‘Gentle giant’: Spokane’s log-lifting stud Zach Price bursts onto the Strongman national scene while eating 8,000 calories a day

When asked about his day job, professional Strongman competitor Zach Price informs a stranger that he drives a delivery truck for a Spokane home improvement store.

As one observes the 360-pound Price in his workout gear, the question arises: Do you really need a truck?

The man IS a delivery truck.

After all, when Price competes in the yoke-walk competition, he carries 1,000 pounds on his shoulders. For context, I researched comparative weights: A concert grand piano weighs 1,000 pounds.

He full-squats more than 800 pounds. Know what else weighs 800 pounds? An adult grizzly bear.

Renowned in Strongman circles for his prodigious “log press,” Price is just 20 pounds off the American record in that overhead-lifting event, with a best of 460 pounds.

You know what weighs 460 pounds? I don’t know, either, exactly, but it’s surely a massive honkin’ log that normal humans couldn’t budge.

And when not in the gym, Price is delivering lumber and shingles and weighty building supplies to your door.

“I do all the local deliveries for them,” Price said. “They love me there because I’m their workhorse for the physical stuff.”

Price, 29, is ripening into a national-caliber workhorse. This weekend he’s competing in the Shaw Classic Strongman competition in Loveland, Colo.

He’s clearly on the rise, taking fourth in the Arnold Strongman Classic (a pro-am event) in March and second in the Rainier Classic in June.

Strongman competitions involve events that replicate more primitive acts of strength than the conventional Olympic power lifts. In somewhat more theatrical competitions, Strongmen hoist logs, increasingly massive stones, giant tires, kegs, etc.

“I got into power lifting, which was fun, but the cool thing about Strongman is it’s a spectator sport. People can relate to it more when you’re lifting logs and stones and tires – things they can recognize,” Price said.

I could describe Price to you, telling you that he appears constructed of columnar basalt, and although he’s 6-foot-1, he’s so thick he seems shorter. But it would be easier to suggest that you check out his Instagram feed (@strongmanzach) for examples of some of the Strongman events, and how astonishing is his capacity to move absurdly huge objects.

Especially interesting are videos of him squatting 805 pounds, a mass that caused the steel bar to bend into a deep frown on either side of his shoulders, and required four powerful men to adequately spot him.

One can sense how much he enjoys his time in the gym, and how genial and willing he is to help others with their training. All of which leads friends to label the good-natured and humble Price as “a gentle giant.”

Fundamental to his advancement in his field, the man is also highly driven.

It was all rooted in his early teens, when his father would take him and his two brothers to the gym.

His burgeoning strength caused him to become a promising nose tackle at Shadle Park High. He then played a season at Central Washington, but said that by then he found more enjoyment from the strength training than from the game itself.

His goal at that point was to earn his card as a professional Strongman, which he did in 2023.

“I’ve been able to compete at North America’s Strongest Man, America’s Strongest Man, and the Arnold,” he said. “Those are all international-level shows. And the cool thing about it, too, is I’ve gotten to basically compete against most of the guys that are at World’s Strongest Man, you know, the strongest men on Earth.”

Some of the people he faces at events range in size up to 6-8, 400 pounds. To compensate for a disadvantage against the truly gargantuan, Price has become a student of human physics and effective training.

“It’s funny, from an outside perspective, people see Strongman and power lifting and think those are a bunch of meat heads that just come into the gym and throw a lot of weight around,” Price said. “But you’d be surprised how nerded out people get because there’s just so much more to it. It’s very calculated.”

At a gym in Spokane Valley, Price presented a mini dissertation on strength accretion, which sounded like a philosophy for life in general. Lifting weights, he said, is breaking down muscles so they grow back stronger, but there’s a delicate and sometimes unknowable threshold between building and injuring.

“You can’t push yourself past your capacity to recover,” he said.

Fuel is another critical element for operating a 360-pound human machine. And regularly eating six full meals every day, he said, makes food consumption “almost another full-time job.”

It takes roughly 8,000 calories a day to maintain competition weight, he said.

Where would that degree of intake put your weekly food bill?

“Oh, man, between what I’m buying at the grocery store and what I get eating out, I’d say at least $500 a week.”

Friend Eva Montgomery, a Spokane bodybuilder and trainer, said that Price is universally admired in the muscle community.

“A lot of people really look up to him,” Montgomery said. “He’s so impressive, just a gentle giant, a super humble and caring guy. He doesn’t see the greatness he holds; he sees himself just as a normal person, but he’s so much more.”

Asked what might surprise people about him, Price said: “I think, when people see me, they probably think I’m a big scary guy, but I’m really an easy-going and fun guy.”

And, yes, very competitive.

“I love the competitive part of it all,” he said. “But, also, I’m just trying to become a better version of myself, to get myself stronger – from a physical perspective, but also from an internal perspective, as well.”

A quote from his Instagram site reveals the extent of his dedication.

After a disappointing day, he wrote: “Some days you just gotta fight. That’s life. That’s Strongman. … But one thing I know (is) I am more stubborn, hard-headed and full-hearted than most of the people on this planet, and I will do whatever it takes to make things happen. … We can’t all be winners in life all of the time, but effort is always a choice. … Nobody can ever take your heart out … unless you let them …”

So, it seems that the real story of Zach Price is the power of his inner strength.

Yeah, he has a truckload of that.