Wikipedia

Strongman

(Redirected from Strongperson (strength athlete))
This article is about performers and athletes. For an authoritarian political leader, see Political strongman. For other uses, see Strongman (disambiguation).

Strongman is someone who exhibits strength through strength athletics. Strength athletics, also known as strongman competitions, are composed of a variety of events in which competitors have to move the highest weights possible, the winner being the one having the highest tally across all events. In the 19th century, the term strongman referred to an exhibitor of strength or similar circus performers who performed feats of strength.[1]

Description edit

 
Angus MacAskill was a notable strongman of the 19th century.

In the first half of the 20th century, strongmen performed various feats of strength such as the bent press (not to be confused with the bench press, which did not exist at the time), supporting large amounts of weight held overhead at arm's length, steel bending, chain breaking, etc. They needed to have large amounts of wrist, hand, and tendon strength for these feats, as well as prodigious oblique strength.

In the late 20th century, the term strongman evolved to describe one who competes in strength athletics – a more modern eclectic strength competition in which competitors display their raw functional strength through exercises such as lifting rocks, toting refrigerators, pulling trains, towing an eighteen-wheel truck behind them, etc. The most famous competitions of this type are the World's Strongest Man, the Europe's Strongest Man, the Arnold Strongman Classic, the Strongman Champions League, the World's Ultimate Strongman, the Rogue Invitational and the Giants Live tour, and more than 20 countries also hold national-level competitions as well.[2]

Many sports-specific training facilities have begun to incorporate movements associated with strongman competitions into their general training schemes, albeit with lighter weights used (e.g., tyre flips, sled drags, object loading or carrying, log pressing, farmer's walks and so on.)

Training edit

Training for strongman involves building overall strength in the gym and training with competition implements to gain familiarity. In the gym, it is necessary to train the entire body for strength, especially with variants of the squat, deadlift, and overhead press. Explosive power is also important, which is developed by weightlifting-style lifts and cardiovascular conditioning. Grip strength must also be developed.

Although you can do general strength training, at a typical gym, training with a strongman regimen requires equipment not typically found in a gym. Some equipment used in a strongman competition would have to be found custom-made or at a strongman gym. Some of these equipment includes natural stones, tree trunk logs, farmers walk frames, yokes, kegs and various sorts of vehicles.

Another part of a strongman's training is its intense diet regime. The biggest strongman competitors would need to ingest around 8,000 - 10,000 calories a day.

Events edit

 
Brian Shaw performing the deadlift at the 2017 Arnold Strongman Classic

Though competitive strongman events are ever-changing, there are a number of staples that frequently appear on the international stage,[3] including:

Incorrect usage edit

Strongman is often incorrectly used to describe a person who does weightlifting or bodybuilding. Due to the circus and entertainment background, nineteenth-century bodybuilders were expected to mingle with the crowd during intermission and perform strength feats like card tearing, nail bending, etc. to demonstrate strength as well as symmetry and size. Also, many strongmen sold photos of themselves nude or near-nude, flexing and posing. Although, what they considered the epitome of male beauty was different from modern ideals – particularly the very low emphasis on chest size, and great emphasis on oblique size, and symmetry as evidenced by photos of Eugen Sandow.

Notable strongmen edit

Traditional strongmen edit

The strongmen are listed according to the chronological order of their birth.

Modern Strongmen edit

Main article: List of strongmen

The following 74 strongmen have reached the podium (1st, 2nd or 3rd place) of World's Strongest Man since 1977 and/or World Muscle Power Classic from 1985 to 2004 and/or Arnold Strongman Classic since 2002. They are listed according to the chronological order of their podium appearance.

24 of them have won the World's Strongest Man (WSM), 11 have won the World Muscle Power Classic (WMPC) and 9 have won the Arnold Strongman Classic (ASC).

7 men have won both WSM & WMPC (Kazmaier, Capes, Sigmarsson, Reeves, Magnússon, Ahola, Karlsen). 5 men have won both WSM & ASC (Savickas, Shaw, Björnsson, Licis, Hooper).

Additionally, the following 48 strongmen have reached either 4th or 5th places of World's Strongest Man and/or World Muscle Power Classic and/or Arnold Strongman Classic:

Lou Ferrigno, Franco Columbu, Jon Kolb, Gus Rethwisch, Bishop Dolegiewicz, Jerry Hannan, Craig Wolfley, Ernie Hackett, Hamish Davidson, Rudolph Kuester, George Hechter, Dan Markovic, Jean-Pierre Brulois, Tom Hawk, László Fekete, Adrian Smith, Berend Veneberg, Heinz Ollesch, Pieter de Bruyn, Martin Muhr, Wayne Price, Nathan Jones, Bill Lyndon, Johnny Perry, Brian Bell, Arvydas Pintinas, Andy Bolton, Steve Kirit, Bill Pittuck, Sami Heinonen, Jarek Dymek, Brian Schoonveld, Odd Haugen, Brian Siders, Benedikt Magnússon, Mark Felix, Tarmo Mitt, Vidas Blekaitis, Stefán Sölvi Pétursson, Laurence Shahlaei, Krzysztof Radzikowski, Dimitar Savatinov, Konstantine Janashia, Matjaz Belsak, Rob Kearney, Trey Mitchell, Thomas Evans and Evan Singleton.

International Accolades edit

  • The table below summarizes the 50 most decorated strongmen in modern history with the most number of international wins in their careers (1st places only/ open weight and age categories only).[4]
# Name Nationality Active Competitions Wins Win %
1 Žydrūnas Savickas   Lithuania 1996–2022 147 79 53.74%
2 Mariusz Pudzianowski   Poland 2000–2009 61 43 70.49%
3 Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson   Iceland 2010– 67 30 44.78%
4 Brian Shaw   United States 2007–2023 65 27 41.54%
5 Aivars Šmaukstelis   Latvia 2014– 69 25 36.23%
6 Krzysztof Radzikowski   Poland 2005–2019 112 23 20.53%
7 Ervin Katona   Serbia 2003–2015 99 17 17.17%
8 Hugo Girard   Canada 1998–2008 37 15 40.54%
9 Dainis Zageris   Latvia 2009–2022 87 15 17.24%
10 Jón Páll Sigmarsson   Iceland 1982–1992 29 13 44.82%
11 Magnús Ver Magnússon   Iceland 1987–2005 48 12 25.00%
12 Magnus Samuelsson   Sweden 1995–2008 63 12 19.05%
13 Jouko Ahola   Finland 1994–2002 22 11 50.00%
14 Riku Kiri   Finland 1987–1999 25 11 44.00%
15 Oleksii Novikov   Ukraine 2016– 41 11 26.83%
16 Mikhail Koklyaev   Russia 2005–2014 50 11 22.00%
17 Mateusz Kieliszkowski   Poland 2014– 43 10 23.25%
18 Matjaz Belsak   Slovenia 2014–2020 60 10 16.67%
19 JF Caron   Canada 2007–2023 73 10 13.70%
20 Geoff Capes   Great Britain 1979–1988 20 9 45.00%
21 Mitchell Hooper   Canada 2022– 16 8 50.00%
22 Bill Kazmaier   United States 1979–1990 18 8 44.44%
23 Derek Poundstone   United States 2006–2017 22 8 36.36%
24 Martins Licis   United States 2015– 24 8 33.33%
25 Vytautas Lalas   Lithuania 2007–2018 30 8 26.67%
26 Kelvin de Ruiter   Netherlands 2011– 36 8 22.22%
27 Janne Virtanen   Finland 1998–2009 50 8 16.00%
28 Laurence Shahlaei   Great Britain 2007–2021 55 8 14.55%
29 Travis Ortmayer   United States 2005–2023 51 7 13.72%
30 Svend Karlsen   Norway 1996–2006 64 7 10.94%
31 Manfred Hoeberl   Austria 1990–1996 18 6 33.33%
32 Vasyl Virastyuk   Ukraine 2002–2008 28 6 21.43%
33 Andrus Murumets   Estonia 2003–2009 40 6 15.00%
34 Flemming Rasmussen   Denmark 1995–2001 19 5 26.32%
35 Pavlo Kordiyaka   Ukraine 2017– 20 5 25.00%
36 Evan Singleton   United States 2018– 23 5 21.74%
37 Mykhailo Starov   Ukraine 2004–2006 24 5 20.83%
38 Mikhail Shivlyakov   Russia 2011–2021 44 5 11.36%
38 Stojan Todorchev   Bulgaria 2005–2017 44 5 11.36%
39 Raivis Vidzis   Latvia 2002–2009 45 5 11.11%
40 Jarek Dymek   Poland 2000–2010 46 5 10.87%
41 Oskar Ziółkowski   Poland 2020– 10 4 40.00%
42 Trey Mitchell   United States 2016– 23 4 17.39%
43 Glenn Ross   Northern Ireland 1997–2011 33 4 12.12%
44 Johannes Årsjö   Sweden 2007–2017 38 4 10.52%
44 Jamie Reeves   Great Britain 1988–1999 38 4 10.52%
45 Rauno Heinla   Estonia 2009– 54 4 7.41%
46 Mike Jenkins   United States 2010–2013 9 3 33.33%
47 Tom Magee   Canada 1982–1990 12 3 25.00%
48 Mike Burke   United States 2011–2015 18 3 16.66%
49 Gerrit Badenhorst   South Africa 1992–2002 20 3 15.00%
49 Didzis Zariņš   Latvia 2011–2023 20 3 15.00%
50 Gary Taylor   Great Britain 1990–1997 22 3 13.63%

- As at 13 April 2024

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ "STRONGMAN". ERA-FIT Ltd Bespoke Fitness Systems. Retrieved 2019-09-05.[permanent dead link]
  2. ^ "STRONGMAN CONTESTS". strongmanarchives.com. Retrieved 2022-04-13.
  3. ^ "Strongman Events". strongman.org. Retrieved 2012-12-28.
  4. ^ "Strongman Archives - Athletes". Strongman Archives. April 5, 2022. Retrieved April 6, 2022.

External links edit

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Strongmen.
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