World's Strongest Man Tom Stoltman has revealed how he prepared for the international strongman competition - chowing down on thousands of calories each day and... not lifting a finger, as it happens.
Earlier this month, 27-year-old Stoltman became the first Scot to win the annual World's Strongest Man contest, held this year in Sacramento, California.
His brother Luke, who is also a strongman competitor, came seventh in contest - the pair dubbed the 'World's Strongest Brothers' after becoming the first siblings in history to make it to the final of the competition back in 2019.
After flying over to America and forming a bubble, Stoltman was holed up in a hotel before the competition kicked off on 15 June - by which point, he'd actually stopped training in order to protect his muscles.
Speaking to LADbible, he explained: "We flew out eight days before, so we stopped training the day we flew out.
"Your body can't get stronger or fitter in a week, and you don't want to have any delayed onset muscle soreness or anything.
"The last two weeks for me are the most important for prep to get your body fighting fit and get your nervous system sorted and all that kind of stuff."
Instead, all he could do was eat starchy food - which he said was perfect, given his location - consuming more than five times the recommended daily allowance for an adult male.
"The best place you can go is America for food!" Stoltman, who is from Invergordon in the Scottish Highlands, said.
"We could only stay in the hotel so we had our own assistant. They'd go out and get the food for us.
"Eating-wise I was up to 12-13,000 calories a day.
"I was eating a lot of Five Guys, a lot of lasagne, pasta, a lot of cakes, a lot of that kind of starchy food just to get fuelled up and ready for the competition.
"There was a lot of food!"
But while you'd have thought lounging around in a hotel room eating carbs - and being literally unable to work out - would be the ideal set-up, Stoltman admitted it had its downsides.
He said: "Everybody says 'Ah, that's the dream!' but trust me when you go through your second day of just burgers and lasagnes, it's kind of 'Yeah, give me something different!'"
Even in normal circumstances, Stoltman typically packs away around 8,000 calories each day,
"It's still a lot for a normal person but that's what my body needs to maintain," he said, adding that this tends to be 'healthier' foods.
"Well, I wouldn't say 10 fried eggs is healthy, but that's what my morning is: 10 fried eggs, some toast, sausage," Stoltman continued.
"I have a snack in the mid morning - it'll just be a shake and fruit - and then lunch would be like 400g of any kind of meat I want, like steaks, chicken, whatever meat I'm feeling like having. I'll have that with 400g of rice or a large baked potato."
Later in the afternoon he'll have 'another wee snack', which could be a second protein shake or an oat bar, followed by dinner in the evening, which is usually the same set-up as lunch.
"And then I'll have a pre-bed snack as well which is usually just fruit," Stoltman said, adding that during the week he's '90 percent healthy' if he's not working towards a competition.
He now gives himself weekends off training to spend time with family and relax - lifting on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, doing high-intensity interval training (HIIT) sessions on Wednesdays and Strongman sessions on Fridays.
Stoltman said: "I always have the weekends off just to chill and reset.
"That's the best way it's worked for me. It just means I stay away from my gym, I spend time with my family."
Topics: SPORT, News, Tom Stoltman
Jess Hardiman