India got its first strongman competition

India's first strongman competition was an unprecedented show of strength, endurance and muscle

It’s Sunday afternoon and the parking lot outside the Shankarlal Concert Hall in New Delhi is full. There’s even a short queue outside the gate, manned heavily with bouncers scrutinising ID cards and entry tickets. Young men and women are here to either participate in or watch the strongman and bodybuilding championship. Edging my way past bouncers whom I mistook for participants, I see spots of green — on the trees, the freshly-cut grass on a garden and neon shades on participants. People have come to participate in India’s first strongman competition, which requires participants to lift unrealistically heavy objects and run from one end of the park to the other. When I say unrealistic, I mean equipment that looks like mini missiles and weighs over 200 kg. It also means pulling an entire truck with just ropes tied to your body.

The central park is occupied either with participants taking a break between events or with spectators marvelling at how the participants can achieve such feats. On one side of the park, men are lifting baseball bats of different weights. The task at hand is to run with one end to the other, touch the bat down and make the trip back — without once pausing. Few seem to cross the milestone of six trips.

On the other track, men are lifting four truck tyres, two in each hand, struggling to make it to the finish line. The farmer’s walk, as the challenge is titled, sees many bulky athletes give up midway and several lean ones make it to the end. This is where, unlike in a bodybuilding challenge, strength and endurance are more important than muscle mass.

Most spectators wonder why someone would voluntarily put himself through such challenges: the answer lies in their sense of pride. When I ask one of the organisers about who won the previous challenge, a participant piped in to say that he only lost by a few seconds. The test of strength is as much for himself as it is to come out a winner, he says.

Amit Singh, all of six feet, two inches and 140 kg, is lifting the missile-like weights — 104 kg in each hand to be precise — and walking briskly to the finish line. If I had missed his towering physique before, I could not ignore his grunts and screams that seemed to help him push through. He makes it to the finish line and topples over, gets up a few seconds later and calmly makes his way to a mat. When I extend my hand to congratulate him, he gingerly holds it with his fingers, almost afraid that he might crush it. A national-level shot putter, the 32-year-old resident of Rohtak in Haryana had his eyes set on the Olympics, but couldn’t make the cut. “I have already started training my seven-year-old son to be a shot putter,” he beams proudly. Amit says that the key to his protruding muscles and other-wordly strength — that also gained him an informal title of The Hulk among spectators — is a lot of sleep. “It is as important to train your mind,” he explains. His wife, Purnima Singh, sitting on an adjacent mat, tells me that she is here to participate in the strongman event, too. Later that evening, the confident couple would win the competition in their respective categories.

Besides the experienced Singh couple, several participants are relatively new to flexing their muscles professionally. Bhawna Solanki, a resident of West Delhi, has only been going to the gym for the last one year. But once she started lifting weights, she “loved” it. “My parents don’t know yet that I’m here. They would have never allowed me to participate in something like this,” she smiles conspiratorially. For women like her and 22-year-old Tavleen Kaur, lifting weights is “fun”. “Once you start strength training, it’s almost addictive,” beams Kaur. Pumping iron calms her down, she says. “I take out all the frustration and anger out in the gym. It’s surprisingly relaxing.” Just as a matter of caution, I nudge one of the stray weights out of reach.

Unlike Amit, Rajesh Rai, managing director of Jerai Fitness Equipments, which organised the events, gives me a bone-crushing handshake. Upbeat despite the humidity, Rai does let on that he is slightly disappointed with the turnout. “We’ve only got about 350 so far because people don’t know how exciting strongman can be,” he says. Nick Orton, CEO of BodyPower, finds that Indians are not shy of expressing themselves. “You’ll find that in most other countries, men beef up to get women. But in India, there is a lot of true passion,” he says.

As if on cue, two men in fitted T-shirts that show off their biceps well ask for a selfie with a supposed celebrity. Edging closer, I find that it is a hulky man dressed in black. When I ask who that is, the young men, almost gasping in shock, tell me that it is the former Mr India. I take a minute to cherish the rare moment where men in Delhi would rather stare at other men than the women at the venue.