They're a staple at modern A&P shows, attracting huge crowds eager to see men – and increasingly women – flex their muscles.

Strongman competitions are a growing sport in New Zealand and Tauranga is well-represented among the ranks.

Tauranga's Matt Rossiter, a former New Zealand strongman and powerlifting champion, has been running the New Zealand's Strongest Man competition for 23 years and two local men, Gareth Austin and Tom Taylor, will be competing in the final of this year's competition at the Royal Easter Show in Auckland this weekend.

New Zealand strongmen and women returned from the 2018 Arnold Pro Strongman Australia Championships recently with a raft of medals, including Rongo Keene, who placed seventh overall and Matt Ragg, current New Zealand's Strongest Man title holder, who finished eighth.

Another Kiwi strongman, Colm Woulfe, is getting ready to compete in the World's Strongest Man Competition in the Philippines in May.

Matt says the Strongman competition was first introduced to New Zealand in the early 1990s by former NZ strongman Colin Cox, and has grown to include 'a few hundred” competitors.

'A lot of gyms also run their own in-house contests nowadays,” says Matt. 'It's become quite popular and is a growing sport. Once you get to World's Strongest Man level and the European tour, it can be quite lucrative.”

Typical strongman events in New Zealand include the Farmers Walk, vehicle pull, yoke carry, log lift, stone lift and carrying a 160kg anvil. The New Zealand record for the latter event is held by Mike Olsen, who carried it over a distance of 125 metres in 2012.

'Strongman competitions actually developed as a form of entertainment because a TV company wanted to get the strongest footballers, shot putters, weightlifters and competitors from the various strength sports all together to see who was the strongest,” says Matt.

'For the events, they selected a lot of the historic tests of strength such as lifting stones onto barrels. The Farmer's Walk event came from the old days when farmers would have contests carrying two full milk churns from the milking shed to the house without dropping them.”

Matt currently doesn't have a women's division in his series, despite previous attempts to establish one, but there is a New Zealand's Strongest Woman contest run in the South Island, and New Zealand strongwoman/powerlifter Kate Mitchell-Parker came home from the Arnolds with two firsts in the ProRaw powerlifting and open bench press under 75kg events.

Strongman training involves a good deal of powerlifting training first, says Matt.

'You need to establish some decent strength in the basic lifts. You can talk technique all you like, but if you're not strong, you're not going to do any good in strongman contests. You also need a strong grip.

'After that you need to work on cardio and lactate resistance. You need to be fit as well as strong.”

Matt still trains four days a week but says now that he's in his 50s, his biggest weights are well behind him. However, that didn't stop him winning the sheaf toss and coming second in the caber toss at the 2017 Auckland Highland Games.

He would love to resurrect the Tauranga Highland Games, which were held here in the 1990s.

'My plan is to establish a heavyweight event competition here by next summer.”

Papamoa personal trainer Jack Thain, 19, has recently set up his own gym, Fitness and Fire, specialising in strongman training.

He says he was interested in 'old school” weight training from a young age, looking up to the likes of former professional bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger.

He soon became bored with regular gym workouts and moved on to CrossFit, going on to get a CrossFit Level 1 Trainer qualification.

'I watched a lot of strongman on TV and YouTube,” explains Jack, 'so I thought I'd add on a strongman training course. I loved it.”

He loved it so much that as well as setting up a specialist strongman gym, he is training to compete in strongman competitions himself.

He currently has about 10 members at his gym, including three women. One of them is Sun Media designer Caitlin Burns, who says it is a bit different from your usual gym routine.

'I've never been one for cardio,” says Caitlin. 'It's really satisfying to be able to lift and carry these heavy things, even when you look at them at first and think it's never going to happen.

'I love the challenge of trying new things and constantly pushing myself to do better.”

Jack says strongman training is ideal for those looking for something different.

'A lot of people get bored working out in a gym where there are a lot of machines that do the work for you. Strongman is a real test of strength because you have to do the work yourself.

'I enjoy the pure strength of it. When you've done a lift or moved a stone it gives you a thrill and makes you come back for more.”

Jack says once people get over the 'fear” of the word strongman, they realise they can build up the strength required for the sport.