Australia’s strongest man is a little different than expected

EDDIE Williams walked out of church one day to officially become Australia’s strongest man — but even that’s not the most peculiar thing about the young dad.

AUSTRALIA’S strongest man isn’t exactly who you’d expect him to be.

Eddie Williams, winner of the 2017 Johnny Bigg Australian Strongman Competition, fits the build with his towering 195cm, 177kg frame — but there’s a little more to the 27-year-old than brute strength.

Lifting gigantic Atlas stones weighing up to 200kg, Williams defeated his opponents with a flawless performance in the final two rounds of the competition to earn a ticket to the 2018 Arnold Sports Strongman competition in the US.

He will travel to Columbus, Ohio, for a chance to take on Game of Thrones superstar Thor Bjornsson (The Mountain) for a prize pool of $150,000.

“You’ve got to be good at running and moving awkward stuff — it’s a playground for men,” Williams told news.com.au.

Strongmen events are slowly gathering interest in Australia but are still considered a niche sport, meaning athletes like Williams are forced to train and compete in their spare time.

He works three different jobs while living in Gosford on NSW’s Central Coast.

“It’s underground — it's a cool sport and now it’s gaining a bit of movement,” he said.

“It’s a hobby for me. I have three jobs, full time at a school as a support teacher, wedding singer and I do extras work for advertisements as well.”

Williams started strongman lifting barely two years ago after turning up to a competition held by his church’s gym.

“Nobody had heard of me. I came in with no technique and came second, I reckon I pissed off a few people because they all expected to take the podium,” he said.

Eddie Williams is the world's best glassy.

“They were like ‘this guy just walked out of church and now he’s Australia’s strongest man’.”

Four time World’s Strongest Man winner Brian Shaw — who is also expected to compete against Williams in Ohio in 2018 — revealed his gut-churning diet and training plan earlier in the year.

Shaw’s seven-meal day consists of more than 12,000 calories to keep his body at peak competition fitness. His enormous seven-meal routine features a breakfast with eight eggs (which he says doesn’t fill him up), an equivalent of three protien shakes and a fistful of peanut butter a day.

In comparison, former WWE star and Hollywood giant Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson eats around 4,000 calories per day while weighr training.

You’d think a man like Williams would be eating roughly the same amount in his journey to become Australia’s strongest man, right? Wrong.

The father-of-one, who is expecting his second child early next year, said he eats roughly half of what the world’s strongest man does each day while maintaining a rigid five-day training regimen.

“I think I eat about 5000-6000 calories a day," he said “That’s his job. If I was doing it full-time I could probably eat more. (It gets expensive), I gotta feed my kids!”

Williams said he could be in with an outside chance to beat The Mountain.

“I think he’s slowly getting better, he’s pretty tall which is a downfall for people who have to lift overhead, they have to lift further,” he said.

“(But) to lose against him would be an honour. I’m definitely going to give them a run and give it all I can.

“I watch those guys on YouTube, I’ll try not to fangirl them.”