To become the most powerful man in the world, Martins Licis is the fitness guru you are looking for. His fitness regime and adaptation are not only very rigorous but his nutrition plan is also very uncommon. Martins Licis’ training and practice are not like the customary massive lifters that are generally seen hitting massive weights for tissue building. Instead, he focussed more on improving core power and persistence. His weight is 150 kg and one can say that his diet must be the unusual one which can not be the diet of a normal person. Muscle stamina needs a lot of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. These nutrients nourish the body not only momentarily but also tighten the body for the long run. Martins Licis pay attention to this concept. This article provides detailed information about him if he has developed his body himself or got this genetically. Then we can conclude about his perfect diet plan and fitness regime.

The Dragon dismissed the Mountain. This wasn’t a storyline of "Game of Thrones". Martins “The Dragon” Licis, 6’3” in height and 340 in weight, who in his early World’s Strongest Man matches had never medaled (sixth in 2016, fourth in both 2017 and ’18), surpassed the supreme champ Hafþór “The Mountain” Björnsson (third) and Poland’s Mateusz Kieliszkowski (second) to win the 2019 WSM by an impressive rim. “I prepared for this by lifting weights, eating food, and sleeping a lot,” Licis quipped with a smart shrug just after his triumph. Later he appended, “And watching cartoons.” His ideal cartoon is the Japanese anime One-Punch Man, possibly the world’s most powerful champion.

Having a great introduction about who is actually Martins Licis, let's move on to what does Martins Licis do in the day and his daily life to have a physique as he has and to have the kind of efficiency in the sports field that he is in. Moving on to his workout routine, statistics, and his diet plan. Besides he has some really cool tips to give out, so read ahead!

Martins Licis Statistics

• Date of birth: 28, 1990 (age 30)
• Year of birth: September
• Height: 6 ft 2 ½ in (1.89 m)
• Weight: 331 lb (150 kg)

Martins Licis Awards and Achievements

• 2016 World's Strongest Man- 6th place
• 2017 World's Strongest Man- 4th place
• 2018 World's Strongest Man- 4th place
• 2019 World's Strongest Man- 1st place

Martins Licis Workout Routine

In 2003, he was beaten by three older kids while waiting for a bus. As a result of it, his stance shifted. Getting to the gym was no longer a burden. Rather, he practiced every single day to grow into someone “outrageously strong so that nobody can touch me.” He took part in wrestling in high school and played in strongman competitions while still a teen. Just after he got to his 20s, Licis and a friend moved across the country, traveling to Los Angeles. As his mother addressed, “he was looking for his own tribe.” He discovered its guide in Norwegian-American strongman and coach Odd Haugen. Licis worked and trained under Haugen’s mentorship in Haugen’s backyard and then his commercial gym, The Training Hall, where he still works out. Haugen, a grip-strength saga, is America’s leading advocate for MAS wrestling, an old form of Russian strength contest in which two seated partners hold the same stick and try to pull it out of their enemy's hands or pull their competitor over the wooden divider. Licis, who got the nickname “The Dragon” from his fans and followed because of the determination and courage that he had in his heart, won the 2016 MAS Wrestling World Championships five months before his first World’s Strongest Man.In fact, most of his workouts are based on heavy work and weight so that he could have that kind of strength. In his words, "I’d say about 70 percent of my training is focused on heavy work capacity and control. I like to be able to maximize my technique, and ability to control my body to keep my spine neutral regardless of how exhausted I am."

Martins Licis has a lot of focus on his form and technique too which he puts first than lifting heavier. In his words,

That way, when push comes to shove in a competition…when I’m really just running low on steam…I know that I trained, exhausted…I was trained with good technique…exhausted, so I could still squeeze out those extra repetitions when necessary because truth be told, Strongman is mostly work capacity. A lot of events will have a one rep max, but 80 percent of the competition is still work capacity.

Here's what his workout looks like:

• Hanging Single-Arm L-seats - 3 sets of 5 to 10 seconds
• Gorilla Hangs - 3 sets of 5 to 10 seconds
• Pullups with Pause - 5 sets of 1 to 10 reps
• Bent-Over Barbell Rows with Pause - 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps
• Bent-Over Barbell High Rows with Pause - 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps
• Barbell Standing Upright Rows - 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps
• Barbell Biceps Curls - 3 sets of 5 to 10 reps
• Barbell Overhand Biceps Curls with Pause - 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps

His first exercise is the hanging L-seats. "This will be more of an activation. It is core work, but it doesn't burn out the core," he says. "And if you can't do single arms, just do two arms."

After gorilla hands (which last 10 seconds), he moves onto pull-ups, which he acknowledges are rather on the tougher side for a big man. "Last week, I did five sets of five, where I paused right about eye level. My goal is to eventually bring back my chin touching the bar. I'm around 345 pounds right now...it's tough," he says.

He also has a tip for pull-ups and says that if someone is struggling with it, one can do it quite naturally with this one tip. "You get on a step stool of some sort, you jump up and hold as long as you can," he advises. "The goal is to be able to get 10 seconds with your eyes at the same level as the bar. Even if you get a few seconds, that's good."

Rows are next in line – both bent over, high and upright rows.

"This is actually a little counterintuitive because the idea is to shut off the lats and to really activate the upper back, the rear delts, the lower traps, and the rhomboids," he says. He continues to add, "So you're gonna want to raise your elbows as you're rowing, but you're going to have this urge to shrug. Don't shrug. You want to keep the rhomboids and lower traps engaged by pushing the shoulder blades down and in." He moves forward to complete his point of view, saying, "I really don't want to shrug, you want to scoop the hands, in turn, the elbows open and pull to your chin," he says of upright rows. "You want to go light and controlled," he adds.

He also manages to include one arm upright rows, a movement he usually tends to withdraw from shoulder pain. "One arm feels better because when you have two hands, naturally if you're not holding onto anything when you lift your elbows, your hands want to spread apart," adds Licis. "With a barbell that motion's restricted, instead of your hands pulling apart, your body has to compensate by rotating the weight up which puts a lot more strain on your rotators, which is why I ask you guys to do this motion slowly and controlled with a pause," he concludes.

Lastly, he adds some overhand bicep curls, which is quite nice for that last-minute pump.

The most gym will not have the things that are needed for the strongman practice like the stone or a car but it does not mean that one cant practice for these events and add strength to their workouts. In fact here are some workouts that you can probably try to get if you want to build the same strength:

Log Clean and Press

You cannot simply lift a log to your shoulders as you would with a barbell, so it's not like a power clean and jerk. You should take a deadlift position, then row the log up your legs before rolling it over your chest-deep in your inhalation. You can press it upward. Repeat these 4 sets 3 times each.

No Log? Try . . . Barbell cleans are also known as continental cleans. Clean your chest with the bar using a mixed grip. The hand beneath the bar should be flipped over as the bar nears chest height. Perform 3 sets of 6 repetitions using a lightweight.

Atlas Stone Lifts

As a result, you will learn how to lift awkward loads. Grab the stone with your hands from the bottom. Put your legs on top of it. Relax your back by letting it round. Your hands should be tightly gripped around the stone. Wrap it around your chest and shoulder and roll it up. You're done with one rep; do three sets of three.

No Stone? Try . . .The Zercher squat. As you stand with a loaded barbell in your elbow crooks, slowly lower the bar. Your thighs should be parallel to the floor as you bend your knees. You can now return to the top. Those are 3 reps; do 4 to 6 sets.

Heavy Farmer's Walk to Farmer's Hold

You’ve done farmer’s walks before, but this time, load 2 farmer’s handles with heavyweights. Stand with the weights, squeezing your shoulder blades. Walkabout 20 feet, then stop. Hold for 20 seconds. Do 3 sets.

No Farmer’s Handles? Try . . .Doing the farmer’s walk with barbells. They’re only as fissionable—and more arduously and give in more efforts to balance.

You Don’t Know Squat

The leg is never a problem for Martins Licis and he really enjoys it. He can squat for more than 700 pounds and he is quite good at it. He uses this weight for his working set so that's pretty cool. Here is what he has to say about squats.

In one form or another, I don’t always do full pistol squats. If I do full pistol squats, I suppose to once a week. I do other stability exercises that very much to help promote my pistol squat abilities such as, touchdown squats, hip airplanes, hip mobilizations.

A lot of stuff that I’ve gotten from Aaron Horschig from Squat University. He’s helped me out significantly with just building up the stability and mobility of my hips and ankles and developing a deeper understanding on how to create strong functional hips and legs in general.

Well, the thing is, I was already training in such a way that to take on the Steinborn was very easy. A lot of my training for my squats has never been to push the maximum amount of weight. Frankly, I’ve never done a one-rep max squat in my training nor in competition. I never see it in competition.I train squats to supplement my strongman abilities. I usually train squats to a point where I do a lot of pauses and as deep of a hole as I can. Then I try to explode out of that pause, or I do high repetitions to work my work capacity. I do a lot of pistol squats and stability work.

And here's some more information and experience which tended to prepare for the competitions. There were times when Martins Licis broke down because of the challenge he was put in front of but he clearly didn't lose sight of his work. He says,

When I was offered the opportunity to bring the Steinborn back, the event was explained to me. Immediately, I put it together in my head. I’m like, “Oh, that should be no problem.” I could see the biomechanics of it. I looked it up online, saw how it was done. There were no real videos of it, good videos of it at the time.I also trained raw with no equipment frequently in off-season. Of course, when it comes down to competition, I’d throw on my SBD gear, SBD sleeves. That helps me get the heaviest lifts. Off-season, I train with no gear so I could get the most range on my motion.

I challenge myself as much as I can to see what my body can do on its own. The Steinborn is best done with very limited equipment. The more equipment you have, the stiffer you are, the harder it is to get in those positions. With Steinborn, I had no belts and maybe knee sleeves at most.

Deadlift

The deadlift is the kind of activity where you really have to be quite strong so that you can give your best. Thus he has quite a string back for which he can even move 820 pounds of deadlift weight.

Bringing Back The Classics

The Steinborn rockover squat is a strongman move for quite some time and Martins Licis can himself do more than 565 pounds.

Pound Row

There are not many people who can row for this much and Martins Licis is the one who has done it for more than 500+ pounds. Martins Licis does it for 5 sets and that too without any strap. He does not wear a belt.That was all about what Martins Licis does in his daily routine to achieve a strong body. Most of his workouts include the traditional exercises for any strongman competition. In fact, he does event-specific workouts so that he feels quite ready when it is the main day of the event. Moving on to some of the tips that Martins Licis has to give.

Martins Licis Workout Tips and Tricks

Here are some things that Martins Licis gives out to his fans and people who are following him because the workouts shown above must be done in a particular kind of style. It is important to keep a form and there should be a general idea about how to do it. Here are some tips and tricks that should be done to make sure that you are having the best performance:

Pick up Something

There is only one practice for Licis. His daily routine is to pick up something substantial, take it someplace far away, and then put it down again. His patience and power are improved greatly by doing this practice. Taking this daily regular exercise is one of his favorite things to do.

Don’t Fear Rest

The fitness routine that Licis follows might seem nuts, but he firmly suggests rest as well. His first workout generally consists of 8 deadlift reps with 706 pounds, followed by a five-minute rest period. The consequence of recovery cannot be exaggerated.

“That’s fascinating to me I mean, one it increases work capacity its good for endurance, I’ve heard for bodybuilding it’s good for hypertrophy but at least when you hit the biggest muscle groups I don’t think that’s a wise decision. Truly for the biggest muscle groups you need more rest.”

Big Compound Movements

Following are the big compound movements :

• Pause Romanian Deadlifts
• Snatch Grip Barbell Deadlifts

The exercises make up part of his important exercise regimen, without which his workouts would not be completed.

Strongmen Do Cardio

Martins Licis presses through 20 reps with 505 pounds with Jujimufu who counts and encourages him.That was all about the workout tips that Martins Licis had to give to his fans and friends so that they could better their workout routine. Moving on to the diet plan that Martins Licis follows.

Martins Licis Diet Plan

Every strongman that we know has generous amounts of food especially because of their body size. In fact, many people have tried to get down to Martins Licis to track his diet and the social media handles are full of it- of the workout routine and the training routine at the same time. In fact, it is quite humorous to know that Martins Licis actually has something which he calls an "orange centric diet" that aims at managing his insulting before his tournament. “When you get a dry orange, it’s that next level of purgatory,” he deadpans, slowing chewing a dry orange slice. “You know, it’s a silly thing to complain about. Oranges are pretty awesome.” Still chewing. “But not this one. This one sucks.” Never change, Martins.Very recently he also lost some of the weight because he was not allowed to train and he reduced his diet for the same. He says, "In 2021…Well, because I just got the stem cell therapy done, I’m not allowed to train heavy for three months after I eat a very minimal diet for three months. I’ve lost already like 40 something pounds…"Ever since he is more determined to achieve his goals and to eat cleaner and train harder to achieve his goals. He explains his goals in his own words, saying, "I’m going to be aiming for 330 to 350 pounds. We’ll see. I’m going to try to eat clean, and train hard of course and see what weight I’ll end up at. I don’t want to puff up too much because I remember being a heavier weight. My pressing was better. However, my deadlifts actually got more difficult at a heavier weight."

Martins Licis eats:Here are some food groups and choices that Martins Licis makes and incorporates into his diet. He makes certain that he is consuming all these foods which are whole and organic so that he does not have any difficulties with reflux. These foods include the following:

• Organic grass-fed beef
• Organic turkey
• Organic chicken breast
• Organic eggs
• Coconut milk
• Peanut butter
• Simple carbs (pasta, cereal)
• Jasmine rice
• Potato
• Organic veggies
• Organic fruit
• Asparagus
• Broccoli
• Blueberries
• Granola bars
• Cheesecake

Martins Licis doesn’t eat:Here are some kinds of foods that Martins Licis likes to avoid completely in his diet to not let his physique affect him negatively.

• Non-organic, GMO food
• Junk food
• Artificial additives
• Preservatives
• Chemical ingredients

Martins Licis does not have a specific diet plan and his diet varies a lot, but he likes to keep it clean and he likes to eat organic and fresh foods, including vegetables, fruits, and a good source of protein and fat. He never skips on any macros and eats a sufficient amount of foods which is recommended for him.

Martins Licis Diet Tips

Martins Licis follows a great diet so that he can support his workout routine and thus have it all carefully planned out. However, there are some great tips and tricks that Martins Licis actually follows and advice others to follow too. Here are the few tips that he also gives out to his fans and people who are following him to probably be on the same path. Check them out:

Protein

Martins Licis drinks at least 1 gram of caffeine per pound of body weight. To build muscle volume and stimulate the muscles, protein is very beneficial. When it comes to his heavy strength, his high protein consumption is a key factor in his achievement.

Calories

Getting enough calories is a very important part of a healthy diet of an average man. About 3000 calories are required by the ordinary person every day. However, Martins Licis has its own specifications. It takes him to consume at least 7,000 calories a day to maintain his body weight. However, this isn't at all shocking since he follows an intensive exercise schedule and therefore, requires more energy than an ordinary person.That was all about the diet tips that Martins Licis had to give out to his fans. His main focus always remains on performing better, and he needs to focus on what is important for him. Thus he had to speak his mind about it. Besides, he also takes some extra supplements in his day in case he is missing out on some of the vital nutrients. Read on to know what Martins Licis takes for his supplements.

Martins Licis Nutrition and Supplements

With a man who is as huge as Martins Licis, it is quite ok to know that he would not have his daily requirements completed with just his diet because he has a grueling workout schedule which takes away a lot of energy and minerals from him. Thus there are some supplements that Martins Licis likes to take in his diet. Here's a small list:

WHEY PROTEIN

To help support his muscle mass, Martins Licis usually has 3 protein shakes a day. Whey protein is consumed quite easily by the body and is simpler to digest than some other proteins.

PRE-WORKOUT

Martins Licis takes a pre-workout supplement that helps improve the level of testosterone to get the greatest muscle growth and strength.

POST-WORKOUT

Shaw also takes a post-workout supplement with creatine which encourages him to provide his system, spur muscle growth and promote regeneration.

WEIGHT GAINER

Even with his strong and tiresome diet routine, Martins Licis still takes a weight gainer after his muscle mass and strength. He tells that his supplements help keep him in an anabolic state.Martins Licis might be one of the strongest men in the world, but looking at his schedule, one can maintain that it is not quite a strong feat but a combination of dedication and hard work. It is also a combination of a healthy mind and body so that you can put your mind to whatever you want to achieve through the strength of your body. Martins Licis has achieved this dream by staying consistent in his routine. Even if his workout and diet might seem doable, it is not apt for everyone. In case you are thinking to follow his path, make sure you have a guidance of a true professional who can guide you according to your body type and look after any other needs or conditions you might have.