World's Strongest Brothers Prepare For Britain's Strongest Man

Content Executive3 years ago

February. It’s grey, it’s cold, it’s raining all the time. It's just plain miserable. That is until you remember that this month marks the start of the strongman season. Every cloud...

With Britain’s Strongest Man going ahead at full steam on 26 February, there’s no time to waste for the Stoltman brothers. If you’ve been following their strongman prep on YouTube, you’ll know they’ve been lifting, squatting and deadlifting some seriously heavy weights.

Squats

I’ve seen a few heavy squats during my time, but this ranks among the highest. Tom lifts 360kg. And he makes it look like light work.

And if you thought the fun stopped there, you’d be wrong. The brothers also took to YouTube to share heavy axle presses.

Axle Presses

Warm-up

The brothers look pretty much indestructible, but even strongmen can be vulnerable to injury when they don’t warm up properly. Take this as a reminder to buy some resistance bands, and work on your mobility and some stretches before going full in with the weights. Luke learned this the hard way. Don't be like Luke.

The Workout

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart
Grab the bar with a mixed grip
Pull the bar up to your chest as you straighten your legs using the muscles in your shoulders
Switch your hand from an underhand grip to an overhand grip
Flick your elbows up so that the bar is now under your chin. As your elbows move your hands will automatically be in an underhand grip
Press the weight up above your head
Bring the weight back into your chest to complete one full rep

In true strongman style, the brothers got through it no issues. They made it look easy. Their working weight for this session was 150kg — that’s 330lbs, for those of you unfamiliar with metric units. Five reps, easy.

All right, maybe it didn’t look that easy. But sometimes I forget just how heavy these weights are. According to my research, the Stoltmans can lift the weight of a cast-iron bathtub, a single bed with a mattress and headboard, or a sumo wrestler. Above their heads. For five reps.

For reference:

Take Home Message

I'm going to call it a day with those images in your head. With only a matter of weeks to go before Britain’s Strongest Man, we’re wishing the Stoltmans the best of luck for the competition — but judging from their prep, it doesn’t look like they need it.

Emily Wilcock

Content Executive

After completing an internship with Myprotein, Emily returned to university to finish her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management and Marketing. With experience in lifestyle writing, Emily aims to entertain and educate through her work. Her focuses include recipes, real and inspiring stories, and working with writers to help provide easy-to-digest evidence-based research. Her work on recipes has been previously featured in The Supplement magazine, with a particular focus on high-protein, nutritious meals, plus advice on how to properly fuel your body. Outside of work, Emily’s top priority is food. She’s a self-professed star baker and a connoisseur of all things baked. In her spare time, she’s either cooking up a storm, our looking out for the opportunity to try out Manchester’s newest restaurants. But as a huge fan of carbs, if it’s not pasta or pasta-adjacent, she’s not interested. If she’s not in the kitchen, she’s tucked up with a book for an early night, or you’ll find her in the gym working up a sweat. Afterall, all those carbs require quite the appetite.