Stratford strongman Lee Hinton's bid to be the best

It's already an eye-opening experience into the world of strength sports and just what is required to try and be the strongest man in the country.

Hinton points out that these shakes are part of a regimented process that if deviated from, could have huge implications on what can be achieved in competitions.

As we sit down outside in the garden, where Hinton has clearly been doing a lot of work and digging, the self-employed central heating engineer explained how he got into strength sports.

"I liked sport when I was growing up and I used to play a lot of rugby at school, as well as discus," he said. "My brother, Luke, raced motorcycles from age 12 up to 19 or 20 and raced in MotoGP and British Superbikes.

"My dad was into bodybuilding, my mother always trained and my sister does lots of keep fit classes, so we're quite an active family.

"When I was 17 years old I fell quite ill. I had glandular fever but it wreaked havoc on my immune system, so I was ill for about seven months straight. I was reasonably chubby but by the time I had recovered from glandular fever I was like a stick.

"My brother was always training because he had to be light and strong for motorbike racing, so I went with him to the leisure centre to do some. We're talking 6am starts but I did not enjoy it so I stopped.

"However, I got back into it again and now I can't stop doing it, it's an obsession. When I don't train I feel like I'm in debt to myself."

He added: "It's coming up ten years now that I have been training. I'd done powerlifting for a couple of years but when the first lockdown hit I was trying to train at home. I bought some stuff and made some things as well, and that's when I thought it was the right time to get into strongman.

"I was falling out of love with powerlifting anyway so I bought some Atlas stones, farmer's walks and that's how it all started. When I first started I was 114kg, now I'm 137kg."

Hinton has a strict routine he has to stick to, even when working, and when training he's here, there and everywhere as his equipment is dotted around the patch.

Furthermore, his food bill per month comes to around £600 and then there's the cost of equipment. It's a huge expense to partake in strength sports, especially as Lee is owning a home for the first time and in the process of planning next year's wedding to long-time partner Katie Dixon.

"Luckily, I've had people help me out," he said. "While I've bought a lot of equipment, my brother and family also helped with getting me some of the other things I needed.

"Jason, who owns the Elevate gym in Bidford, has been a godsend. He will buy things that only I will use and I if I did not have access to his gym to store my equipment, I probably would not be able to compete.

"I knew Jason before he opened the gym but not that well. However, he's been really good to me and so supportive. If I need anything he'll try and get it for me.

"Some pieces of equipment are around £500 or £600. I bought two sets of farmer's walks and a frame, got myself seven Atlas stones ranging from 60kg to 190kg, an axle bar, bench, squat rack, dumbbells, and 400kg of weight plates.

"I've also got a yoke walk and a special dead lift suit that was £300. I've probably spent well over £2,000 on equipment alone.

"Dean (Jones) who owns LG Welding in town also made my original farmer's which are massive.

"This is such a hard sport and everyone appreciates the support they get."

Talk of support brings us back to Hinton's partner who "keeps him accountable".

"Katie trains as well but if she didn't, I don't think you could have a relationship where I was never home," he said.

"Straight from home I go to the gym and sometimes I'm not back until 9.45pm, by then it's bed time.

"You can't do this sort of thing without an understanding partner or home life would be terrible.

"Katie is my biggest support but it's hard for her because she actually can't help. Only I can eat the food, only I can lift the weights.

"Whenever I compete she is more of a bag of nerves than I am because she has gone through everything with me."

He added: "I've been with Katie for ten years now and when we first started going out I was only 85kg, now I'm 137kg.

"There'll be days where I wake up and feel like I don't want to do any training because my muscles are aching so much. I wake up, go to work, come back still aching and think I'll give training a miss.

"Katie makes me go, though, because if I didn't train I'd been in debt to myself. Katie keeps me accountable."

To qualify for England's Strongest Man, Hinton had to go through an online process where he had to record and weigh all of his equipment, and send the videos into competition officials.

For his audition, Hinton did five reps of a 315kg squat, a 142kg axle clean and press, and a 187kg farmer's hold for 30 seconds. Only the top 20 would qualify and Hinton found out in early April that he finished seventh.

"I was really happy when I found out I had qualified," he said. "I knew if I did not do anything wrong I was sure I would qualify. I beat a few good people too, but the goal wasn't about finishing as high as you could.

"The goal is to qualify so even if I finished 19th out of 20, we're all still going to the same competition."

Hinton goes into the competition on the back of a fifth-placed finish at the Midlands Strongest Man in Hinckley where a mistake in the final event cost him a place on the podium.

"That was my first open competition and there was 12 of us taking part," he said.

"I made some silly mistakes and it was a bit of a learning experience for me. There was a 400kg yoke, a 400kg frame carry, a 340kg dead lift and a 285kg squat, those were national level weights, if not a bit more.

"When I went into the last event I was second, but then I made a mistake and ended up fifth. I should have done a lot better."

"If I can finish in the top 10 at England's Strongest Man that would be pleasing. I'd also like to be in the top five in the dead lift as that's probably my strong point."

As a self-employed central heating engineer, Hinton knows that picking up a serious injury in training or when competing could have a huge impact on him.

However, while the thought of being careful might creep in during training, at competitions it's a case of go all out or go home.

"You get all sorts of muscle tears and in some instances you can break bones. When you're carrying something massive, there's a good chance you'll drop it on your feet," he said.

"If you drop 150kg on your foot you're guaranteed to break it, even if you had safety boots on. The key to strongman is trying to keep injury-free as long as possible.

"You're always going to get an injury. If I woke up and nothing hurt I'd be a bit concerned.

"Pretty much any muscle could get a bad injury and the worst one I ever had was a bulged disc. I never had a scan and ended up with bad back pain for three months.

"I've been working with a physio, we got it worked out and it's not come back since. That was the longest injury I had where I could not train 100 per cent."

He added: "I've had little bicep tears where you get bruising, but the muscle has never come off. When competing and you've got that last Atlas stone, you've got no choice but to lift it. As grim as it sounds, your biceps can come off and roll up under your armpit.

"The comeback from injury is usually longer than the time spent out injured. If you get a bad back then you can do other things, but if your arm is in a sling or your leg is in a cast, you're pretty much limited to what you can do.

"Doing a manual job and being self-employed, I don't want to get one of those injuries where you can't work because the financial strain would be unimaginable.

"In training I might be wary, but at competitions you never think about getting injured because you're fixed on the job.

"My brother races bikes and he never thinks he's going to have a crash because that's when you will crash. When you compete the only objective is to complete each event as best as you can."

Hinton is also on the search for sponsors who can help in any way they can.

Email luke_hinton_1@hotmail.co.uk to discuss sponsorship opportunities.

What Lee will have to do at England's Strongest Man

• A 400kg yoke walk for 30m
• Maximum dead lift
• Axle clean and press
• 90kg dumbbell reps
• 155kg (per hand) farmer's walk for 30m
• Atlas stones to finish (100kg, 120kg, 140kg, 160kg and finally 180kg).

What's the hardest event for Lee?

"The axle. It's the lightest weight you do all day, but you're using your whole body to lift 140kg and that's not a natural thing for me to do. I struggle to straighten my arms out because I've got bad tendinitis. I've got a physio over in Broadway who is really good and we're working on improving my overhead mobility."

What Lee eats during the week

"I usually eat 6,000 calories a day and that's every day, regardless of whether I train or not. Because I'm working, I have a lot of liquid calories in the day and it's around 1,000 calories per shake. I eat a lot of protein too, so usually I'm eating around 14 steaks a week and rice on top of that, and I have that every day. Then I also have a big dinner to make up the rest of the calories that I need at the end of the day. That final meal could mean taking in 2,500 calories. You can't just eat that many calories, you have to force yourself to do it and that's the worst part. If you get slack in the day you'll pay for it later as your final meal will be bigger. You've got to be regimented and nobody can eat it for you. People can help you train but if you're not eating the food then it does not matter what you do in the gym. Unfortunately strength sports are a size game, the heavier or more muscular you are then you've got the potential to lift more. I'm 137kg but I would not want to be more than 145kg for my height."

What Lee eats in the build-up to a competition

"I eat more food leading up to an event. Personally I still like to stick to my routine and eat the same food every day. If I stop putting weight on then I will eat more food. Leading up to England's Strongest Man, on a Saturday training session, which will probably be five hours, my calories start going up so maybe I'd be taking in 7,000. I eat good quality food and I'd call it a clean diet, but on a Saturday when you need those extra calories I have something rough, something that's not good for you like a Chinese takeaway or a bit of junk food. If you don't have something different, you're just eating the same thing every day and you start thinking 'why am I doing this?' I try to maintain a healthy diet as much as possible. You can't eat 6,000 calories and do it with just chicken and rice, the quantities you'd need make it not doable. That's where shakes come in, they make life easier because they digest quickly."

What happens on the day of the competition

"On the day I eat in the morning and probably won't eat again until after the competition. A usual day competing is from 10am to 4pm and you've got to do six events including warming up and everything else that goes with it. If you're eating food while competing you're going to be sick. When I do compete I eat flapjacks and have about two litres of an electrolyte drink. The best thing when competing is not to change diet. I have probably around six litres of fluid over the course of a competition, that includes Lucozade, electrolyte drinks, protein shakes and then the flapjacks in the morning. You don't want anything too heavy or some of it could come back up and you don't want that with a referee standing in front of you."