Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Greg Orosz. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Greg, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

The biggest risk I have ever taken was going to college. Up until Christmas break of my senior year of high school I had every intention of joining the military and then working for my family business upon finishing my service. The week before break, my track coach informed me that he had a handful of colleges looking at me to throw on the track team and because of that, I applied to the two schools that were in Colorado. My first choice being Western State College and my second choice being the University of Northern Colorado because they both have excellent Exercise Science departments and I knew that if I were to go to college it would be something exercise related.

I never had much intention of going to college because I have never been considered the smartest person in the room, but sports got me through high school, so I figured that they may get me through college as well and I was correct. I got a small scholarship for track and field, I also walked onto the football team and made the team.

After a series of unfortunate events, I had to quit football due to concussions and I also left the track team due to a disagreement with my coach on the direction I should take with the sport. I continued to go to school and tried my hardest to be the best student I could and then a good friend of mine invited me to try out for the cheer team. Once I found cheerleading, I found my motivation to stay in school.

The hardest part of this entire situation was that I was the first in my family to go to college, so I was learning how the college system worked on my own without much guidance, which was far more difficult than I ever expected..

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have always been into sports and fitness. I started playing full contact football in the 2nd grade, that same year I started playing tee ball. The next year I got into basketball as well. Once I got sick of kids intentionally hitting me with baseballs, I learned about track and field, and because of my size I was drawn to shot put and discus. When I got to middle school I learned about wrestling and decided to try my hand at it and I fell in love with the sport in an instant, which meant giving up on basketball.

Throughout high school I was a year round 3 sport athlete. I never took breaks between seasons because I always wanted to be the best athlete that I could. I was never naturally talented, had the best conditioning, or was the most athletic, but I knew if I out worked everybody else, then I could win.

It is from this mentality that I came up with Work Harder Fitness. I focus on strength and conditioning, but anybody is welcome to take on the challenge to work harder than anybody else.

I want my clients and followers to know that if they work hard enough, they can achieve their goals. Like Tim Notke said “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” I want the people that I surround myself with to know that if they walk into a competition that they have out worked everybody else in their group.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When I was a sophomore in high school (2006) I got to start on the football team for one game, which just so happened to be the last game of the season. Four minutes into the game I got tripped up while running down the field, fell weird, and hurt my shoulder. I never went to the doctor because I knew that they would likely tell me that my sports school year was over.

Fast forward to 2014, I am at my first Strongman Nationals in Reno, Nevada and the first event is the keg press. I grab the keg, get it to my chest, start to initiate the press and feel my shoulder dislocate, to which I proceeded to drop the keg on my head. It was in that moment that I made the decision to go figure out what was going on. In May of 2015 I went in for an ortho appointment and after a CT and MRI it was determined that my rotator cuff was torn and my bicep was almost completely severed. The doctor was amazed that my shoulder was functional for almost 10 years. I scheduled surgery for November 5th, 2015 and when they got into it, it ended up being worse than they thought. The original plan to only take 2 hours in surgery took almost 5 hours. At my first post op appointment my doctor told me that he would be amazed if I would ever be able to lift anything overhead ever again.

Within 12 weeks I was cleared to start lifting again. I felt stupid at first being forced to use 5 and 10 pound dumbbells, but I knew there was a purpose and I stuck to it. Now, 2023, I can overhead press over 300 pounds and I am working towards 400+ pounds hopefully soon!

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

I am a firm believer that knowledge is power. As it pertains to Strongman/woman, experience is irreplaceable. Anybody can watch a video or read a book and know what is “optimal” for training, but without having first hand knowledge, nothing will be the same. The thing about being a strength coach is learning the proper balance between science and art for every different client in order to get the best growth.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.workharderfitness.net/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/costrongman/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@costrongman