Canadian strongman Mitchell Hooper has quickly made a name for himself as one of the strongest athletes on the planet despite being in only his second year of competing. While a lot of factors helped him reach this point, in a recent video uploaded on his YouTube channel, Hooper shared some tips and an intense workout using blood flow restriction to boost strength.
Mitchell Hooper emerged as one of the fastest-growing strongman competitors last year and quickly claimed his place among the best. He got the opportunity to participate in the 2022 World’s Strongest Man after Rauno Heinla withdrew from the contest. Hooper proved his potential by dominating the qualifying stages of the event, beating the likes of iconic Strongman Brian Shaw in the process.
Following a strong debut, Hooper scored back-to-back bronze medals at the 2022 Shaw Classic and Rogue Invitational. Then, he made his way to the 2022 Giants Live World Tour Finals and placed on top of the podium. His next outing saw him secure the 2023 Arnold Strongman Classic title just a few months ago.
Hooper earned the biggest win of his career against a stacked lineup at the 2023 World’s Strongest Man three months ago. He turned in an impressive performance and defeated former champions Shaw, Novikov, and Tom Stoltman. The 27-year-old then called for the development of a comprehensive ruleset for the athletes after winning the 2023 WSM. He recalled his experience and identified problems he faced given the ambiguity in the show’s guidelines.
Hooper offered his ‘non-negotiable’ supplements and opened up on using alcohol and sugar for recovery two months ago. He encouraged his fans to add creatine and protein supplements.
Mitchell Hooper crushed a challenging endurance workout where he performed a 465-pound squat for 20 reps around two months ago. He followed up by breaking bodybuilding veteran Tom Platz’s 1992 legendary squat record. Platz set the bar high at 23 reps but Hooper managed to squeeze out 24 reps to get ahead of the original record. He followed up by challenging himself to strongman legend Eddie Hall’s notorious ‘Death by Deadlift’ set.
Hooper gave fans a look into his supplement stack last month. Along with the supplements, he detailed the protein shake he consumes for gaining muscle and the pre-workout slushy that gets him energized for training.
Mitchell Hooper Shares Intense Blood Flow Restriction Workout for Strength
In a recent YouTube video, Mitchell Hooper explained the benefits of using blood flow restriction training for muscle endurance.
“It’s simply restricting how much blood can get out,” said Hooper. “It’s not saying no blood out because no blood out means that your arm will literally start to explode but it means limiting how much can get out, meaning that we are going to start starving our muscles of oxygen. Why would we want to do that? Every time we put a stimulus into the body, we agree going to get a response. In this case, the response to starving the muscle, is going to be the adaptation to improved capacity in the absence of oxygen.
“We are going to increase the number of oxidative enzymes pulling the oxygen from the bloodstream into the muscle. A great way to work with the cuffs is you could have your session finish, as a finisher if you will, and you have up regulated enzymes for the next time you go do a session. You’re going to be capable of more thanks to the up regulation of those enzymes.”
He suggested using a Saga arm cuff in order to restrict blood flow to the muscles.
Moreover, Hooper laid out an intense blood flow restriction workout for building strength.
“First and foremost, I would never use these on a set below five. Anything heavy, these are not going to be appropriate. But these are going to be very good for building muscular endurance so I would do this towards the end of a session when I’m doing higher volume accessory work. These are also very useful to get a stimulus from the muscle with lower weight. This is a way to handle more volume with lower neural fatigue and handle more volume if you’re recovering from injury. So, something I would do to build a little bit of muscular endurance and capacity or into a competition where we had high volumes of, say an overhead press, is I would set up a little circuit with lighter weights to get a stimulus local to my arms.”
“We’ve got two 50-pound dumbbells and two 25-lb dumbbells. I’m going to do a set of 15 bench press, set of 15 curls, set of 15 skull crushers. I’m going to repeat that three times and take a 30 second rest between each round. Without these guys on, this would be absolutely no problem for me, it wouldn’t even qualify as a workout.”
Hooper’s blood flow restriction workout:
- Flat Bench Dumbbell Press
- Standing Dumbbell Curl
- Skull Crushers
*Perform 15 reps of each and repeat for 3 sets with 30 seconds of rest in between rounds.
Blood flow restriction exercise is a great option for folks who may not be able to do high-intensity workouts or prefer a different approach. It’s a safe way to enhance muscle strength, power, and function, while also boosting aerobic endurance
Mitchell Hooper provided fans with a look into his day about three weeks ago. There he revealed his regular training and diet regimens, as well as how he balances out his workouts with his work. He opened up about his mental health challenges and suicidal thoughts days later on a podcast with Flex Lewis.
Hooper recorded a huge 463-lb bench press PR for three reps while in prep for the upcoming 2023 Shaw Classic last week. Then, he joined forces with seven-time Men’s 212 champion, Flex Lewis, for a grueling shoulder workout.
Based on the latest update, it’s clear Hooper utilizes a range of training methods to stay ahead of the game and fans will be excited to see him perform at the Shaw Classic later this year.
You can watch the full video below.