I have finally finished watching 2014's World's Strongest Man... all 11 episodes crammed in two evenings after work! I was hooked!
Thank you very much Channel 5 on Demand on my teeny, tiny Now Box of fantastic things.
You may have seen the contests yourself or, you've probably heard about big Hulk like men dragging cars, well, actually, trucks... and occasionally airplanes...with their bare strength. If you haven't, The World's Strongest Man is a competition which takes place in December every year, where the the biggest, and the baddest, Titans from around the globe battle it out to be crowned The World's Strongest Man. Basically, you wouldn't wanna accidentally pick a fight with any of these powerhouses.
Here's just some of the mighty colossal trials of the Strongmen...
- Loading Race – Heavy objects weighing from 100- 164kg are loaded onto a platform.
- McGlashen Stones / Atlas Stones – Five heavy round stones increasing in weight from 220–352 lbs (100–160 kg) are placed on top of five high platforms.
- Truck / Airplane Pull – Vehicles such as transport trucks, trams, boxcars, buses or planes are pulled across a 100 ft course by hand as fast as possible.
- Overhead Log Press – A wooden log is lifted and pressed over the head as many times as possible within a certain time limit. The current world record holder is Žydrūnas Savickas with a lift of 212.5kg.
- Fingal Fingers – A series of hinged poles ("fingers") are lifted starting from a horizontal resting position and flipped over to the other side. The poles get progressively heavier and longer. The event is scored by time and by how many of the poles a competitor was able to flip over. The event takes its name from Fingal, a mythological Gaelic hunter-warrior. The events weights are between 200 - 300kg.
- Power Stairs – Strongmen have to heave humongous heavy (weighing between 182- 273kg) items up a load of stairs as quickly as possible. Think about that for a moment when you get a little huffy puffy up some stairs eh?
- Dead Lift – The deadlift requires all strongmen to deadlift the heaviest amount possible until no one can go further. This year Benni Magnussun set a new world record deadlifting 461kg... now that is one mega leg day.
- Keg Toss – Competitors must throw kegs, of increasing weight, over a 14 ft 6 in (4.42 m) high wall.
- Car Carry – Competitors stand inside a stripped-down automobile and carry it across a twenty-five meter course. Players are scored by how fast they carried the car across the finish line.
- Hercules Hold – The mythological tale of the Pillars tells us that Hercules, having to cross a mountain on his way to the garden of the Hesperides, used his superhuman strength to smash it into two pieces rather than climb over it. These two pieces of mountain fell into the sea forming what we now know today as Gibraltar and Monte Hacho; the Pillars of Hercules. In this test the competitors have two hold two pillars strapped by chains, each weighing 160kg, for as long as possible.
- Farmer's Walk – Competitors carry heavy objects weighing from 125– 170 kg in each hand for a set distance, and compete for the fastest time.
- Squat – Yes, one the almighty squat. Challengers have to squat as many reps as possible while the weight increases. Currently the heaviest weight is 400kg.
- Giant Dumbbell Press — Gigantic dumbbells, and I mean GIGANTIC, think 60 5kg dumbells glued together and that's almost what the Strongman version looks like, are hoisted from the ground onto the competitor's shoulder, from where, with one hand, he must raise it vertically over his head. Similar to the log lift - the men must press as many times as possible within a set period.
Here's 10 badass beast exercises for wannabe Goliaths - click the links for 'how to' guides and clips
- Tire/ Box flip: How to tire flip
- Kettlebell/ViPR carry: How to do weighted carries
- Deadlift: How to do the perfect deadlift
- Squat: Squat guide
- Dumbell snatch: Single arm dumbell snatch video
- Clean and press with bar or ViPR: Clean and press with a Vipr
- Tug of War: For this I thread a battle rope through a weighted bag and tie at one end and then stand at the end of the rope and drag the weighted bag towards you.
- Cable runs: Video clip of resistance band runs
- Sandbell slams: Video clip how to slam
- Cable crossover Hercules hold: How to work the cables like Hercules