My motivation is being the best. Pretty simple and straightforward.
Brian Shaw
If you're the best at everything, you've got no one to challenge you and make you better.
My very first competition was at the end of 2005. Honestly, I just looked it up online and tried to find something local, because I had no idea how to do it or where to start. I did Denver's Strongest Man here in Colorado, and I won.
The weight room has always been a place for me where I could go to be relaxed. It's my sanctuary of sorts.
Being a strongman is a real test of functional strength. What can you pick up, carry and how fast can you move it. It's not a weight room strength, it takes brute strength and power to lift, carry and pull all types objects from fire engines, Mack trucks, transport planes and large stones.
Those Olympic lifters - how can you call someone the strongest man if he can't walk over to a car and pick it up?
You don't need a gym to develop real strength. Just get an empty keg of beer and fill it with sand or water and simply pick it up, carry it in your back yard, flip it, anything just to get moving for as little as 15 minutes.
I love giving back. There were a lot of people when I got started who really helped me. I do a lot of seminars and appearances. It's neat to be able to be in a position to do that. I've always loved coaching; it's how I got started.
I don't care how much weight's on there. If you're doing 40 reps, that's cardio!
I've had to have some of my dress clothes tailored.
If you're the strongest man on the planet, you ought to be able to pick up a stone or flip a tire.
I eat a lot of grass-fed beef. That's my main protein source. But I'll substitute in chicken and turkey, and sometimes fish, to have a little bit of variety.
I watched World's Strongest Man growing up on TV and I just loved all of that, so I decided to enter a Strongman contest - just for fun. Really. For no other reason than that I just wanted to compete in something and push myself. I ended up loving it from the get-go and also found that I was very gifted.
Think of how much time it takes to prepare and eat a single meal. Then multiply that by seven. I wish I had my own chef!
I really don't like getting dressed up. It's a lot more comfortable to be in some type of T-shirt or dry-fit shirt and shorts. That's pretty much my typical attire.
I don't even know how much money I've spent on all of this stuff... Just in plates and bars alone, it's literally a ridiculous amount of money I've spent on those. And to me it doesn't matter. It's money that I've gladly spent.
I know I'm big. I've been big my whole life. I've never had to prove how tough I am.
I want to show people how to do this at an exceptional level whether they are a competitor, a CrossFit strongman or someone who just wants to do strongman workouts at home.
I remember seeing a story on Olympic swimmer, Ryan Lochte doing strongman workouts. That was awesome.
Wearing jeans or any kind of long pants, it just sucks for me, to be honest.
When I'm training for a car deadlift, sometimes I'll stand on some mats to make the bar lower.
My love for weight training and competing just seemed like a perfect fit for strongman. So I decided to give it a try, for fun, really. It's definitely not for everybody, but if you love working out and being competitive and pushing yourself to the limit, it's great. It's fun, for sure.
I'm a fan of functional strength.
I'm just eating to be the strongest human being on the planet.
First thing in the morning, it's very important to eat quickly. So I'm reaching for eggs.
One thing that I've learned over the years with eggs is that you don't want to cook them too long. You want to make sure they're still soft, because in a big quantity, they're easier to eat if they're a little bit softer.
It's constant - all day long I have to eat, but it's part of the job.
What I will say is that there is no governing body in strongman. There's no federation. There's no group of people or person that overlooks the sport, or says that this is a world record, or 'we'll count this as a world record.'
When you are in a competition, and there's however many men competing alongside you, you do not get to determine when you go to lift... you don't know how many guys will make it to the next round. You don't know how long they're going to take.
I know in my training, especially when I'm building up to a big 'max,' I can take as long as I want to be ready for that lift and mentally prepare for it. In the contest, some of that goes out the window. When your name is called and the bar is loaded, you've got to go whether you're ready or not.
I always loved lifting and training and competing.
I've always been fascinated by different feats of strength throughout history.
I've got a clothing sponsor that helps me out with my clothes. It's called Bulky Boy Clothing, and they pretty much provide me with most of the shirts that I wear.
Eating is the hard part. It's constant - you don't ever stop from the time you wake up you eat until you go to bed. Then I wake up in the morning and the first thing I do is eat and do it all day again.
People think the training is the hard part, it's not really. That's fun, I can get loose and do what I want to do. I only get to train for a few hours, maybe during the day.
I can very much relate to being on the road and filming and trying to train. It's a whole different ball game.
I wouldn't want to be too lean.
My main purpose in launching StrongmanAcademy.com is so competitors know how to win and beginners know what to do.
After I got done playing basketball, I needed a competitive outlet.
My theory is to let everyone in on what works and let the best man win.
You can't always be the top dog.
I started lifting heavy weights and became addicted to it and before I knew it I won the title of the world's strongest man which is very cool.
In all honesty, I just love car deadlifts.
It's a lot of fun, any time you can pick up a car is pretty awesome.
I think the first contest I did, I was somewhere just over 300 pounds. With my frame, I needed to add more weight and put more muscle on to get better leverage and be more successful. Just to get stronger, really. I had to work really hard.
