In 2007, after moving with his family from Kirkby Stephen to Sedgwick, he started cycling and going to the gym more regularly and in the process lost around 5 stone in weight.

Jack McIntosh began focusing his training on strength athletics in 2007 after seeing a strongest man show in Lancaster.

[3] He began to make his name in 2009 after the Winter Giants competition where, despite finishing last, he won the award for the "One to Watch".

A year later, he gained his invitation to the World's Strongest Man competition, having come second in the Clash of the Giants contest held in July 2011 in Boroughbridge, England.

McIntosh won two of the events in his heat but, hampered by a knee injury, he did not place in the top two of his group and therefore did not progress to the final.