Bunbury's strongest man and woman crowned

The biggest blokes, and the most dominant dames took over Market Square on Thursday for a four-event spectacle of strength.

Dan Guirey took out the lightweight category. As coach of many of the athletes, they were pushing him to go the extra mile.

"I feel like I've been hit by a bus," he said the morning after the competition.

Guirey set the fastest time in the Yoke and Farmers Walk events, where competitors hauled a 265kg squat rack like contraption across the arena, before picking up two 100kg weights and carrying them back across the same distance.

"Yoke is very taxing on your nervous system, so you need to have a good rest before you come into a comp and do that, otherwise you come in tired. Even if you don't feel like it, you can be tired from training it," he said.

Guirey then topped the Log Press event, lifting 120kg of Tasmanian oak above his head. He was dared by the crowd to go for 130kg, but couldn't manage the lift.

Open weight winner James De Graaf made up ground in the Car Deadlift event, which is exactly what it sounds like. A small car was parked on a rig, then competitors lifted it, officials stacking extra weight on each time until the total hit 350kg. The most reps at the top weight wins.

This event, Guirey said, wore him out the most. But the hardest was yet to come.

The Atlas Stones are traditionally the last event in a strongman competition. Athletes will lift increasingly heavy concrete balls either onto a barrel, or in this care, over a bar.

They start at 90kg for the men, and 50kg for the women. Josie Jordan made it look easy, practically throwing a 120kg stone over the bar on her way to winning the lightweight women's competition.

As the sun went down, the crown of Bunbury's Strongest Man went to James De Graaf, lifting a 161kg stone over the bar in a back breaking duel with fellow heavyweight Dave Wood. It only ended when both men attempted, and failed to lift a 170kg stone.

While Guirey had a scare with his right bicep, and crowd favourite Oliver Mulcahy cut the palm of his left hand on the Car Deadlift, none of the competitors walked away with any major injuries. That, Guirey said, is down to the right preparation.

"You try and get an 8 to 10 week peak regimen. So you start to build your weight up, and towards the end you peak your strength. You build up 90 per cent of your capacity, then you have a bit of a rest and you come into the comp quite fresh and recovered," he said.

"You should be at your peak strength. It's hard to get right sometimes."

A firefighter by day, Guirey developed his interest in strongman competition almost by accident.

"I used to be a bit of a gym rat, and didn't really have any direction to my training. I never wanted to go down the bodybuilder route and go on stage, posing and that sort of stuff."

"I found Strongman on a bit of a Facebook search, and went to a few comps in Perth, and it just evolved from there."

Now he runs South West Strength, the home gym of Southwest Strongman, and is one of the strongest men in the state. The Mail asked him to share his secrets to getting stronger.

"Consistency. Most of us train at least four times a week, some of the chicks maybe a bit more because they can generally handle a bit more volume than the guys can."

"Just stick to it, and you'll get stronger."

"It feels pretty good when you hit some good numbers. I wouldn't say you gloat about it, but it definitely gives you some confidence about yourself. Maybe there is some ego to it, but you just feel good about yourself. It's great for your mental health."

The next event for Southwest Strongman is coming at the Bunbury Show in April. "Judgement Day" will be a qualifier for the Australian Strongman Alliance Nationals in Tasmania.