Strongman is a competitive strength sport which tests athletes' physical strength and endurance through a variety of heavy lifts and events. Strongman competitions are known for their intensity, pushing athletes to their physical and mental limits.[1] In modern strongman, athletes compete to score points based on their relative position in an event.[2] An athlete who engages in the sport of strongman is also called a 'strongman'.[3] They are often regarded as some of the strongest men of the world.
Many sources state that strongman is a man who performs remarkable feats possessing enormous amounts of strength.[4] [5] In the 19th century, the term 'strongman' was referred to an exhibitor of strength during circus performances.[6]
Modern strongman generally credits its origins to circus strongmen who became popular in the 19th and 20th centuries. 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.[7] Athletes including Louis Cyr, Apollon, Donald Dinnie, and Arthur Saxon are credited as major innovators in the sport. Many events today, including the Cyr dumbbell, Apollon's axle clean-and-press, Dinnie stones, and Saxon bar deadlift bear their names.
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 deadlifts, squats, overhead log lifts, lifting stones, toting refrigerators, pulling heavy vehicles and tossing or loading weights. With the advent of the World's Strongest Man competition, strongman began to be formalized as a competitive sport rather than a non-competitive spectacle. Since the advent of the modern sport, competitions including Arnold Strongman Classic, Europe's Strongest Man, Strongman Champions League, World's Ultimate Strongman, World's Strongest Viking, World Muscle Power Classic, Fortissimus, Pure Strength, Rogue Invitational, Shaw Classic, Giants Live, IFSA World Championships, Strongman Super Series and World Strongman Challenge have adopted a standardized format based on the original World's Strongest Man.[3]
More than 30 countries also hold national-level strongman competitions.[8] Local competitions featuring amateur athletes are also common.
In its modern format, a strongman competition will typically consist of several events (ranging from as few as five to as many as eight at the international level) testing different aspects of strength. These may include static lifts such as a deadlift, overhead press, or squat or a dynamic event involving moving with weight. Athletes may, for example, pick up a heavy apparatus and carry it for a certain distance or drag a vehicle attached by a harness.
Strongman competitions score competitors by comparing their relative place in an event and awarding more points to competitors with better finishes. Typically, first place in an event will receive a number of points equal to the number of competitors. For example, if an athlete finishes first in the deadlift in a competition with 10 competitors, they will receive 10 points, with second receiving nine, and so on, until last place receives only one point.
Most competitions award zero points if an athlete could not complete a lift or start the event--if, for example, an athlete could not pick up a stone in a stone-carrying event, they would be awarded zero points. Competitions will also normally split points based on ties, adding up the combined points for their places and averaging them out. For example, if two athletes finish tied for first in a 10-athlete competition, the scores for first and second (10 and 9 points) will be added up and divided by two, resulting in each athlete being awarded 9.5 points.
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. Additionally, grip strength must be developed and it is also imperative to improve mental toughness and pain tolerance.[9]
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.
Though competitive strongman events are ever-changing, there are a number of staples that frequently appear on the international stage,[10] including:
The strongmen are listed according to the chronological order of their birth.
See main article: List of strongmen.
The following 75 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 50 strongmen have reached either 4th or 5th places of World's Strongest Man and/or World Muscle Power Classic and/or Arnold Strongman Classic:
| Name | Country | 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– | 69 | 31 | 44.93% |
| 4 | Brian Shaw |  USA | 2007–2023 | 65 | 27 | 41.54% |
| 5 | Aivars Šmaukstelis | Latvia | 2014– | 76 | 26 | 34.21% |
| 6 | Krzysztof Radzikowski | Poland | 2005–2019 | 112 | 24 | 21.43% |
| 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 | Mitchell Hooper | Canada | 2022– | 23 | 14 | 60.87% |
| 11 | Jón Páll Sigmarsson | Iceland | 1982–1992 | 29 | 13 | 44.82% |
| 12 | Magnús Ver Magnússon | Iceland | 1987–2005 | 48 | 12 | 25.00% |
| 13 | Magnus Samuelsson |  Sweden | 1995–2008 | 63 | 12 | 19.05% |
| 14 | Jouko Ahola |  Finland | 1994–2002 | 22 | 11 | 50.00% |
| 15 | Riku Kiri | Finland | 1987–1999 | 25 | 11 | 44.00% |
| 16 | Mateusz Kieliszkowski | Poland | 2014– | 44 | 11 | 25.00% |
| 17 | Oleksii Novikov |  Ukraine | 2016– | 45 | 11 | 24.44% |
| 18 | Mikhail Koklyaev |  Russia | 2005–2014 | 50 | 11 | 22.00% |
| 19 | Matjaz Belsak | Slovenia | 2014–2020 | 64 | 11 | 17.19% |
| 20 | JF Caron | Canada | 2007–2023 | 73 | 10 | 13.70% |
| 21 | Geoff Capes | UK / England | 1979–1988 | 20 | 9 | 45.00% |
| 22 | Svend Karlsen |  Norway | 1996–2006 | 67 | 9 | 13.43% |
| 23 | Bill Kazmaier | USA | 1979–1990 | 18 | 8 | 44.44% |
| 24 | Derek Poundstone | USA | 2006–2017 | 22 | 8 | 36.36% |
| 25 | Martins Licis | USA | 2015– | 24 | 8 | 33.33% |
| 26 | Vytautas Lalas | Lithuania | 2007–2018 | 30 | 8 | 26.67% |
| 27 | Kelvin de Ruiter | Netherlands | 2011– | 40 | 8 | 20.00% |
| 28 | Janne Virtanen | Finland | 1998–2009 | 50 | 8 | 16.00% |
| 29 | Laurence Shahlaei | UK / England | 2007–2021 | 55 | 8 | 14.55% |
| 30 | Travis Ortmayer | USA | 2005–2023 | 51 | 7 | 13.72% |
| 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 | Rayno Nel | South Africa | 2023– | 6 | 5 | 83.33% |
| 35 | Adam Roszkowski | Poland | 2021– | 19 | 5 | 26.32% |
| 35 | Flemming Rasmussen | Denmark | 1995–2001 | 19 | 5 | 26.32% |
| 37 | Mykhailo Starov | Ukraine | 2004–2006 | 24 | 5 | 20.83% |
| 38 | Pavlo Kordiyaka | Ukraine | 2017– | 25 | 5 | 20.00% |
| 39 | Evan Singleton | USA | 2018– | 29 | 5 | 17.24% |
| 40 | Johannes Årsjö | Sweden | 2007–2017 | 39 | 5 | 12.82% |
| 41 | Mikhail Shivlyakov | Russia | 2011–2021 | 44 | 5 | 11.36% |
| 41 | Stojan Todorchev | Bulgaria | 2005–2017 | 44 | 5 | 11.36% |
| 43 | Raivis Vidzis | Latvia | 2002–2009 | 46 | 5 | 10.87% |
| 43 | Jarek Dymek | Poland | 2000–2010 | 46 | 5 | 10.87% |
| 45 | Oskar Ziółkowski | Poland | 2020– | 13 | 4 | 30.77% |
| 46 | Mike Burke | USA | 2011–2015 | 19 | 4 | 21.05% |
| 47 | Didzis Zariņš | Latvia | 2011– | 23 | 4 | 17.39% |
| 48 | Trey Mitchell | USA | 2016– | 27 | 4 | 14.81% |
| 49 | Tom Stoltman | UK / Scotland | 2016– | 32 | 4 | 12.50% |
| 50 | Glenn Ross | UK / Northern Ireland | 1997–2011 | 33 | 4 | 12.12% |
- As of 1 January 2025
Strongman is often incorrectly used to describe a person who does powerlifting, 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.
See main article: Strongwoman. The sport also extends to female competitors. From 2000s onwards, women's competitions were held internationally and from late 2010s, they received mainstream attention thanks to competitions such as World's Strongest Woman, Arnold Strongwoman Classic and Rogue Invitational.