Stone Lifting in Men’s Health: The Commando Temple Featured in the Strength Issue
In September 2025, Men’s Health published its Strength Issue — and tucked among its pages was something we're particularly proud of.
The Commando Temple in Deptford was featured in “Temple of Gains,” celebrating the gym and its unusual approach to strength training.
And natural stone lifting was right there with it.
A Home for Stone Lifting in London
One of the reasons London Stone Lifting exists is pretty simple: we wanted people to be able to experience stone lifting without having to travel hundreds of miles to find a historic lifting stone.
The Commando Temple has given us the perfect place to do that.
Over the years we've built a collection of natural stones of very different shapes, weights and personalities. They're used for everything from first-time stone lifting through to our weekly Stone Club and the Commando Temple Stone Gauntlet.
Having stone lifting represented in a national magazine alongside the wider strength culture of the gym was therefore particularly satisfying.
Putting Stones in Front of More People
Stone lifting has a long history, particularly across Scotland, Iceland and Ireland, but for many people it's still something they've never encountered.
That's gradually changing.
One of our aims with London Stone Lifting has always been to make the practice visible and accessible in London.
You don't need to be a competitive strongman.
You don't need to arrive capable of lifting an enormous rock.
You just need an appropriate stone and the opportunity to have a go.
Every photograph, article and event that puts natural stones in front of a new audience helps keep that culture moving.
From Deptford to Men’s Health
For London Stone Lifting founder Ben Waters, there was an additional personal significance to the feature.
Having grown up reading Men’s Health, seeing a photograph of himself lifting a stone in the physical magazine was something of a full-circle moment.
More importantly, the photograph represented the thing that has become such a large part of his training life: natural stone lifting.
The image now hangs inside the Commando Temple.
More Than Just a Collection of Rocks
What makes the Commando Temple important to us isn't simply that there happen to be some heavy stones sitting in the building.
It's the community around them.
People train together, attempt stones together and very quickly become strangely invested in watching somebody else succeed at picking up a lump of rock.
Stone Club has grown out of that.
So has the Stone Gauntlet.
And so has a community of people in London who might otherwise never have discovered this kind of training.
Having the Commando Temple recognised by Men’s Health was a proud moment for the whole gym.
For us, seeing stone lifting represented as part of that story was particularly special.
A little more evidence that Deptford has become a very good place to pick up rocks.