The strongman competition is one of the highest levels heavy athletes can achieve professionally.
Brian Shaw, an American and a four-time World’s Strongest Man award winner, is not just any other competitor because he excelled in and lived for the sport.
Brian Shaw lives in Fort Lupton City in south Weld County, Colorado, famous for its prairie fields, gold rush era monuments, and snow skating.
He has lived there all his life since he was born in Fort Lupton and even settled there after marriage.
That is just the tip of the iceberg concerning the famous strongman. Tag along as we explore his life in greater detail.
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Is Brian Shaw Married?
Being such a famous competitor, many people can’t help but be curious about the marital status of arguably one of the world’s most muscular men.
Although he loves to keep his life private, we still managed to get some information about him.
Yes! Brian Shaw is married. Sorry ladies!
After the unfortunate death of a friend and fellow American strongman known as Mike Jenkins in 2013, Shaw met the love of his life.
Shaw attended a fundraiser where he had been invited as a celebrity guest. In this function, he met Keri Jenkins, the widow of the late Mike Jenkins.
The two dated for some time and finally dated on July 4, 2015.
Keri Jenkins is an industrious woman, just like her husband, and is the head of Fit Mommy Academy.
She has an online clothing brand with fashion pieces like hats, hoodies, and shirts. She helps other women by offering fitness ideas and runs a successful YouTube channel like her husband.
The teacher of mathematics and her husband live in their newest house in Fort Lupton, Colorado.
Together, the two have two sons, Braxton and Kellen Shaw.
Brian Shaw’s Early Life and Education
The strongman who hails from Colorado was born in 1982, meaning he is forty years old. Not much about his early childhood days is known, but we at least know about his family.
Shaw is the child of incredible parents, Bonnie and Jay Shaw. He also has a sister, Juli Shaw.
Brian Shaw inherited much of his physical capabilities from his parents, who are taller than the average adult height.
For instance, Bonnie Shaw is 6 ft 1 inch tall, and Jay Shaw towers above most women, standing at 5 ft 11 inches tall.
The award-winning competitor spent most of his life in the city and only ventured beyond when he grew older.
Bob Austin, the former women’s basketball coach at Louisiana State University, Alexandria, nurtured Brian Shaw, who became one of the best players on his team.
In Fort Lupton High School, Shaw started playing basketball and attained his high school degree.
A college degree followed from La Junta’s Otero Junior College, Colorado, where he still excelled in basketball.
Being such an excellent player earned the guy a full basketball scholarship from South Dakota’s Black Hills State University, Spearfish.
Who said super-strong athletes couldn’t also use their brains? Brian Shaw excelled academically and earned himself a wellness management degree from the institution of higher learning.
It’s very clear from the brief history above that Shaw’s life has always revolved around sporting activities.
What Is Brian Shaw’s Net Worth?
Brain Shaw is living large, considering that he is worth around $15 million.
Over the years, Brian Shaw has accumulated his riches using different means and platforms. Notably, a considerable chunk of that net worth came from award money he earned from multiple winnings in the global strongman competitions.
Additionally, the winnings made him famous across the country, bagging some endorsement deals in the process.
How Did Brian Shaw Earn His Wealth?
Prize Money
Brian Shaw’s primary source of income and the most significant contributor to his net worth is prize money from his winnings as a strongman competitor.
Since the American citizen debuted in weight competitions in 2005, he has worked hard and earned his place as a prominent figure in the sport.
He has also won many championships and awards during his career, bringing him thousands of dollars.
For instance, Shaw was a double Arnold Strongman Classic winner in 2011 and 2015.
Thanks to his brute strength, as he likes to put it, Shaw has four World’s Strongest Man awards to his credit from 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2016.
When he is not winning, the strongman is often the runner-up in some of these championships, and all these achievements attract pretty vast sums of money.
Just to give you a rough idea, the Arnold Strongman Classic awards the winner $72,000, the runner-up $22,000, $17,000 for third place, and $12,000 for the fourth place.
When combined, Brian Shaw had won an approximated $500,000 by 2022. He has won the championships twice and became second several times.
Endorsement Deals
Shaw also earns some pretty good income from endorsement deals
Apart from the award money, being at the top of the game attracts several perks, including endorsement deals.
Winning the world’s strongest man competitions four times is no mean feat that put the strongman on top of the world and made him the most sought-after competitor for product promotions.
Fame sells like hot cakes.
For instance, the Colorado native has worked with FitLife Brand (manufacturer and marketer of innovative nutritional supplements for the health-conscious), Trifecta Nutrition (an organic food delivery company), and Swag & Valor (a popular extra-large fashion brand)
Shaw is a good marketer because of his popularity and promotes the companies’ products through social media campaigns, endorsements at competitions, advertising, and public appearances.
He is also responsible for their social media and digital campaigns. While the exact amount of money Shaw earned through these deals is not in the public domain, it is common knowledge that endorsements pay pretty well, especially when working for such huge brands.
Clothing Line
Brian Shaw is also a good businessman and owns ShawStrength. This prestigious fashion brand features lifting gear, hoodies, posters, and shirts for children, men, and women of all ages.
ShawStrength also incorporates a women’s fitness program known as Moms on a Mission, which targets mothers and is run by Keri, Shaw’s wife.
A single piece of clothing from the store costs anything between $25.95 and $29. You have to part with between $75 and $100 for a personalized fitness program.
Considering the figures above, you should begin to see why the strongman is so wealthy.
Is Brian Shaw Involved in Charity Work?
Behind that huge body and tough look is a gentle giant with a heart for the less privileged in society.
Over the years, Brian Shaw has championed several different causes in aiding children. One of his notable projects is a children’s international hospital better known as the World Pediatric Project.
The hospital focuses on preventive resources, diagnostic resources, and pediatric surgeries to treat seriously ill children from several developing countries.
Brian Shaw is also the founder of the Brian Shaw Memorial Trust, an organization that manages the administration of various charity work projects on behalf of the beneficiaries.
The organization is also a chief administrator managing all the foundations established in Shaw’s name.
Furthermore, the Officer Brian Shaw Foundation has been around for a while. It seeks to raise funds and promote projects that help first responders, local communities, and the needy.
What Is Brian Shaw’s Training Like?
For those itching for a look into Brian Shaw’s training, here is an overview.
Disciplined Eating
Chances are, you didn’t expect food to feature anywhere in this section. However, to have enough strength to pull a truck, you need to eat and eat seriously.
You cannot win the title of the world’s strongest man on an empty stomach.
Brian Shaw has to eat every two hours or two hours thirty minutes daily, which adds up to seven meals.
When he is not training, he is definitely munching on a 12 or 16 ounces meal or a pound of meat.
He confessed that the discipline of cooking food, settling down, and consuming it is the hardest part of training.
This ensures that he consumes approximately 8,000 and 10,000 calories during hard exercise. Grass-fed beef is his main source of protein, although fish, turkey, and chicken are also on the menu to create variety.
Training Sessions
If a big contest is around the corner, he has frequent training sessions of between two to four hours, four or five days every week.
The rest of the time is spent resting. Work-training balance is essential to avoid overtraining and burnout, which impedes recovery.
Bench press, overhead press, deadlifting, and squatting are also thrown into the mix because they aid the movement of multiple major joints, which wraps up the weight training side.
The upcoming event will also determine training sessions. Sometimes, you need to replicate the actual event during training.
For instance, Brian Shaw will pull a truck, flip tires, or lift stones depending on the upcoming event.
Mental Training
Sometimes, weight lifting events are not all about weights and tires and trucks. Mental endurance will determine whether one loses or wins the competition.
When one becomes exhausted, and the whole body is on fire, your mental resilience keeps you going.
For instance, Brian Shaw once tore a tricep halfway through the competition.
But he braved the pain against his doctor’s wishes to emerge fourth.
What Are Strongman Competitions?
Strongman is an event to test the pure strength of the athletes or, as Brian Shaw puts it, brute strength, using several different tasks.
The game has been around in one form or another for many years. However, it was not until the 20th century that the sport was officially codified after several attempts, and the result was the first World’s Strongest Man event in 1977.
A single competition comprises six or eight events where athletes earn several points depending on their position.
For instance, the first position earns 8 points while the 8th position earns one point. No points are awarded to anybody below position eight, and the person with the highest aggregate points wins the competition.
Strongman equipment includes:
Ropes
Lifting Belts
Boulders
Lifting Gloves
Knee Wraps
Barbels
Sandbags
While the tasks keep changing, a strongman competition won’t miss any of these events:
Farmer’s Walk – competitors walk for a set distance while carrying heavy weights by hand.
Hercules Hold – competitors lift two heavy pillars leaning outwards
Vehicle Pull – competitors pull stationery objects like airplanes, trucks, and trains.
Atlas Stones – lifting five increasing weights and placing them on a podium
Refrigerator Carry – lifting a dumb bell-like structure with one refrigerator attached to each end
