Is there a real reason they are all so fat? I mean, if they lost 50lbs of lard they could carry an extra 50lbs of girders or whatever, surely?

side effect of all the steroids and protien shakes.

Maybe you should enter and show them where they’re going wrong.

They are looking a bit porky. I watch it every year, just to check out the competition.

I still remember years back when one bloke had his arm snapped during the arm wrestling.

That Klunk knows his stuff !

yep done me no harm in the puny olympics 🙂

I’m with OP. Last time I really watched it was when Mariusz Pudzianowski was world champ and he was obviously in good shape, rather than just being a really big bloke.

https://www.joe.co.uk/fitness-health/this-guy-tried-to-do-strongman-eddie-halls-10000-calorie-daily-diet/52578

Calorie surplus is the desired state for those guys, I believe. For repair reasons, I would’ve thought.

The calorie intake they need to maintain the muscle mass means they will end up like that.
As klunk said this is the effect of mass steroids and human growth hormone can cause distended stomachs. Makes you wonder if they lost some weight it might be easier for some events but some events like the circus barbell they seem quite useful

This year’s events don’t need it so much but there are some events, especially the truck pulls where the weight is beneficial.

There is a documentary on Eddie Hall (just search his name) on Netflix. Gives some insight into their diets which may explain some of the weight issues.

He comes across as a bit of cock, but it’s a fairly interesting doc.

Woohoo, the kb throw is spectacular!

Eddie Hall is proper good at swimming too

I’m with OP. Last time I really watched it was when Mariusz Pudzianowski was world champ and he was obviously in good shape, rather than just being a really big bloke.

He only really won it so many times because it used to be the case that you couldn’t compete in WSM and the Arnold classic. Most of the really strong guys like Big Z took part in the Arnold. Z has lost the fat and still won the Arnold this year.

There used to be a lot of fatter guys competing. Not so much now. I think even guys like Eddie and Brian Shaw really only have a bit of a gut. While some of it might be down to hgh a lot of it must come down to the giant amounts of food they need to eat on a daily basis to maintain all that mass.

They are probably at the point where the few extra kg’s have a negligible effect on their lifting/carrying/speed and are beneficial to pulling and pushing events (as mentioned above).

A lot of them have bodybuilding backgrounds and if they wanted to they could probably get pretty ripped pretty quickly.

Forgot to post earlier, but this is very interesting reading:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-35726627

There is alot of technique to the events they do where additional weight works in their benefit. e.g. then they’re pulling lorries and aeroplanes etc. It’s all about momentum and where momentum is concerned weight is your friend (assuming you don’t want to kill momentum that is).

Strong though Eddie Hall is, at nearly 200kg his 500kg deadlift world record isn’t that impressive as a body weighy ratio. It’s only 2.7x ish whereas plenty of athletes manage 3x plus. There’s a tiny woman with a 4x BW back squat which is more impressive (I think anyway).

In addition to the calorie intake thing, these guys are training for power as opposed to training to look good. I’d imagine it doesn’t bother them too much.

badnewz, I remember that. Huge brash Aussie – Nathan something. Really fancied his chances against the smallest guy in the contest despite said small guy being a former arm wrestling champ.
The disbelief on his face when he lost the first time was absolutely priceless.
We know what happened the second time!

Its all about the power belly init!, working on mine now with Quality Street and Budweiser.

footflaps

Strong though Eddie Hall is, at nearly 200kg his 500kg deadlift world record isn’t that impressive as a body weighy ratio. It’s only 2.7x ish whereas plenty of athletes manage 3x plus. There’s a tiny woman with a 4x BW back squat which is more impressive (I think anyway).

A small woman squatting 4 times her own bodyweight is hugely impressive but she’s made of the same stuff as Hall – flesh and blood. I’m guessing here but I imagine there must be a point, weight wise, beyond which the human body can’t function. No doubt Hall’s tendons and joints are much stronger than the average man, but he’s still human.

All the drugs innit

One of the few sports where they purposely do not test for steroids 😯

I put some steroid cream on my eczema once. Is that why I is so fat?

Nathan Jones aka Megaman was the one who broke his arm. He was drawn against a european arm wrestling champ who was much smaller but had the technique and locked his arm (or something) Jones broke his own arm by pushing too hard!