Nothing gets my father more excited than seeing one of his country men excel at sport, so you can imagine he is very pleased when Mariusz Pudzianowski appears on our screens.

Mariusz Pudzianowski has been the world’s strongest man a few times over and has established himself so well in the sport that anyone that is a keen follower of the sport cannot fail to know his name.

Mariusz has led a very sports focused life. He practices Kyokushin karate (which he has done since the age of 11). He was also a competitive boxer for 7 years, and still uses the skipping rope (a favourite stamina workout for boxers) to start his morning and afternoon gym sessions.

Mariusz’s father was the one that first spotted the talent that his son had in the field of weightlifting. Having been a successful weightlifter himself he was able to spot his son’s size and potential within the sport at an early age. At the age of 16 Mariusz entered his first National bench press competition and managed to bench press 160kg (353 pounds). In May 1999 he entered his first Strong man competition. Mariusz first became the world’s strongest man in 2002 (much to the delight of my father, and many Poles around the world).

In Poland’s strong man competitions he has only been defeated twice (both times he came second). In Poland it is impossible to walk past a fitness store without seeing his face on a magazine or endorsing a protein powder or supplement.

Mariusz weighs in at a 132kg and has a height measurement of 186cm.

To maintain his best he trains twice a day 5 days a week and amazingly eats more chocolate in a day than I would probably get through in a month. It is said that he starts the day with ten eggs and 3lbs of bacon, (can you even imagine !) followed by a meal of Polish pork chops and all the trimmings at lunch, and ending in protein shakes and chocolate for dinner (that is not even including the snacks in between). It does not stop there, as he wakes during the night to fuel up on more chocolate!!

Well, I cannot imagine any nutritionists out there advocating that kind of a diet but in Mariusz’s case “if it aint broke don’t fix it” as we say in England.

All I can say is “Go Mariusz go”!