Can Britain’s Strongest Man Repeat? (w/ Adam Bishop)

There are some genetic freaks in this sport and their training is just awful. Someone has [inaudible :05] sessions are structured. It’s exciting to maybe get a hold of some of these guys and somehow get a proper program towards them.

Welcome to the “BarBend Podcast” where we talk to smartest athletes, coaches, and minds from around the world of strength. I’m your host, David Thomas Tao, and this podcast is presented by barbend.com.

Today I’m talking to professional strongman, Adam Bishop. The reigning Britain’s strongest man as of this podcast publication. The competition is actually coming up very soon. After playing rugby at a high level, Adam became a strength and conditioning coach for professional rugby players. It was only in the past couple of years that he was able to focus full-time on training for strongman, and his results have skyrocketed.

Now, a three-time World’s Strongest Man finalist, Adam talks about his evolution in the sport, along with the athletes he sees as his closest rivals. I do want to take a second to say, we’re incredibly thankful that you listen to this podcast. If you haven’t already, be sure to leave a rating and review of the BarBend podcast in your app of choice. Now, let’s get to the episode.

Adam, really appreciate you joining us. I was going to say this morning, but it’s evening your time. First task of my day, maybe the last of yours.

I got to ask for those who aren’t familiar with your background, how did you get into strength training and strength sports? Because not only are you a top strongman competitor, for a long time you’re also a strength and conditioning coach. Interesting combo there and interesting how that became your career path in various ways.

Yeah. I started properly strength training when I was 14 years old. I was actually a rugby player. I was in the [indecipherable 2:04] Premiership Club, in their academy. Originally, it was to put more weight on because I was too small. To build some muscle we got put on a regimented program there, which was great. I progressed lifting through there. I was always really strong for my size and age, and stuff.

Once I finished my rugby off, I was a player who…I was physically really gifted. Like I said, I was strong, I was fast. I was powerful, but probably didn’t have a set position on the field. I’d play the back row or I push in the forwards like your offensive line in American football. I’d also then play in the backs, like a wide receiver as a winger in rugby. Very much a Jack of all trades, master of none. That’s probably why the rugby didn’t work out for me.

I went and studied sports science, I left for university. From there, I decided that since I can’t come play, I’m going to go into coaching and strength conditioning has always been a passion of mine.

That was about the same time I moved into strongman as well because I could have played some lower level stuff, not Premiership obviously, but probably about Championship or the League1 or sort of that in the lower leagues, but it wouldn’t have worked being an SSE coach, rugby club and also playing. You can’t fit those two together.

That’s where I fell into strongman sport while I was up there studying. I just happened to go down and train on some kit in a dusty yard in the middle of Leicestershire outside of farm and everything was homemade. I took to it naturally. It was kind of you already fell into it.

Obviously, I’ve watched like everyone. I think everyone has watched “World’s Strongest Man” on TV at Christmas over in the UK. I’ve always been fascinated with the absolutes, the fastest, the fittest, the strongest. For me, strength came more naturally.

As I progressed through that, that went hand in hand with working at Harlequin Rugby Club as an SSE coach, which I did for 10 years. That’s my strongman developed. I also was working with professional rugby players learning and working with them and getting them stronger as well as trying to apply the things for myself to get strong as well.

When did you make the decision to step away from the full-time strength and conditioning career to focus strictly on strongman?

It happened during the whole COVID. We had the first lockdown over here in the UK and everything shut down. We were put on furlough for work, which means we weren’t going into work. Fortunately, I moved to new house and I had a home gym anyway, which was doing all my training before, so it didn’t affect me.

When I wasn’t working, I was just training. I just found that I couldn’t believe how much stronger I was getting, how much muscle mass I was putting on, how much I was improving. That planted the seeds for me to first reduce my hours at work.

Then in February of this year, 2021, I left the role and constraint on strongman. It was more of a case of…I love my job. I love working with the players. I love seeing people improve.

First and foremost I’m a coach… But I would have kicked myself if I had any what-ifs at the end of my career, and I sat there thinking, if I did go full time, if I’m sorry, if I didn’t go full time and I didn’t get to the top of what I want to achieve, then what would have happened and stuff like that.

I just didn’t want that. We made it work, fortunate I’ve got some great sponsors to help me along the way. We’re going from full-time now.

It’s almost like focusing in on the recovery, the other 22 hours of the day, you’re not training, maximizing sleep. That’s what I talked to the number one thing that athletes say when they leave a job outside of training and focus full-time on training. They’re like I started sleeping two more hours a night.

Oh God. Yeah, I do. I didn’t have to go out. Usually we just give you an idea of what my work day was. I’d get up at 5:30, 6:00, get up, eat, get into the office, I’ll be at my desk for 7:00 AM, do my paperwork and my first gym sessions at eight with the players. We’d roll all the way through the day, a couple of sessions, a couple of long field sessions, not a lot of time to sit down and eat.

I’m eating out of Tupperware or maybe a shake. I’d finish, I try and get away as soon as I could. I’d maybe finish at four or five, get home. Have a quick nap, and then I’ll be training from seven to nine. Have a meal, get to bed and then do it all again. You’re right. That was one of the first thing I noticed during that lockdown.

I was working full-time, was how much more sleep I was getting and also how much more time I had to cook fresh food. It wasn’t pre-prepared to a box or it wasn’t a shake or it wasn’t any compromises, it was fresh steak, chicken, fresh rice, and everything like that. It was fantastic.

What are some of the increases in strength in…it could be specific events or specific lists that you saw most quickly after your transition over to full-time?

Well, I found my deadlift improved massively again. It’s always been a strong event of mine, I just found that, handling the heavier weights, during that lockdown, I pulled a heavy trading lift on the silver dollar deadlift, just a balance at 1200 pounds. My deadlift for reps is going well with the four hundred kilos.

I’ve always struggled to put on body weight in a couple of strongman events. It was your truck pulls and your pressing events. I found my pressing, it started to improve, which has historically been a weak event for me. That was pretty well I was most kind of happy with is the fact that I was actually seeing some progress on my weaker events

You’ve mentioned before light-heartedly that you’re one of the smaller guys in strongman in your division. You’re not a small person by any objective measure, how has your body weight journey been? I’m curious from your rugby playing days through to now.

I’m going to say sorry to your American listeners. I’m going to have to work in kilos here. We’ll just have to double it for pounds…

If any Americans can deal in kilos, it’s BarBend podcast listeners because kilograms rule the strength world, it’s OK.

 Good. When I was playing rugby, I was playing on the wing at around a hundred kilos. Then I compete in the lightweight or middleweight, men’s division, the under 105 kilos. I was there for a couple of years being…I’ve cut weight from 112 to that, get down 105 and then back up to 112. I just put on a small amount of weight every year. Probably pretty much about five kilos I’d put on every year.

Just because I wanted to make sure the weight I was putting on was good quality tissue. I was in my rush, I love strongman. I was in no rush to get to world’s strongest man quickly or, risk my health by putting on a load of weight and also I need to make sure that I stayed dominant and good at the events I was already good at.

I think a lot of people when they just slap on a load of weight to get a little bit stronger, they get worse at the moving events. That was a non-negotiable for me, it was the fact that I wanted to maintain my speed and fitness and stuff. I’m sitting at 153 kilos now. I joke around about being one of the smaller guys, but hey, a lot smaller guys than me now to being a world’s obviously Oleksii, Kevin Faires both lighter as well.

We joke about it, but I think I’ve done well putting on some weight in the last couple of years

 How tall are you? Just for reference.

I’m six foot, three.

One of the smaller guys, exactly.

One of the smaller guys. You’ve got giants like Brian, Thor, and Oberst, even guys like…People don’t realize how tall Jerry Prittchett is. Everyone thinks he’s a normal size when he stand next to Jerry, he’s a huge, huge man. Probably one of the shorter guys, I’d say.

Let’s talk a little bit about that approach especially when it comes to, say, maintaining health because that higher body weight conditioning can be a challenge. Maintaining conditioning can be a challenge. It’s something we’ve actually seen come back to bite a lot of strongman athletes in the open division over the course of events.

It could be a single-day event. They’ll start it off on a tear, but by the end of the day, they’re running on fumes. As someone with a strength and conditioning background, as someone who played a sport with a heavy endurance component in rugby, how are you incorporating conditioning into your training?

 I keep it very specific. I do all my general health stuff. Don’t underestimate the value of doing steady-state work. I’ll go for a walk every morning. It doesn’t sound much, but when you’re over 155 kilos or 153 kilos, suddenly you just go for and uphill walk, it’s quite tough.

I’ll do my walking to maintain that base level of cardiovascular health, which is hugely important for, like I said, recovering between events, etc. Then I’ll train towards the competition. For example, World’s Strongest Man, it’s slower, more time between events.

Heavier events, I’ll tend to put on some weight and train towards those heavy events and stuff like “Britain’s Strongest Man” which is a fast flash show. Anyone who’s watched the Giants Live, live stream is crazy quick. I’ll make sure that when I’m training, I’m training those events as if it’s competition.

I’m doing the loading races. I’m having short rests. Then I’m doing the yoke race, and then short rest. I’m doing the stones. I’ll regularly do four or five events in an event session to try and replicate that feeling of competing on the day.

Excellent. Now let’s take us through a general training week. Obviously, it varies based on upcoming competitions. The question we always get from listeners or from readers in our articles is, what’s your split? It’s a little bit more complex than that, and it has to vary based on the season and upcoming competitions and schedule. What’s a normal-ish training week look like for you?

Right now, my training split…Obviously, we are deep into the season. We’ve got Britain’s Strongest Man coming up. On Monday morning, I’ll deadlift and do some back assistance work. That’s actual deadlift. It’s a short session, 40-50 minutes, then I’ll rest. In the afternoon, I’ll go back in and I’ll do my leg volume work, simple hypertrophy work, some machine-based stuff.

Tuesday is a recovery day. Wednesday morning I’ll do dumbbell work, speed yoke, and some loading race in the morning. In fact, we have events morning and then in the evening, I’ll do a pressing volumes. All my bodybuilding movements for chest, triceps, deltoids, stuff like that.

Thursday’s another rest day. Friday is my one big event session. Ask me in session, I’ll do my five events there. In the moment that’s training, heavier yoke, training, loading races, stones, etc. That’s it. Five sessions. I prefer to structure heavier and lighter days as opposed to spreading out throughout the week.

I’ll tend to smash my body on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. The rest of the time I’m recovering and growing and making sure I’m ready for the next session which I think is the biggest challenge with strongman is making sure you don’t break and you stay fit and strong, ready for the next session.

Of those sessions, which is the most grueling?

I think Monday is probably the most grueling session day in total. It will go in warm up, deadlifts and I’m shifting bigger numbers in the deadlift as well. Then it’s come back in the evening and have to lift heavy again with my leg presses, back extension, it’s a whole lot.

It’s a tough one mentally to get my head around. The Friday session is just good fun. It’s all event stuff. It’s always fun to train so it’s not really a problem.

You mentioned we’re deep in the season and very much so in a long strongman season, certainly longer than we had in 2020. Upcoming events. Talk about what you’re training for now. We’re going to try and get a quick turnaround on getting this podcast out. What are you focused on right now for the remainder of the year?

I’m finishing up with Britain’s Strongest Man which is on 23rd of October. That’s the one. I want retain my title. I’ve got a couple of big problems from north of the border, the Stoltman brothers. We’re in good form at the moment, but I want to make sure that at Britain’s Strongest Man title stays in England. They’ve had enough trophies this year. They can do without one more.

Scotland’s had a pretty good strongman year, historically speaking.

It has, yeah. It’s been a busy season for us. They have done 10 competitions in a year because there are things being compacted due to the COVID stuff coming out, which is more than I’ve ever done before.

I’ve made sure I’ve got a couple of weeks off. I decided not to do the Arnold UK to rest up and make sure I’m fresh for Britain’s Strongest Man.

Britain’s Strongest Man, for those who aren’t familiar, you mentioned it’s a lightning fast show. A lot of Giants Live shows are. A lot of the stadium shows are quick, quick, quick, because it’s build for a live show. It’s build for someone can sit down and watch the whole thing. A bit like a movie or a documentary link. Let’s call it that.

How are you feeling right now? We’re recording this a little more than three weeks out. How are you feeling right now? You mentioned you have to defend your title against the Stoltman brothers, Luke and Tom. What’s your focus with your prep?

I’m feeling great. I feel really, really good. Like I said, as we’re deep in the season, I’m not going to get any stronger, but it’s about making sure I’m efficient on all the events and stuff and everything’s going well in training. The events are great for me. We’ve got a dumbbell medley, yoke, deadlift for reps which is always a good event for me. Atlas stones and loading race.

It’s going to be a close show because I think the staff, the strength and depth in being Britain has become so good. It’s not like you just have to beat one or two guys anymore. You’ve got so many up and coming guys who are trying to stamp them off on it. It’s going to be a tough show, but I’m a very confident I’ll be retaining my title.

I remember when we posted about an article and also social posts years ago, I guess it’s 2017-ish, 2018 when Eddie Hall said he was done with strongman after he won World’s Strongest Man. There were so many commentators and armchair experts that said, “Oh, strongman in Britain is dead for a while. There aren’t going to be good British strongman competitors.”

Boy, were they wrong because the depth of talent in Britain, it’s unreal these days. What do you attribute that to, if anything?

In all honesty, Eddie, Terry Hollands, Mark Felix, Loz, these guys have really pushed the sport on. Plus, Eddie was a massive part of this with his success. The Giants Live shows and getting those big arena shows opened so many doors for us as to operate full time.

We have to remember, obviously, in 2019 myself and the Stoltman brothers both made the final, my first final at World’s. You’re right, everyone was worried. Even the Giants Live promoters were worried about the next year after Eddie retired. They worried about 2019, and then they broke the record for the TSL [indecipherable 18:14] and they broke it again for 2020.

We’re filling the stadium still, because when Eddie was competing he was so far ahead of a lot of people that he dominated the show, and it was the Eddie Hall show.

Now, everyone’s so close that it’s probably a better competition to watch. No one’s just running away with any events. It’s more of a case of that’s a better competition for more people to watch.

If you could change one thing about the sport of strongman, and obviously strongman is a broad sport, there are different divisions, body weight categories…I know you’re not necessarily speaking for every strongman athlete here, but if you could change one or a couple of things about the sport, what might they be?

I’d get rid of front hold, that’s for sure. [laughs] Front hold started to creep back in and it’s just not an enjoyable event for us really, having to fight through the pain. In all honesty, strongman is probably in the best place for athletes and it’s been for a long, long time. We’ve got various different shows, not just Giants Live, but Brian Shaw, The Shaw Classic. He is giving back to the athletes.

We’ve never had it so good in terms of both an early potential and also from a social media standpoint. It’s incredibly popular these days. There’s not much I would change, in all honesty. Everything’s going great. The stuff with World’s is progressing on for the athlete, increasing prize money and stuff like that.

I’m very happy with the way things are at the moment. Long may it continue to rise in popularity.

Let’s talk about career longevity. That’s something that comes up often in conversations about strongman, especially in the men’s open division, especially with the true giants. We see athletes retire from the sport. We see Eddie Hall retire, immediately lose good bit of weight.

We see Thor retire, immediately lose a weight equivalent to your average person and he is still pretty large. How long do you want to compete in this sport? How long do you think you can compete at a high level?

I ask this knowing that you haven’t reached your peak. You were entering a phase of your career where you are having more success than ever after a long build-up. How long do you plan on actually trying to be at this level?

I’ve always said that I’m in this game for the long haul. I know…I was just speaking to Johnny and I know Eddie quite well, he would say, “Get to the top quickly” That was him. He wanted to then get out, get out of the game. For me, I’m an athlete. I enjoy competing, I enjoy the whole atmosphere, so I’m in it for the long haul.

Realistically, I think you probably got 10 years at the top level before your body probably starts to fall apart. That’s what I’m working towards, which means I probably got another four years.That’ll put me at 36. I’d imagine I probably would’ve peaked in strokes by then. You never know.

I’m good friends with Terry Hollands and he retired and then came back. You never know. As long as I am healthy and happy, I’ll continue competing.

Well, do you have any…I asked Loz this on a podcast recording a couple of weeks ago. Obviously, he’s kind of already there in the transition period of his career. Speaking of retiring then unretiring, do you have any aspirations or looks beyond your days as a competitor or what you might want to do in the strongman’s space or elsewhere? It could be something completely different.

A lot of my friends and family say I should go into the TV and commentating side of things. In all honesty, I think I’ll just enjoy watching strongman and I’ll continue to coach. I’d love to actually…once I do step away from the sport, is a one-on-one with some strongman athletes.

There are so many other competitors when I’m not competing against them, I’d love to work with. There are some genetic freaks in this sport who’s in their training is just awful. Some will have [indecipherable 22:23] their sessions are structured. I always tell about obviously Terry…

When Terry was competing, when he was kind of at his peak strength, his training was all over the place. He could have been so much stronger because he was a genetic freak and he always has been a genetic freak. It’s exciting to maybe get a hold of some of these guys and kind of get a proper program towards them. That’s why obviously I’m probably saying to think about in the future.

Who do you like competing against the most?

I love competing against, obviously, Brian, the Stoltman boys, we’ve gone through the ranks together so I really enjoy competing against them. All the guys, really. Oleksii, he’s always good value. Me against him. He always goes a little bit crazy. Same with Misha as well. Misha Shivlyakov, he’s always great value to be around, even though we get past the language barrier with a lot of sign language.

All the guys are great. I’m just to enjoy their company.

Do you have a rival in this sport? Or a frenemy?

[laughs] I guess for me, obviously, it’s the Stoltmans again. We’ve come up together. We kip each other at certain comps. They’ve had a really good run this year as well. It’s always kind of close at brims between us.

That’s probably a good rivalry, but the great thing is, we’ll compete and afterwards we’ll order a pizza and sit down together and have some food, so that’s the best thing about strongman really.

Just one pizza among the three of you? I don’t believe that at all.

We’ll probably get a couple. Yeah.

 [laughs] Adam, where’s the best place for people to follow along with you, upcoming competitions and your training?

Probably best over at Instagram, I’ll link through my Facebook. It’s @adambishopstrongman on Instagram and Adam Bishop St on Facebook. I intend to post all my training up there, some kind of tips and stuff as well. Yeah. Check it out.

Excellent. Thanks so much for joining us. Appreciate your time.

 Cheers, guys. Thank you.