Tom Stoltman Training & Diet - How He Won World's Strongest Man

Tom Stoltman Training & Diet - How He Won World's Strongest Man

Tom Stoltman’s training clearly produces results in Strongman competitions, with the Scotsman having won the World’s Strongest Man title in the summer of 2021.

Along with his brother, Luke Stoltman, he’s been quietly working year after year up in the Scottish highlands, and the hard graft in the gym has paid off.

Stoltman is just the second British athlete after Eddie Hall to ever win World’s Strongest Man and the first Scot.

It’s his commitment to eating an insane amount of calories and putting in long training sessions that has got him to the top.

Reaching the pinnacle of your sport never comes easy. Here’s a detailed look at the training and diet that helped him climb to the top of the podium.

Tom Stoltman’s Strongman Training

Unlike his brother Luke, who’s been working on oil rigs since he was 18, Tom Stoltman trains full time.

His weeks follow a set structure and routine across five days. While he used to train seven days a week, he now feels he needs some time to recover, so takes the weekends for spending time with his family.

Stoltman does a lot of common weightlifting as a bodybuilder would. Monday is a deadlift day, followed by upper body on Tuesday.

He then takes Wednesday as an active recovery day, which still involves a trip to the physio and a HIIT session.

Thursday is then spent training legs and Friday is a specific strongman session that can last up to five hours. These Friday sessions are perhaps the most important of the week.

Importantly, Tom benefits from having his brother Luke to train with on many occasions, and he credits the support network in his hometown of Invergordon for supporting his progression.

“The moment I knew I’d won I felt Luke hugging me to the ground,” he told The Scotsman after returning from California. “He’s been a huge part of why I got into strongman competitions and why I got to where I am today.

“I am also the first man with autism to win the competition, and he helped me get over a lot of the hurdles it brings, like doing interviews.

“He’s amazing, and that’s why, together, we are the World’s Strongest Brothers.

“I owe a lot of this to him, my wife Sinead and my dad, Ben, for being so supportive on this journey.”

Tom Stoltman’s Strongman Diet

Like all athletes training for the World’s Strongest Man, Tom Stoltman’s diet is something to behold.

In competition, he’ll eat around 14,000 calories a day - matching Eddie Hall’s monumental eating regime - although it’s down to 8,000 on normal training days.

“I eat 10 eggs for breakfast, four slices of bread, two bits of bacon and two sausages as soon as I wake up,” Stoltman says.

“Then, an hour or so later, I have a protein shake and some fruit. For lunch and dinner, I have about 400g of meat and 400g of vegetables and rice, and I snack on burgers and chips in between if I’m hungry.”

During the World’s Strongest Man, he was eating two breakfasts, a lunch before going out to compete in the afternoon and then a second lunch in between events.

The key is to ensure you have enough energy to put everything into the events, but even Stoltman says it was hard work to eat that much in the California summer heat.