That’s stone lifting to you and I - the Basque way. As part of the week long carnival that is “Aste Nagusia” in Bilbao, Northern Spain, a demonstration of Basque rural sports (or Herri Kirolak) takes place each day and includes such novelties as stone lifting, stone dragging (by men and oxen!) and hand stone drilling (a particularly grueling activity, more on that later). This guy is Inaxio Perurena seen here performing single-handed floor-to-shoulder reps of a 200kg stone cylinder. I’m told he’s 24 years-old and has a personal record of 285kg (though not sure if that’s single handed!). The man next to him is his father, Iñaki Perurena, a legend in Basque stone lifting with a personal record of 315kg

Read on to see the lift from start-to-finish..

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D
estination: Crouch Farm. East Sussex training camp of Oli Thompson and Scott Reid.

My brain was already conjuring up images. This sounded like a refreshing change from the stark metal, glass and bright flourescence of the gyms I’d been shooting till now - countryside, farm machinery, two world-class Strongmen - but my preconceptions disintegrated within minutes of arrival. Read the rest of this entry »