Boss

Barry Von Perkins started training strongman in 2002.  As most of us, he grew up watching and admiring World’s Strongest Man on television.  It really grabbed his attention in the mid ‘90’s.  He became huge fans of men like Magnus Ver Magnusson.  In 2002 after a few life changes, he started going back to the gym with his spare time.  One day after “surfing the net” he came across an actual strongman competition being held in Norfolk Va…he signed up…and he was hooked.

After meeting his mentor Mark Samson Keshishian, prior to his first contest, he began the journey into the sport of strongman.  Mark helped him train and Through Mark, he met the likes of Magnus Ver, Jesse Marunde, Karl Gillingham, etc.

After his first contest he bought some strongman equipment to start his training.  Soon he was competing all over the US.  He moved to Virginia from Maryland and began to train out of his garage.  Shortly after starting, he was approached by others wishing to train strongman with him.  So, he went from training on his own to having a core group of about 5 men training at his house in Reston Virginia.  As the “crew” began to get larger it became apparent we needed a name for this “crew”.  It seemed that everyone who trained strongman with a group had “Cool” crew names.  So, since we trained on Water’s Edge Lane, we decided to call it The Edge Crew, training on the Edge.  In 2005, The Edge Crew was born.

Barry has competed in over 100 contests internationally and throughout the country.  Some of which were the highlights of his strongman journey.  Getting to compete with names such as Phil Pfister, Josh Thigpen, Karl Gillingham, Mark Phillipi, Chad Coy, Don Pope and Glenn Ross, to name a few.  With his participation in the long running Liberty Strongman Classic, both judge, equipment manager, Emcee, and competitor (2008, 2009) he has gained both popularity and awareness and has amazing Strongman stories to tell.

Barry’s goal moving forward is to increase the awareness of Strongman as a sport and share with others how easily feats of strength can be incorporated into their everyday fitness routines.  Barry also wants to make Strongman accessible to whomever wishes to give it a try no matter your athletic background, size or strength.  And …of course, to use his experience, knowledge of strongman and equipment to shape some of the up and coming young strongmen and women into amazing, successful competitive athletes.