STRONGMAN changed Shane Flowers’ life, taking him from working 84-hour weeks and sleeping on the floor of a barn to competing against the biggest names in the sport for mega cash prizes.
Flowers, 31, found himself in the hardest place of his life, but remarkably won England’s Strongest Man on his first attempt to turn things around.
Shane FlowersShane Flowers turned his life around thanks to strongman[/caption]
Shane FlowersFlowers is now competing in World’s Strongest Man[/caption]
The Dorset strongman has always been a lifter, starting weight training when he was just 15 years old and focusing on powerlifting as he got into his early 20s.
He never really thought about turning his attention to strongman, not until Boris Johnson and the Covid-19 pandemic meant he couldn’t train anymore.
He told SunSport: “When Covid-19 hit they shut down all the gyms nationwide. With powerlifting you have to train with very specific kit and I no longer had access to that, but I wanted to carry on lifting weights.
“So I literally just bought a budget strongman kit, which was just sandbags and logs – all that kind of stuff. I started training on my driveway and realised I was pretty good at it.”
It wasn’t just Flowers’ powerlifting that was snatched away by the pandemic, but his jobs too.
The 6ft 5in muscleman was working as a bouncer at a nightclub and a personal trainer in a gym, two industries that simply ceased to exists during lockdown.
Flowers had to turn to a local in-shore oil farm, working 84-hour weeks as security to try and make ends meet while balancing his new love for strongman.
He explained: “I basically worked a security role on an oil farm, and I was doing upwards of 84 hours and still trying to coach and train at the same time. I was burning the candle at both ends.”
https://www.instagram.com/_shaneflowers/?hl=enFlowers and his wife Rachel found themselves homeless during the pandemic[/caption]
Shane FlowersSoon afterwards Flowers won England’s Strongest Man[/caption]
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Unfortunately for Flowers and his wife Rachel, things got too much and the pair lost their house amid the struggle.
The couple were forced to sleep on the floor of a barn at his wife’s Equestrian Farm business along with their FIVE DOGS, trying to keep things ticking along as Flowers committed to training for his first ever strongman competition.
He said: “I was working mad hours. My wife was at work, she’s got her own business, she was working mad hours.
“We were homeless, we lost our house. We were living on the floor in one of the barns.”
Adding: “My body was getting no recovery, no sleep, my stress was through the roof. My body just physically started to show signs that it wasn’t recovering.
“I’d wake up at 4am, I’d be at work for 5:30am then work until 7pm. Then I would drive an hour and a half to the gym, train for four hours and get back home around midnight – sometimes even 1am.
“Then I’d be up again at 4am to do it all again the next day.”
Things changed for Flowers when he rocked up to his first ever strongman competition – England’s Strongest Man – and WON.
Despite getting into the sport just a matter of months before, Flowers was already a champion – a success that turned his life around.
From there things started to click into place for him and his wife, who have since welcomed their son Ronnie.
Flowers began to make a name for himself on the strongman scene having never competed before, while Rachel’s business took off and the pair were finally moving in the right direction.
We were homeless, we lost our house. We were living on the floor in one of the barns.
Shane Flowers
Even then, Flowers wasn’t sure he still wanted to pursue a career as a strongman, but couldn’t say no the amazing opportunities being thrown his way – including an invitation to the 2022 World’s Strongest Man event.
He recalled: “I was just seeing if it was something I fancied and then I started getting invited to the pro scene and it all just kind of snowballed quickly.
“It was just surreal. It think it was good, in a way, that I didn’t put the sport on a pedestal.”
Unfortunately for Flowers his World’s Strongest Man debut was ripped away from him when he dropped a 120kg anvil on his foot – effectively “smashing it into oblivion”.
And from there he has been unable to compete on the sport’s biggest stage.
Flowers pulled out in 2022 after the foot injury, skipped 2023 following the birth of his son Ronnie and ruptured his bicep 10 days out from flying to Sacramento for the Worlds in 2024 – meaning he had to pull out once again.
https://www.instagram.com/_shaneflowers/?hl=enFlowers missed the 2023 World’s Strongest Man because of the birth of his son Ronnie[/caption]
Shane FlowersInjuries scuppered other attempts at competing in Sacramento[/caption]
It wasn’t just another place in the World’s Strongest Man comp that last year’s bicep injury cost him, but also a small fortune.
He revealed: “I had to go private for the surgery because of the extent and the complexity of it. I had to get a private surgeon to do it for me, and that was obviously a huge financial cost.
“You know, I wasn’t able to hold my son for eight weeks – couldn’t do anything.
“The surgery alone cost just under £5,000, but with all the follow ups and all the rehab and everything, the total cost was about £8,000.
“It wasn’t until my latest competition, which was Britain’s Strongest Man in January where I came second, that I won enough prize money to basically pay off my surgery.
“It’s weird because you win a huge prize pot, I think I won £12,000 or £13,000, but then £8,000 of that is just automatically gone.”
Now some three years after earning that first sport at World’s Strongest Man, Flowers has qualified once again and is finally hoping to make his debut on the California stage.
The 24 stone lifter has been preparing by taking in a whopping 8,300 CALORIES per day with 1.1kg of carbs and 330g of protein – thanks to the help of a nutritionist in Australia.
But despite injuries robbing him of competing in recent years, Flowers is feeling no pressure ahead of the big competition.
He said: “I don’t actually feel any pressure. It’s a weird one, when I got injured I had this revelation when I was sat on my sofa in a sling completely off my head on painkillers.
“I felt absolutely useless and I thought, ‘I want to just get back to doing what I love’, which is lifting.
“I’m just looking forward to going out and competing. I don’t feel any kind of external pressure, I never really have done.”
Adding: “I think I’ve got every tool to eventually be the World’s Strongest Man. I’ve got every physical attribute that you need.
“But I just need more time I think. I want to be a household name.”
https://www.instagram.com/sbdapparel/?hl=enFlowers reckons he has what it takes to become the World’s Strongest Man[/caption] Creator – [#item_custom_dc:creator]
