Inside the Stoltman Gym transformation — how Luke and Tom Stoltman are turning a rundown warehouse into a world-class strength hub.
The world’s strongest brothers are on a mission to build the world’s strongest gym.
Luke and Tom Stoltman were the first siblings to reach the finals of the World’s Strongest Man competition in 2019, earning themselves the fitting nickname in the process.
The Scottish Highlands-born duo share a host of National, European, and World title wins between them — with younger brother Tom a three-time World’s Strongest Man winner.
Nicknamed The Albatross, Tom became the first Scottish man to lift the trophy and the only Briton to complete a hat-trick of wins. He also holds the world record for the heaviest Atlas stone ever lifted over a 1.22-metre bar — a whopping 286 kilograms.
Both brothers are currently in Sacramento, California, gunning for qualification to this year’s finals.
When they land back in the UK, they’ll be swapping dumbbells for paintbrushes to revamp their latest project: the Stoltman Gym.
Project Stoltman Gym in Full Swing
The musclebound duo recently dropped a vlog showcasing the site for the upgraded space — and let’s just say it’s a work in progress.
As spit ‘n’ sawdust as they come, it’s currently a fairly run-down warehouse unit, packed full of all the strongman gear two growing brothers would need to bulk up for a summer of competing.
We’re talking shields, sandbags, Rogue yokes, axles and barbells, jerk blocks, a Hercules Hold setup, and even a stone platform weighing 700kg.
There are also a few racks courtesy of a recent collab with Nike Strength.
“It was about an hour round trip from the warehouse that we had, so we moved all the strongman stuff,” Luke said.
The Vision for Stoltman Gym
The vision for the all-new Stoltman Gym is a community-centred mecca that fuses strongman equipment and everyday strength gear under one roof.
It’s the kind of setup the brothers had in the early days of running their Invergordon site, before they were forced to split the two for more space.
“It’s a big space,” Luke added. “So it just allows us to have our strongman equipment and the Stoltman strength centre all under one roof. It is going to be the Stoltman strength centre kind of combined…
“We want to really build that community back up, because when we first opened the gym that’s what we had. It was a really nice community, and just having to move the strongman stuff away I think we lost that a little bit.
“It is what it is. That was the choice we made at the time, but now we’re going to take it back.”
What Comes Next
To make that dream a reality, there’s plenty of work to be done — starting with a fresh coat of paint. That’ll be followed by:
- Wall-to-wall power racks
- A combi rack for powerlifters
- Flooring for those mega weights
- A track for yoke runs, farmers carries, and more
It’s a bad day to be a wall, as the mammoth siblings are going to be knocking them through to create separate zones for machines and cardio equipment — for the physique fine-tuning.
There’s a long way to go in the ramshackle space, but the potential is clear from the get-go.
Once the equipment’s in and the changing rooms, toilets, and showers are given some much-needed TLC, the newly refurbished Stoltman Gym will open to the public — welcoming anyone who wants to train alongside their idols, the world’s strongest brothers.
The Ultimate Strongman Destination
Saving the best for last, the brothers wrapped up the vlog by stepping outside into the 20-metre yard.
It might look like little more than scrubland for now, but the space has already been earmarked for the Stoltman’s very own powerlifting and strongman competitions — plus a lineup of future community events.
The job is far from finished — in fact, it’s barely started — but the Stoltman Gym is shaping up to be the ultimate spot for anyone looking to prep for strongman, or just bask in amazement at some very large men lifting even larger weights.
You can follow the full progress of the Stoltman Gym build on the brothers’ YouTube channel.
