Taking over the Ballarat Showgrounds, competitors were put through their paces in six disciplines, before pulling a truck loaded with two diggers.

Competitor Simone Anderson scored a personal best in the deadlift, surprising herself by lifting 150kg.

"It just popped up - even when I got it to the top, I was like, did that just happen?" she said, laughing.

"It makes you feel empowered and gives you a great sense of confidence and pride in yourself - it's just you, and the hard work you've put in."

As well as the more traditional parts - deadlifts, bench presses, and clean presses - competitors also had to carry a metal yoke 15 metres, while loaded up with weights, in less than 60 seconds, and lift a concrete Atlas stone, before taking on the truck.

While it's hard work preparing, the community aspect is what keeps the competitors going.

"They encourage each other, and that's the difference with competitive sports, you have people you're competing against roaring in your ear to go," Ms Anderson said - she just qualified for the Static Monsters World Championships in Queensland in June.

"It's great to compete against different people, and you've got different ages, different shapes and sizes, it's a sport for everyone.

"A couple of the girls in my division are crossfitters, so they've got different strengths to what I have."

Half the work is also mental, according to the event's head coach and head judge, Jacob Baxter.

"Whether you've got your mind switched on or not will tell you if you're going to get it," he said.

"These guys have probably hit these weights in training, a couple of times I heard that from their coaches today, and you can see whether it's a belief thing or not."

The sport is becoming more popular in the district, with about five gyms competing locally, and more from Geelong and further entering as well.

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"It really is a personal growth thing," Mr Baxter explained.

"A lot of these people are here knowing they're not going to be first or second, but they're here to beat their previous best.

"A lot of people walk into these sort of gyms, have a go and think, that's cool that I can do that, let's get better at it."

Among these people improving is 14-year-old Daniel Yandell from Dandenong, who was lifting more than many of the grown-ups.

He enjoys the dead lift and atlas stones because they're so heavy, he said, adding he like how supportive people were.

"Not many of my friends are doing it, so I'm doing it to impress them," he said with a smile, after his attempt on the yoke.

That event is one of the most difficult, Mr Baxter said, because of the strain on the spine.

"Based on what I saw today, the bench press was the most difficult, because there's so much technicality we're looking for as judges, but the hardest one in terms of weight is the yoke - these guys probably won't pick them up again for another four or five months, because it's so taxing on the central nervous system," he said.

There's plenty of events in Ballarat on the strongman calendar, culminating in the annual tram pull at SpringFest.

Check out the full results here.

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