​Robbie von Schlag

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For over 20 years, I have been training as an athlete and in the fitness genre.

 

I competed in AA travel hockey for 8 years and obtained a first-degree black belt in traditional Japanese martial arts.

 

I spent over a decade working with different sports, different age groups, training environments and modalities.

 

Seven years ago, my partners and I opened the only strength-focused gym in the panhandle of West Virginia. In 2019, I began to change focus into strength training. With my shift of focus, I pursued my own competitive career and obtained my professional status in traditional stone lifting and grip sports.

 

I have refereed or judged at many local, regional, and international level events.

 

Six years ago, I became a world-sanctioned power-lifting referee. I pursued judge status in multiple bodybuilding organizations and have judged and promoted many bodybuilding competitions.

 

In my pursuit of supporting my gym and athletes, I pursued certification through the most prestigious tanning group and got certified as a Protan applicator.

 

A lot of people can do spray tan, but I wanted to be able to provide the best for our gym, our athletes and competitors.

 

I participated in and refereed at multiple strength and strongman events, hosting, judging, and engaging in all aspects of the sport and competitions.

 

With the environment that we created in our gym, I began working with members, including amateur and pro athletes for the past 6 years.

 

Over the years, I have expanded my focus into working with our gym members and other athletes in strength fitness to meet their needs and help them reach their goals and ambitions.

 

My general approach is that you are a strength athlete first, a strength athlete that does bodybuilding, strong man, power-lifting, stone lifting, Scottish highland games, grip, etc.

 

The fitness and sport industry has multiple different aspects. For example, other sports are not strength in their core, like track and field, which requires strength but it is not the central focus. I work with my athletes to create an environment that they are a strength athlete with a specialized focus.

 

I don’t recreate the wheel, I look at the giants that came before me, Ed Coan, CT Fletcher, Paul Anderson, Friedrich Wilhelm Muller.

 

My approach is that what you do with the excellence of today becomes your normal and tomorrow we have to better that. There is no one else in the world that you have to be accountable to but yourself, you are accountable only to yourself for your successes or failures.

 

It doesn’t matter if you're a seasoned professional that can bench press over 500 pounds, or you're over 50 years old, bench pressing 75 pounds. It’s not the amount of weight that matters, its your fortitude, motivation and intensity that you bring to the table.

 

I approach all individuals from a competing or noncompeting mentality. You are an athlete, you can make amazing happen. Don’t be satisfied with what you were but rather what you can become.