For starters A strongman is a man who competes in strength athletics. In the 19th century, the term strongman referred to an exhibitor of strength or similar circus performers who displayed feats of strength. When strength sports were codified into their own categories such as weightlifting, powerlifting, etc, Strongman became its own specified category in strength sports and now also includes a women’s division Strongwoman.

In the past, strongmen would perform various feats of strength such as the bench press (not to be confused with the bench press, which did not exist at the time), supporting large amounts of weight held overhead at arm’s length, steel bending, chain breaking, etc. Large amounts of wrist, hand, and tendon strength were required for these feats, as well as prodigious oblique strength.

In the late 20th century the term strongman evolved to describe one who competes in strength athletics – a more modern eclectic strength competition in which competitors display their raw functional strength through exercises such as lifting rocks, toting refrigerators, pulling trains, towing an eighteen wheel truck behind them, and etc. The most famous competitions of this type are the World’s Strongest Man, the Arnold Classic, the Strongman Champion League and the Giants Live tour, however many countries hold national-level competitions.

In recent years, interest in the sport at the grassroots level has skyrocketed, leading to the spontaneous formation of local clubs, loosely affiliated with provincial/state and national associations.

Many sports-specific training facilities have begun to incorporate movements associated with strongman competitions into their general training schemes, albeit with lighter weights used, e.g. tire flips, sled drags, object loading or carrying, log pressing, farmer’s walks and so on.