Let’s call it what it is, but as a society we’re pretty fascinated with the lives of some of the largest strongman and powerlifting athletes. I mean how can we not? It’s oddly fun to watch a 6′ 8″ tall Brian Shaw try on Lululemon clothing and consume 12,000 calories on a daily basis. While these athletes can pull off hugely impressive feats of strength that are impossible for many of us, the reverse is also true: many normal activities for 99% of the population are pretty much impossible for these athletes. That brings us to the topic of this article. Normally we see strongman athletes pulling airplanes, but rarely do we see them trying to squeeze in them.
Love this topic? Make sure you check how tall the World’s Strongest Man competitions are!
This article isn’t going to break the internet with groundbreaking training knowledge, but it might break your perception of how small “normal” sized planes can look — it certainly did with mine. It also might break a smile, along with a chuckle and thankfulness for the monstrous professional strongman and powerlifting athletes we love to watch and follow.
Strongman and Powerlifting Athletes Vs. Tiny Airplanes
1. Brian Shaw, “Mind holding this?”
The photo that sparked the idea for this article came from a recent Instagram post made by 4x World’s Strongest Man Brian Shaw.
In his photo, Shaw highlights what a normal airplane seats looks like and how much extra room he needs. For additional context, Shaw stands at a height of 6′ 8″ and has a weight that sits around 190kg/418 lbs!
[For more Shaw Read: Here’s How Brian Shaw Navigates Daily Life As a 6′ 8″ Giant!]
If you’re interested in the whole process of Brian Shaw flying, then we recommend checking out his video below where he highlights the ins and outs of a full day of traveling as a very large man.
2. Iron Biby Makes First Class Look Tiny
The next photo comes from Cheick Ahmed al-Hassan Sanou, or “Iron Biby”, as he’s most commonly known. Biby stands at a height of 6′ 2″ — which isn’t crazy — but he weighs around 180kg (400 lbs).
3. Eddie Hall Needs More Elbow Room
What’s an easy fix to get more room and not buy an extra seat? Sit by your son!
In Eddie Hall’s video below, you can’t see just how much space he needs for his seat from a wide angle view, but you can gather a pretty good idea. Hall stands at a height of 6′ 3″ and has a weight that fluctuates (he’s been cutting!). One of his last recorded weights for competition sat around 180kg (400 lbs).
4. Single Seats Are the Name of the Game
For many, single seat options (in what looks like the first class section) on airplanes provide plenty of room, but not for Nick Best, Brian Shaw, and Robert Oberst. In Oberst’s Instagram photo’s description he jokes, “This plane keeps going in circles!!”
Check out the picture below of the three strongman athletes, and swipe to the right to see a hilarious edit on the second photo.
5. Kirill Sarychev Is Not Doing Work On His Flight
Airplane seat tray tables can be laughable at best when it comes to fitting a laptop on them and comfortably doing work, but all-time bench press world record holder Kirill Sarychev found an unusualway to use his. That’s all we’ll say on that — check out his video below.
Hopefully this article brought some humor to your day and highlighted just how much of a struggle regular activities can be for some of these athletes. The next time I’m flying and complaining about elbow room, I’m going to think about the poor woman trapped under Brian Shaw!
Feature image from @shawstrength Instagram page.