Strength athletics

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Strength athletics, more generally known as strongman competitions, is a sport which tests competitors' strength in a variety of different ways. Some of the disciplines are similar to those in powerlifting and some powerlifters have also successfully competed in strongman, however strongman also tests physical endurance to a degree not found in powerlifting or other strength-based sports. Strength athletics also borrows heavily from the traditional Highland Games.

There is no set rule about what specific events will occur in a contest, except that to prevent single-event specialists from gaining an advantage, each event will be different (a single contest will not include two squat events, or two overhead lifting events, for example). Normally, a strongman contest comprises six events, though at the top level of competition seven or eight events may be held. Among the most common events are:

• Farmer's Walk - competitors race along a course while carrying a heavy weight in each hand.
• Hercules Hold or Pillars of Hercules - contestants stand between two pillars, pivoted to fall outwards. The competitor must simply hold them up for as long as possible.
• Vehicle Pull - probably the most famous of all strongman events. The competitor pulls a vehicle from a stationary start, for a prescribed distance - fastest over the course wins. In smaller competitions the vehicle is usually a truck, however in major contests such as World's Strongest Man anything goes, including trains and aeroplanes.
• Atlas Stones - five stones of increasing weight are placed on top of podia at approximately head height. This used to form the climax of most strongman events but has been seen less in recent years.

Strongman competitions have grown in popularity in recent years, due in part to the introduction in 2001 of the Strongman Super Series, an equivalent to the international "tour" in other individual sports, and to the influx of new competitors from eastern Europe who have broken the Scandinavian dominance of the sport in the 1990s. The top scorer on the Super Series is named Super Series Champion. In 2004 and 2005, this was Mariusz Pudzianowski of Poland. In 2006 Phil Pfister of the United States of America won the title of World's Strongest Man, becoming the first American to win the competition since Bill Kazmaier in 1982.