5 Strongmen you should know

In the world of strongmen you will find some interesting characters. Actors, dancers, MMA fighters, Vikings and former basketball players are among them. If you want to make this list you neither have to lift a horse, an anchor or a woman over head. Good luck trying!

Louis Cyr

Cyr is a national born Canadian under the name of Saint Cyprien de Napierville and moved later to the United States where he changed his name to Louis to make it easier to promote himself. His mother was 6' 44'' and weighted 260 lbs and her son would not come short of that. Louis known to be the strongest man who ever lived and weighted 180kg at 5 ft 8.5 at one stage.

He was able to lift 227kg with one finger and backlift 1967kg. When he performed his feats of strength he used dumbbells which were so cumbersome that some other strongmen if the time could not even move them from the ground, while Louis lifted them overhead. Other performances of strength were pushing a freight car up an incline.

When of his demonstrations which is still being honored today is the 124kg bent press, in which he lifted 2 punds more than Eugen Sandow, who was the record holder by the time. The 124kg dumbbell is still being bent pressed in the Arnold Strongman Classic. Known to Queen Victoria and other UK nobility at the time, Cyr managed to even get his monument erected in Montreal after his death in 1912. These Canadians... ;)

Angus MacAskill

Angus MacAskill was known as Black Angus a Scottish born Canadian giant measuring 2.36 meters. In 1849 he became part of the P.T. Barnum circus to perform heavy lifts to awe gthe audience. After a career of showing of his size and strength he came back to retire in his home town of Englishtown. The problem with these early strongmen is that it is hard to prove what they did and a lot of the information is hearsay.

Hafthór Júlíus Björnsson

More commonly known in the world as "The mountain" from Game of Thrones than under his real name this man is a real beast.Since 2010 he is dominating the Strongmen community in Iceland standing 2.06m tall and weghing in at 180kg. He started out as a basketball player and got a severe injury in hes knee which sparked his interest into strength training.

In 2015 he broke a 1.000 year old record of Orm Storolfsson carrying a 9.8m long and 650 kg heavy log for five steps. In the world stringest man competition he is a constant top performer, but was not able to surpass his rivals Brian Shaw and Zydrunas Savickas yet. We have literally seen him crush a skull with hi bare hands, if you are constant followers of the awesome Game of Thrones.

Personal records of the mountain:

Squat 350kg

Bench Press 230kg

Deadlift 420kg

He has a tattoo on his shin saying "There is no reason to be alive if can't do deadlift". Well fortunately I personally do deadlift and I can agree that it is fun. Also my measly 170kg are nowhere his performance.

Mariusz Pudzianowski

Mariusz Pudzianowski was the first man to ever win five world's strongest man titles. Being in prison and also disqualified from the competition in 2004 due to use of illegal substances he can also said to be a bit of a dark horse. His bench press record stand at 290kg, squat at 380 kg and Deadlift at 415kg. If you compare these records to the mountain weighing 60kg less and being 26cm shorter I am massively impressed by these numbers. After ending his strongman career he switched to Mixed Martial arts where his current record stand at 12 fights with 8 wins, 3 losses and one non contest. He also entered the 2008 version of Poland's dancing with the stars and made it to the final placing second behind actress Magdalena Walach. Ever seen a strongman dance ? Well, with no further ado, here it is:

Magnus Ver Magnusson

Magnus Ver Magnusson shares the same origins is the Mountain and comes from Iceland. While Mariusz Pudzianowski dominated the strongman scene in the early 2000 he dominated it in the 90s. He holds a 400kg back squat, 250kg benchpress and 375kg deadlift record for a total of 1015kg. He also outsquatted Gerrit Badenhorst in 1995, the then record holder with a 437.5 kg squat. Magnus is 1.91cm tall and weighted 130kg in 1997.