I'm Adam Bishop, I'm 32 years old, I live in great shot in England I'm the reigning
Britain's Strongest man, so we're in sheffield this weekend for Britain's Strongest man it's
been a long time coming ¡uh! you know the last time we had Britstrom's man was in january 2020
we're now in october 2021 so it's been a long, long time, obviously with the situation going on
the world it wasn't possible to get the show done earlier, but yeah we're here we've got a bizarre
situation where we've got you know the World's Strongest man we've got Europe's Strongest man
we've got britain's strongest man we've got a former Britain's Strongest man all competing in
the same show I don't think that's actually happened before ¡uh! all different people
all competing in the same show, so the the lineup's incredible we've come to the end of a a crazy
season with Strong man with so many great shows kind of packed in ¡uh! into a short amount of time
so we're all a bit beat up but everyone wants to have that that Britain's Strongest man title
and you know competing with the big boys you know Hicks coming back after after not competing in
2020 the 2019 champion obviously Luke's on a roll he's got you know ¡uh! one europe Strongest man one
up in in Glasgow as well in the first show in Scotland ¡uh! he's doing performing really well,
obviously Tom's Tommy he won the the biggest title in the sport you know the World's Strongest man
so it's going to be a fascinating show and I think it's going to be a dog fight from start to finish,
I think it's gonna be about who makes a mistake ¡uh! and whose mistake kind of really cost them
you know if you can make a mistake but still pick up some good points it's gonna be you know very
beneficial for you but if loads of people get in between you and the top guys in an event it could
proper scupper some chances so yeah I'm expecting an absolute dog fight good old-fashioned dust-up
with these guys and it's going to be one hell of a show obviously I started Strongman back in like
2010 ¡uh! started off as a under 105 weight category Strong man like a middleweight if you're american
¡um! and you know then progressed up from there competed World Strongest Man in 2015 but I went
for a long time without winning any shows at all you know I made that step up so I think the
last show I won before britain's last year was actually south coast Strongest Man in 2013 in a
car park you know, and it once you kind of step up to the big boy leagues it's tougher to get those
wins so there's a lot of graft, a lot of kind of chase in that podium place a couple of new misses
¡uh! getting second in 2019 behind Hixxi just missing the podium in, in 2018
on countback Terry Hollands, would have been third there ¡um! and obviously then building
up to that kind of that win in in 2020 so yeah a lot of graft, a lot of years of no trophies
¡uh! little success and kind of keeping the faith and just building towards, towards getting that
top victory at Britain's Strongest Man 2020. so, so first and foremost I think of myself as
an athlete ¡uh! we're in the sports entertainment business and some guys are more entertaining they
are sportsmen and and some are more sportsmen rather than entertaining and you know for me
I'm an athlete, I've always been an athlete, I do this you know, I do this if we're doing the
in pub car parks with no one watching I just love competing, I love seeing the personal progression
of getting stronger, I've seen the kind of results of my training but now that you know
we're in these massive arenas, it's even sweeter you know we get to compete against huge crowds see
how it affects people's lives, how much motivation we give to people but you know I, I love this sport
so much because I'm just, I'm motivated by you know seeing what we can push the human body to do, for a
lot of people it might be seeing who's the fastest man in the world, but for me you know chasing kind
of being the Strongest Man in the world is that that ultimate goal for me so a British Strongest
man actually came in quite soon after well Strongest Man I believe in terms of when it was
put on as a tv show and it ran for a lot of years obviously most people remember Jeff Capes winning
the title, ¡uh! but you know other champions you know in more recent years obviously Gary Taylor,
Jamie Reeves, who went on to win World Strongest man then you've got Terry Hollands winning the title
¡uh! lLawrence Shahlaei winning the title twice you know these these kind of huge names
¡uh! it did take a little bit of a hiatus after you know 2008 and then came back in 2012 ¡uh! with
the competition being put on by Giants Live again ¡um! and then in recent years it's been dominated by
Eddie Hall taking those five titles and then once Eddie stepped away and Hicks he got his title and
I took second you know it was a natural progression for me to to get onto the top of that
podium for my year as well and to kind of have my name at the top of winning Britain's Strongest man
with all those kind of great athletes you know Jeff Capes, your Jamie Reeves like Terry Hollands
¡uh! Eddie Halls you know it was was pretty special to me, so event one is the circus dumbbell medley
it's 80 kilos going up to 120 kilos, this is going to be a crunch, crunch event for all of us really
there's a lot of unknowns, we've got a brand new set of dumbbells a lot of the guys haven't tried
them before so we'll have to see see how we go with that but you know from a personal point
of view the dumbbell, circus dumbbell was a good overhead event for me ¡uh! you know traditionally
pressing events have been a weakness of mine but I've been putting in a load of work and
circus dumbo actually suits me quite well so I'll be looking forward to this one and getting a good
start out of the blocks, so obviously yeah you've got your stronger presses Hixi and Luke Stoltman
Tom's very good on dumbbell, he's a bigger guy as well I know Paul Smith's been training his
dumbbell pretty hard as well, so you know it's an interesting one like with circus dumbbell it can
be very technical it doesn't necessarily mean that the strongest static presser is going to win it so
it'd be interesting to see how Hicks his technique is how Luke's technique is on that dumbbell
and whether it's going to translate two is the 400 kilo super yoke
you know, for me it's a great event 'Ive been fast on yokes before I'm looking forward to
to play some well in that you know the guys to I need to watch out for is Hicks he's really rapid
on the yoke, Tom and Luke as well so the usual suspects will be we get on this one I think sub
10 seconds will be needed to to take the win on this one ¡uh! it's going to be a fast and furious
event and make sure you get a clear run so then three is the 350 kilo axle deadlift for reps
you know it's a favorite event of mine I haven't lost a deadly for up for a long time,
it's ¡uh! you know one of the the events I'm looking to to really pick up some points on
but you know guys to look out for Hicks he's been dead lifting really well on the axle recently
obviously Tom, Tom strong on the deadlift ¡uh! Pa O´Dwyer as well he's another good deadlifter
¡uh! you know Shane Flowers on the newbies I know he's a solid deadlifter as well so yeah there's
some guys there to put in some performances but you know the deadlift is my event to win
I think, I think for me you know my body shape's kind of really suited to a posterior chain pull so
what I mean is obviously the the muscles in my in my like lower back hamstrings glutes you know from
my kind of rugby playing days you know it was like a very, very much like a strength and power athlete
when it comes to sprinting so I had strong hamstrings, strong glutes a strong back, so it
kind of really suits me to how I pull and you see like myself and hicks have got very very different
pulls just because with different body shapes you know Hicks is a little bit shorter, so he needs to
get a lot more quad into the movement but for me I can use hamstring and hamstring and back a lot
more and I think you know the fact I've, I've trained it with the the system I use to train
it is is always going to give me an advantage when it comes to delay for reps, I think 10 reps will be
will be good enough for the wind on this one we gotta remember this is the third event in we've
already done a dumbbell medley and and done a ¡uh! super yolk so for me 10 reps would be enough to
win the ¡uh! the delivery ups, so the deadlift is heavier than last year that's 20 kilos heavier
it might be the same bar but it's weighted up ¡um! but it's the same deadlift that they used at
Europe's Strongest man, so we've got some idea of what people are going to hit from looking back and
seeing, seeing the footage there event four loading medley four implements we're starting off with an
anchor which needs to be run across and drop next to skips and then you've got a 110 kilo sack, 150
kilo barrel and a 100 kilo tire all to be run down the course and load into the sack into the skips
it's going to be a fast and furious event and it's all about kind of who could move quickly and who's
going to blow out on this one, so I mean if you look back to last time we had this event britain's
last year it was kind of between myself Tom and Luke that was the the one, two, three ¡uh! with
with Tom getting the win there, each I just want to know is he putting too much body weight I think
it's gonna be a fast event and I think you know my conditioning and my lighter body weight is gonna
give me, give me the edge on this one I think it's about focusing on this one and staying you know
concentrating it's very easy to lose concentration and kind of just jog back for each implement
but you know, you are you are fastest when you're unloaded so you need to be sprinting back for each
each bit of kit and that's where I think I'm going to get the get the edge on some of the guys
is working really hard and and sprinting back and and trusting my conditioning will be will be fine
on the day and getting all those implements in as fast as I can ¡yeah! I mean I've got an advantage in
the fact that we've I've done all these implements before I've done plenty of shows there's some
guys coming in who haven't touched these these ¡uh! implements before especially the the anchor ¡um! so
you know I tried to give some guys some of the advice I think with a loading race it's very
easy to overthink things you know think about your technique or certain things sometimes
you've got to grip it and rip it and not think about it ¡um! you know when we were up at the yard
training some of the guys were kind of standing around just staring at implements not knowing
what to do with it you know it most of the time these implants aren't going to be heavy for us
they're just awkward if you kind of go at them half-assed they'll bury you so it's about just
attacking every single implement as hard as you can and not really kind of overthinking it
so m5 is the atlas stones we finish up with a classic event it's a hundred kilos to 180 kilos
so the light set, it's gonna be fast, to be furious obviously it's a strong event for Tommy Holds the
world record but you know if she does anything you know mistakes can be made look what happened
at Glasgow ¡um! and that's something else to remember is we've got a lot of guys
here who have been sub 19 seconds on this set of stones you know myself I think
Luke's been sub 19 Andy Black as well he's a great stone lifter so you're gonna have to go all out
and if you make a mistake as I well know you know making a mistake at Europe's Strongest man in, in
2020 on that that kind of fourth stone suddenly can really cost you big, big points so it's going
to be a crux event and we're kind of really going to have to to be on our a game to be able to get a
good result on it ¡yeah! I might do a little moon walk with a 180 stone so I'll be looking to to
rectify that around this time just just got my balance off with that 180 you know I picked it
my hand placement was a little bit forward when the stone started to roll on me and I could have
dropped it or tried to hold on to it so I tried to hold on to it and obviously the only way to kind
of keep the balance is to move myself around it that's why I did a little, little shuffle backwards,
so ¡yeah! better than dropping it though it's going to be so tough to tough to predict it's going
to be a real tight show I think four of us are going to be battling out and you know you know I,
I think I've done enough ¡uh! you know in training to put me on the top of that podium it's you know
I'm the champ they've got to try and knock me out if they want to win it ¡uh! but you know both
the Stoltman brothers are fantastic athletes Hicks is coming back looking fit and strong so I
think you know between the four of us is gonna be battling out for those three places on the podium
¡yeah! I mean I like being British Strongest man, I'm not ready to give up so you know for me it's, it's
a great title ¡uh! it means a lot so I do tend to focus on this show ¡uh! quite heavily I've kind of
struck my training towards it it's been a little bit tougher this year because we've had a lot of
shows before it ¡um! but you know I've put put the work in to really focus on this one and it's the
end of the season for me, so we can go all out and I get a little bit of a rest after this
I think it's difficult I mean in terms of prestige I actually think it's probably one behind worlds
¡um! you know yes obviously it's it's you know not as big a pool in terms of athletes as Europe's but
I mean if you look back at the champions from Britain's Strongest man ¡um! it's probably just
there behind behind well Strongest Man ¡um! you know it's not taking anything away from what luca
chief at all right you know but I think I think most people will want that Britain's Strongest
Man title because you want to be a national champion ¡uh! that's that's kind of a really big
thing ¡um! so yeah I mean you know after the World's Strongest man for me Britain's Strongest man's the
the biggest title, you know I plan to be performing at my best every single Britain Strongest Man I do
you know I can't control what other guys do I can't control what Luke or or Tom or Hixxi does
but you know I know that I'll always want to give my a game for Britain's Strongest
man it's a special contest for me and kind of behind worlds is the one I like to focus on so
yeah every single year I'm here I'll be giving my all and trying to win that title