World's Strongest Man: Inside the Sun City Showdown

We head to Jo’burg for everyone’s favourite seasonal TV treat

A daily shot of sunshine and Samson squeezed into the TV schedules between re-runs of Friends and the umpteenth showing of The Sound of Music, the competition is now in its 33rd year of red faced grunting, bulging biceps and truck pulling.

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This year’s event is being held in Sun City, South Africa, a bizarre Vegas/Disney style resort in the middle of the brush, two hours drive from Johannesburg which is where FHM has pitched up to watch strong men from 16 different countries slug it out for the title currently held by Lithuanian Zydrunas Savickas.

“I feel privileged to be presenting this as I grew up watching the World’s Strongest Man,” says co-host Zoe Salmon, hiding under an umbrella from the fierce 33°C heat. “I’ll never forget my first filming day thinking, ‘Oh my God they’re pulling the truck in front of me’ rather than sitting at home watching it on the television. Everyone raves on about the Atlas stones as it’s always the final event, but I prefer it when they have to pull the vehicles – last year in Malta they had to pull a plane. It’s where you see something crazy. They do that in movies with special effects – you don’t usually see that actually happen in real life.”

Ever since Bruce Wilhelm became the first World’s Strongest Man at Universal Studios in 1977 (and again in 1978), America has been a force in the competition and this year is no exception with Brian Shaw, Travis Ortmayer, Derek Poundstone, Jason Bergmann and Nick Best all aiming to reach the finals. Shaw, being the hot favourite for this year’s competition, trains at his local fire station for the infamous truck pull.

“They love to watch me train as long as there’s no fire going on,” says Shaw. “For me I like to take a lot of tension in the rope, my legs are bent and when they say go I just try and lean, press with my legs and pull with my arms at the same time. Once you feel the truck move a little bit that’s when you start putting one foot in front of the other and keep going. Once you start getting into pain, you have to dig deep, stay as low as possible and don’t look up where you’re heading, just keep going till you hear the whistle.”

It’s hard not to start perspiring as we watch the 20-stone-plus men mountains lob beer kegs and lift giant logs over their heads. We were even sweating as we attempted to keep up with them over breakfast in the resort’s restaurant.

“I have two breakfasts, one a solid fuel diet – 10 scrambled eggs, oatmeal and two chicken breasts – then two hours later I’ll have a milkshake supplement. I’ll average 8,000 calories a day,” says Rob Frampton, who – along with fellow Brits Terry Hollands and Mark Felix – is hoping to emulate Geoff Capes’ victories in 1983 and ’85 as he prepares for the car deadlift.

“To succeed in this event you need strong legs, a strong back and a dogged determination to hold on. With the deadlift I repeatedly recite the words to Thunder’s Love Walks In in my head, anything that takes my mind off the pain of my hands being torn off and my arms being ripped out of my sockets is good for me.”

And FHM aren’t the only ones who can’t stop laughing at how huge the competitors are.

“I would say I’m average height and normal for a girl, but I love it when I stand beside them because I look like a little doll, four foot tall and a size zero,” says the 30-year-old Salmon. “Which makes me think I should really date a strongman as I’ll always look tiny and never have to worry about eating too much.”

And with that, we put ourselves forward for entry to next year’s competition. God knows when it’ll make it to Indian telly so torrent it or log onto worldsstrongestman.com.

Train like a strongman

“Usually at home I’d use a keg weighing about 330 pounds. This is great for your whole body, it works your core and is particularly good for your legs.” Beginners may want to drink half the keg first.

From the January 2011 issue of FHM India.