Two men square off on each side of a table, clasping hands and waiting for the referee to give the go-ahead to pull. Corey “The Flash” Miller readies for quite a battle against Sweden’s Johannes Anderssen at the 2022 International Federation of Armwrestling. The referee starts the match, and Miller rips his opponent’s hand backward toward the table. However, the two reach a stalemate, and the match must be restarted twice.

The third time’s the charm for Miller. His armed attack sees Anderssen’s arm eventually give way and hit the table in defeat. Miller is one of the top arm wrestlers in the country and has won numerous championships in several weight classes. The 40-year-old father of three loves the sport and has won 27 state titles across 12 states. His record includes 32 national championships. “Pulling” just seems natural for this athlete from Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Arm Wrestling Icon Corey Miller

“I’ve been good at almost every sport that I’ve ever tried,” Miller says. “Arm wrestling took that sports drive to another level, and it was something that I excelled at really quickly. I feel like I’ve learned it better than most people. Most people are jocks who are ripped out of their minds and don’t really analyze things like I do. They don’t try to figure it out.

“I’ve spent a long time trying to figure it out and spending hours on the table, analyzing different pressures, analyzing different things with hand to wrist, and ways of working out techniques. There’s much to this, not just about being strong. I think that, in reality, I’m a problem solver. So that the concept of arm wrestling is to figure things out.”

Miller has certainly done that and recently spoke with Skillset about life in the sport and what it’s like competing as a professional arm wrestler.

Primed for Competition

Miller first began waging arm warfare in 2003. He grew up playing football, track, soccer, basketball, and wrestling and also added bench press tournaments in high school. One of those contests included an arm wrestling contest.

Most boys at that age mess around arm wrestling with friends, but Miller didn’t realize there was a whole world of organized competition. He jumped in, did pretty well, and attended another competition in Wyoming a short time later. With no one in his weight class, Miller, who was 17 then, moved up a class and finished in the top three.

Another event followed in Colorado, and “The Flash” went undefeated before only losing in the finals. He seemed to have found his calling.

“Lots of people were just telling me that I was going to be good and that I should keep it up, and the rest is history,” he says.

Now, 22 years later, Miller is a highly decorated arm warrior who competes in numerous weight classes and even runs events when not working at his day job in infrastructure and cybersecurity at a Cheyenne hospital. The sport has taken him worldwide, winning many of those competitions along the way – including against larger men.

“I’ve been known for not caring about weight,” he says. “I just go in there and pull every weight class. I weighed 145 pounds when I first started arm wrestling. I would come into the tournaments and pull my weight class and everything else.”

Because of his success, tournament organizers eventually limited the number of titles he could win to three, but he continued moving up the weight classes and winning titles.

A Cool Side Job

Those new to arm wrestling might be surprised to learn that there are competitions all over the world. Professionals can earn thousands of dollars per event, and there are also “super matches” and even pay-per-view events that can pay competitors even more.

“If you were good in the day, pulling up classes, you could travel around enough to win a lot of money,” he says. “I think the most I ever won in one year, when I was going full out back in college, was probably $30,000 a year just in arm wrestling.”

After dialing back his travel routine over the last few years, Miller makes $15,000 to $20,000 in super matches and other competitions. Running tournaments also brings in some cash, making arm wrestling quite the side gig.

Tournament Life

An average tournament sees wrestlers compete in multiple weight classes and divisions, with even kids’ divisions for young competitors. The sport became a family affair for Corey Miller, as his kids got into the action and competed as well.

During tournaments, competitors weigh before the competition, and contestants typically “pull” on Saturdays. The number of competitors varies depending on the competition. Miller’s tournaments tend to be larger, with as many as 400 competitors, and he often competes in those as well.

Those jumping into these battles aren’t just gym rats. There’s a wide variety of people ready to throw down – men and women from kids all the way to 70 and older.

“I just got back from nationals two weeks ago, and we had about 300 people across every single age group,” he says. “You have everything from guys like me who are in IT and do computers for a living, to farm boys to strong men to literally everything, every walk of life you can think of. Women, men, kids, you name it, they’re all there.”

Training, Injuries, & More

Arm wrestling has gained some notoriety through the years with televised events, including occasional coverage on ESPN. Many may also remember the 1987 movie Over the Top, where Sylvester Stallone played a long-haul truck driver who competed to become a champion arm wrestler. While that film may not exactly be a classic, it did put the sport in the spotlight.

And just like any sport, competing at the highest level comes with preparation. Corey Miller is known as being one of the fastest, hence the nickname. And smartest arm wrestlers in this regard and takes training seriously.

“People come to me for training all the time,” he says. “I have a slew of different people that I train off the Internet with regimens and stuff. The types of arm wrestling exercises range from very complex to the most basic. Typically, your standard exercises are pull-ups, rows, one-arm curls, hammer curls, regular curls, and many things involving the hands and wrists.

“I’m a big person on tendon strength over muscles. The pressure is to build really strong tendons and ligaments. I’ve been fortunate enough not ever to tear one, so I think that speaks to that. A lot of arm muscles end up tearing tendons and biceps.”

Corey Miller Injuries

That doesn’t mean Corey Miller hasn’t seen his fair share of injuries. He separated the muscle in his shoulder once. He also hurt his elbow last year after fluid built up behind a ligament, tore his left tricep muscle last year, and has experienced some other minor problems. Beyond those, he’s been fortunate not to require any surgeries.

Most people might not expect that the company computer guy moonlights as a professional arm wrestler and wouldn’t necessarily know he competes in something like that. He’s strong but doesn’t look like a ripped Hercules. He began his career at 145 pounds and now weighs 180.

How do most people react when they learn about his life, slamming opponents’ arms down on the table and collecting cash for his wins?

“Since I’ve been at the hospital for about 13 years now, most of my co-workers already know,” he says. “Some of them have actually seen me arm wrestling. Think it’s pretty cool. But most of the time, with any of those weird one-off sports, if you’ve ever told someone that you do something like that, they’ll just look at you like you’re crazy.”

When not competing, Miler loves hunting, fishing, and anything outdoors. Beyond that, arm wrestling occupies much of his time. He and a friend started a company called AERS Arm (American Elo Rating System), a performance-based system that tracks and analyzes match data from tournaments and other events. What has kept him competing and so involved in the sport for more than two decades?

“Probably the competitiveness,” he says. “The one-on-one competition is about having more than just strength – being smart  and understanding the arm.”