From supported living to strongest man: the incredible journey of Sheffield's Red King

“I’ve got Europe’s strongest woman jumping in the air and screaming at me to go faster - and I’m thinking ‘how the hell do I do this?!’”

As afternoons in S3 beer gardens go, it’s pretty memorable.

Rory Finch is smiling as he recalls a weekend in September unlike any other, when he became Sheffield’s Strongest Novice Man. His trophy is pride of place in his small office at Made To Move, the sports injury clinic he’s been running in Neepsend, Kelham in Sheffield since 2020. His elbow is strapped due to an injury sustained in the long and sprawling pub garden of a working man’s club in Deepcar - but this was no drink-related mishap.

The Lowood Workmen’s Club has been hosting Sheffield’s strongest competitions for several years - and its latest winner, at just 30 years of age, might just have an eye on a tilt at the world title - held several thousand miles away in Texas.

Rory’s story, which he shares with me alongside some stonking peanut butter brownie on a sunny Friday in Kelham, is a case of strength through adversity. One of eight children living something of a peripatetic existence - Northampton, London, and Essex before his teens - his life changed forever at the age of 17 when his dad died.

“That was a pivotal point in my life, a rare chance to step back and think. I was a carpenter then and had given up sport when I dislocated my shoulder in playing rugby, amongst other injuries and setbacks. After my dad died, my aunts and uncles got me into supported living. I went back to college to do a sports coaching and fitness development course and knew straight away it was the career for me. I took a Sport & Exercise Therapy degree at Leeds Beckett University and never looked back.”

Fast forward 14 years, and his extended family are there again, on a changeable afternoon in a Deepcar pub garden, cheering on Sheffield’s red king - it’s what Rory means in Scottish, and the name has stuck with the running club he is a key part of. Around 60 fans, many of them Sheffield Business Runners, have joined him, in Red King tee-shirts and inflatable hats.

Also there with him is Laura Hollywood, whom he first met in a fitness studio several years ago and is now one of his firmest friends - in every sense of the word.

Laura, from Sheffield, who can lift about three times her bodyweight while most of us are lifting a few bags during the Aldi shop, won Europe’s Strongest Woman event earlier this year, and is heading for the States to compete for the World Strongman Games title this November.

Rory guided Laura through “injury reduction and therapy” ahead of the competition, which included at least 12 hours of workouts a week and eating about 3,000 calories a day.

Then, it was her turn to turn coach him for the day, as Rory upped the ante to gain 12kg in weight by taking on the equivalent of about 5,000 calories per day.

Rory grins and says, “When you’re training, you don’t feel fitter! I had to put on 12kg, so I had a really intense bulking phase – horrendous, I just felt sick and horrible in the peak of it. I tell people who I work with that if you want to get stronger, you have to go through periods of eating more and putting weight on, not just dieting to get stronger. And that’s how it was with me.”

But by the time the competition came around, Rory was in peak condition - but that didn’t mean he wasn’t a bit nervous about some of the big guns he was facing.

“Some were a lot bigger than me, and I was like, shit, just trying to scope each other out, the nerves kicking in. I just had to focus on it. ”

Through five events - from 200kg deadlift reps for 60 seconds (a sweet 16 put him in the lead), through to the 180kg Yoke, 180kg sled pull in the pouring rain, then a 140kg stone hold (“my thumbs were dislocating!”), and finally, a 100kg sandbag relay for good measure, Rory was never out of first place. A wink from one of the judges at the end was all he needed to know - he was Sheffield’s Strongest Man.

But that’s not the end of the journey, he says. After focusing on himself, he’s turning his thoughts back to the sports injury clinic with physio, sports therapists and trainers he’s built from the ground up after graduating with spells at Leeds Rhinos and Sheffield United. He has a mission to support people who don’t get the support they need after injuries, to find their way back to full strength and fitness.

He says: “We’ll just see, I’m 30 years old and the masters is massive. My coach Chris Fitzgerald, who is a phenomenal coach and athlete who has helped me achieve this win in just seven months, has just competed in the World’s Natural Strong Man in the under 90kg Masters category and won England’s strongest man in just one year, so there’s no ceiling to what can be achieved by me or anyone else. You might think, ‘I can’t lift that,’ but anyone can do it– it’s all technique-driven.

“I really enjoyed going to Strong Saturdays at Structure Sport & Fitness on Duchess Road, and that’s how I got started on this journey - just loads of men and women of different strengths, sizes, and experiences, lifting logs, stones, and axles. I started doing that, and it was really fun, really good, so I started doing it more, and you get sucked into it. So who knows what’s next?”

As he eyes a holiday, he thinks about how the next few years might pan out for him.

“When you’re in supported housing, you’re not thinking about the future, you’re just thinking about that moment in time. When I went to Colchester Institute back in 2013, my mentors pushed me, saying ‘you can do better than that’, and I ended up with a triple distinction (the highest grade you can get) – they helped me to visualise things in the future.

“Once upon a time, I might have wanted four or five clinics, but just having this one business, I’ve sacrificed some relationships, opportunities, and more. I value my time, energy, and being present these days. I would like more freedom so I can think about having a family in the future.

“My father didn’t come to sports days or events with me and my brothers when I was a kid, being a young boy craving support and direction, those feelings of disappointment still stay with me today. I feel I’d want to make sure I did things differently. And I just want to build an amazing facility and business where the staff can thrive and we can have a big impact on people being more healthy, strong, supported, and embrace their abilities confidently.”

He may be Sheffield’s strongest man, but that feels like real strength in depth there from the Red King.

With thanks to James Travis from the Winners of Sheffield podcast for extra insight.