‘I love this’: Local strongman talks passion for strength sports as he trains for Alberta Provincials

FORT ST. JOHN B.C. — A weeknight at any local gym in Fort St. John can be at times both therapeutic and chaotic.

Depending on time, patrons can crowd the weight room floor at any time during an average workout.

However, The Gym on 100th Street is calm, the sound of cars motoring past the busy street-level establishment a welcome caterwaul of noise drowned out by the sounds of rock music.

Amid the music and the cars, Alex Lorincz stands in quiet analysis, looking at the weights as he prepares for hex bar deadlifts.

Lorincz is a strongman competitor who won the 2025 Grande Prairie’s Strongest event on Saturday, April 5th.

He is meticulously training for Alberta Strongman Association’s Provincials at the end of June, but with a hectic work schedule, Lorincz says he squeezes in time to train on the weekends and with a cardio session on Wednesdays.

“Still being three weeks out, I don’t want to do too much too soon,” says Lorincz. “[I don’t want to] burn myself out and not be able to train as hard for the following weeks.”

At one time seen as a circus act, strength sports skyrocketed in popularity with competitions such as the World’s Strongest Man sweeping into the spotlight in the late 1970s.

The competition breathed mainstream attention into strength sports, turning men such as Jon Páll Sigmarsson, Bill Kazmaier, Magnús Ver Magnússon and Mariusz Pudzianowski into household names.

Thirty-year-old Lorincz remembers the first time he saw the competition on television.

“I had to have been a kid,” recalls Lorincz. “I didn’t know what I was watching.”

Lorincz participated in track and field, basketball and baseball throughout school, but it was only years later that he began to be interested in strength sports during his days as a bodybuilder in his mid-20s.

“I started getting a little bit more interested in it,” says Lorincz. “I was 24 or 25. I’m still bodybuilding at the time but I can appreciate what these guys are doing. 

“I decided I’m not doing another bodybuilding contest. It takes too much time. It takes an incredible amount of physical and mental effort. The last time I did it, [I was in] the best shape I ever was.”

Lorincz points to the west wall of the building where The Gym owner, Jeni Briscoe, has displayed pictures of individuals who have participated in her event, the Northern Classic.

As he sifts through his gearbag – containing weightlifting apparatus such as lifting straps, weight belts, a log book and weightlifting shoes, Lorincz explains the transition from bodybuilding to strongman.

“I almost subconsciously started moving towards strongman,” says Lorincz. “[During Covid] I went to college in Vancouver [and] came back home. When the gyms were closed, the first thing I did was buy a bunch of sandbags. It was a really good functional way of weight training.

“While I was waiting for my sandbags to come in, I took my friend’s punching bag out of his basement, held it on my shoulder and would go for a walk just [for that] core stability. As I would get tired, I’d push on, I’d get to the end of the road, and then I’d switch shoulders, and then walk back.”

When his sandbags were delivered, he brought them to The Gym. A chance conversation brought Atlas stones into his ownership as well.

“[I thought] ‘maybe I’ll buy a mold,’” says Lornicz. “Then, talking to one of my bosses at work, I was describing them to him, and he was like, ‘I think I know where to get some.’

“There was a CrossFit gym in town, and the owner couldn’t get rid of them. They were brought to Nels Ostero gravel pit in Taylor. I went down over the weekend and there was a guy willing to help me load up a bunch of Atlas stones.”

The first event he competed in was Williams Lake’s Cariboo Classic in 2023. The rest, they say, is history.

During his workout, he simulates different lifts he may do in a competition, including a deadlift, farmer’s walk or Atlas stone, which is named after the Greek myth and sees athletes have to lift cement rocks anywhere between 220 and 360 pounds.

As he eases out of his ‘warm up’ on squats at over 600 pounds, he talks about the psychological side of competing in rigorous events.

“I think it requires a lot [of mental preparation],” says Lorincz. “I spend a lot of time thinking about the contest and visualizing each event. Just thinking about my body position, my breathing, the tension that I maintain throughout and just how I’m going to overcome fatigue during the actual contest.”

While there are distinct differences between bodybuilding and strongmen competitions, there are also similarities, particularly in diet. Lorincz says he eats about five to six times per day.

“Just [to] get your protein in,” says Lorincz. “Get enough carbohydrates in to fuel your workouts then fats to fill in the rest. I’m lucky that I could have a few slices of pizza and come to the gym.

“The diet principles are the same. The biggest difference is for strongmen, you’re eating for performance, whereas bodybuilding you’re eating to shuttle nutrients into muscles to make them grow.”

Lorincz says the community in the sport is “super supportive” and he’s made good connections, which has seen him take on challenges in B.C. and Alberta.

Currently still an amateur, Lorincz would like to progress to become a full-time professional strongman, emulating the successes of Hugo Girard, Mitchell Hooper and Billy Hornaday.

Hooper won the 2023 World’s Strongest Man, the first Canadian to do so.

“I love this,” says Lorincz. “It’s my hobby, it’s my passion. If I wasn’t [in] strongman [competitions], I’d be doing something like CrossFit. If CrossFit was never a thing, maybe I’d still be doing bodybuilding. I’d be playing some sport whether it’s basketball or rugby. I’d be doing something.”

Lorincz will compete in Alberta’s Provincials in June in Edmonton. To follow Lorincz’s career, visit his Facebook or Instagram pages.