Mitchell Hooper has conquered Strongman, lifted some of the heaviest weights on the planet and established himself as one of the sport’s biggest names. But stepping into an NFL training camp presented a completely different challenge.
The World’s Strongest Man travelled to Oklahoma after being invited by Philadelphia Eagles star Lane Johnson to experience first-hand what life is like preparing for the NFL season. Rather than simply visiting, Hooper threw himself into the same style of training used by elite American football players to answer one question: could one of the world’s strongest athletes actually compete in the NFL?
Arriving at Johnson’s private facility, Hooper was immediately impressed by what he found.
“We’re out here in Oklahoma invited by Lane Johnson to NFL training camp. We’re going to see whether the world’s strongest man can hang in the NFL,” he said.
Introducing the facility, Hooper gave viewers a tour of what he described as one of the most impressive private gyms he had ever visited.
“This is one of the coolest private training facilities I’ve ever seen,” he said.
The complex featured multiple power racks, specialist strength equipment, sprint lanes, recovery facilities, cold tubs and even full-sized football fields, demonstrating just how much preparation goes into keeping NFL players at peak performance.
Hooper also noted Johnson’s passion for strength training, explaining that the Super Bowl winner had incorporated plenty of Strongman-inspired equipment into his own gym after the pair connected earlier in the year over training methods.
The session itself was led by Johnson’s long-time trainer Gabe Wrangle, who welcomed everyone before making it clear that the priority wasn’t competition but learning.
“We can modify or do anything. Wherever you guys are at in your training, don’t worry about it. Please, the biggest goal, nobody to get hurt. I just want everyone to have fun, push ourselves a little bit, and ask questions. We have so much knowledge in this room. It’s absurd… Let’s have some fun.”
What followed was a demanding day made up of mobility work, sprint drills, medicine ball throws, contact preparation, explosive movements and heavy lifting.
Although Hooper is accustomed to pushing his body to its limits in strongman competitions, the demands of NFL training quickly became obvious. The emphasis wasn’t purely on strength but on movement quality, speed, coordination and repeated high-intensity efforts.
At one point, Hooper joked during the conditioning work, saying, “And now watch me get my ass kicked in some sprints.”
The experience highlighted just how different elite-level American football preparation is compared to training for strongman, despite both sports requiring exceptional physical qualities.
During the video, Hooper also acknowledged an important distinction between himself and the professional football players around him.
“These guys are obviously world class athletes, but there’s one thing that we need to acknowledge. The elephant in the room, I’m able to take whatever I want, and they’re not. They have to comply with WADA rules. I am enhanced. Of course, that’s going to make you stronger, and it’s going to have lots of different effects.”
He then transitioned into a sponsored segment discussing hormone replacement therapy and medically supervised performance optimisation.
As the day progressed, Hooper took part in more technical drills designed to prepare NFL athletes for contact situations before moving into the weight room for heavy strength work.
Later, Wrangle explained that coaching NFL athletes requires much more than simply making them stronger.
“Training pure strength versus the NFL has a lot of lines that are crossed, but there are a lot of separation. I think a lot of young strength coaches don’t test very objectively for specific things where if I’m testing for the bench press, is it actually transferring to the field?
“But I know that if I’m getting him stronger, is it actually affecting something on the field?
“Tailor everything to your athlete. If you’re at a specific university and you’re doing weightlifting, clean, snatch, I expose that where I’m like, ‘Hey, we’re cleaning, we’re jerking, we’re snatching because that’s what you’re good at. Whatever the guy’s good at, I make better.'”
Eventually, Hooper posed the question that had been driving the entire experience.
“As the world’s strongest man, if you had to put odds on me making an NFL roster if I train for an offseason, what would you put the odds at?” he asked.
Wrangle admitted it wouldn’t be impossible but explained there were significant obstacles.
“It’s tough. You know why? Because they’ve tried to do it with a few athletes. The hard part is number one finding a position that would work and two is… finding what position can we actually express this stuff.
“It would be on the D-line. Defensive line would be your best thing… Honestly 75/25. Probably 75 are not going to make it, 25 going to make it.”
Hooper’s response was simple: “25%? Take it.”
Returning home to Las Vegas after the camp, Hooper reflected honestly on the experience and admitted there was a huge difference between possessing elite physical ability and mastering an entirely different sport.
“We answer the question, could I train with NFL players? And absolutely, the gym is my job and I can exceed what NFL players could do, but the jump in logic from physical capability to the skill of actually doing the thing is so vast.”
Ultimately, he accepted the verdict.
“So answer, I probably couldn’t play in the NFL. 25% chance. I think that’s fair. I think one in four chance I could crack a roster, but I found my home in Strongman.”
Despite reaching that conclusion, Hooper believes the experience will have a lasting influence on his own training.
“The one thing that I did take away though, these guys have so much importance on taking care of their bodies for their contracts and for the season. The style that they train in the gym, I think there’s something to pull away from that.
“For me, training moving forward, my body’s in a place where little things are breaking down here and there. I need to do something to get ahead of the curve.”
Hooper finished by thanking Johnson for opening the doors to one of the NFL’s most demanding environments.
“Nonetheless, lessons moving forward, really good things taking away. Big thank you to Lane for setting this all up. It was awesome to hang with the guys. All really good dudes, and that’s the most important thing.”
Featured image credit: Mitchell Hooper / YouTube
