The gigantic beast of a puller that is Shawn Lattimer came into armwrestling in 2008, after he got bored dominating the power lifting scene. Competitive power lifting, benching 905 lbs and being ranked number 2 in the world on that bench, got too slow for the Pennsylvania native. “I had been there, done that way too long,” says the father of two, a mechanical engineer by day in New Jersey.

While Lattimer brings enough strength for three dudes to The Pit, he says the technical aspects of the sport are what keep him coming back. “There’s always a new attack and a new defense,” he says, “and there’s always something new nobody’s seen before.” Lattimer admits he gets beaten “all the time” by guys who can’t match his strength but got him on tactics or technique. Each step up to the armwrestling table is a chess match for the behemoth. “I walk to the table with an attack, a counter-attack and three defenses,” he says. Despite the intensity that goes into a stint at the table, Lattimer says his longest match was about 40 seconds. “It’s an amazing amount of work in a very short period of time,” he says.

It’s also a sport anyone can get into. “Anybody can do it,” Lattimer points out, “from the 5-year-old kid at the lunch table to guys like me.” But just because anyone can pull doesn’t mean anyone can pin a pro like Lattimer. “Anybody can also go out and play a round of golf,” he adds. “But there’s a big difference between that and Tiger Woods.”