You might only recognise him as Gregor 'The Mountain' Clegane from HBO’s Game of Thrones. However, strength sport fans know that Thor "The Mountain" Bjornsson, is one of the strongest and biggest men to ever walk the Earth. In fact, in 2018 he was officially crowned as the World’s Strongest Man.

All Hail Thor

Thor: The stuff of legend

Consistently ranking in the top 3 in World’s Strongest Man competitions since 2012, Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, or Thor (as he prefers to be called), has recently hung up his giant size US 16 shoes from competition amidst ongoing controversy sparked by fierce rival, Eddie ‘The Beast’ Hall. We won’t go into the technicalities of this here, but if you are interested you can find more info. In fact, these two are due to duke it out in the boxing ring in September 2021.

Nevertheless, Thor remains an interesting and inspirational figure for big men everywhere. He proves that we big guys are capable of being good at sport even though we might not be walking around with single digit body fat percentages.

In fact, the 6' 9", 110 kg man mountain’s strength numbers are otherworldly. Thor is the proud owner of the world’s heaviest deadlift at 501 kg (1 kg more than Eddie Hall’s 2016 effort). He can also bench press 245 kg and squat an astounding 445 kg. Not only is he powerful, the big guy is also athletic. He has to be as Strongman competitions require contestants to pull, lift or carry (or even run with!) heavy and awkward objects.

Aside from his accomplishments within the world of competitive Strongman Thor is obviously already well known to the public via his on screen role as The Mountain in the ultimate Lockdown binge-worthy series, Game of Thrones.

Man Mountain

"He's freakish big and freakish strong, and quicker than you'd expect for a man of that size" — Bronn

In case you have been living in a cave (no, not a man cave!), The Mountain is the big guy in G.O.T who stands head and shoulders (literally) above all others when it comes to downright nastiness. In a world full of nasty characters, Gregor 'The Mountain' Clegane is next level. Ferociously strong, he also has a monstrous temper. The Mountain thinks nothing of beheading his own horse should it falter in a joust!

Spoiler Alert: His character dies at the end of Season Four. Or, at least he gets hurt pretty bad. Yet, The Mountain's popularity was such that his character was reanimated, appearing even more powerful in later episodes.

Now that G.O.T has ended (tragically), Thor has returned to his roots as a professional strongman as well as his role as an ambassador for Icelandic Mountain Vodka.

However, I’m pretty certain knocking back the vodkas is not part of big Thor's usual training program. Indeed, in order to maintain the size and strength needed for his strongman pursuits Thor not only trains incredibly hard, he has to eat a ton also! Thor’s eating regime sees him consuming a staggering 12,000 calories per day. Don’t get it twisted, this doesn’t mean he is stuffing his face with whatever the Icelandic equivalent of hamburgers and pizza is (maybe rotten shark aka Hakarl? – Ed.). No. The big guy keeps it real by eating super clean. You can check out his diet plan here for yourself.

Big on style

Massive amounts of style

Thor is a role model for us bigger men as he never lets his frame stand in the way of looking good. Of course, there aren't many of us who can rival him when it comes to strength exploits. But there is plenty we big guys can do to emulate his significance in the fashion stakes. We just need to remember that the rules for dressing well apply differently to us big blokes than to the lesser proportioned population.

Take a look at the big man in a suit. Thor obviously understands the power of monochromatic colourways. However, it’s important not to take this advice too far. Wearing dark colours helps conceal problem areas but don’t be afraid to mix it up a bit also. Lighter hues attract the eye so try choosing pants in neutral colours like olive, grey and stone to play with proportion by offsetting a large torso.

Whether he's lifting rather heavy weights in his gym wearing comfortable sweatpants, or taking a walk into town in a fine casual shirt, Thor is sure to turn heads in more ways than one.