Retirement hasn’t slowed down Brian Shaw — if anything, it’s sparked a completely different challenge.
The four-time World’s Strongest Man is now setting his sights on something he admits he’s never fully chased before: getting leaner than ever while still holding onto the size, strength and athleticism that made him one of the most dominant strongmen in history.
In a new video alongside his wife, Keri Shaw, Brian revealed he is launching a 10-week transformation challenge through the Shaw Elite app, with participants competing alongside him as he embarks on his own body transformation journey.
The couple opened the video with plenty of back-and-forth banter, as Keri jokingly insisted Brian was the one most in need of “transforming.”
But underneath the humour was a serious goal.
Before starting the challenge, Shaw underwent a series of body composition tests, including hydrostatic weighing and a SECA scan, to establish a baseline and track exactly where his physique currently stands.
“We’ll set some goals for myself from there,” Shaw explained before the testing began.
The hydrostatic weighing test — which requires participants to fully exhale underwater — quickly became one of the more uncomfortable parts of the process. Shaw admitted afterwards: “Going underneath the water and like blowing out all your air is not the best feeling in the world. Super uncomfortable.”
Still, the results gave him a clear picture.
According to the hydrostatic weighing, Shaw came in at 17.4% body fat with a lean body mass of 317.8 pounds.
More importantly for him, it also provided a benchmark against previous years.
“The lowest I have ever been there was 16,” Shaw said. “So that was the lowest I ever got my body fat done. So I need to beat obviously.”
That’s where the challenge truly begins.
After also completing the SECA scan — which measured him slightly higher at 19.3% body fat — Shaw explained that the exact number matters less than the overall trend and consistency across different testing methods.
“I would say I’m probably in that range… somewhere in there,” he said while comparing the two results. “The data is lining up really well here. So, good starting point.”
And while plenty of retired strongmen focus purely on maintaining size after stepping away from competition, Shaw is heading in the opposite direction.
“My goal is to get the leanest that I have ever been,” he revealed. “So 16 is the lowest here, which I’m wanting to beat by a good margin.”
He then laid out the target range he wants to hit: “So I think, you know, for me getting down in that 10 to 12% body fat range is where I would just like to do it.”
For a man who competed at close to 200kg during his peak strongman years, those numbers are staggering.
But Shaw made it clear this is not about shrinking himself down or abandoning strength training altogether.
“I would just like to do it. Still, you know, training hard, still being strong, still being athletic. You know, there’s a lot of things that that I want to do,” he said.
Keri, meanwhile, also completed the testing and produced impressively lean results herself, recording 13.5% body fat via hydrostatic weighing and 16% on the SECA scan.
“I know there’ll be lots of comments about how incredibly low that is, but I’m super healthy,” she said. “Yeah, I’m a hormonally healthy 40-year-old woman.”
The couple repeatedly joked throughout the video about competing against one another, with Keri celebrating the fact she had “beat Brian” in body fat percentage.
But Shaw managed to find a small win elsewhere.
During the SECA analysis, both received “platinum” scores, although Brian’s overall score ranked higher.
“I was pretty nervous when that platinum score came out, but I think that overall my muscle score bumped me up and I was in platinum at 170,” Shaw said.
Keri immediately fired back: “Brian’s trying to take a win where he can get a win.”
Beyond the jokes, Shaw emphasised that the transformation challenge is largely about community and accountability rather than simply chasing aesthetics.
Participants who join through the Shaw Elite app will follow along over the 10-week process, with one grand prize winner earning a trip to Colorado to train with Shaw and attend the Shaw Strength Summit later this year.
“We’re going to have a great community feel on the app,” Shaw said. “Really, really excited about it overall.”
Keri echoed that sentiment, adding: “I love the community vibe. I love people just getting better together.”
For Shaw himself, though, the mission is now clear.
After years of building one of the most powerful physiques the sport has ever seen, he’s now chasing something entirely different — the leanest version of Brian Shaw yet.
Featured image credit: SHAWSTRENGTH / YouTube
