STRENGTH OF CHARACTER Away from the compression tights and almond shakes, a grittier fitness movement is gathering pace. Strongman training sees men hunting for a cruder, more visceral experience. But with the threat of injury never far away, can the benefits outweigh the bruises?

WORDS BY DAN MASOLIVER – PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID ELLIS GUTTER CREDIT GUTTER CREDIT GUTTER

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of independent gyms swapping out TURN A SPARE TYRE INTO squat racks for Atlas stones is rising; and A SOLUTION RATHER they’re seeing their attendance figures THAN A PROBLEM THE swell as fast as their members’ muscle mass. The Welsh national team used similar training drills to prepare for the last Rugby World Cup and it’s Chris 2% of young British men would describe 20:57 Hemsworth’s method of choice when it themselves as ‘masculine’. Can it be mere comes to getting his Thor on. In short, coincidence, then, that so many of us strongman training is now a big deal. are trying to reconnect with our inner FROM But is it a deal you want in on? When caveman? “There’s something really it puts such brutal demands on the body, satisfying about flipping a tyre, throwing is strongman training really a sensible it to the ground, hearing that loud noise option for the weekend warrior in search and thinking: ‘I just did that,’” says Blair. CANNON of a change-up? And can it provide huge “It makes you feel powerful. And physical results without breaking you? To find out, power is very addictive.” I am embarking on a strongman regime STREET of Valhallan proportions. HEAVY MONEY If power really is a jones, then there’s BLOODY BUT UNBOWED a particular breed of human who acts My quest for strength begins in the as the ‘junkie’ of the strongman world. RUMBLES Commando Temple gym, occupying This group is so devoted to the pursuit of two railway arches in Deptford, south- strength that they’ll put their health on east London. One of the best-equipped the line to secure their next fix. ABOVE, and most highly respected strongman For decades, the World’s Strongest Man shepherding flocks of office workers from facilities in the country, it looks more competition has been as much a fixture the glass and steel finance factories of the like a salvage yard than a gym. Beer kegs of the Christmas TV schedule as The City back toward the comfort of home. share shelf space with stones plucked Italian Job or a Morecambe & Wise rerun Unbeknown to these weary commuters, from Welsh quarries; circus dumbbells – fondly regarded yet rarely more than down in the railway arches below, a small rest alongside anvils with painted-on half-watched. To all but a devoted few, the group of men is engaged in a gruelling, nicknames like ‘The Beast’; and next to spectacle was often seen as more novelty primal test of strength. The departing the collection of Atlas stones arranged sideshow than serious sporting contest. train sends shockwaves through the in ascending order of weight sits a box of However, over the past 12 months, that half-tonne tyre which our hands are 6in nails for people to work on their grip stone at my feet, telling me to grab it and “You can’t just throw a half-tonne tyre or has begun to change. And this is thanks holding in a white-knuckle grip. Sweat strength… by attempting to bend them. thrust it up onto my shoulder. Back in HEAVY LIFTING some natural stones into a commercial in no small part to 29-year-old Eddie Hall, drips from my chin and flows between the The strongman principles are simple: my regular gym I can barbell deadlift The key to a strongman core is joint and tell people to get on with it,” six-time winner of UK’s Strongest Man. 4in-thick treads, pooling on the concrete you do your best to lift, carry or pull stuff. three times this weight, but with all of mastering the hefting of awkward, says Blair. “They’d rather have a £4000 Last summer, Hall made history by floor below. I glance at the two men on my Heavy stuff. Unorthodox, uncomfortable its awkward angles and irregularities, irregular objects for a full-body Cybex running machine that everybody becoming the first person to deadlift flanks. Each face contorts in anticipation. stuff. Not just barbells, with their I struggle to even get a firm grip on the workout. Follow coach Rob Blair’s knows how to use, and that everybody’s 500kg. The video of the heavy-metal- The command comes. On the count evenly distributed loads and carefully rock. My sorry attempts leave my hips primer to muscle up your credentials going to be safe using. Here, we don’t want bearded, mohawk-sporting Hall pulling of three, slowly, stubbornly, the tyre rises. engineered hand holds, and clavicles with to be seen anywhere near the running- half a tonne of weight up his oak- We double our efforts, releasing a chorus but rocks, anchors, painful black-and- Atlas stones machine crew. A lot of independent gyms thick thighs, locking out the lift, then of strained groans as we lever our thighs trucks, tree trunks, “STRONGMAN blue mementos Chalk up, then get your arms under are now setting themselves apart by collapsing in a 28-stone heap on the floor between concrete and rubber. Tomorrow, people, planes. The MAKES YOU FEEL of my ineptitude. either side of the stone and squeeze having these toys available.” in front of the assembled masses, went my knees will be swollen, my shoulders sort of stuff that bashes “They’re puzzles until your hands turn white. Hug the To Blair’s mind, strongman offers an viral and captured the imaginations of a deep shade of purple, and my hands your shins, bruises your POWERFUL. those things,” stone to your lap then drive with your antidote to the green juice and scented millions of viewers, myself among them. bloody; but for now, we drive. With a joints and tears up your reasons Blair, who, legs while screaming “Freeeedom!” towels of modern fitness culture. He To glimpse Hall in the flesh, I head to final, arduous heave, bodies quivering, palms. It’s the physical AND POWER IS at a solid-but-lean Logs believes it appeals to the innate human Newcastle’s Metro Radio Arena to watch we upend the incongruous lump of manifestation of the VERY ADDICTIVE” 6ft and 80kg, looks We’re talking actual timber here, desire to test ourselves against the world. him compete in the inaugural Ultimate industrial equipment. This object – rough, idea that what doesn’t nothing like the so watch out for splinters. Lift as “For thousands of years, people were using Strongman World Championships. The uneven and unwieldy – wasn’t designed kill you makes you stronger. sort of human bulwark you’d normally though performing a deadlift. The odd, unconventional objects to build up brainchild of the five-time UK’s Strongest to be lifted by hand, yet lift it we did. The “Strongman is pretty sexy,” adjudges associate with strongman. “It’s a simple key is to move the wood around strength, and they didn’t even think about Man, Glenn Ross, this event is intended satisfaction is full-bodied, but fleeting. Rob Blair, the ex-Royal Marine bit of kit – it’s just a stone! – but you have to find the best grip – they’re not it,” he says. “Men used to go out hunting, to break the World’s Strongest Man With unthinking masochism, we push the commando who has seen newcomers to suss it out, think about it. Lifting it taxes designed with handles. fighting and building for a living. But the franchise’s vice-like grip on professional tyre onto its side so it lands with a ground- flocking steadily to his gym in recent your mind as well as your body.” Sledgehammer way life is going, we’re becoming more strongman competitions and to capitalise shaking thud, then go at it again. months. “You’re thinking: ‘My god, I get Like most of the ‘toys’ (his phrase, Grip using both hands, holding the desk-bound, more sedentary. Some men on the mounting mainstream fascination While men of a certain character have to throw all of this crazy kit around.’ As lovingly employed) that Blair has hammer as close to the weighted end go with it and degenerate. Others want with size and strength. long been drawn to battles with inanimate a training method, strongman is so mixed acquired from farmyards to quarries and as possible. Once you have it under to go out, get dirty and thrash around Ross believes that just as Usain Bolt’s objects, it’s the nature of the weight we’re and varied, you just can’t get bored of it.” everywhere in between, you won’t see control, ease your hands along the the place a bit.” title of World’s Fastest can sell out stadia shifting that is changing. The number Certainly, my sessions with Blair over these stones at your high-street gym. handle to balance out muscle growth. If all that sounds too red-blooded the following weeks are anything but dull. for your taste, you might want to chew on GUTTER CREDIT GUTTER The first time we meet, he drops a 40kg SABINE CHAMMAS W MODELS I GROOMING: AT MODEL: JAMES STARK ALAMY GETTY, THE COMMANDO TEMPLE | ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY: WITH THANKS TO this – a recent YouGov poll found that just

76 MEN’S HEALTH MENSHEALTH.CO.UK MENSHEALTH.CO.UK MEN’S HEALTH 77 STRENGTH MUSCLE MANOEUVRES GET A GRIP ON OF CHARACTER SOME REAL- Rob Blair of the Commando WORLD PROBLEMS Temple (bestronger.co.uk) builds us a beasting. Do as many reps as you can, for traditional resistance workouts, and and bring in hundreds of millions in 4 sets of 30sec on, 30sec off, another adopting strongman principles sponsorship money, so too can the then do the next exercise. Hall, meanwhile, suffers from sleep and apparatus – then measured changes World’s Strongest. “Strongman doesn’t apnoea. This is the likely product, say to their strength, speed, agility, stability have the recognition that it should, but experts, of over-training. He has to wear and power over time. Each group bested FARMER’S WALK that’s partly because it hasn’t Hold a kettlebell in each hand by an oxygen mask to sleep in case he stops the other on certain performance markers, been staged with the required your side (A). Walk as quickly breathing. Strongmen may be growing but there was one key area of difference: gloss,” says Ross. He wants to HEAVYWEIGHT as you can for 10m. Turn and bigger and stronger – and growing the “The strongman group had an increase grow the Ultimate Strongman HALL OF FAME race back, keeping your core sport’s fanbase – but at what cost? in muscle mass which wasn’t seen in engaged and head high (B). brand into one that rivals Put your PBs in the traditional group,” says Winwood. perspective with arena-filling titans like UFC STRONG BONDS “Most of what we do in the gym is lifting or WWE. “In future, the plan a look at the incredible Back in the relative discomfort of the weights in a vertical plane – up and down is to do 20 global events, with feats of the world’s Commando Temple, sleep apnoea is not movements – and isolating one muscle thousands watching, and strongest men my most pressing concern. That would be or muscle group. But take a strongman create a proper series, just the 70kg Atlas stone that keeps escaping exercise like a farmer’s walk: it’s a loaded like Formula 1. I want this to B my feeble grip gait pattern. There’s become the number one sport and landing with carrying, you engage all in the world, because as far as a thud close to my “LIFTING A KEG the core musculature, and I’m concerned, it is.” toes. Even so, in that works in synergy with A the weeks since THAT SLOSHES a host of other muscle Eddie Hall, UK TEARING DOWN WALLS Deadlift World Record: I replaced all other AND SHIFTS IS groups. More muscle mass It’s an ambitious goal, 500kg (or seven forms of training being used means more perhaps, yet here in Newcastle washing machines ) with a strictly A FULL-BODY lactate being created, and a capacity crowd has turned strongman regime, WORKOUT” probably more growth out to watch Eddie Hall TURKISH GET-UP I’ve enjoyed every hormone and other compete alongside some Lie down and press a kettlebell session. I’ve even taken a perverse pride anabolic hormones being created, which overhead. Use same-side leg of the sport’s biggest names. and opposite arm (A) to push up in nursing my various scrapes. But while may have influenced that muscle mass.” These include six-time World’s into a lunge. Drive into a standing the weights of my lifts have steadily And that is the beauty of strongman Strongest Man, Zydrunas position. Reverse (B). Keep arm increased, I’m yet to see a noticable training: picking up unorthodox objects Zydrunas Savickas, overhead until lying down. Savickas; two-time champion Lithuania difference in my physique. Strongman and carrying, flipping or pulling them Mikhail Shivlyakov; and the Log Press World Record: training may be popular, it may be fun, around engages every muscle in your in-form Laurence Shahlaei, 228kg (or 1140 copies but is it really any better than regular body. While pressing a barbell overhead the reigning European of Men’s Health) resistance training? does wonders for a handful of mirror champion from Cheltenham I dial up one of the only people to muscles, the same lift using a half-full keg who last summer beat Hafþór have studied precisely this, Dr Paul that sloshes and shifts throughout will Björnsson (AKA The Mountain B Winwood from the Toi-Ohomai Institute force you into a full-body workout. from Game Of Thrones) to the of Technology in Tauranga, New Zealand. So, is strongman training objectively title. The fans roar as each Winwood and his team took two groups better or more useful than your usual man enters the arena with all A of rugby players – one who trained using weights-room routine? Not necessarily. the audiovisual fanfare of the Brian Shaw, USA But it is a hell of a lot more fun, and Atlas Stone World pay-per-view UFC bouts Ross Record: 250kg when it comes to a sustainable long-term wants to emulate. (or 71 house bricks) fellow Briton Shahlaei Shahlaei’s 25-stone frame is the training plan, that goes a long way. “One The 12 competitors toil who comes out on top. product of seven meals and 7000 calories thing we didn’t measure – and I really through five events, including Afterwards, I introduce a day – the minimum amount required to wish we had – was the psychology of a super yoke walk – a 20m myself to him. As we maintain his phenomenal muscle mass. TWO-HANDED KB CLEAN the two groups,” says Winwood. “The Grab the top of the handle with dash against the clock with shake, my hand is lost “I’ve become bigger to try to keep up with training culture in the strongman group both hands. Hinge at the hips (A) 450kg of railway track hanging within the prodigious some of the huge guys [Hafþór Björnsson and thrust forward, driving your was phenomenal. They palpably felt from their shoulders – and paw he uses to press is 6ft 9in and almost 30 stone], but once legs up. Release and grip the sides that they were part of something special; the iconic Stones Of Strength, Laurence 200kg above his head. I’m done with strongman,” he pauses and of the handle, bringing the KB to they worked hard and bonded really chest height (B). Hold, then lower. where five orbs, from 115kg Shahlaei, UK The 34-year-old is allows himself a laugh, “I’m going to do well as a group. We didn’t see that in the up to an obscene 175kg, are Farmer’s Walk World buoyed by his victory. CrossFit. I love training, I love sport, but traditional training group.” lifted onto shoulder-high Record: 20m in 6.73sec “Strength sports are I don’t want to be 25 stone forever.” The following evening, as the with 150kg in each hand. barrels. The size and shape becoming more and The sport takes a huge toll on athletes’ commuter trains trundle overhead Super Yoke Walk World of the athletes’ muscles – Record: 20m in 12.8sec more popular,” he says. bodies. “I’ve torn ligaments, tendons and and my partners and arms thicker than most men’s carrying 450kg (or “People are fascinated multiple muscles,” says Terry Hollands, BUILD ROCK-HARD I flip that half-tonne of B thighs, traps up to their ears, five Hugh Jackmans) by how strong a veteran with a cockney accent as thick as ABS BY LIFTING, rubber for the 15th and 60in barrel chests – borders someone can be, and his neck, who dislocated a finger during WELL, A HARD ROCK final time of the night, on the cartoonish. we do some crazy the evening’s tyre-flip event. “It’s just part I feel every bit of To the shock of the crowd, Hall has stuff. You’ll see us flipping cars, pulling of it, and we accept that. When you’re A the bond Winwood describes. The group to bow out just 2m into the yoke walk airplanes – stuff which for the normal pushing your body to the limit, things will at the Commando Temple is made up after tearing a muscle in his leg. Four person is just insane. We’re big guys and break down eventually. And unfortunately of salesmen and paramedics, teachers, gruelling hours of lifting, pressing, the whole thing is larger than life. As a kid the tendons and the ligaments don’t get as students and businessmen, but for the sprinting and flipping later, it’s Hall’s I was fascinated with superheroes, and strong as quickly as the muscles do.” 90 minutes we spend together, toiling I think that’s part of the appeal for people over the tools of the strongman trade, we watching the sport today.” are brothers. We are warriors. We are men.

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