Tauranga man Rich Farrell, also known as ‘The Madness', is representing New Zealand with his mighty strength at the Official Strongman Games in Florida from November 11-13.

Flying from New Zealand on Tuesday, Rich is now in the US competing alongside the strongest men and women from more than 30 countries.

Unlike regular weightlifting, the Official Strongman Games include shows of strength such as lifting atlas stones and car walks.

'It's lifting big massive stones, pulling trucks and lifting big heavy objects, sandbags and throwing stuff around,” says Rich.

'Everyone that does strongman is a bit of a character and puts on a performance for the crowd.”

Bigger is better

Before starting his strongman journey, Rich was 80kg. Now he's clocking more than 120kg.

'It doesn't really matter what size you are…but mostly if you want to get good, you've got to get big.”

He first started strength-training 10 years ago after breaking his ankles from falling off a roof.

'Then I found strongman about five years ago and I gave that a go and was like I'm hooked on that.”

And he's literally been going from strength to strength with his competing.

'I went to Oceania's Strongest 2022 in August and I won that, which got me the invite to the world champs – so yeah going up and up.”

'I've just been training five days a week probably for 10 or 12 hours.”

Rich had also been training for NZ Strongest Man but had an accident before the competition and tried to push through it.

'I just got dehydrated and exhausted and I ended up in hospital, so I had to withdraw from that one.

'I'm just trying to get back on track and I'm hoping I've done enough to recoup from that last mistake.”

Big Z

Rich says his strongman inspiration is Big Z from Lithuania who has multiple wins as the World's Strongest Man.

'It's funny because five years ago I went to a seminar to see Big Z speak and teach us how to do some lifts …and then five years later I'm up competing with him on the world stage.”

Rich Farrell won in international competition – Oceania's Strongest 2022 back in August. Photo: Supplied.

Alongside his strongman idol, and other international champs – Florida's crowd will be the biggest Rich has competed before.

'When there's heaps of people screaming at you it gives you like another five-10 per cent strength and you can lift stuff you usually couldn't lift at training just from getting amped up from the crowd,” says Rich. 'I love it when they scream my name.”

To support Rich with his strongman dreams, visit: https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/official-strongman-games To watch the Official Strongman Games via livestream, visit: https://www.strongman.games/world-final