Birdsley shines at USS Strongman Nationals

Porshia Birdsley rests easy - at least for the moment - in her Gottsche Gym surroundings. Aside from the weights and machines, there is a space dedicated to Birdsley's many wins on the Strongman circuit, including her biggest and most recent win, the United States Strongman National Championship on June 28 in Concord, North Carolina. She is now the best in the world in her weight range. 

USS Nationals had Birdsley competing with 15 other athletes, and her score of 79 out of 80 gave her a landslide win. She placed first in all events save one, and even then, she was off by only one second. 

For those of us not in the know, "Strongman is a strength sport that tests the athlete in typically five different events that test upper body, lower body, grip, endurance, and total body ability strengths." For the USS Nationals, Birdsley explains each event and how she did. 

Her first event was the yoke carry, "which is 500 pounds on your back, and you get under it and go as quick as you can 60 feet. I did it in about 10 seconds." 

"The second event was the 170-pound log, clean and press each rep within one minute, and I got nine reps in one minute." That is five more than the person who came in second, and only four of the 16 competitors completed even one. 

The third one was the frame carry, "60 feet down, 60 feet back [with a] 360-pound frame. I did it in 17.07 seconds."

But the fourth one, the frame deadlift, Birdsley says is crazy. "So this one is 400 pounds, that frame, and you have to deadlift it up. You get 70 seconds to strap in and deadlift, and I did 24 reps in that amount of time." 

"The very last one was sandbags over a bar," which was 13 feet high and three bags of increasing weight - 20, 25, and 30 pounds - carried to and thrown over that bar. "I was the only one to get all three bags" over the bar, which gave Birdsley an easy win. 

Birdsley has been developing her Strongman abilities for three years, starting in April of 2022 and inspired by a visit to Gottsche Gym from Chad Lowry, a Strongman competitor from Montana. Birdsley gave a log lift a shot, and her natural ability allowed her to qualify for nationals at her first competition. "That's when I really decided I enjoyed it, I was good at it, and I wanted to see where I could go with it. You can achieve more than you might think you can." 

Birdsley also relies on three things to keep her going - faith, family, and this work. "It's a great platform to share with other young girls and women that being strong and healthy is a good thing." 

On August 16, Birdsley heads to Dublin with her husband to compete in the Static Monsters World Championships 2025. "It's just a maximal log [lift] and maximal 18" axle deadlift. Those are the two events. I qualified by being top 10 in the world," Birdsley notes. "I will be competing against 180+ pound girls, so that will be a little bit more of a challenge for me." 

Less than a month later, on September 6, Birdsley will head to the Gallatin County Fairgrounds in Bozeman, Montana for the USS Pro International, an event that will qualify her for her USS Pro Card. "Winning [USS Nationals] qualified me to compete at this competition to win my card if I win first," says Birdsley. 

Pro Cards are a sign of elite athleticism in the United States Strongman industry and would give Birdsley not only bragging rights, but also further her goals of becoming qualified as a Strongman Corporation Pro. But Strongman Corp is next year. Right now, she's focusing on the next couple of months. 

You can watch her at the USS Pro International in Bozeman on September 6 by visiting ironpodium.com and searching for events.