Craig Bongelli’s story is one of the most ridiculous journeys in the history of coaching but he swears everything you’re about to read is true…

Craig’s earliest athletic passion was boxing, mostly because of the watching (and re-watching) of Rocky with his Grandfather, and from 13-17 Craig trained and fought out of his local police sponsored boxing academy… because even if you couldn’t afford it, they would still let you box.

That all changed with the chance meeting of Scotland’s Strongest Man, Jamie Barr, when he came to Canada for a highland games event. At 6’2, 270 lbs and covered in tattoos, Jamie Barr was the flash of inspiration that inspired the 6’2 and 150 lbs Craig to quit boxing and set out to become a strongman.

Five years later Craig had gained 150 lbs (doubling his bodyweight in 5 years) and was competing as an amateur strongman.

It was during this training craig suffered a catastrophic back injury that left him bedridden for nearly a week. In his frustration he read everything he could find about fixing his injury and making sure it never happened again. During his search for knowledge he stumbled across the writings of Louie Simmons, founder of Westside Barbell, and began to read about the system known as “Conjugate”.

After reading as much as he could find, he still had questions, so he did the only thing he could think of… he called Westside Barbell to ask Louie directly.

This phone call lead to his invitation to come to Westside and began a decade long mentorship with Louie - something that transformed him as a man and as a coach. (It also lead to his first magazine article being published because he had to come up with some idea to get the money he needed for the trip to Ohio)

With the guidance he received from Louie Simmons, as well as the lessons he learned living in Alaska with 3x World’s Strongest Man Bill Kazmaier, Craig achieved his dream of becoming a professional strongman… he also became the star of the most infamous strongman “fail” in history.

During the construction to open his first gym (Lil’s - named after his dog Lilly) Craig fell through a window, cut an artery in his right wrist and nearly bled to death. (The paramedics told him he had 45-70 seconds left when they got there) About two months later there was a professional strongman event being held in his home town and Craig felt that regardless of his condition (and lack of training) he had to compete.

In the final event, the atlas stones, on the very last stone, Craig passed out and fell backwards with a 360 lb rock on his chest.

He was fine, even making it to the after party that night, and still tying for 3rd in the contest, but the video became one of the most watched videos on the internet for 3 weeks straight and made national news in China, Russian and Canada.

After the accident Craig competed for two more years as a professional before retiring to focus on coaching full time. (While doing that he also decided to drop 100 lbs - getting as low as 220, run a marathon and join the military for two years to test his personal discipline)

Since then he has written 3 books, 20+ magazine articles and coached World Champions, World Record Holders, Olympians, a Ms Fitness Olympian, dozes of the top professional and amateur athletes in Canada and the USA and his favorite client, Trudy, who hit 17 bodyweight pull ups at 67 years old!

Today Craig lives in Austin, Texas after being recruited as the in-house Conjugate Training Expert for Onnit Gym and continues to work with some of the top athletes in the world as well as hundreds of clients online who want to improve their performance in their every day lives. He spends his free time with his wife and daughters, their dog Daphne and firmly believes that speaking about yourself in the 3rd person is slightly idiotic.