Making Gains: Episode Three

[Music]

Radzi: Hello and welcome to Making Gains in association with the University of Derby and Finnebrogue’s Naked Bacon, the biggest revolution to happen to British breakfasts in a generation. Now today's guest on Making Gains is a man who is a British/ German competitor, he's a World's Strongest Man competitor, he is a Winter Olympian from 2002 Salt Lake City, also the co-founder of Giants Live, Colin Bryce! Welcome to Making Gains sir.

Colin: Give me some more of that right I love it [Applause] [Laughter] Hey ladies in the house, what's up what's up, you gotta calm down now, you gonna calm down - uh living the dream Radz out here you know in my three metre by three metre shed at the end of my garden.

Radzi: And the glasses are looking good mate - the intellectual glasses.

Colin: Thank you, I do have other glasses - I have my UV blue so I don't hurt my eyes [swaps glasses] but I think these are just a bit too much, they actually look like I’m trying to be Mr Cool but I come out as yeah Mr Un-cool probably uh yeah, i didn't realize they're quite so dark.

Radzi: You are the person of all people I know who never feels the cold ever.

Colin: Dude I have, I have the world's biggest storage radio underneath here but it's actually - I’ve I built this desk and thought it was clever but if I turn it on the heat just kind of comes out under me and just pours out from under the desk because I’ve got no vents here so it's really badly designed, but you know. I’ll take this off so I can see you better [removes glasses] now I’m liking the studio man, it's looking very cool.

Radzi: Thank you, yes pursuit of excellence that's what this is all about and I think, I guess in your career you've been on this pursuit of excellence, but let's talk about other people who've also done exactly that - World Strongest Man 2020, I don't feel like we've had the proper chat yet, the proper debrief.

Colin: Yes, yes

Radzi: Yeah, it happened and I think we're very grateful.

Colin: It's extraordinary it did actually and yeah, it was so many things everyone was up against of course in 2020 you know, in fact did we not have a chat where you, right the beginning of lockdown, where I phoned you up I was like Radz you know I mean arena shows is what I do, that's what really pays the bills – bums on seats inside arena strongman shows. I said oh I haven’t got any shows Radz, my show is April 4th I don't think it's going to happen. At the time I was convinced the next one would, and then he was like all right okay I see all right all right well I’ve lost every single piece of work amazingly hadn't you? You're like well let me let me check my diary, uh no there's nothing's May’s gone, June's gone, Olympics, no none of that happening.

Radzi: Yeah it was nuts it was just you know you go from over the course of four days bang Olympics gone, Invictus Games gone, World Athletics Championships gone, whatever else, London Marathon gone, Great North Run, everything's just gone, and you know actually I was one of the lucky ones because you know - so with that in mind it was meant to be May, World’s Strongest Man gets pushed to potentially October, then November but it happened.

Colin: It did happen.

Radzi: Can we just talk about how many people were missing in it?

Colin: That's a good question I mean you know, let me just say one thing for sure is that you know Hafþór would never have done it in May anyway, or June or whatever, you know I think he always planned to do his deadlift so that that was something, you know, anyone who's… you know, knows a bit about Strongman will know Hafþór Björnsson, and he was always planning on going. The fact that he ends up fighting Eddie Hall, suddenly it makes it makes sense you know he did his 501 kilos and was out. So no Hafþór. Žydrūnas of course is, he keeps talking about comebacks, he couldn't make it back in time. Brian Shaw you know, Eddie Hall retired you know he was one of the other big four guys the last few years, so he's you know doing his own thing YouTubing away and whatnot, and um he was going to be there as a presenter - CBS for the first time, um funnily enough I did the CBS commentary for the first time which was really quite good fun, but yeah so there was there was you know of the big four over the last decade there was only Brian, and then you know Kieliszkowski who was really the sort of um, I guess the the man everyone was waiting to be - you know the prince waiting to become king. He just he had something ridiculous like three injuries to the same shoulder and tricep in a row basically, every time he kept coming back too early and I think the last time I spoke to him he said the doctor said it'll be no problem this time, he's attached it with four different screws - which worries me about what kind of flexibility he'll have coming back. You know um that's worrying.

Radzi: Overhead he's incredible, especially for his size, and if that gets affected you would worry.

Colin: A lot, a lot, I just can't believe he's going to be able to be the same man coming back. Yeah I just can't see it but yeah sad, but it's just the way it is, but he's coming back we'll see we'll see. Janashia, you know Janashia was publicly, you know, said COVID he was on the way to come out and he couldn't make it in the end.

Radzi: So um that was again well the last sort of 24 months.

Colin: Yeah, yeah oh absolutely yeah. He's been uh you know extraordinary, have you said that he hurt his triceps in 2019 if you remember.

Radzi: Yeah exactly. That was yeah yeah, on the dumbbell.

Colin: So he he'd been like third, whatever like fourth, third , whatever – did he make the podium? J F Caron was then the next man who was over and luckily JF turned up, he'd been like fifth, fifth, fourth, and you know as a Canadian he's just like a fine wine jeff you know he is, he really is a splendid character and just extraordinary when he fights like a dog and he will not be beaten at anything, he's just a really hard man. But anyways I mean there was, it was, come on Brycey spout out some names, there was a lot of guys put it this way in the last I would say six weeks there were probably 10 pull-outs. 10! Lalas ripped his bicep off totally uh Rob Kearney tricep off totally, uh which I feel guilty about because I really, oh bless him, I phoned him up about uh eight, nine months before it and said come on this is it. you can do it, one last time for the old war horse. He’s like Brycey don't ask me, don't ask me don't - i don't want to do it. He has a funny Irish accent for a Lithuanian, and then I was like come on you, do you remember how good you were? You were the best but you never got to show you were the best. I won and Arnold, I know you won an Arnold, but it wasn’t THE Arnolds was it? Come on Lalas you know you can do it, it's in deep inside you, of course you know six weeks beforehand he just sent me a photo of his bicep up somewhere by his ear, so that was very sad and I hope he's alright actually. Yes there was a lot of quite major injuries, the dreaded COVID, there was crikey there was even a Mexican chap who was gonna come and, obviously was there was Gabriel Pena but another guy was going to come who, because it was easier to get North Americans there, it was the travel issue as well because it was hitting us hard really hard. Biby was going to come, Iron Biby he was going to come, but he tore an abductor - right do you want to know how iron Biby tore his abductor?

Radzi: An axle press, or was it military press?

Colin: Nope, it was a military press on a bar. so military press for those who aren't entirely au fait with it is it when you take a bar, you know you can clean and press, or you can just military press take out, you know. If you're about to squat, let's say, what is a good squat in kilos? You know 227 kilos is 500 pounds, if you're gonna put that in your back, if you put on the front oh just a good old front squat right? Imagine putting 200 and, let me get this right, 200. No, no, no, no he done 265 and did it depressed military press. 265 kilos that's no problem, and he did that two weeks before after doing or whatever, then that two weeks later he came back and he did three at 265, he was feeling so good and then went stick on 280. It might have even been 285. The world will never know because Biby is so, he's never spoken, he doesn't want to speak about it he was really sad. But as he was pushing, let's call it 285, because it sounds even more ludicrous but it doesn't need to be it's got 280. And he was pushing like we're talking way over 600 pounds now, I mean it's just a ludicrous, he’s pressing it and then something happened as he was pressing out finishing the lockout, in his inside his right quad or something. His abductor just went and that was it. And he’s in Burkina Faso and I don’t think he was getting particularly good rehab, and he just couldn't recover from it pretty well, so he couldn't make it.

Radzi: I mean Neil Pickup, the emcee of Giants Live has an amazing line that I’ll say for Neil when he's actually doing it, but he refers to the world's biggest legs as well, as being one of the world's strongest men, I mean how big do you reckon his legs are?

Colin: I mean I normally say with pretend conviction, just you know to please the crowd, but if I was to guess genuinely I would almost certainly 40 inches yeah, yeah it has to be.

Radzi: I mean my waist is 28 which is just a hilarious prospect that his leg is wider to the tune of about 166 percent of my entire hip, but that is just preposterous.

Colin: There's a wonderful photo on the internet, I don’t know if you can get it up of Iron Biby, of him deadlifting at the World Deadlift Championships, and I’ve just never seen a freakier dude, he's just, he's just unbelievable he must have a 80 inch chest and a 60 inch waist himself so his waist doesn't really look, you know if you said 60 inch waist you think Christ this guy's morbidly obese, but then you realize he has an 80 inch chest, he's just all in proportion, and he has a genuine 25 and three-quarter inch bicep without any pump, without anything he just went on that we measured it and I can, I think it's so I think there was, Manfred Herbal had like the world's biggest slightly fake arms at like 26 inches, but they were absolutely silicon enhanced, there was something about them, they just weren't quite right. I mean i know that for sure because he had a terrible motorbike accident, I saw him a couple years after that he was down about 100 kilos and he still had the massive air arms, so there had to have been something enhanced. So yeah, things weren't quite right um and yeah but Biby’s are, he is the most naturally gifted strength athlete I have ever met. I don't know why I’m whispering it, but it's worth whispering, because he truly is terrifying. He's the most unique human ever, anyway he didn't make it but there we are.

Radzi: And it was it was such a shame and hopefully he'll be there next year, by the way I’d be curious, you know you were mentioning obviously his military press, I’d be so interested to know what he'd be able to clean and jerk if he were to focus on an Olympic movement for even a month, just to see what he's capable of because the guy, single rep wise, it's just incomprehensible what he can do.

Colin: Funny enough um Darren Sadler, who's probably at the opposite end of this World Strongest Man competitor in size, you know pocket rocket nickname and all that good stuff, and he came across Biby trying to teach his younger brother, and Biby he's got some strong brothers, but they are not - I mean he is like the giant cuckoo in the nest, like you know, all right who who's the one who ate all the breakfast here, you know he's just enormous, and his younger brother and Darren was watching he said Biby was basically teaching him to do like a reverse curl, because that's just what he does it's just so easy for him, just a couple hundred kilos, he just reverse curls it and then presses it. Well as his brother was just a normal human being, albeit very strong as well actually, but it was like he tried to step in and teach him but Biby's like hey who can, who can clean more here and Darren was like well okay, I get it doesn't really work the argument but okay.

Radzi: Yeah well his younger brother is now I think 20, and at I’m going to say 85 kilos body weight, he's got a 180 back squat, he's small he's a small lad.

Colin: He's got a 180 bench.

Radzi: Thank you, exactly that and his, back I think is around the 230, 240 mark, he's strong and interestingly he says he's he is stronger than Biby was himself when Biby was his age. Which means…

Colin: I mean, but Biby has no, see Biby has no idea, like Darren went squatting with him he said you know he has the most impressive thing, he's obviously so big, he has just no idea how strong he is, so he just put - he just put some weight on you know Daz, by this point they're up to I don't know maybe 300 kilos and Daz is covered in neoprene um and belts, and wraps, and he's got some suit on and he's you know he's really absolutely ready for it you know, he's got his hydration right, and Biby is still like in a pair of New Balance trainers just wandering around, chatting and you know whatever. How many are you going to do Biby? I don't know I’ll have a wee feel and play and he'll just go down. He said it was like watching a rhinoceros squat, he just you couldn't believe how it was like a toy on his back, he just sort of went down and stretched a bit with it, and came back out a few times and up and down he went, and you know how much was you squat? I don’t know, I never like maybe uh 350 380? I don't know maybe, I could do it? So you've never maxed out? No, no. And he had no knee wraps, no belt, no nothing, no nothing, a few hundred kilos on his back. This guy's just a freak.

Radzi: He is can you tell the story about his incremental jump, I think when he was training with Daz in log press, and Daz said what do you basically want to start on, and presumed it was going to be presumably 80 kilos, or something.

Colin: Well yeah like the log 80 kilos, I - you'd have to get Daz to tell the story on this one, but he was I’m sure it was already I think it was because it was already at a weight. And it was like well, what do you want, and I think Hicksy had been training and it was already at like either 180 or 200. and he said yeah no I’ll just I’ll just join in. [Laughter] What no,no it's not 200 pounds! I know it's 200 kilos, that's okay. He’s just - and this is the thing that Daz found most freaky about Biby, so Biby’s only ever trained events a few times because Burkina Faso it's not the hotbed of strongman training equipment, you think it probably is going to be right. It just isn’t. He hasn't got an atlas stone you know and he basically what the training he does is at Daz’s gym for the couple weeks he's arrived beforehand, and he tried car walk basically super young really but car walk for the first time ever, like the week before. Five, six days before, Daz put him through a session maybe maybe eight, seven days before, Biby was I want to do, I want to do another session so he did it again on like the Wednesday. Daz is like it’s getting too close to the competition Biby, it's a thousand pounds, you can't lower any lighter, it can't go lighter yeah. I just want to have a little play with it, and then the night before he demanded please come on I want to try it again, I’ve got another idea for a start. So he basically went and, I don't know if you've seen it when he did it, he just absolutely annihilated it. He wanted to practice on basically a Ben Johnson start with one foot forward, one foot backwards, and just run at it, and he did it the night before and Daz is like if I did that I would just be inflammation. I’d be you know uh-huh you know icing and whatnot, you certainly wouldn't be doing it in competition the next day at Manchester Arena in front of whatever it was, eight thousand people or something, and he crushed it, just sprinted past everybody like it was nothing on twinkle toes.

Radzi: Interestingly, the world setup I think lends itself more to Biby than a Giant's Live, which is five events in three hours, versus could be five of the days and five events over two days again with a day between kind of you know the only way there's always something really, really speedy.

Colin: Now this year we had World’s 2020 we had the uh smorgasbord fsh-1d as I called it, smorgasbord it was the uh monster truck um - parts out of a monster truck. And you know some of us, there were some of them were only like 100 kilos and people were sprinting. Guys like Adam Bishop, well you know how's Bishop going to get - he's going to get last in that and blow his energy isn't he! He almost might as well pick one up and just walk a couple yards, and put it down, and then go for the static events, that would be his best shot because then if you think about it the way the system works is you'll probably have some killer in his group like a Kieliszkowski or a Shaw and he's going to struggle to beat them across the first forward, and then you've got this stone off. Now Biby doesn't have a stone, so right now under the current system Biby is going to struggle to get through, he might be in second place be loose the third in stone maybe.

Radzi: To that point though one thing that was different about 2020 there was no stone off in the traditional sense, it was a stone run.

Colin: Yeah, there's a good reason for that, why that happened, is just that like so many things when we were out there, and you know you asked what was it like, well there was unbelievable hurricanes, there was uh what they call twisters, there was a storm surge that came with hurricanes and that was why we never competed on the beach that we were meant to. It was meant to be, this year was meant to be grandstand on the beach, it was a beach party theme. You would all have been there Bermuda shorts, you know whatever, you know people would have had big fingers or whatever you know ‘go Biby’ whatever - it was going to be a party. Yeah people were queuing up to be drink sponsors, and it was just going to be great, but then in the end the COVID happens and we weren't gonna have anyone there anyway, but we were still on the beach oh cool, and then the night before they set everything up from tents, chairs, you know VIP, tables of referee stuff, you know whatever uh all the staging platform you have to build, all that wooden thing on soft sand to make it you know biblically solid - a storm surge came with the hurricane. All washed away down to the bottom of the ocean, the lot, so not only did we wake up on day of competition with a hurricane going on, but we had basically no - um missing all of our staging. So we had basically like 24 hours till the next day to begin we'd lost our one day off in the middle, we'd lost our one day off in the middle for the athletes, and that one day off meant the guys who would go head to head in the stones didn't have a day off now.

Colin: I fear for Biby though, he's only come out once to Worlds and he had malaria, so he just couldn't compete, he was just sweating like unbelievable, I’m thinking geez surely it's hot in Burkina Faso, why are you sweating so much? With me you know, I’m a Scotsman and I’m not sweating remotely as much as you and I am sweaty with the best of them you know. You could see he was down and he couldn't figure it. out he just looked deflated, of course he had malaria simple as that you know he's just yeah bang gutting, and then I think if he turns up and he does well - the thing is that loading event, imagine loading on sand there's always that there's always a kind of you know the only way there's always something really, really speedy. know this year we had World’s 2020, we had the uh smorgasbord fsh-1d as I called it, smorgasbord it was the uh monster truck um - parts out of a monster truck. And you know some of us, there were some of them were only like 100 kilos and people were sprinting. Guys like Adam Bishop, well you know how's Bishop going to get - he's going to get last in that and blow his energy isn't he! He almost might as well pick one up and just walk a couple yards, and put it down, and then go for the static events, that would be his best shot because then if you think about it the way the system works is you'll probably have some killer in his group like a Kieliszkowski or a Shaw and he's going to struggle to beat them across the first forward, and then you've got this stone off. Now Biby doesn't have a stone, so right now under the current system Biby is going to struggle to get through, he might be in second place be loose the third in stone maybe.

Radzi: To that point though one thing that was different about 2020 there was no stone off in the traditional sense, it was a stone run.

Radzi: Ahhh, ok.

Colin: And it was actually, you know it wasn't you know - people have criticized, people hated the oh how could you change the atlas stones to a head-to-head, and then amazingly people start really quite liking it - not amazingly it's, an obvious one, it's gladiatorial, it's great, it's what life should be about you know! And then we changed it to that and for good reason! The athletes were like hey if you make us do a sort of uh a a um Novikov versus, um you know big Texan boy, what's his name again? Crikey um, Trey Mitchell III. Trey Mitchell III vs Novakov - they did something like 25 lifts each or something ridiculous, backwards and forwards with a 180 kilo tennis ball, and in the end it was just you know it felt like Novikov deserved to go to the final, it's really sad that Trey Mitchell went and he didn't. And it was just the next day I mean Trey Mitchell had a day off but he was still pretty wiped out for the final with that, so we decided that eight stones just a straight run would be - one guy goes down the next for the second and third place finishes to go to the final. Novikov, yeah that's an apt name for yeah for talking about Strongest Man 2020. Yes because he got his, he got his redemption if you like.

Colin: And it was actually, you know it wasn't you know - people have criticized, people hated the oh how could you change the atlas stones to a head-to-head, and then amazingly people start really quite liking it - not amazingly it's, an obvious one, it's gladiatorial, it's Great, it's what life should be about you know! And then we changed it to that and for good reason! The athletes were like hey if you make us do a sort of uh a a um Novikov versus, um you know big Texan boy, what's his name again? Crikey um, Trey Mitchell III. Trey Mitchell III vs Novakov - they did something like 25 lifts each or something ridiculous, backwards and forwards with a 180 kilo tennis ball, and in the end it was just you know it felt like Novikov deserved to go to the final, it's really sad that Trey Mitchell went and he didn't. And it was just the next day I mean Trey Mitchell had a day off but he was still pretty wiped out for the final with that, so we decided that eight stones just a straight run would be - one guy goes down the next for the second and third place finishes to go to the final. Novikov, yeah that's an apt name for yeah for talking about Strongest Man 2020. Yes because he got his, he got his redemption if you like.

Radzi: Well totally and it made for a fantastic final, and I have to say going into it, seeing the events there were three people I was most excited about, or excited for should I say, so it was Bish, Tom Stoltman and Evan Singleton, because I thought just the events I thought athletically it could do well with the strength athlete rather than the statically strongest guy, and then Evan Singleton it doesn't happen for him, and you could - it was just devastating.

Colin: Evan Singleton is such a magnificent specimen, he really is, he was basically at a college on a scholarship doing wrestling and he was a tremendous wrestler at high school, Pennsylvania boy like myself, and he got poached by the WWE, not WWE you know lower league or whatever he is, you go away and train and then you know of course he got concussed after he got his contracts, and got concussed again, and again, and it was really bad, really bad so much so he just couldn't wrestle anymore, and he was pretty depressed and pretty sad about things. Then he just you know he just went back to the gym, that was his saviour, I bet it’s a lot of peoples saviour your life the gym, it has been mine, in different scenarios you know. To sort of straighten one up, make sure you have some discipline and then you gain, you start to get gains, making gains you know, you start to make gains you feel good about yourself again, and that's an incredible powerful thing um you know building your body up, you know strong mind, strong body. His enthusiasm was off the scaleless, it's like it's like he'd been reborn with strong man, he had a chance at something he was, he was so goddamn good at it. He was crazy strong I mean the first ever contest he was in six events and he and he whipped all these guys who were like professional, whatever they call, sort of pro card in America. You know that's there's a system over there that they've got, and has to be respected, but he certainly didn't respect he came in there and whipped their ass, and you know he had been a reserve at World’s the year before and he was just looking so good. I thought that your reserve would just calm him down a bit and he'd keep his head, he just went a bit crazy, he was so he was so pop strong he wanted to put a show on.

Radzi: The thing was seeing him at North America’s Giants Live, you know we were there, and what impressed me most about him was not only did he win but it was in the car me, you Daz and Evan, and Daz said just really casually, he said mate we've got Giants Live Manchester very soon, the same one that you spoke about with Biby, where Biby performs unbelievably well yeah he said there are things I could do with you and I’d be able to really help you. If you want to come and stay with me for a couple of weeks before Giants Live just say the word. So we're in the restaurant now to have brunch, Daz goes to the toilet and I said to Evan just so you know Daz has been deadly serious when he says that, , he's put the offer out there, he hasn't been polite he's put the offer out there, he hasn't been polite he's put the offer out there it's now on you to say yes, and I said and if I were you mate I’d go for it. And when I was saying if I were you, I didn't even need to say that, his eyes were looking down and you could see him working stuff out. And I said what are you working out? He says I’ve got three jobs, I just need to work out what I’m going to tell each of my bosses as to why I can't work for the next two weeks. And I just thought you've got it mate, you've got it because there are some guys who've got all the tools, but there aren't that many guys who've got it up there and wants it more than any you think of. You think immediately of Eddie Hall, he just wanted it more than everybody else. I feel he’s kind of cut from that similar cloth and I hope, I hope, I hope and I believe in that guy that his first seeing the World's Strongest Man it was Impressive, he just went I think he kind of over revved the engine a few too many times and then something went ping. He's back, he's recovered I mean even - what he's using is the safety bar squat, or the safety squat, but what would you call them, and he's having to hold on to excuse me he's not even doing that he's got some kind of material that wraps around his shoulder onto a normal deadlift bar and he's been standing up with 400 kilos holding on to the straps, as well as doing the safety bar, and I thought his lower back, his erectors, must be like sailing ropes. You know he's a strong dude, and he's determined, and he wants it, and so 2021 I think again don't discount it.

Colin: I mean he's you know, he's got the original you know pat him on the back and you lose your hand in his lower back, like goodness why is this crikey just unbelievable. Magnus, he used to have the most crazy of those I believe all those years of Olympic weightlifting. But yeah his you know his one problem is a touch of the Vasyl Virastyuk about him, he has all the power all that, but he's got this of high shoulder, slightly high shoulder, not you know the arms he’s got fairly long arms and massive old mitts on him, but that he seems, you know, what I mean, like somebody like basically biomechanics, deadlifting is you know if you have really long arms a bit slopy shoulder like me actually, you know you can -and a big ass, you can just kind of like [Laughter] and you can deadlift hey.

Radzi: When you said slopy shoulders, long arms, the barge doesn't have to go as far.

Colin: Chaucer's strong man in the middle ages was a slopy shouldered, big hipped, you know brute with long arms it actually is quite a - the bodybuilding shape of the sort of you know the ‘v’ is really not actually, that the narrow waist is of little use, but even worse if you have short arms, you know your little diddy arms then, you're in big trouble. I mean it can be good for pressing of course, if you're lying on your back um bench pressing, but it's a bit limited when it comes to really grabbing weights and ripping them around you know. Which actually if we were to move on to the final very quickly, let's skip right past the heat, one of the most impressive moments in the final of World’s Strongest Man this year has to be the log. The log press previous event was Hercules hold for some reason Tom Stoltman just has a grip like a small girl, who knows why, he just does and he holds it for less than anyone. He struggles and he knew it, he knew it, he's got something I think he's damaged a finger or something, anyway he comes out the next event because of the honour system he has to go first. Nobody does well first out, you don't know how to pace yourself, there's five logs getting heavier and heavier, but nobody expected the six foot nine really long armed guy who's very good at deadlifting – because that's something you're good at with very long arms. Height doesn't really matter, long arms, massive most important thing, and slopy shoulders. Even low shoulders is even, you know not slopy. But then he came out the log press, did the first log, second log, third log, fourth log, he just did the fifth log. He was on his own because someone's been injured, he just nailed them that was it like for I think maybe one other man did them Pritchett but nowhere near the same time, he just crushed it, absolutely crushed it. And actually if you make television it's a bit of a nightmare if you have the one guy who runs on his own doing really well, because you're set up to show in pairs correct and so the whole honour system is like okay well big Tom, he's tall he won't do so well – what, what, he's done all five? And then it's the look I’m like - look at me in particular, oh the tournament director you haven't got the weights right have you? You know the guy who's in last uh who's the big tall lanky guy has just pressed them all, you screwed that one up haven't you? Like thinking geez did I go too light here? And then Pritchett was the only other guy I mean big, like big Brian Shaw was struggling on the third one I mean, it was, I’ve started to doubt myself as to these you know? If i got the weights totally right he's - Tom Storm’s one of these guys who can just do wild things, that was my wild performance of the entire WSM.

Radzi: I don't think many people would necessarily know that that's a side of it that you have to deal with, where just for example if you take Crossfit they're concerned mainly with challenging the athletes first, if you like, entertainment second, whereas specifically World's Strongest Man you are having to try and make it so that enough people are doing well enough that you have a competition, but not too many people so that it is still a competition and there's still a filtration system. And you're having to factor in the fatigue from the previous event, or the previous heat, and you've got to do this for the future events that are going to be taking place. Especially when you've got like a world record on a silver dollar deadlift coming up, you're thinking right that's it's essentially a deadlift to get it the initial movement of the log. There's a lot that goes into your job.

Colin: Yeah it's not brain surgery, I can't pretend, it's just simple experience actually and funnily enough the athletes often don't know themselves until - Brian wont mind telling this story that I think it was 2012, 2013, in China I remember, was it 2014? Anyway it was when we were in China and I think just about the last event or second penultimate event was an overhead press, and I remember getting real pressure you know, the pressure's on man, you know. Brian and I get on pretty well normally, but he was sweating me you know he was one of the big dogs, and him and the dreamers were getting close to the WSM title, it was gonna come down to the wire, and I seem to remember him winning. Anyway but he was just kind of putting the pressure on – Bryce why have you put that weight? And why have you put that weight? And often the weights are waiting till the end as well because you just don't know quite the conditions, there's no set conditions, you're not in some perfect weightlifting hole. There's air conditioning you're out there's some humid, you know and we're kind of doing it, it's sort of um you know there’s sort of like marble in front of some giant sculpture thing and these clouds are coming and geez oh you know what should we do, and then you've got the first, the barbells aren't changeable so what do I, you know actual item I can change and I remember thinking right I’m going to go light you know? And then I put a lighter one in to the heavier ones and then he found that he was he was p****d man! I could do that in my sleep, I could if I see what the **** are you doing? But it had a a - you know 100 kilo, 110 was it? 110 and then 120, when we had 120 and 130. I cut a long story short of course he did the first barbell, came to the first dumbbell and he couldn't do it. He actually couldn't do it, and it was the lighter weight, and it just you just sapped of energy, just gone now, this is a man who actually just pulled a world record in deadlift earlier. You might find it, it's quite a famous shot of him pulling 445 kilos maybe, yeah and beating Žydrūnas’ record on the globe, so he was feeling powerful he was charged he had every right, and I’m sure in training 110, 115 kilos into dumbbells is nothing for him. He just couldn't do it, it was just yeah, it was quite amazing. Only Mike Burkins and Žydrūnas finished that and then it came down to the stones, and see tell you what, we've been blessed with Brian and Žydrūnas is the greatest duo there's been, bowed down, those two guys oh they were so close!

Radzi: Bill and um well the Bill, the Jeff. Yeah in terms of for you that's better than the 80s?

Colin: The best thing for me right, and I claim regularly, if you look how close all the finishes were it's down to my genius how I – always I, I, I when it goes well, we, we, we it's always in the team you know. It was one point finishes, sometimes dead heats, in the final I mean you can't get,better entertainment than that! But really they were just so evenly matched, you could have picked any order, you could have put tiddlywinks and paper, rock, scissors and they probably would have drawn them, it was just so, it was great, it was a great era to be and you know actually yeah it was just a super time. I mean looking back over time though, there's been across, there's been some great ones. Kazmaier and Capes, you know that was a that was a magnificent one.

Radzi: I was thinking Carlson and um Samuelson for example.

Colin: Well I mean to be fair Kazmaier and Capes really happened off World's Strongest Man more than it did on. It only really actually happened when Capes’ sorry Kaz and John Paul because you know when Kaz finally returned from his um enforced ban punishment , he probably wasn't the Kaz he once was and they'd compete a lot in between then, and there was Capes and John Paul that was a great little hero wasn't it? 80s, 1980s Jeff Capes, John Paul Sigmarsson, that was what was really what grew strong man wasn't it, modern strongman.

Radzi: This country, when you say strongman to people of a certain generation they just say Jeff Capes, you know it's but let's talk about Kaz in a second, let's finish off World’s Strongest Man 2020, because the podium Tom getting on the podium for the first time, but Novakov doing it as the lightest contender in that final that for me - his youth, his size just could you put that into some sort of historical context there? Because it was so good.

Colin: Well I mean I’d have to double check and I was, you know, someone's done the homework somewhere, was John Paul younger when he won it in Christchurch? Or not but they're both 24 in a matter of months, so they're basically in my mind joint youngest in terms of 24 years old, and he of course this is the key bit Novakov came to me when he arrived and, I didn't know this because so many other stresses you know between hurricanes, and people dropping, the COVID, and we were all stuck in a COVID bubble 48 hours in your bedroom, you know what do you do for 48 hours in your bedroom, you don't have to answer that Radz, but you're a referee I was polishing my whistle, you know that was polished so I put that down you know, I polished my stopwatch you know, there's little anyway if I polish the rules. Yeah this is boring, and anyway so yeah we moved to Novikov arriving and when we all came out of the bubble all safe of COVID, and he said to me the tear in his eye sat down and and then explained to me it's not gonna be a good year, I’m sorry an old school Eastern European kind of you know I’m very sorry this is not for me my grandfather died two weeks ago. I was like wow that hurts, he says he was my trainer I think you know, all right crikey I can picture he is now and he said yes, same trainer as Vasil Villastro. I said wow he's a bit of a legend then, he's like yes yes he was, you know from little boy until now he was like six or seven when he started training some weights. He'd go down to the weightlifting club and learn off his grandpa, two weeks prior he died and then he was like a man on a mission to something he kind of slowly awoke he started okay and then got better and better, and then just you know, every time he was like you know when someone's kind of like dazing off into the sky after an event, you know it was like somebody in the quick, you know, hang on I’m just having a quick chat with the big guy upstairs here you know. He had someone on his side you know, it was divine intervention and he just kept growing in stature, he just looked small just like a little guy – and he’s six foot. And suddenly he kind of grew and stature to the point where he won the max weight event in the final, that was a shock to everybody that, nobody expect nobody expected that at all, anyone who says they did is fibbing. You know guys like Bishop, and Stoltman, and Brian Shaw - all unbelievable deadlifts, all massively heavy, big strong guys you know, long arms, and there was you know little Novikov, 24 years old. It's a gym strength thing in many ways, sheer top dead lifting power it takes years, but he did it you know and he - the fast events he was fast, you know only the only one tiny disappointment for me was the stone when he didn't get the fifth stone up, especially after having you know um Tom Stoltman right there came before him in the previous pair and obviously acing it. Big Brian Shaw had done all five and I really wanted him to do five to crow, I love when they do that it just feels like I’d - anyway he still won by four points or something.

Radzi: You know he was saying that about his grandparent passing away very sadly it reminded me a little bit of Eddie, Eddie hall wins in Botswana and the first thing he does is talk about his grandmother, and he had that same thing on had done the fourth stone and then turns it around, and in Eddie's case he goes for the fifth stone, but that I guess that loss, that trauma, it's either pressure cracks pipes, or it makes stuff and clearly in the scenario of Novikov it made a diamond, and what a diamond it made.

Colin: If Eddie hadn't done that fifth stone in the 58th second of a 60-second race, he still would have won, he only would have won because he was the fastest four right, but who wants to sit there and go was I the fastest for? He knew what he had to do because he was doing the maths now, looking across uh whoever he was up against, it was big Brian Shaw wasn't it I think? Yes because Hapthor was at that point in third I think, but he'd already gone and aced his stuff anyway. It's getting confusing now, but it is confusing at the time well what’s the time, what’s fastest? And everyone was just shouting get it on, get it on, don't why take any chances. It was so dramatic that Brian tore his hamstrings, fell over and collapsed. Oh god, it was all action his stone was like rolling across the platform, oh my god, and then Ed put it on with a second and a half to spare and that was it. You knew if you'd put it on it was guaranteed in reality. He'd beaten I think Martin Lister to the fastest four or something like that so yeah he still would have won it but it wouldn't have been quite as like bang it let me through the gate to receive my crown now, you know? But I think Novakov might probably, could have done it and no doubt will do it but then again it was you know the things that just didn't suit shorter men, stones is one of them but you know, keg toss did all right, you know without body weight, it's hard to pull heavy weights without bodyweight. Deadlift sure helps to have a huge a**** you know, and he did he did brilliantly.

Radzi: One big thing is so I still feel that Shaw's got another title in him, and especially if there's a vehicle pull of some description, I mean was that even meant to be there? Because you guys went indoors I presume if it was outdoors you had the option what, was that a thought?

Colin: I mean there was meant to be a vehicle pull that that was, absolutely that was discussed, but in the final there was a lot of changing you know, and of course with a lot of changing comes a lot of conspiracy theories, but really it's just like well you know the day before there we were in hurricane conditions. You know the guys were so cool about it, you know no worries you know, but then of course they're like can you? And what's happening, what's happening? You're like all right we'll give you an update, it's now 11am, we'll update you at four o'clock after that well you'd get there to four o'clock and be like well what we can tell you is it's going to continue like this, the weather tomorrow, but we believe we've got a location indoors we're going to do it okay, and then and then through the night begins the the build in the local convention centre, I think they chucked us the keys sometime mid to late afternoon, everyone rushed down there and phone calls like mad, and favours brought in from out of state to bring lights in and this and that and you know when you really have to club together it's amazing how things can happen, and everyone including the athletes really did their bit just to say hey respect we want this contest to happen, do your best. But there's also a perfect excuse for someone who doesn't do well to turn around and say you know well look at it everything changed, and it did, everything did pretty much change and that's just the way it is but we had a contest and I think we found, we did find the world's strongest man.

Radzi: I’d say the best, I’d say he was the rightful winner in my eyes.

Colin: How could you argue he wasn't the strongest man. How could you argue against it. Yeah that's the question. Yeah and yeah we didn't have a, we didn't have a pull but in my opinion mass pulls mass. It doesn't always mean you're the strongest, yeah it's an iconic event Worlds Strongest Man, but mass pulls mass I’ve witnessed, I’ve witnessed like 12 school children in Nigeria dragging Jeff Capes and Bill Casmire on their arse along the grass when some organiser thought that it would be a clever idea if a few of the local school girls took them on and told them don't pull too hard fellas. I can tell you right now unless you've got purchase and can use your muscle if you're pure cars and capes and you weigh a combined weight of let's say, I don't know uh 350 kilos huge amount of weight for two men and leaning on the other side is not just 10 girl school girls at 35 kilos but on comes the 11th or maybe even the 12th, suddenly they're out doing it by 70 kilos and they just win, they lean back was hey hey there dragged on with the kilts coming up. There was so hard now and that was a lesson learned watching that video from 1981. never you know mass pull mass.

Radzi: There's one exception to the rule and that's if your name's Kieliszkowski because that man somehow, he somehow managed to

Colin: Purchase, purchase, purchase dear boy. He can get in a position that is um he's like a sort of the soldier crawl that my little dog Eggie does across the grass he's like it's on his belly virtually. He's just unbelievable at um driving his forces through perfectly perfectly, I mean, it's just a lot of talk about oh the big men getting their hips through and this and that yeah of course is you have to get your hips down to be able to drive your legs properly through but um yeah it just depends you never you never know like a tears of fly one Ed noticed on the plane ,here's the only plane story from 2017 right. Brakes on a plane, snakes on a plane, there's some poster like this brakes on the plane and I was in the back because the evil guy you know. Anyway there was no brakes on the plane in fact we we saw the plane, we tested a similar one we found the right spot on the runway that's where to do it and trust me you don't want to have an uphill patch at the start of pulling a plane, so you've got to find just the right spot and it's pretty damn flat all around there and it just gets, it just right and it will start fine. But what there is on a commercial plane is that as a towing kind of metal thing to get under its nose yeah and then that sticks out it's like a sort of long metal bar it's got another wheel in it right. Can you picture what I’m talking about so that's then attached to the yeah and that's you imagine you know, you know on the command commercial um airplane ports airports as they're known uh they have you know some little white thing comes in behind and reverses in clicks it on and then drives it away. Yeah now that is so that's here's the front wheel right we're facing that way yeah that's got a bar here and then there's a man pulling this way right now if that actually the so the rope is actually tied to here and if you got too high actually what it did is went to dish and it started to bounce from side to side and of course if you're pulling I’m putting at you and I’ve got a wheel here that that goes it's biting and sending the plane the wrong way you had to be super low to keep that towing eye on the ground. I had no idea but it was great because Ed told me before commentary time about three months later that that was what he realized when he watched Kieliszkowski and the others do it um and he was one of the last guys to go in it so he kind of learned and learning on the job intelligence you know he got me smart.

Radzi: But you mentioned Kaz and Jeff being pulled in their asses, can we talk about Bill Kazmaier because so if we were to ask the controversial question about who's the strongest human being that's ever lived? For me it's Bill Kazmaier. Do I think hypothetically Shaw is a stronger man than him now than Kaz’s best. Yes I do but training has changed, equipment's changed everything right but in terms of if you took them all in a particular year you took them back to the medieval times, who and they're born in medieval times, training medieval times I think personally Kaz is the one who comes out on top. Do you have any amazing Bill Kazmaier stories because that man he he's worthy of some anecdotes?

Colin: Okay this is I mean this is this is just a wee flavour of Bill now and Bill you know Bill's it's trains a wee bit here and there you know he goes in and does a fitness first he'll pump his biceps a wee bit or something you know occasionally but he doesn't he's how old is he 60, late 60s yeah something 60, something all right 70. He turned up to, he yeah he's old I mean he's I’d say he's mid to late 60s now, probably mid 60s. Yeah at least anyway he was at, he was at Darren's school and uh he's really good, he's just has wild power in his hands forearms still and he and he can roll up a frying pan but there's a big difference between you know, buying the frying pan pound stretcher it's a bit of a cheapie right, and then this kind of like the more mid-range one you might get from JC P enney's or i don't know whatever um John Lewis or something like Dunelm, mid-range solid nothing, nothing to be embarrassed about you know, a bit of chief fellow whatever and then you've got the like the Mack Daddy like the sort of grill one it's like you know, like a dungeon super thick and uh jazz being a good farming community where he is I think he sprinted down to the local Robert Dyers if they even exist anymore and he bought this, um or sent someone down it was like one of the one of the people in the gym went down to buy it of course he bought like the bulletproof one, the ridiculous bulletproof kind of thing you, yeah you know, you would, you know if you had to choose a weapon you'd probably go for the pan because you could really club someone so heavy you know that kind of thing. What weapon from the kitchen will I choose this massive Tefal thing and cars run he turned up the school and Kaz was just about to start chatting he was like handed anyone what the hell are you doing? What are you giving me and and I think dad saw him say oh no oh no sorry Kaz and Kaiser said give it to me and yeah you can guess what he did he went out there in front of a group of six-year-olds he gave him the full power of the Kaz, you know um conceive believe achieve you know, these kids were kind someone knowing that he's actually, he's a magnificent speaker you know, really inspires kids he can really get on the level with him as he's cool, he's great at that he's not quite as scary as you think he'd be and then he went here we go come on this is a problem and he can see him like that and he did it rolled it up, it's like the impossible you just don't even think about rolling these things up, tempered steel you know like brutal thick and he did it just because he had nothing else to do. He was going to show off to these kids and inspire them and he damn well did it 60s whatever age. That's he's just a brute man, he's a brute that's nothing to do with any world strongest man's story sorry,that was a total random one.

Radzi: There was um with Kaz just there's he's one of those people who every time he opens his mouth,I just close mine it's close your mouth, open your ears remember because he's just seeing him for example, in his world record bench which I think came off the back of 10 weeks after he'd torn his tricep, he's not in a condition to be one rep maxing bench and there he is, eyeballs protruding from his cranium like when he hits essentially the kind of smith machine, just the intensity of the man, it just makes, it's like a rocky video where you go I must now go and train, because he's just ah an old-school warrior and I think you know if you put that on the other end of a field and there's gonna be a battle over the course of the next three hours. We know who's coming out on top and it's the bloke, serpent on his side.

Colin: Yeah no Kaz is he's wild and you know it's a bit like when anybody did the sumo wrestling you know, he was up against guys was it John Gamble he was some you know, defensive lineman that's what he did for a living, was basically sumo charging at the other guy trying to shove him out and Kaz is like you know I’d recall and I’d already torn my right hamstring in the in the deadlift and then I went for the record and I did the left so basically I was hams I am stringless, you know that that was that's my cast um yeah it's not a Birmingham, Isaid this is my Kaz's accent anyway he then his famous the bit where he kind of you know walks out and he just looks at Gambles, I was going to beat his forehead and and that's all part of the Kaz's, world's strongest mind and Gamble just went on uh only your big catch just throw me out. He doesn't really look at Kaz, he barely barely touches him, just kind of slaps him a couple of times and the other guy jumps out for fear um as you would do i mean Kaz and and I you know when Kaz, what was I think well I know 81 - 82 maybe, end 82 when he won this third title and the interviewer says Kaz do you believe you're the strongest man in the world? and he goes I believe I’m the strongest man ever. His first line was I’ll make that statement either way around it was just it's just beautiful Kaz. Um and said with a slight smile on his face but he he absolutely believed it and right then and there his distance in front of the rest of the world a world's strongest man may never it's been beaten on points by Pujanowski , I believe but it was it was very similar around about 25 points ahead of the field. Allah Pujanowski 03. So let me just say goodbye to hello and goodbye to my wife. Sorry about this, hey love I’m just on finishing this off now yeah okay thanks love. Oops go on. [Laughter] You're only about 10 yards away just shout out the window come on. [Laughter] I’m not in some fancy podcast studio in the garage.

Radzi: You're in the west wing of the house.

Colin: Ah the west wing yes, um generally have a west wing in a semi, if you don't know what a semi is don't think it's something dodgy if you're watching in America. Semi’s something different in Britain, that means your house is stuck on someone else's house. You don't really have wings.

Radzi: It is a question Brycey so I recently interviewed Mark Henry on the podcast and one thing one question I asked him about was did he ever meet somebody that basically he felt better at him and he was strength-wise exactly because he has still to this day in terms of the total he is the best ever five lift total so cleaning, jerk, snatch, squat, bench, deadlift. He is the world record.

Colin: If you have any idea what that is out of interest, you geeky enough to know the whole lot.

Radzi: I’m not so I think it would be –

Colin: I’d love to know.

Radzi: In kilos…

Colin: You have to qualify this as well he presumably did raw powerlifting.

Radzi: Correct.

Colin: And we've spoken about this before he was also went to the Olympics and I made a joke to you and said oh oh Mark and he couldn't have been that good left he was he didn't even do body weight, as a little gag, or just did body weight but he was you told me yeah he might have only done 185 kilos Brycey, he was about 180 kilos, but he was also less than a year into weightlifting exactly when he went to the Olympics even and he was like 19 or 20. It wasn't like a decade in.

Radzi: It it's just preposterous the idea of going to a high school kid you're a pretty good powerlifter, do you fancy trying Olympic lifting? Yeah sure, and then a year later representing Team USA at the Barcelona 1992 Olympics it's Mark Henry, what is going I mean that's the first year that's a fresher at university as a strong-

Colin: How heavy was he at the age of age 10 or 11, 250 pounds?

Radzi: 225 pounds? 5'5 at 10 years old!

Colin: What a tank.

Radzi: I mean just preposterous, preposterous things, and he's just he's talking about - well again the fact that you know one of the questions I asked him as well was did he ever consider entering World's Strongest Man, especially after winning the first ever Arnold Classic.

Colin: Yeah I wish he had done, I wish he had done, it would answer a lot of arguments for me personally, as well as the rest of the strength community, but you got to hand it to him right he pretty much won everything he ever entered. Powerlifting, weightlifting, uh and then the one strongman contest he did albeit you know to stick up for Sven, you know. Back in the day he spent, hadn't quite trained on in particular Apollon’s Axle that was the one where I felt Sven was maybe a little hard done by, um but you know I’ve spoken to Sven about it since you know it was on a podcast not long ago saying how he'd come to terms with the fact that he was basically the fool. If you're a professional strong man, you turn up as the World's Strongest Man to a strongman contest to pick up a Hummer worth sixty five thousand dollars, you make sure you do your homework, and you turn up in shape ready to lift an axle. Good people have to remember there was, before that there was no axles there was, axles but it was John davis and Rigalow and these guys who lifted it like 40, 50, 60, 80 years ago, you know, 100 years ago.

Radzi: And I saw that on Sven actually on um Big Loz Official podcast he's got so many amazing interviews but yeah is that again to go if I was going to give the defense of Mark Henry, so if prosecutor and defense attorneys, at the moment is that so Mark at this point he only trained for eight weeks for that, for his first and only ever strongman event, and his mum was on her deathbed so he was going between the hospital and the gym. And so we have a guy who's going to be secreting so much if you like emotional energy while it's at the hospital, who knows how much he had left for the gym, and in terms of skill acquisition alone. Eight weeks for a strong man event, nine months to go from never done it to an Olympics in weightlifting just absurd. I think he still holds the American record for total and I’m gonna go squat for high school records as well he which is cause he's just such a I mean brutishly strong.

Colin: What does big Ray squat now?

Radzi: That's a great question, that's a great question.

Colin:he must have squatted the earth from a young age man, he's just unbelievable and –

Radzi: Mark loves Ray by the way, he loves him.

Colin: Does he really yeah well I mean they both have bludgeoned a path in strength sports, where um I don't know there just aren't so many black athletes in strength sport, obviously strength sports when you count American Football where they get hoovered up, and and then NBA the giants you know, and I think that's probably what it is really. It's actually, there's there isn't any clear path and also financially you've got to be a really pig-headed guy to go I’m going to become a strong man, because I know I’m not gonna make any money until unless I become absolute best. That's the only way to do it.

Radzi: To your point though I think a lot of the black athletes go power sports, where traditionally fast switch fibres would benefit you more versus pure strength, with the exception maybe of Julius Maddox who's another guy in the powerlifting scene is absolutely chopping it up right now.

Colin: Yes, yeah I mean there you go, Maddox what a good guy he is, uh what pleasure is to have met him, we've got on like a house on fire actually. And he's - he's, what a bull of a man he is, when Ed says, wait till you see him he's big, uh he is, he's just all up back, and chest, and shoulders and uh he's a good guy man. He's just somebody who’s been there and done it, you can see in his eyes, you know he's been around the block a few times, he and he's yeah really respect what he does because it's that kind of powerlifting is the, for me, the real – anything that's raw is where it's at, is where it's at. You just you shouldn't be, um you can do, but it shouldn't become a bone and joint strength competition you know with rubber tyres around you, kind of looking thing you know it's kind of weird. It’s just not right and what he's doing is phenomenal and yeah. Anyway I’d love to see Mark, I’ve never seen Mark's powerlifting lifts, I’d love to add up his total. I’d love to put it against Koklyaev’s total. That's one man who has got a good total though, I don't know what he benched, not, probably not that great maybe a 230 to 20 region. I don't know, um no actually, but it was what kind of different federations of course maybe wasn't equipped, uh but Misha didn't do a lot of things equipped you know, he was, boy could he clean and jerk the world man. Well depending on, yeah there could be a lot of variables we could throw in there and I’m sure Mark could add those in, if you um if you know Mark he's, you know, he's quite strict about some things. So it depends what type of federation you're in.

Radzi: Okay shall i give you the numbers of Mark?

Colin: Go on.

Radzi: So we've got squat 456 kilos.

Colin: 456? 4-5-6?.

Radzi: Went over a thousand pounds yeah!

Colin: You’re joking me 456. What was he in? Have you got a picture? Like just a knee wraps and a belt?

Radzi: I’m going on the irrefutable Wikipedia here, that's never been wrong.

Colin: Let me get a pen Radz, this is good stuff let me geek out okay I know I’ve got a calculator I’ve got a computer that's what they do!

[Laughter] loving it four five six give it to me baby!

Radzi: They're four five six on squat, bench now it fluctuates I’m guessing they've got one number from uh in gym, one number from comp but it's looking like competition was 265.

Colin: 265 sorry this is stress I need to vape! Yep okay 265 competition has to be I guess.

Radzi: Deadlift 420

Colin: We're talking about an 1141 total! His clean, give me his clean. So now let me take a guess of what it was because I know what he snatched, I know he snatched 185 and he let me clean and check much over 220, 225?

Radzi: On my podcast Making Gains he actually talks about that, I think he does said he did 190? No well here it says 180 at the 1996 US Nationals.

Colin: Yeah I think that's what he did in the Olympics as well, but that would have been the first time he did it 180 yep and then

Clean and jerked at the same event would you reckon he clean and jerked?

Colin: 220.

Radzi: Spot on, exactly 220, which by the way also suggests to have, to both have, such round numbers that again speaks to me of somebody who isn't necessarily that experienced, how many people open or look for -

Colin: Thing about the thing about weightlifting competitions is they only count when they've got like you know whatever guys they're - you can't break a world record unless you're at, uh I don't think you can even do it at a Continental Championships, I think it has to be a World’s or Olympics you know, it's like, you know, so the um certainly no home gym lifting there yeah.

Radzi: I’ve got Clive’s numbers in front of me.

Colin: 1541 is what he's got to beat actually Clive is kind of a it'll be a mixed bag but he lifted some big weights.

Radzi: Okay so snatch. A Russian super heavyweight, what do you think he lifted? He's seven times Russian weightlifting champion the dude is, duh, of course dude then would be embarrassed to walk out front door without 200. Right, next one.

Radzi: I mean this next clean jerk this is off –

Colin: 245, 245!

Radzi: Oh it says 250!

Colin: Yeah okay well it's 250 then he did that at the Russian - they won't be done in the same contest though, this is where Mark might fall down because Mark will only have done a handful of powerlifting, and even less in Olympic lifting from the sounds of things, so I think if I pull out Koklyaev quickly I - give me a squat bench and deadlift please, okay, he's done a lot of that now remember he's been around for ages.

Radzi: Let's go bench press now, what do you reckon?

Colin: 235.

Radzi: Mate you're good at this game, 230.

Colin: Ok so 500lbs, just over 500lbs yeah thinking the old pounds, yep next one.

Radzi: Squat could let him down here, and I say that with a great –

Colin: Squat, well he would be you'd do a beautifully honest squat Koklyaev, no belt a couple of skimpy little wraps, I’m saying he's gone a** the floor and back up again at the powerlifting meets to show off, and he would have done just under 400, kilos he would have done 385.

Radzi: So he's actually done 360.

Colin: Okay there you go, three six zero, he just he doesn't understand the power lifting same, you know, the same look of the of the movement. So he's on a thousand and fifty, give me his deadlift.

Radzi: What does he what does he need to win this?

Colin: He would need to pull, yeah no he's not, he's not going to do it, he's really actually that's amazing after that massive those massive lifts, it's actually it's one for one five four one is what I counted up Mark at, he's on a thousand and fifty, and he's only got his deadlift to go so even if he had a 400 kilo deadlift or 420 deadlift. If he claimed that, which he wouldn't have done without straps, so it could only be about 400.

Radzi: 417 and a half we've got.

Colin: 417 and a half, yes that's possible he could have done that without straps definitely, he could have held a grip, so plus four one seven point five – I hope I haven’t messed this up, he's on one four six seven and a half - and the big, big Mark is on one five four one 60 kilos actually. Yeah quite significant really.

Radzi: And especially when you consider his lack of experience in Olympic lifting.

Colin: If you've got - Mark was he suit and booed for that? That's an unbelievable squat for Mark Henry, that's outrageous, because would you bet he - was he been shirted up or not?

Radzi: So he doesn't believe in it, but this is why I’d be surprised if he was for these because he just doesn't believe in them, ah it's not his style.

Colin: He's a brute Mark, I mean I’ve got close to Mark only a couple of times in chat and whatnot but I just you end up floating around his heat, his gravity man it's heated, you could you could, you could sneak up behind him and wrap a crowbar over it you'd be like huh? His head, what a face he has, it's magnificent it's like something um an artist couldn't make better you know. Just tough looking dude you know.

Radzi: He was just – I was blown away having spoken to him and then we talked about power and obviously the name powerlifting, but you think about that dunk it's just, it's preposterous.

Colin: Slam dunk it's impressive isn't it it's just - and you have a slam dunk with us Radz?

Radzi: No I mean okay could I touch the bar yes, could I grab it yes, could I properly dunk a ball? No.

Colin: How tall are you?

Radzi: Five nine.

Colin: Five nine, that's pretty bloody good, so you could get, you could get your hands up and grab a ring?

Radzi: Being not very heavy makes that a slightly more plausible prospect than being three hundred and something-

Colin:I could dunk a ball back in the day, I never had the greatest grip though, so I always needed ever so slightly deflated, one of those really sticky rubbery ones and it was yeah, it wasn't exactly, it wasn't like a beautiful dunk. It was more of a sort of, um kind of you know, push it through never a beautiful power dunk. Yeah last time I tried to power dunk it I came six, I came up six inches short, spun in the air and snapped my left knee in front of a group of kids that I was showing off to either like ahhh! That was a bit of a disaster, there goes my ACL!

Radzi: So what we've got here I’m going to see if I can show you footage of him squatting 950.

Colin: Who's this now Mark?

Radzi: It’s big Mark here, he's going to see that very much it's worth it, he deserves it. Okay can you see that?

Colin: Yeah oh he's just got those, so he's just got some pair of shorts on there doesn't know I still see oh! Boy he dropped in that quick didn't he?

Radzi: And the faith you've got to have for that, the faith you've got to have!

Colin: Wow, wow what so that was like that's - yeah that's wow, that's really impressive. 950 really impressive.

Radzi: I mean how slow, ,someone like Ed Cohen, Kurt Kowalski I mean you've seen when he hits his thousand pounds for a double. That comes from repetition. That Mark looks like a bloke who's gone put that on the bar, and again, just that brutal strength that you - oh big Mark I’ll put it out there I’ll make a, could be a controversial statement, I’m happy to you know hang my hat off it.

Colin: Can I see that again?

Radzi: Yeah absolutely. Mark Henry, two years of strongman training and I reckon he becomes world's strongest man in the early noughties, putting it out there.

Colin: Well yeah, I mean you know the funny thing is you know you've got Zadrunas who actually he was, he was a slow builder Zadrunas, you know it took him a long time he had 10, 12 years before he actually got up on top of the podium - look at this guy again man this is great! It's the bottom, it's the golgi tendon reflex down at the bottom, it's the Olympic lifting past and bang you know play it again, play it again, play it again I like that. Oh yeah he actually doesn't go as deep as I thought he might, I mean he goes deep, it's deep enough don't get me wrong. I’m not saying that Mark if you're listening, I’m not saying you're not deep enough but actually is that the little drop is interesting because he, I thought he actually went even lower to try and really stretch his legs out like an Olympic weightlifter.

Radzi: But by the way back off a monolith which again speaks to a bloke who's got more in the tank.

Colin: Play that again, I guess he - does he stepped back because he's so used he's used to the sort of ipf style?

Radzi: Exactly.

Colin: Step it out yourself one, two, three he well he ain't put his feeling why didn't he bend on that bar man, breath in, chest up high and oh missed that I was a bit - can you play that one again? Looked better the first time let's see if I can play it, here we go, let's have a little lookie here. So it's a tough angle to look at it, it's actually lower than there's a knee height so actually see the hip from this angle it's killer. What, is it getting faster or jumping? Uh there we are anyway the man is - oh yeah did you stop that in the perfect place? That is a absolutely beautiful squat, you can't say anything against that look how upright he is, look at his hip flexibility for such a big guy unbelievable.

Radzi: He was unbelievable. Yeah I uh

Colin: Like a couple of couple of dudes looking at chicks wow look at that, that’s unbelievable his hips, look at the form uh yeah impressive well I’m glad I’ve seen that actually I’m really glad I’ve seen that it looks like he could squat the earth.

Radzi: Yeah I’ll put some, you know I’m really pleased because obviously when it comes to strong man there aren't many people that know any more about the history of the sport, or indeed the current state of the sport than yourself, so if you're basically going Mark Henry gets the Brycey nod of approval that's a, that's a big statement.

Colin: But yeah I mean, you know I’ve seen some big scores, but you know that just that just looks so beautiful. That is how you should squat just to, that big upright chest and the and the wonderful flexible hips it just is. You know you watch some people you and they’re bent double, the feet are out sort of you know out there somewhere, you know, there's some weird movement that they do, and somehow it's almost on their top of their bum how where they hold it you know. Something's just a bit shifty really um, but that was that was beautifully honest, that was a nice squat.

Radzi: Righty to finish mate I suppose with that in mind we've spoken about well big Bill Hero, Mark, lots of other people in between. If anyone's listening to this or watching this now and perhaps wants to get into strongman, or currently trains with an eye to strongman, what would you say are the classic pitfalls that people go into? Because when you see for example, I’ve seen you many times say to me when it comes to guys perhaps you're on the peripheral of Giants Live, especially British guys, you'll say what they need to do is they need x, or they need y, or they should focus on this but in terms of-

Colin: Yeah I tell you the number one thing in life and this is just my theory in life, and it comes from a famous coach and and I really believe in this, that you know part-time training, part-time results and if you really want to be the World's Strongest Man you don't just have to believe in it. I could be the World's Strongest Man, I’m gonna you know no yeah. You must absolutely commit yourself 100% come what may and take every opportunity. Spend every penny you have if you are not yet earning big bucks you better you better be spending prehab, rehab. You know Eddie, Eddie built himself, he welded himself up like a deep sea diving chamber thing that kind of thing if you come up out of the water to really they stick you in, there's like two in the, three in the country that in case you get the bends. He has one of those! All to do with some mad pressure theory on the body for recovery, just madness, I wouldn't stick myself inside a home welded down to 30 leagues under the sea you know! That’s madness! But I’m not suggesting people should, ideally go borrow someone else's that's a proper professional one. What did Hafthor say? A great line - if I realized to win had to eat s***, I’d eat it, you know without a heartbeat you know. You're gonna have to do no stone unturned and then at least you can be satisfied you gave it your best shot. And that’s my advice don't forget 5x5, 10x10, train twice on a Monday and you know you know whatever do ballet training on a Tuesday morning. There's none of that. Genetic schmannetics you know. Just who wants it the most, who wants it the most. Once you're in the race and you think you can get close, then it's really who wants it and who will stop at nothing to get it, and I can tell you this is Zadrunas, Hapthor, Eddie, Marius, Magnus every one of those guys, if you were in front of them right now and it is in the throes of the final of Strongest Man, and all they have to do is run through you, whether you die or not, if that's what that happens then. I’m so sorry you're in my way, no I’m not, they haven't even thought about sorry it's just attack, attack, attack and that's it. That’s all they know and then you know the more rounded a person is the worse it is actually, most of the time, because you have to just be totally one-dimensional in terms of one focus, and that's it. And it leaves you, it often leaves guys as a slight anti-social odd person who wins, when they finally win they don't know who to celebrate with some to some of them. You know you know I have the Strongest Man, the ultimate alpha title, you know. you get pretty high in your own your own body armpits there you know. But it's hard to then, you know, they might not have - if you have a wife or girlfriend and kids often it's difficult to do all that at the same time because they're so one tracked. But that's what you have to do, I think, to win anything in life. Not don't give up, just do everything it's just - giving up I mean your chances are you'll snap a leg off or something before you'll ever give up if you truly are wanting it, but um yeah you know that's my thought you can do anything in life, easily anything in life, with determination. Incredible amounts of determination.

Radzi: I know everyone listened to this is thinking they could listen to you all day mate, I reckon we should call it quits now and maybe pick up again.

Colin: Let me ask you let me ask you one last thing then, that's what would you say of all the achievements and people don't really know that much about you, you're the man who interviews a lot rather than the man who actually I know you as a skeleton uh winter sportsman athlete, I know you as a good sprinter, I know you're a good pound-for-pound weightlifter. I mean there's many things about you, you've got you know a degree from Loughborough, and you know managed to go to do a high very high-profile television job right off the bat. In fact I watched you doing that while you were presenting on that, doing gymnastics and unbelievably doing forward front rolls and flips and all that and I said bloody hell that guy's good Never realized I’d end up meeting you and become pals with you. But for all those things do you wish you had done something? Did you ever have something, one overriding passion? Or do you think you you kind of decided that, I mean did you ever attack anything with full gusto?

Radzi: I did but I’m a believer in there have got to be a few things in place to make somebody guaranteed world-class, especially in amateur sports, so best coaching one, best facilities two, best genetic slash ability three, best mindset, and regardless of the things I attacked I didn't have access to the best coaching, or the best facilities, um genetics were okay with what I tried at. But if I had my time again there'd be two things I know genetically I’d be well put together for which are we boxing, the other would be cricket batting. Both of those things would lend themselves to me I think. But I know that I couldn't have played cricket in the traditional way. I’d have had to have been taught by Viv Richards, master blast 1979 1995 undefeated uh test series, so that or the West Indian team were, not just him. So it'd be, it'd be his style of what I would call being gangster, reckless abandon on the crease, never back down, fast bowlers, spin bowlers, swing bolt - whatever it might be you're hitting hard, you're not playing defensive shots. And then same with boxing, I would have needed somebody like a Roy Jones JR to coach me, or Floyd Mayweather senior, or Roger Mayweather, people that really focus on me.

Colin: So you know this is this is my belief, I find it I think opposite to that I think if you can take a piece of everything, this is a fact for you, Brycey did A-Level Art I got the highest exam in A-Level art in Scotland ’96 I learned to copy, I was a copier, I didn't have a skill of my own and I would copy you know Van Gogh and then you have a bit of you, know whatever over here, and I practiced them, copied until I could copy them identically, and I went to the exam and I mixed them all up in one mad painting. That was sort of, I could learn off of different people, and then you come out with your own style and - and I do believe that you know, if you really want to become uh champion at anything that there is no one shoe fit. We look at Tyson Fury, he's again bludgeoned his own way to greatness, look at Mark Henry, he's bludgeoned his own way to greatness with his own, you know, unique way of you know training. It was madness how he trained but you know it worked for him and he did it, that's the most important bit, he did it single-minded, bang, finished it and I think that you can attack things, you know, the way someone like Eddie attacked World's Strongest Man was different to a Hafthor, to Brian, Brian was pretty absolutely technical. Eddie worked particularly well at his strengths and made sure he won his strengths, things like that you know, and in the end you know yeah I think you need to come up with your own theories. Sometimes if you want to be the absolute best at something you have to think everybody else has and chuck up there what is your own sort of making of it.

Radzi:I agree with that, I guess the way that specifically cricket is taught in England is that it's a homogenized system, it's a uniform system and i think part-time training, part-time results, same training, same results sometimes because if me and you are to work on a progressive overload benching program that might work really well with you, and not so well with me and vice versa, I might need to um do plyometrics after my sets, whatever it might be and so I know that the traditional system for training, boxing the GB setup or boxing that you saw in Rio 2016. I wouldn't have, that would not have borne much fruit from the way my body is set up, the way I think, it would have to be drop your guard in mixed martial arts, it would be for Michael Venom Page it would be an Anderson Silver style, it would be loose as you like. You look at Ali in the first round of any fight, he's probing, it's espionage, he's entering into that person's striking distance. He's moving out, he's moving his head, he's acquiring data and information - that's how my brain would work. I’m not saying I’d be Muhammad -

Colin: Here’sthe last funky question, what percentage of body shots did Ali throw compared to head shots?

Radzi: That is a brilliant question, that is a superb question and I wish I knew the answer. I’m gonna go what percentage, so is it, so we're saying 60 40.

Colin: I actually asked Tyson this question when we were chatting and he said to me-

Radzi: That's Mike Tyson to be clear?

Colin: yeah Mike, big Mike. Do that accent again I dare you!

Radzi: Mike Tyson, we want to work out what kind of percentage difference is between body and head Muhammad Ali greatest of our time formerly Cassius Clay.

Colin: Tyson said I don't ever remember him throwing a body shot, and then I said to him what he just didn't do it, always a headshot, he does the occasional one but never really with any venom, but then I said you know what punches does he throw in particularly do you think? Because I was watching the old tapes before I was going to interview Tyson I wanted to really try and understand it, just you can't call there's no- he doesn't do just a jab, or a cross, or a hawker, he said the only way I could call it's just freestyle. Because he could throw a punch from any angle and any position, and it was you know it was more of a barrage than it was ever just the big right hand would come through, you know, and I guess that's the ultimate example of somebody who just went with his own style and it worked.

Radzi: By the way, before we end what is that trophy behind you?

Colin: That is, um it's a trophy my wife and I now use for our tennis competition, yearly tennis competition it is um it's Eugene Sandow, it's a different one than most people have. I take it out of my garage, I only bring it in for podcasts to look cool. It's made of it - cheap and nasty, you don't want to see it, how have you got that hey man it's not making a big deal about my sense of stature, it's not here.

[Laughter]

Radzi: in other words you can't say how you acquired.

Colin: I’m big into Sandow at the moment, um 1903 the last time a contest of strength was held at the Royal Albert Hall and we are doing, we did we did the Royal Albert Hall the 6th of June 2020 but it just sort of never happened funnily enough, and we are doing it again this year, hopefully the same day so there we go. Sort of a plug, go buy tickets, hope it happen.

Radzi: We should talk about all the events that are coming up, because 2020 has been a difficult year for so many people, 2021 we're hoping is going to be a better year and especially for strongman, and especially for Giants Live.

Colin: Great, well man listen it's absolute pleasure and an honour to talk to you sir, and um yeah chat again soon man that was great fun, thank you.

Radzi: I look forward to it Brycey, thank you for your time mate, cheers dude.

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Making Gains with Radzi - Colin Bryce video

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Making Gains with Radzi - Colin Bryce video transcript

Making Gains with Radzi - Colin Bryce video