Meet the young strongman with big ambitions
Most teenagers want to get their driving licence when they turn 17 – but strongman Jack Wadman is more used to pulling vehicles than driving them.
The 17-year-old, who lives near Pulborough, began weight training two years ago and can now deadlift 280kg, roughly the weight of a grizzly bear.
The 6ft 2ins, 104kg strongman, who attends Seaford College, hopes to one day become the world’s strongest man. He said: “My dad’s been training weights for 30 years but he’s never done strongman.
“He was the first person who got me into weight training. I started doing deadlifts and I got up to quite a good lift and one of the personal trainers said why don’t you do the strongman competition.”
Jack, who was 15 at the time, had to tell a ‘white lie’ to compete in the competition which was only open to people over 16, his mum Emma said.
After his first competition Jack has gone from strength to strength and he now eats 3,000 to 4,000 calories a day to pack on muscle while staying lean, something which Emma said led to an ‘extortionate’ food bill.
The student returns from college around 6pm before hitting the gym for two and a half to three hours a day,
four times a week.
He is trained by world’s strongest woman Rhianon Lovelace and strongman Luke Davies who run Kaos gym in Preston.
In five years time he hopes to be on TV on Giants Live which is the tour giving strong men the opportunity to qualify for the World’s Strongest Man competition and has previously featured Terry Hollands and Adam Bishop – both of whom Jack has met.
Mum Emma praised Jack’s ‘incredible’ achievements, which recently racked up 1.8 million views on sports site SPORTbible. She added:
“I forget how special he is. We’re of course immensely proud of him and how he’s kept his feet on the ground and not let it get to his head.”
Jack is sponsored by Sussex Strength Store and BTB Sleeves. To follow Jack see @jack_wadman_ strongman on Instagram