For Brian Shaw, lifting weights was never just about becoming one of the strongest men on the planet.
The four-time World’s Strongest Man winner believes training offers something much bigger than trophies, records, or competition success — and he thinks too many people miss out on discovering it for themselves.
Speaking on the Cutler Cast podcast, Shaw opened up about the impact training can have on everyday life, explaining why he believes everyone should experience some form of strength training regardless of whether they ever plan to step onto a competition stage.
“I think everybody should train. I think everybody should lift weights, whether you’re going to compete or not compete. It’s such a good thing to do for your life in general,” he said.
For Shaw, the gym is about far more than physical changes.
Across decades in Strongman, he’s seen firsthand how training shapes confidence, discipline, resilience, and mentality — qualities that often spill into other parts of life outside the gym walls.
“You learn so many things about yourself within training,” Shaw explained.
That personal growth is exactly why he finds it disappointing that many people never take that first step into fitness or strength training at all.
He continued: “It’s sad to me that a lot of people never experience that because it carries over to so many aspects of your life too.”
The message from Shaw wasn’t aimed purely at aspiring athletes or elite competitors either. In his eyes, the benefits exist regardless of someone’s goals, age, or fitness level.
Whether somebody wants to chase records, improve their health, lose weight, or simply feel better day-to-day, Shaw believes training provides an outlet that can genuinely change lives.
He said: “I think that whether you have an aspiration of competing or not competing, it doesn’t really matter. It’s just a good outlet that everybody should embrace.”
That perspective has become something Shaw regularly shares with fans whenever he meets them at expos and bodybuilding events around the world.
And according to the strongman legend, some of the stories people tell him are impossible to forget.
While discussing interactions with supporters at the Olympia, Shaw recalled multiple people approaching him to reveal the dramatic weight loss journeys they had achieved through training and fitness.
“It’s neat to hear people come up like at the Olympia. Multiple people said they had lost over 100 pounds,” he recalled.
For Shaw, the number itself is staggering.
Not just because of the physical transformation involved, but because of what it represents mentally and emotionally for the person standing in front of him.
“Think about that — 100 pounds. It’s insane.”
More than anything, it’s the pride and confidence he sees in those moments that sticks with him most.
Shaw said: “You can tell the look on their face and the pride that they have in saying something like that. It’s a life-changing thing.”
The comments reflect a mindset Shaw has consistently promoted throughout his career. Despite building his name through extreme feats of strength, his message around fitness has often stayed surprisingly simple: training should improve life, not consume it.
And while most people will never pull a truck, lift Atlas stones, or compete in Strongman contests, Shaw believes they can still experience the same deeper benefits that training gave him throughout his life.
For him, the value of lifting weights has never been limited to building muscle or chasing numbers on a barbell.
It’s about discovering what you’re capable of — and carrying that belief into everything else you do.
Featured image credit: SHAWSTRENGTH PODCAST / YouTube / Brian Shaw / Instagram
