PRINEVILLE — It pays to watch your toes at a Strongman competition. At the Oregon State Feats of Strength competition, held at the Crook County Fairgrounds on Saturday, rock and rap music blared as kegs filled with weights and massive balls of concrete crashed to the floor and competitors as broad as door frames milled about in between their events.

And then there was Alexa Long, a slim 17-year-old who traveled from Reno, Nevada, with her father, Eric, to compete in her second Strongman event. The high school junior said she first took up weightlifting about a year ago after seeing her dad train for his first competition, and the two have been training together several times a week since.

“It was rough at first; there was some blood and tears, literally,” Long said. “It’s something different for me, I never thought I would do this sport. It’s let me discover what my body can do.”

Long said she is the only girl at her school who weight trains competitively, but her friends and classmates have been supportive of her new hobby.

“I have an Instagram account and I’ll post pictures to that, and some of (my friends) will be like, ‘Dang!’” Long said. “Some of (the boys at school) I’m almost equal with now, and it’s kind of funny. They’re like, ‘How much do you bench now?’”

(She can bench press 135 pounds now, for those wondering.)

Long was among the youngest competitors at Feats of Strength, which required contestants to carry a weighted yolk for 100 feet, press kegs and axles above their heads, deadlift an axle and tires, carry a weighted frame as far as possible in 60 seconds, and heave kegs and concrete stones over a bar. But she was far from the only newbie testing her strength.

Sonja Taylor, a 47-year-old insurance agent from Eugene, got her first taste of Strongman — or, in this case, Strongwoman — as a spectator at last year’s event.

“I watched it here last year, and I didn’t know then I was going to compete, but I knew I liked it,” said Taylor, whose other hobbies include water skiing, snowboarding and competitive arm wrestling. “It’s intense, it’s tough — it’s not the usual.”

Taylor’s mother, Cindy Elliot, said her first reaction was, ‘You’re doing WHAT?’ when her daughter first told her she was training to compete in a Strongwoman competition. But Elliot, who traveled from Phoenix, Arizona, to watch her daughter compete, said she has caught the bug as well.

“I watched her training on Facebook and YouTube, but this is my first one,” Elliot said. “I wish I’d known about this 50 years ago, it’s really amazing.”

Even Kristy Scott, who won the women’s middleweight competition Saturday and took the middleweight and heavyweight titles at the 2014 national championship, is relatively new to the sport, branching out from her powerlifting and Scottish Highland Games roots two or three years ago.

“I like this because it’s different from the static lifting and powerlifting — it’s more dynamic,” said the 32-year-old resident of Ellensburg, Washington. “The events change, which lets your training fluctuate more, which is nice for variety.”

Dean Munsey, the Feats of Strength promoter and organizer, said he was not surprised that so many of the participants, particularly the women who made up about a third of the 60-plus contestants on hand, were competing in their first or second event.

“It’s increased hugely in the past couple of years, especially in the women’s divisions,” Munsey said. “I think more gyms have the implements and practice the events. A lot of gyms just don’t have the equipment.”

Scott can attest to the trouble of finding facilities. Although she does much of her training near her home, she has to drive two hours to a gym in Kennewick to practice for Strongman-specific events.

But Sheri Story, a 35-year-old Prineville resident, has the benefit of living right by a training facility and the competition site. Story, a first-time competitor who has been training for six months, said the crowd helped her through her events even if their presence made her a little nervous.

“It’s totally intimidating, and I’m starting to calm down now but I’ve been really nervous today,” Story said. “I did a little powerlifting competition earlier this year, and I didn’t know a lot of people, but I know a lot of people here, and doing something and hearing people yell my name, that really helps.

“The cheering and the loud music, it’s all good. It gets you going.”

—Reporter: 541-383-0305, vjacobsen@bendbulletin.com

“I have an Instagram account and I’ll post pictures to that, and some of (my friends) will be like, ‘Dang!’” Long said. “Some of (the boys at school) I’m almost equal with now, and it’s kind of funny. They’re like, ‘How much do you bench now?’” — Alexa Long, 17, from Reno, Nevada, who can bench press 135 pounds