No, don’t worry beforehand. But on 1 January, one of Sarah Backman’s fans posted such a question on her Facebook profile. “Why are you training so much legs, bench press and deadlifts when you’re an armwrestler?”

Sarah replied: I've been training armwrestling specific for 6 years and this year was my hardest one, prior to the World Championships in September 2012. Directly after the championship, I continued with hard armwrestling specific training and had two more tough competitions. The result was two overtrained and injured elbows, biceps and shoulders.

I realized I needed a little break and the break is going on right now, but calm down, I’ll soon go into a more specific training for the Swedish Nationals in March, European Championships in May and World Championships in September. This is a natural part of an athlete’s periodization during a year. Besides, squats, bench press and deadlifts may turn out to be useful, if I ever decide to compete in powerlifting!

Sarah Backman

Sweden; A multi-medallist. In 2012, a double European champion in the 70 kg category and double world champion in the same category. At Nemiroff World Cup 2012 she won silver with the left and right hand in the 65 kg category.