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KYLE SINCKLER’S gym guru Adam Bishop is Britain’s Strongest Man who pulls 44-tonne planes and monster trucks in his spare time.
And the 23-stone Harlequins hulk, and former Saracens youth team player turned weight-lifting god, is also the ninth strongest bloke on the planet.
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The 6ft 3in Twickenham titan is Quins’ senior strength and conditioning coach with the job of making sure England stars Sinckler and Joe Marler are the most-powerful props in the country.
But Bishop, who converted a car barn into a gym at home, has not let Sinckler or Marler have a go on any of his ultra-heavy weights.
Asked if he ever brings down a lorry for the props to pull, 31-year-old Bishop laughed: “No! No way!
“Marler loves it and wants to do strongman stuff with me, but with the risk of injury with the strongman stuff it’s just not worth it.
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“I’ve torn my biceps off the bone before doing it.
“These guys are incredible rugby players and if I injure one of them in the gym doing something stupid then the boss will be on my case.
“I’ve pulled a 44-tonne Hercules plane. Busses. I did two monster trucks at this year’s World’s Strongest Man and they were tough because of the huge wheels.
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"But my heaviest has been the plane. I’ve also done bar bending with steel bars, log lifting and carried a 600kg frame on my back.
“The Quins boys love it and I think it helps with the message when I’m telling props like Sincks and Marler that they need to lift more and how to do it correctly when I can show them myself.”
I don’t think guys have got bigger in recent years in rugby, but they’ve become more-rounded athletes.
Adam Bishop on Modern Rugby Players
While there is plenty of rivalry for places on the pitch, there is definitely no competition in the gym with bigman Bish around.
Bishop is one of the top three deadlifters in the world so even though the England stars pack plenty of muscle, they are still some way off his super powers.
He said: “Our best deadlifter is probably Sinckler who can do 270kg. My best is 440kg.
“But if I was asked to run around for 80 minutes that would be a huge problem for me, so it’s swings and roundabouts.
“These guys don’t just have to be strong, they have to be fit and fast.
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"I don’t think guys have got bigger in recent years in rugby, but they’ve become more-rounded athletes.
“There have always been big props but now you have props who can throw 20-metre passes off both hands. You can’t just be a dead-weight any more.”
There is also no competition when it comes to eating, either, even though everyone knows forwards love their food.
England’s props will usually consume around 4,500 calories a day — 2,000 more than the average man.
However, Bishop needs 6,500 calories, across six to eight meals a day to fuel his formidable frame and get in four mammoth weight sessions a week that last up to two hours a pop.
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And after breaking into the top-ten at this year’s World Strongest Man for the first time, Bishop hopes to keep raising the bar when he enters again this summer.
He added: “Everyone would watch World’s Strongest Man around Christmas time and one year I thought I would have a go at it.
“I went to a dusty yard in the middle of Leicestershire, tried it out.
“A few years later I won the UK’s 105kg category then moved up in 2012 and won the UK’s strongest junior after that.
"This year was my best World’s Strongest Man yet and hopefully I can keep going for a few more years.”
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