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 74 MEN’S HEALTH MENSHEALTH.CO.UK MENSHEALTH.CO.UK MEN’S HEALTH 75 STRENGTH OF CHARACTER 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.