The below text is something I'm rather excited about. Earlier this month, I stumbled across Doug Hepburn's website from the late 1990s and early 2000s. Hepburn was one of the strongest men of the mid twentieth century, famed for his seemingly inhuman feats of strength. You can imagine, then the joy I felt when I… Continue reading Doug Hepburn, ‘The Challenge’ (c. 1999)
The World's Strongest Man competition is undoubtedly one of my favourite events each year. We get to see some of the world's strongest athletes push, pull and push a variety of objects. As slick as the modern contests are, there is a certain undeniable magic to the early iterations. From cheese deadlifts to sumo wrestling,… Continue reading Fridge Racing at the World’s Strongest Man
The World Strongest Man competition is undoubtedly one of my favourite events of the year. It features the strongest athletes in the world, competing against one another in a variety of presses, pulls and runs. While today's competitions are undoubtedly professional, those from yesteryear tended to mix the serious with the spurious in a greater… Continue reading World’s Strongest Man and the ‘Flintstone Barbell’
Earlier this year we were treated to perhaps the most exciting Arnold Strongman Classic to date. We saw Hafthor Bjornsson win the event for the second year in a row with a domineering display of power. The 'Wheel of Pain' from Conan the Barbarian made an appearance and it was joined by an exact replica… Continue reading The Birth of the Arnold Strongman Classic
Since its inception in the late 1970s, the World's Strongest Man Competitions have used a variety of tests to determine one's strength. In the past this has included deadlifting blocks of cheese, running with refrigerators and the iconic Atlas Stones. Some events become mainstays while others, like the aforementioned cheese deadlifts slip quickly from our… Continue reading Sumo Wrestling at the World’s Strongest Man
Born in England in the early 1900s, Saxon Brown (real name Henry Brown) was briefly lauded during the 1930s as 'Britain's strongest youth' & 'the world's strongest young man'. Though his time in the physical culture spotlight was short lived, Brown's strength was immortalised thanks to the below British Pathé footage. Featuring a number of… Continue reading Strength! Featuring Saxon Brown (1930)
I have, I believe, been fairly open about my love of the World's Strongest Man, specifically the opening decade of the competition. Whereas today's competition is professional, modern and scientific, the contests of yesteryear were undoubtedly more tongue-in-cheek. This is not to say that the contests were no less contested and the competitors impressive but… Continue reading Deadlifting Cheese at the World’s Strongest Man (1983)
Admit it. We're somewhat spoilt for choice these days when it comes to contests of strength. Though not as well televised as some of us might like, myself included, strongmen competitions have grown exponentially over the past decade and a half. We have the World's Strongest Man (WSM) and its various qualifying rounds around the… Continue reading The Rise and Fall of the World Muscle Power Classic
Nice muscles, what can you do with them? A common question and also the title for a series of YouTube challenges well worth watching. The underlying point remains however. Are men and women of muscle athletes? Can they challenge others athletically or are they simply lumbering oafs? While anyone who watches World Strongest Man will… Continue reading World’s Strongest Man and the Crunch Bunch or ‘Are Strongmen Athletes?’
Titans Of Testosterone The (mostly) juiced-up athletes competing for the title of World's Strongest Man tote stones, toss kegs and tow trucks for puny paychecks and the glory of exposure on late-night cable TV By Jack McCallum You see them at all hours of the day and night, lifting cars, pulling buses, lugging around absurdly… Continue reading Sports Illustrated, ‘Titans of Testosterone’, 1999 World’s Strongest Man Article.
