Tonight has taken me by surprise; I have tried to contact Derek Boyer a few times now. Dodgy Email addresses, asking third parties for contact details and missing him by minutes at competitions. Tonight to my surprise I got a message ‘Please call me’ wow!

Here is the bio: Boyer aka ‘Thunder’ from ‘Gladiators’ is a professional strong man and one of the only Australians to represent us at the worlds strongest man. He is a world class power lifter recently taking the CAPO Australian super heavy weight raw total record. But here I the kicker, Boyer is a Type one Diabetic!

The conversation was split in to three sections, Diabetes, Power lifting and a brief chat about his time with Gladiators.

Type one Diabetes – Boyer is a big kid, well that’s a lie, he makes Cutler look skinny. Boyer explained to me how he manages his Diabetes. He eats a low carbohydrate diet and is convinced the vast obesity problems are caused by ‘Western diets high in carbohydrates.’ Boyers Insulin of choice is Nova-Log and Protophane. With two long acting doses a day and short acting to cover meals, Boyer feels the low carbohydrate plan is easier to manage.

Training – I asked Boyer ‘Are you following a west side template or Sheiko etc’ to which I got a slight laugh. Boyer went on to explain he believes in finding through trial and error what works best for him. Stating that after a run of exclusive strong man training he found his Power lifting numbers improved. This to Boyer translates to the fact the Conjugate West Side systems work. However, he was quick to state periodization does still serve a purpose. Boyer also said ‘the biggest mistake young lifters make is not focusing on recovery and over training’ Boyers opinion is train no more than six hours a week. This can be six one hour session or three, two hour sessions and so on.

Gladiators – After all I went through I had to ask; Boyers training involved Sumo wrestling and some added cardio, ‘I was a hitter not a hanger so nothing much changed’ referring to the positional roles given to each star.

I have to say Boyer is one of the nicest people I have ever spoken to. He expressed plans to Dead lift 400kg next year and to continue pushing the limits of human strength. I truly wish Boyer the best and can not wait to meet the man in person.

Thank you for reading :)