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As a self-proclaimed “country boy” growing up in a small
town near Lake George in upstate New York, Rick Belden learned
to lift heavy weight, moving wood as a lumberjack with his
father. Years later, Belden would use the strength he first
began to develop as a child, to win “World’s Strongest Man”
competitions and shatter world records. “They call it ‘country
strong’,’ said Belden. “It describes people who have strength
from doing more unconventional movements. A unique strength
develops and the contests I competed in are geared towards
unconventional strength.” In 2000, lifelong fitness enthusiast
Belden was working in a North Carolina fitness center, when
he was approached by a promoter for the Mack Truck “U.S.
Strongest Man” competition. At 6 foot 5 and 290 pounds,
Belden was eager to give the contest a chance. He opposed
43 other men and competed in a variety of strength events,
including a tractor-trailer pull, and an obstacle course
done while pushing a wheelbarrow with 500 pounds of weight,
Belden came out victorious. From there, Belden competed
in and won the Mack Truck World’s Strongest Man competition.
In fact, he nearly set a world record by pulling a 40,000
pound tractor-trailer 25 feet in only 15.36 seconds. His
newfound talent grew from there. In 2002, he set the world
record for “The Telephone Book Tear.” “I found out that
the record (at that time) was held by a British man and
was 9,007 pages in three minutes,” he recalled. Belden felt
he could beat this record. He had 300 phone books |
delivered to
his house and began training. The books were torn from top
to bottom in one quick motion. He ripped 19 of them to shatter
the record. This special feat was acknowledged on the television
game show Jeopardy. As part of a category called “Strong
Men,” the question read; “Guinness reports that in 2002,
Rick Belden took three minutes to rip up a total of over
twenty-eight thousand pages worth of these.” Belden was
setting records again in 2004. This time, he earned the
world strength record for pulling a 29,833 pound fire truck
30 feet in a parking lot in his hometown. He also pulled
a 7,153 pound truck with one arm. These days, Belden has
retired from strong man competitions due to injury. He recently
underwent surgeries to repair ruptured discs and reconstructive
surgeries to repair his pectorals, biceps and shoulders. |
“It is very grueling and taxing on the body, which is why
I don’t compete anymore,” he said. I only got involved because
I had the unique strength to do it; never took any of it
too seriously. I’m naturally very competitive at everything
I do in life, I was lucky I found something I was good at.“
Today Belden has taken on the role of District Sales Manager
for North Carolina for Lifestyle Family Fitness. He is working
to recruit, hire, train and develop sales teams as Lifestyle
Family Fitness enters Charlotte and Raleigh for the first
time. And his biggest challenge today is “getting all the
North Carolina residents to believe what I already know
is true. Lifestyle Family Fitness is the best fitness company
in the industry at building lasting relationships with not
only its members but its employees as well.” |