When you think about things you want to accomplish in life, or skills you'd like to develop, you think about how much time you really have to get it done. Like, maybe if I want to be a world champion at something I should have been training it for a while already. Not so with world record holder Mark Felix. Mark started training for strongman at the fresh young age of 37 and has gone on to have one of the greatest careers of any strongman athlete!
After leaving the sport of bodybuilding in 2003, Mark began training and entered his first strongman competition in 2004. He came in third place and was immediately invited to compete in the IFSA World Open.
In 2006 Felix placed second in the Britain's Strongest Man competition and this led to a place in the 2006 World's Strongest Man in which he placed fourth in the finals. In 2007 he repeated his second-place finish in Britain's Strongest Man and finished seventh in the 2007 World's Strongest Man. In the same year he also finished third in the Strongman Super Series 2007 Mohegan Sun Grand Prix.
In 2008 he came fourth in Europe's Strongest Man and went on to finish third in Britain's Strongest Man, qualifying him for a third successive WSM appearance. The Grenadian-English strongman has since appeared in the World's Strongest Man 14 times, scoring a personal best 4th place in 2006.
After tearing his bicep in the 2008 WSM, Felix was at the hospital. "I had to go for a few MRI scans post surgery. I think the MRI nurse (thank goodness) had fun trying to get me into two gowns, one on my front, one on my back – in the end I had to walk mostly naked down the hallway as they wouldn’t even go up my arms, never mind my chest."
After beginning lifting at only 26, and beginning strongman at 37, Felix now boasts two world records, set in his 50s! Mark set the record for the Hercules Hold event at Giants live Manchester 2019 with a time of 87.52 seconds. Felix set a new world record in the Dinnie Stone hold, at the 2020 Arnold Strongman Classic with a time of 31.40 seconds. Never think you're too old to start!