot and hard work.

Becoming a Strongman
For the Spectrum & Daily News

What boy wouldn’t like to be strong and look like his heroes? Ryan Malin, of Washington City, was no different while growing up watching body builders.

“When I was a kid, I watched the strongest man competition on television,” Malin said. “They had great strength. I wanted to be like them. They were my heroes, like Arnold Schwarzenegger. I just liked the idea of being big.”

At 15, Ryan was 6-foot-2-inches and weighed 115 pounds and was on the wrestling team at Pine View High School.

“I started out being tall and scrawny,” Malin said. “Being little, I wanted to change that and started working on body building.”

Malin started competing in body building at the age of 17. His coaches, including wrestling coach Vance Casperson at Pine View High School, encouraged him to train.

“(Casperson) taught me something very important, how to feel good about myself,” Malin said.

He placed first in freestyle at state and fifth at state for wrestling. His mentor was Marty Haughton Boding at Gold’s Gym in St. George.

In 2003, at 19, the many hours spent at body building paid off. Malin placed second as Teen Mr. Utah competing in Bountiful.

“It was fun for me,” he said, “but appearance is all part of the body building, whereas the Strongman Competition is strength, so I switched to that sport.”

ow at 25, 6-foot-4-inches and weighing 300 pounds, Malin is competing in the Strongman Competitions.”The Strongman competition is designed around the work industry of pure strength of feats like pulling trucks, flipping cars, keg toss, log lift or throwing the Atlas Stones,” Malin said. “I like doing them all and train to do them.”

Training takes at least 1 1/2 to 2 hours six days a week at home as well as at Gold’s Gym and the Academy, where Malin works.

Working out with the weights on a daily basis helps him keep in good condition. He says it is also good to get a good night’s rest.

“I don’t really have a regular time for bed or when I get up,” he said. “I’m a night owl and not a morning person but it’s important for me to get eight hours straight sleep, which I do. Everyday it is different when I go to bed and when I arise.”

He believes it is also important to have a good attitude and to have confidence.

“My favorite saying is taken from one of my favorite movies ‘The Departed.’ It is this, ‘I don’t want to be a product my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me,’” Malin said. “My parents also taught me that ‘You can do and achieve anything you want to.’ These thoughts are what I try to teach the kids I mentor at the academy.”

Competing in Strongman

This is Ryan’s first year competing in Strongman events. In his first competition in Phoenix, he placed seventh out of 40 heavy weights in the Dead Lift Medley. He lifted in five different events that day dead lifting 700 pounds, the 600 pound bar, and the 700 dead lift weights.

In the Huntington Beach, Calif., competition, Malin placed seventh out of 25, pulling a 40,000 semi-truck. In July, he was also training for the Colorado Strongman Competition.

Switching from body building to strongman competition also had a lot to do with diet.

“I hated the body building diet I had to follow, which was three months of eating a strict diet of protein, rice and broccoli throughout the day,” he said. His diet now includes anything and as much as he wants to get at least 8,000 calories a day.

He attributes his success to his sponsor, Coral Canyon Chiropractic.

“I would not even be able to go to these events without my wonderful sponsor …” Malin said. “When I was injured at one of the meets, the chiropractor adjustments and the supplements helped my healing recovery time in less time.”

Coral Canyon Chiropractic is a partnership with Dr. Kelly Murie, Dr. Joshua Carr and Dr. Adam Murie. They met Malin when he came into their practice because of an injury he incurred while training.

“We work on his body to help him have performance enhancement to avoid injury, hopefully, during competition,” Murie said. “He is a special guy to take the rigors of the competition.”

They use the Active Release Technique, which effectively restores normal function to tissues in the body by breaking down the fibrous adhesions that cause tension and pain through combined pressure and stretching in a specialized manner.

“Through restoring range of motion to the joints and muscles, Ryan is more effectively able to strengthen more of the muscle fibers of a region,” Murie said. “Without it, he could not fully move through a full range of motion. Chiropractic manipulation and ART restore that motion so he can heal faster, but also strengthens better.”

Currently employed at the Abundant Life Academy in Kanab, Malin counsels with youth, ages 18, mentoring, working on self-esteem and teaching them lifting techniques.

“I like to give,” Malin said. “It is a very rewarding position to work with these boys.”

Malin’s future plans include preparing to go to nationals. He plans to start his own business by opening a fitness center in Hurricane. He is also in the process of developing a supplement drink.

Thaya Gilmore
St. George Spectrum News

The hot sports season has begun.

It’s officially hot in St. George, Utah, Mesquite, Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada and surrounding areas.

This season we’ll have Rugby National Championships pics, Strongman (Iron-men) competitors interview, Volleyball defending National Champions review, and an Ironman survivors interviews from St. George’s first Ironman event and much more…as it’s heating up!

Been fired? Why not get fired up to run 23 miles!

You’d have a lot of company.

People who are non-voluntarily taking time out from the rat race, are increasingly hitting the treadmill, the track or the open road to train for regular races. And the results can benefit at least your bottom. (A physical exercise regimen, one that is approved by a certified fitness or medical professional, is after all, healthy.)

According to the Wall Street Journal: “Marathons, triathlons and road races are filling up in record time.” The reason? More jobless folks have more time on their hands. According to the Journal, participation in Marathons is up 5% this year and certain races are filling up in a flash: the New York City Triathlon booked up in less than a half hour this year. Last year it took eight hours.

Related Articles

Running can be a great stress reducer, and compared to other sports and fitness plans, the participation costs can be very low (beyond a great pair of comfortable running shoes).

Are you interested in getting your run on?

Consider joining a running club. Clubs can be located online, or you can get a recommendation from your local gym, running specialty shop or recreation department.

A running partner can help you stay committed to a new training schedule.

Even if you don’t start running races right away, consider volunteering at a local race, it can be a great way to network with other runners.

By Ben Pappas

Catch the wave.

It sounds like something you’d hear at the beach.

The Wave software from Google will be a very hot product for people to use SunESports, and the wave can be a way to be instantly connected to your most fun fanatical and followed sports.

The developers of Google maps brought out the Wave software to update what’s known as Rich text or HTML 5 with APIs for the many popular software like Facebook, Twitter, iPhone etc.

The interest of wave is so compelling because of the API that allows a person to drag and drop sports photos, YouTube videos and To comment as well as to invite other people to watch their fanatical support or to simply update a games score.

I look forward with great interest to see SunESports and all its hot users connecting with what is hopefully the way we will communicate far into the future, but especially about our favorite sports.

Stay tuned to catch the wave… this should be before year-end!

The Utes open their first NCAA tournament since 1960 on Friday when they play the number 2 seed Cal State Fullerton and host of the four team regional.

With the Dixie Red Storm Men and Women’s baseball and softball teams and the Utes up north, we are flexing our amateur sports muscle once again.

It is great to see such great performances by all.

Good luck!

The Arizona CC Roughriders will square off against Darton, Georgia CC and on the other three diamonds, you’ll see Odessa Texas College against Wabash Illinois CC. The Florida CC at Jacksonville versus South Eastern Iowa CC and Blinn, Texas College takes on North-Central College.

Equaling out the brackets you’ll see Wallace, Alabama. CC Lady Lions versus Seward County Kansas is CC. The Salt Lake CC Bruins takes on Otero, Colorado JC, while the Spartanburg, South Carolina CC will be playing the Seminole Oklahoma CC and but not least the Gulf Coast, Florida CC will square off against the Motow State Tennessee college.

To highlight the championship performances you will see Taylor Viafanuna who had recently been featured on the ‘American Idol’.

Viafanuna will be available after performances to sign autographs and take pictures with fans.

The National Championship game will take place at 2 PM Saturday followed by a game two if necessary, at 4 PM.

This years softball championship is the first of a three year agreement between the city of St. George and and NJCAA to host the annual National Championship tournaments.

This’ll be the first sports National Championship at any collegiate level to be held in the city of St. George and The Canyons Softball Complex.

This excellent forum begins another step in seeing St. George, Mesquite, Cedar City and Las Vegas as the Amateur Sports Capital of the World.

SkyWest winning this award for the second year and the new airport soon to be finished you’ll see a dramatic increase in amateur sports competitors, visitors and supporters for the upcoming 10 to 20 years.

With the Huntsman Senior games already bringing in huge amounts of revenue to the St. George economy. We we will add to that the Ford Ironman Triathlon, and the completion of the Mesquite Amateur Sports Facility.

I mentioned in an earlier blog that every hotel for Mesquite to St. George would be filled at capacity, during just one archery tournament.

I remember the day, living in St. George, when there was 25,000 people and then Dixie College would go into session and we have like 50,000 people in St. George.

With all these exciting new amateur sports events being hosted by St. George, Cedar, Mesquite and of course Las Vegas. We will see many economic gains that will help St. George and the surrounding cities mentioned during a downturn economy.

The outlook for amateur sports in the southwest could become one of the largest in the world quite soon.

Who is next to go down in fire.

Will professional sports allow that to happen in a downturn of the economy, would the government even look at it?

An estimated 600 people, adults and students attended Milford Valleys Utah renewable energy fair.

One of the highlights was an electric car race to showcase some of the talented renewable options available from Utah’s attendees that competed. Of those competitors we saw the University Utah, BYU and local high schools in attendance.

With the nation going green Utah has an opportunity to take this from an amateur sporting event to a real economic and professional venture engine.

We look forward to future competitions as well as the great ideas that will fuel the green energy needs for the future.