#20. Brian Shaw
Some people are huge, but then there's Brian Shaw. This professional strongman competitor is famous for his towering 6'8'' and his whopping 400 pounds. No wonder he's won the World's Strongest Man title for 4 years in a row!
As crazy as it sounds, the man can lift an entire squat rack and his extreme routine requires an intake of nearly 10,000 calories per day (the average being 2,500). Just so you get a picture of how humongous he is, this is what it looks like when he boards a plane!
#19. Eddie Hall
Eddie Hall has been breaking records ever since he was a child. When he was only 13, he became one of the highest-ranked swimmers his age in the UK. His many years of intense training finally paid off when he won the World's Strongest Man title in 2017, lifting a record-breaking weight of 1102 pounds!
He's practically a media personality too, as he spends his free time making famous videos that he uploads on his YouTube channel and Instagram account. I can see why his videos are so popular: it's not every day that you see how much food the strongest man on earth needs to take for breakfast!
#18. Adam Bishop
Adam Bishop is currently Britain's strongest man, having dethroned none other than strongman Eddie Hall, who we've just talked about. While he came out 9th in the 2019's World's Strongest man tournament, he won the title of Britain's Strongest Man in 2020.
Unlike most strongmen on this list, Bishop is only a part-time weightlifter, as he also works as a coach for the Harlequins Rugby Team, making his feat even more impressive.
#17. Martin Licis
Most people's idea of workout involves machines, but not for Martin Licis! Inspired by athletes he would watch on TV as a child in Latvia, and without access to a normal gym, Licis began his strongman quest with one of the most ancient practices in the world: lifting stones.
When he was only 16 years old, he convinced his parents to move to the US to train with strongman legend Odd Hughes. Licis went through a very unorthodox training, lifting giant stones, logs, and even entire cars! It wasn't until 2019 that he won the title of the World's Strongest Man.
#16. Magnús Ver Magnússon
Icelandic strongman and powerlifter Magnús Ver Magnússon is one of the strongest men alive, having been crowned as the World's Strongest Man four times in five years (1991, 1994, 1995 and 1996). As if this weren't enough, he was also the runner-up in 1992 and 1993.
He is actually considered to be one of the first modern strongman legends and he has lifted weights of over 437 kilos. He currently lives in Iceland with his family, where he runs a powerlifting gym. He was also the referee when the man on #2 broke his deadlift record!
#15. Jujimufu
Jujimufu has been a standout character ever since he was a teenager. While most of his friends would spend all day working out at the gym, he would spend his days trying to master a split on his floor. Luckily for him, the flexibility he mastered as a teenager finally paid off, and here's why.
Jujimufu has built his career off his otherworldly flexibility. Videos of his crazy feats of strength and flexibility are usually thought to be fake, but believe it or not, they're completely real! He's recently featured in a few superbowl commercials holding a split between chairs.
#14. Terry Hollands
Terry Hollands weighed over 5 pounds when he was born, so it's safe to say he was destined to become one of the world's greatest strongmen. Even though he played rugby ever since he was a child, it wasn't until he turned 22 that he decided to give powerlifting a shot.
Despite having contracted a major leg infection in 2004, he qualified to the World's Strongest Man competition the next year and came out third at the 2007 edition. Also in 2007, he won Britain's Strongest Man tournament.
#13. Bradley Martin
Bradley Martyn is not only one of the world's strongest men, but also one of America's number one bodybuilding influencers. His creative workouts usually go viral, and he's most famous for benching girls in bikinis.
Bradley can bench up to 500 pounds, but weightlifting isn't his only talent, as he's also dominated ninja warrior training the first time he tried it out! He can also crash a watermelon with just his bare hands. Don't believe me? Then check out his YouTube channel and see it for yourself!
#12. Robert Oberst
Some people are just born strong and powerful, and that's definitely the case of Californian strongman Robert Oberst. Surprisingly, back in his high school days he would compete in swing dancing competitions, and after graduating he earned a football scholarship as an offensive lineman.
His indescribable strength made him the most dreaded opponent in the field, and it wasn't long before he chose to give powerlifting a shot. While visiting a friend at a gym one day, he casually practiced some loglifting, and without knowing it, he broke the amateur world record! He currently holds the American log-lifting record at 465 pounds.
#11. Magnus Samuelsson
Considering he's the son of a famous arm wrestling champion, it comes as no surprise that Magnus Samuelsson went on to become one of the strongest men in history.
The Swedish strongman reached the World's Strongest Man finals a whopping 10 times and won the tournament for the first and only time in 1998. He then pursued a career in acting, and you've probably seen him play a warrior in the BBC series The Last Kingdom.
#10. Zydrunas Savickas
It's safe to say that Zydrunas Savickas was born for extreme sports, as he took his first steps into the powerlifting world when he was only 16 years old. It wasn't long before he became the first Lithuanian man to lift a 1,000-kilo weight.
Yes, as crazy as it sounds, the man can lift more than a metric tonne between his squat, deadlift and bench. In 2016, he came first in the famous Arnold Strongman Competition, and had a picture taken with the Terminator himself!
#9. Mark Felix
Mark Felix was born in 1966 in the Caribbean island of Grenada, but it wasn't until he turned 37 that he decided to try his luck with strongman competitions, way later than all the other athletes in this list.
Even though he never came first in a World's Strongest Man tournament, he did win the Rolling Thunder World Championship in 2008, setting a new world record after lifting 301 pounds. He set another world record in 2019 after lifting over 300 pounds during 87.52 seconds.
#8. Mateusz Kieliszkowski
In the modern world, cars aren't meant to be driven like they were in The Flintstones... but tell that to this guy! Lifting regular weights was too dull a task for Mateusz Kieliszkowski, which is why he decided to test his strength by lifting cars.
Funnily enough, there's a whole competition for that, and guess what? During Europe's Strongest Man competition, he carried a 1,000-pound Volkswagen Beetle across a 20-meter distance in just 10 seconds, setting a new world record. Having him as a friend would sure come in handy in case of a flat tire!
#7. John Kran
It's given that you've gotta have a well-built physique in order to thrive in America's NFL, but John Kran's massive 7 feet and 440 pounds are something out of this world. With no doubt, nobody in the NFL is even nearly as huge as he is.
In fact, Krahn is believed to be the tallest high school player in the country and he is taller than any professional football player in NFL history. Beat that!
#6. Phil Pfister
American strongman Phil Pfister came to the spotlight after winning the World's Strongest Man competition in 2006, becoming the first American to win ever since Bill Kazmaier in 1982 (we'll talk a bit about him in #3!).
However, Pfister is a man of many talents, as he's also worked as a firefighter in Charleston, West Virginia, and he's also starred as a henchmen in the 2005 action film The Protector. Not too bad of a resume, right?
#5. Svend Karlsen
Norwegian strongman Svend Karlsen started lifting weights when he was only 14 years old and he would spend 6 hours at the gym each day. However, it wasn't until 1996 that he launched his career as a professional powerlifter, and he was 29 years old at the time.
Considering it took him so long to finally begin training professionally, it comes as a shock that he became the World's Strongest Man in 2001. His most outstanding feat is having deadlifted 400 kg for 3 repetitions, and despite being 52 years old, he still hasn't quit powerlifting!
#4. Larry Wheels
Larry Wheels grew up in poverty, but came to be one of the greatest weightlifters on earth. When he received his first paycheck, his first purchase was a gym membership, and as soon as he touched iron for the first time, he knew that becoming the world's strongest man was his destiny.
The 275-pound man holds the record for the highest powerlifting split in history, having lifted 2275 pounds between his squat, deadlift, and bench. Even scientists were baffled with such a record, as he lifted nearly 10 times his weight!
#3. Bill Kazamier
Back in the 70s and 80s, Bill Kazamier was the strongest man out there. Powerlifting was his passion ever since he was a child, and he managed to lift his own body weight by the time he was 10 years old.
He set a great number of powerlifting records and won the World's Strongest Man title three times. He reached the peak of his career in the mid 80s, moment in which he was dubbed as "the strongest man who ever lived".
#2. Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson
Born in Iceland, Hafthor Julius Björnsson has become an international phenomenon after taking on the role of The Mountain in the HBO series Game of Thrones, and it's pretty obvious why they cast him for that role.
With his 6'9'' and 441 pounds of raw muscle, he's one of the largest men alive, and in 2019 he was crowned as the Strongest Man alive after accomplishing a deadlift of 1,045 pounds! Also, did you know he eats 13 pounds of food each day? Wow!
#1. Kevin Fast
Kevin Fast has been a reverend at St. Paul's Lutheran Church for over 2 decades, but he's no ordinary pastor. As bizarre as it sounds, the Canadian reverend also holds 19 powerlifting records, being dubbed as the world's strongest priest.
Out of all the records he broke, the most insane one is the heaviest airplane ever pulled by a man, after moving a 188-ton plane in 2009. He also holds the world record for the heaviest truck pulled by an arm wrestling move.