Four-time World’s Strongest Man (WSM) Brian Shaw is again uniquely positioned for the 2022 strongman season. Although the official roster is not yet announced, Shaw will compete at the 2022 WSM contest — all former winners have a lifetime invitation. Assuming Lithuania’s Žydrūnas Savickas, who also has four WSM titles, does not enter the 2022 WSM contest, Shaw will be the lone athlete in the field who could potentially earn a record-tying fifth WSM title. Mariusz Pudzianowski of Poland is alone with five WSM titles.
Unlike many of the biggest threats Shaw will face at the 2022 WSM contest, such as 2019 WSM champion Martins Licis and 2021 WSM Tom Stoltman, Shaw’s first contest in 2022 will be Worlds. To improve upon his runner-up finish in 2021, Shaw is switching things up in the gym. He signed Joe Kenn as his new strength coach and shared what a day of his programming looks like as Shaw begins his 2022 WSM prep. Check it out in the video below, courtesy of Shaw’s YouTube channel:
[Related: Watch Oleksii Novikov Kick Off His Training For The 2022 Arnold Strongman Classic]
Brian Shaw — Day One of 2022 World’s Strongest Man Prep
With a mouthpiece covering his upper teeth, Shaw began his training session with triceps extensions with a resistance band tied to the top of his power rack — well-positioned for Shaw, who stands a towering six-foot, eight inches. Shaw’s breakdown of his warm-up before the pending workout revealed Kenn’s focus on Shaw performing high-volume reps per set.
There’s three different movements. Four sets of 25 reps each — so 100 reps for each one.
The other two movements in addition to the triceps extensions are resistance band pull-downs and converging chest press on the Flex Fitness machine. The unique gimmick for the warm-up was the application of a 15-minute time cap. Written out, the warm-up looks like this:
Warm-Up
Four rounds for time:
- Triceps Extensions — 25 reps
- Resistance Band Pull-Down — 25 reps
- Converging Chest Press — 25 reps
Time cap: 15 minutes
In total, the Shaw put in 300 reps of upper-body work. He finished in 10 minutes, 20 seconds — well ahead of the time cap. After getting a good pump, Shaw began the actual workout with prone incline dumbbell rows superset with a dumbbell elevator press — a series incrementally moves from an overhead press to a bench press in subsequent sets. Shaw shared his hesitancy before jumping into the workout as 15 rows and five sets of 15 reps each round of the elevator press is much higher volume than the keg toss world record holder is accustomed to.
Workout
For time:
- Prone Incline Dumbbell Rows — 15 reps
- Dumbbell Overhead Press — 15 reps
- Prone Incline Dumbbell Rows — 15 reps
- Incline Dumbbell Bench Press — 15 reps
- Prone Incline Dumbbell Rows — 15 reps
- Dumbbell Bench Press — 15 reps
Shaw did not explicitly say the weight used for each set, but it appears he held a 105-pound dumbbell in each hand. Likewise, Shaw did not state how much rest he took between sets but mentioned that his rest was timed via a stopwatch. Once the workout was complete, Shaw finished the training session with the following medley:
Single-Arm Medley
Four rounds:
- Single-arm Cable Lateral Raise — 15 reps
- Standing Single-arm Dumbbell Overhead Press — 15 reps
- Seated Single-arm Shrug — 15 reps
- Single-arm Overhead Triceps Extension (with a rope attachment) — 15 reps
- Single-arm Dumbbell Curl — 15 reps
Shaw was allowed to rest between rounds but did not share how much.
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[Related: Rebecca Roberts Victorious — 2021 World’s Strongest Woman Results]
Brian Shaw’s Strongman Legacy
Many of the world’s elite active strongmen already consider Shaw one of the all-time G.O.A.T.s of the sport. His four WSM titles are only matched by Magnus Ver Magnusson, Jón Páll Sigmarsson, and Savickas. Mariusz Pudzianowski is the only strongman who’s won the WSM contest five times (2002-03, 2005, 2007, 2008). The most recent appearance by Savickas at the WSM competition was in 2018 where he finished 10th overall (Shaw finished third that year behind Mateusz Kieliszkowski and winner Hafthor Björnsson).
Savickas most recently competed at the 2021 Shaw Classic to a 12th place finish — Trey Mitchell emerged as the winner. It is unknown if Savickas will compete on strongman’s biggest stage in 2022. Whether or not Savickas competes, Shaw will have yet another opportunity to tie Pudzianowski for the most WSM victories in history. He would be the oldest man ever to win the title at 40 years of age should he be successful. Savickas currently holds that record via his 2014 victory at age 38.
After a disagreement over Arnold Schwarzeneggers’ wording regarding wearing masks during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic — which Shaw displayed by removing the picture of Schwarzenegger from the wall of his gym — Shaw will not compete in the Arnold Strongman Classic (ASC). Given that it’s one of the biggest strongman shows of the season, Shaw’s most significant competition will compete for the ASC title in Columbus, OH, on March 4-5, 2022. The last three WSM champions — Martins Licis, Tom Stoltman, and Oleksii Novikov — are all confirmed to compete in the ASC. Additionally, Stoltman is on the official roster to defend his Britain’s Strongest Man title one week prior to the ASC.
All that is to say, with Shaw focused solely on WSM, there is the potential that he enters that contest fresher than his peers and could therefore have a more impressive performance. That was the case for Licis at the 2021 Rogue Invitational — it was the last major contest of the 2021 season and the only one he entered that year. While the rest of the field felt the fatigue of a long, grindy competitive season, Licis put on a clinic across five events to win the six-figure prize purse and even set a Thor’s Hammer world record. If Shaw’s 2022 WSM ends up similar to Licis’ 2021 Rogue Invitational, Pudzianowski could finally have company as the all-time winningest WSM champion.
Featured image: @roguefitness on Instagram