Mark Bell's Power Project - Power Project EP. 37 - Eddie Hall

Episode Date: April 17, 2018

We were live with the only man on the planet to deadlift over 1100lbs, the World's Strongest Man Eddie Hall. Eddie joins Mark Bell's Power Project via phone. Re-Watch the Live Steam here: https://yout...u.be/X1qO4mCBt-Y ➢Subscribe Rate & Review on iTunes at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/mark-bells-power-project/id1341346059?mt=2 ➢Listen on Stitcher Here: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/mark-bells-power-project?refid=stpr ➢Listen on Google Play here: https://play.google.com/music/m/Izf6a3gudzyn66kf364qx34cctq?t=Mark_Bells_Power_Project ➢Listen on SoundCloud Here: https://soundcloud.com/user-921692324 ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellslingshot.com/ FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell Follow The Power Project Podcast ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MarkBellsPowerProject Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 And we are live. Oh my God. Hey guys, today we're doing something new and I apologize in advance. We have a little bit of a technical difficulty. We have a little bit of static, a little bit of snap, crackle, pap is going on when we are recording the podcast. When we're doing the phone call, we're doing a phone call with Eddie Hall today. Eddie Hall is the first man to ever deadlift 500 kilos, 1101 fucking pounds. I'm really excited to talk to him about that because many, many years ago, Roger Bannister became the first man to run a four minute mile. And back then, nobody thought that was possible. Nobody thought that somebody could actually run a four minute mile. Well, not only has a lot of people or have a lot of people run a four minute mile, sub four minute mile. Since that time, there's been over 20,000 people that have run a sub
Starting point is 00:00:56 four minute mile, including high school kids. So it's really cool to me to get to the opportunity to talk to some of these people that are the best in the world at what they do. If you have some questions, please submit your questions. We're going to make this podcast, it's going to be a little different than some of the traditional podcasts we've done. It is a phone call. We are calling overseas. And due to financial constraints of Slingshot, we are only going to talk to Eddie Hall for a short period of time. No, we're just going to keep it short and sweet because we're perfectionist over here. We're not satisfied with the little audio disruption that we have.
Starting point is 00:01:34 So we're going to try to keep that to a minimum. We also might be able to put some finishing touches on it in post-production'll, we'll see what we can do. The main thing I'm going to talk to Eddie Hall about today though, is Eddie Hall is going into this competition that he has coming up with an injury. His competition is April 7th and he wants to break the all time world record in the log press, I believe. So the guy that has the 1100 pound deadlift, the guy that it was his dying wish to become a world's strongest man champion. He has done these things and he wants to go out with a bang and he wants to put this huge weight over his head.
Starting point is 00:02:13 And then after that, guess what he says? He says that he's done. Can he can he turn a new chapter in his life? Can he say goodbye to all that strength and power? I'll be the first one to tell him that it's fucking hard. It's really hard. It's really hard to let go of all that power and all that strength. So let's get Eddie Hall on the horn here.
Starting point is 00:02:34 And we got a handful of questions for him to start out with. And then you guys, please comment in the comment section there. Throw some questions our way. Smoke, also, if you saw any questions coming in through the Instagram post that we made on my Instagram about Eddie Hall, let us know if there's some good ones. Ladies and gentlemen, we are live with the big man, Eddie Hall. Eddie, we might have a little bit of a snap, crackle, pop going on. I apologize for that. Sorry, man.
Starting point is 00:03:15 Are you keeping all right? Yeah, things are going really good over here. I'm truly honored to have Eddie Hall, the mountain, on the podcast today. First question is, what is it like working on the set of Game of Thrones? How is that working out for you? I don't know, man. If you want to speak to the mountain, then you need to call the mountain on, because this is the beast. Oh, there we go.
Starting point is 00:03:43 This is the beast. I'm just fucking around, man, having a good time. Anyway, man, it's been amazing watching your career. It's been outstanding watching all the success that you've had. And what did it mean to you this year to actually capture, to actually become the world's strongest man? It meant everything. It's something that I subconsciously wanted from a young boy, watching it on TV, sort
Starting point is 00:04:13 of five, six years old. And then when I was 19 years old, I made a promise to my nan on a deathbed, actually, that I'd win the world's strongest man. So it meant a hell of a lot to me personally and also the family as well so it was completely just total surrealness completely overwhelmed when I won it it's just the most amazing thing ever yeah it is uh quite a feat and what an awesome time to actually capture the world's strongest man because you got some really uh the competition is amazing out man, because you got some really, uh,
Starting point is 00:04:45 the competition is amazing out there right now. You got Brian Shaw and you got Hap Thor Bjornsson and, there's some really strong, uh, guys out there. What was something that you really had to work on in order to capture the world's strongest man title? Um,
Starting point is 00:05:00 yeah, I mean, as you say, the, you know, no, no world's strongest man title has been easy over the years, but, um, I think it, as you say, no World's Strongest Man title has been easy over the years. But I think it's fair to say it's been easier.
Starting point is 00:05:10 In the past, there's been very little competition. There's been one man who's been leaps and bounds ahead, and then the other guys are sort of miles behind. And I think the last few years, it's been sort of Brian Shaw, Halford Johnson, and Sergina Savickas and then little Eddie
Starting point is 00:05:28 all came along he was you know the complete underdog and just came out of nowhere and I just had to work my balls off
Starting point is 00:05:35 you know I came into the competition strong from day one you know A to B strength was always there I always sort of
Starting point is 00:05:42 matched them guys in static power and then it's just quickly realised that you can't just B strength was always there. I always sort of matched them guys in static power. And then it just quickly realized that you can't just be a one-chick pony. You can't just lift weights A to B and expect to be the world's strongest man. So I had to go away, analyze, learn how to pull trucks, learn how to run with weights, which was something that was just unnatural to me. I was just used to lifting weights like me and i just had to take just literally go away just click on youtube sort of break down brian shaw's
Starting point is 00:06:11 techniques cedrino's techniques and and just learn off them basically how to beat them so there's actually the footage of themselves that actually gave me the advantage in the end son of a that's a that's a good way to go about doing it. Yeah. How were you able to incorporate, like what types of things did you do to be able to gain so much weight over the years? I mean, you're absolutely enormous. You got yourself to a really, you know, I don't know, you're over 400 pounds um and i've been following your career for quite some time and uh obviously we all start out a lot smaller how did you get yourself to be able to get to this size where you're at an optimal weight to become world's strongest man
Starting point is 00:06:57 um i think in my peak i hit 433 pounds in body weight. Damn. Which, yeah, it was stupidly heavy. How many stones is that? English terms, it's just under 32 stones. 32 stones, I love that. Yeah, yeah. You know, an average man over in the UK is, I don't know, 11, 12 stone, like an average weight. So, three times the normal size of a man.
Starting point is 00:07:33 To get to that body weight was just a constant battle of force feeding. Disgusting techniques of force feeding, just lumps of fat that sometimes, of horse feeding, you know, just lumps of fat that sometimes I'd eat packed packs of sausages
Starting point is 00:07:47 and full English breakfast, liters and liters of ice cream. I just, you know, food became very boring to me.
Starting point is 00:07:57 It became such a chore to chomp down sort of 12, around 12,000 calories a day. Oh my God. It was impossible to do it clean.
Starting point is 00:08:07 Absolutely impossible. So it came to the stage where I'd eat a meal and then after every single meal, and this is especially in the last year of leading up to last year's Worlds, after every single meal, I would have a liter of ice cream. So we're talking six meals a day and then I'd have six liter of ice cream. So we're talking six meals a day,
Starting point is 00:08:26 and then I'd have six liters of ice cream in total as well. So it wasn't a healthy way of doing it at all, but it was just my way. It was the easiest way I could do it. I never hired a nutritionist. I've never had a coach. I've had no help whatsoever. It's just always been trial and error. I just found that really
Starting point is 00:08:48 high-fat foods really work well for me. A lot of people, they always want to try to figure out how can I be strong and lose weight at the same time or how can I be lean and be strong. In Strongman in particular, you have to be big, right? Yeah. There's no such thing as strong and lean i mean marius podnotsky sort of weirdly set the standard back in the day you know you could you can't be if you put marius in today's world of strongman, he wouldn't get anywhere near the top three, four guys. That's a fact. And I think just to get to that sort of size is just absolutely, it's just all comprehensible what foods we have to eat.
Starting point is 00:09:37 You can't be strong and lean. You've got to be a fat bastard to be the best. How has your health been during you know, during all this? I'm sure there's some minor things that go on like acid reflux and spending a lot of time on the toilet and things like that. But on a more serious note, how has your overall health been? Like your breathing and just have you had any like scary shit happen? I mean, remember that one at one time you passed out, but that's actually pretty common to pass out when you're trying to press weight over your head. Um, have you had some,
Starting point is 00:10:09 uh, scares, uh, in terms of your health being that big? Um, I mean, yeah, I think we all do, you know, we're, we've all had some scars. Um, I think the main one for me was just the general health overall. You know, I was having blood tests. I was working with doctors quite regularly. And all the blood tests, every time I did a blood test, it was coming back that my kidney and liver markers were through the roof. My hemoglobins were through the roof. So basically, every time I went to the doctor, he was like,
Starting point is 00:10:44 you know, you're literally about an inch off having a heart attack, a stroke. Your kidneys and livers are about to shut down. Every time I went, I was like, oh, well, I've only got another year in the sport. I'm just going to win it and walk away sort of thing, so I'll just carry on. I always said I was going to be the guy on top of the podium at World's Strongest Man, or I'd be the man that actually died trying.
Starting point is 00:11:03 And the fact is, I nearly did die a few times. There's been some very scary moments. I had to have an ambulance out to my house a couple of times over the last two years. I had some really close scares. But it turns out it was all self-induced. I think one time I had an ambulance out and I'd overdosed on
Starting point is 00:11:26 potassium massively yeah that can that can really mess with your heart yeah oh god yeah and I was having um very severe cramps and spasms and obviously your heart's a muscle you know so my heart went into a spasm and uh they came out at the ECG and they said, yeah, you know, it looks fucked up and it shows you've got high potassium levels. I was like, wow, can you really tell that from an ECG? They're like, yeah. And it just clicked. It just made sense on the spot, you know. I had a blood test and my blood nutritionist sort of said,
Starting point is 00:12:01 you're very low on potassium, you need to up your potassium. So I went away drinking gallons of coconut water you know potassium tablets extra salts and i went the other direction right too so you know so it's just things like you know you put yourself in these stupid situations because you want to be the best and you overdo things you overeat you overtake supplements and and for me it's all trial and error you know i just know i'm like i'm one of them guys that if you tell me something's good for you i'm like a pig on potato i'll i'll take it and then you know so i'll go at something 100 or nothing right yeah that is the only way to do it, right? Especially if you want to be a champion, then there's only one way to do it. With you winning the World's Strongest Man and having some of these health problems,
Starting point is 00:12:54 are you looking to make some changes in the future? What do you have going on next? In terms of competing at World's Strong man i'm done like i've never seen the compete at worlds again um i've signed contracts with the everyone just got everyone just got everyone just got really sad by the way because people love watching it compete but we understand it's a huge sacrifice yeah um you, I've signed up to do commentating. I'm doing acting lessons, which I know, you know, sounds a bit ridiculous, but I'm like everything I do.
Starting point is 00:13:31 I'm going to put my heart and soul into it. I've signed with a very reputable TV agent that's got some very famous people, some good work. Can make a good plus-size model, I'll tell you that. Oh, God, yeah. Yeah. Can make a good plus size model, I'll tell you that. Oh, God, yeah. I'm sort of working very closely with the Giants live team now. You know, sort of the aftermath of everything. And in terms of body weight, you know, I'm down to, I'm under 400 pounds at the minute.
Starting point is 00:13:59 I'm sitting around 28 and a half stone. I've got the log lift champs on Saturday. So I'm still in the game. I'm still enjoying competing. I just don't want to be over 400 pounds and competing with the, with the freaks of nature, like Brian Shaw and Thor. And,
Starting point is 00:14:14 you know, just the guys that you have to push your body to beyond what you think is capable to beat. I'm not, I'm not willing to do that again. You know, I've nearly killed myself several times and I don't want to do it again. I owe nearly killed myself several times, and I don't want to do it again. I owe it to myself.
Starting point is 00:14:27 I owe it to my family. I need to walk away whilst I'm still alive. Yeah, and the promise that you made to your dad, you fulfilled that. Yeah, that's exactly it. I'm a man of my word. I want to say something. I won't go back on it. I think very rarely have I said something and not delivered.
Starting point is 00:14:47 Well, I think you have a really good opportunity here because you have a lot of people that are watching you from watching the documentary and watching the different documentaries that you've been in. You have a really good opportunity to show people, you know, hey, you know, you put your heart and soul into something and you dedicate yourself to something. And now, you know, you are moving on to a new chapter in your life, but you're still the same bad-ass motherfucker. You just have different goals. That's exactly it. You know, I,
Starting point is 00:15:13 I said when I was 19 years old, I set a goal to become the world's strongest man. And it took me 10 years, pretty much on the dot to achieve that. Now I've done that. I've set new goals. You know, it's, I don't want to sound pig-headed, but one of my goals is just to get stinking fucking rich.
Starting point is 00:15:31 You know, capitalise on the title of being the world's strongest man. And I'm, you know, I'm putting myself in front of the right people. I'm in the right industry now. And that's why I'm going into the acting sort of things. I'd be an idiot to sort of keep staying in the strongman world, go for a second title, a third title, because, in all honesty, there's no money in strongman. I could compete for 10 years, and I'd still be broke.
Starting point is 00:15:54 So I'm doing a sensible thing. I'm walking away healthy, and I'm capitalizing on the title, and I'm setting me, my wife, and the kids up for life. And I think that's a pretty noble thing to do. By winning World's Strongest Man, what did you win? As in what, the prize money? Yeah. I mean, the prize money is shit.
Starting point is 00:16:15 In U.S. terms, I think it was like $50,000. Right. Which, for winning a world title, is not the best. Right. I mean, I don't know. I know Brian's done well in the U.S., but in my country, winning the World's Strongest Man, I've just become a household name.
Starting point is 00:16:33 It's ridiculous. I can't leave my house. I can't go to Tesco. I can't go to the supermarket. I can't go anywhere in the country. I get absolutely mobbed by crowds. It's ridiculous. That's actually really cool. Yeah, it can be a anywhere in the country. I get absolutely mobbed by crowds. It's ridiculous. That's actually really cool.
Starting point is 00:16:48 Yeah, it can be a little painful too, I'm sure, but that's pretty amazing. It is. You did an 1,100-pound deadlift. You're the first man to do an 1,100-pound deadlift, and Andy Bolton was the first guy to pull 1,000 pounds in competition. was the first guy to pull 1,000 pounds in competition. What is it about England that has this kind of strength? I don't know.
Starting point is 00:17:14 It must be something in the Saxon genes. Yeah, maybe it's in the pints, huh? I mean, a lot of my techniques, actually. At one point I was stuck at around 900 pound deadlift, 920 pound deadlift. So pathetic. Yeah, I know. I was stuck at that for about two or three years. And then I just realized, like, shit, you know, I'm the strongest man from A to B. I was like, why can't I pull more weight than any other man on the deadlift?
Starting point is 00:17:46 And I just took a step back and I evaluated other people's techniques, Andy Bolton being one of them. But one of the guys I actually evaluated the most was Brian Shaw. You know, his technique of pulling a deadlift was just phenomenal. And I just sat and studied. And then I worked out from Bolton's programs, from Brian Shaw's programs the perfect program and I just wrote that out myself
Starting point is 00:18:10 and just got going and I think that 500 kilo deadlift was just it was ridiculous everyone thought it was impossible when I said it to the promoters they would just whack the bollocks off but I stuck to my tongues and I know it's something I needed to do, I said it to the promoters they would just whack the bollocks off but I stuck to my tongues
Starting point is 00:18:25 and I know it's something I needed to do, I said it and I had to back it up, that's something I always do I say something, I have to back my bullshit up Nobody's been even close to that like has anybody even done like a thousand sixty or anything like that? I don't think so, I think the closest
Starting point is 00:18:41 to it now is Halfover Johnson he did 470 at the Arnolds. You know, and I saw someone put a comparison video of mine and his 470, my 500, and I still pull 500 quite a bit quicker than he pulled 470. So, you know, he's quite a way off. There's quite a few guys capable of doing it, know it's but it's whether they go out and get it done my favorite uh my favorite lift that i've ever seen you do um it was posted on instagram
Starting point is 00:19:14 it was kind of around the time that i started to become more aware of you i was already kind of creeping on you and watching you anyway but um you did an 800 I think you did an 881 pound deadlift, and I think you just annihilated it. It looked like you were training maybe in your own basement or something like that. And you ripped the weight off the ground, you hold it at the top, and you just do this insane laugh. And I was like, I'm a fan of this guy. I'm like, whoever this guy is, I'm behind this guy 100%. That was really cool watching that. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:19:48 Over the time, I've had a lot of haters, like everyone in the strongman and the powerlifting scene. Everyone just seems to hate on you and just be negative and say you can't do shit. When you do these lifts,
Starting point is 00:20:04 that's all I'm thinking in my mind is is like fuck you you know i can do this and it's when you get that lift from a to b and you stand there at the top you've completed the lift there's no better feeling than just thinking yourself fucking for those naysayers the people that said you couldn't do it and i think the video you're talking about it's one of those moments you know if you think about video you're talking about is one of those moments. You know, if you think about it, you know, you being the first guy to do 1,100, probably within the next four or five years, even though people right now are quite a ways off, there'll be two, three, or four guys coming in behind you that are probably going to lift 1,100 pounds. I mentioned before we got on this podcast live with you that Roger Bannister did the first
Starting point is 00:20:46 four-minute mile. And he did that like in the 70s. And since that time, there's been 20,000 people that have run a sub-four-minute mile, including people in high school. Now, we're not going to see that many people deadlift 1,100 pounds, but I'd imagine that you set a precedent that other people are going to be aiming for. Yeah, I mean, Bolton did it with the £1,000 deadlift. You know, he did it. People said it was impossible, but he went out and did it. And then within, what, 10 years, there must be 10 guys that pulled the £1,000 now.
Starting point is 00:21:23 Yeah, I think in this last competition, it was like one guy after another, four or five guys going back and forth pulling a thousand pounds I was freaking out I was like what's going on here at the Arnold Classic yeah it's just got that ridiculous stage and you set the standard and people will follow people will then believe it's achievable
Starting point is 00:21:39 and follow pursuit but I mean the 500 to me I'm not going to be the guy that's going to say nobody will ever beat that because I'd be such a hypocrite to say that because everybody said the 500 was impossible in the first place, but I came along and did it,
Starting point is 00:21:58 so it can't be impossible. So there will be men who will lift it in the future. Who they are, where they are, we don't know when it's going to happen. But yes, you're right. It will go down one day. But one thing I will say, who was the second man to run a four-minute mile? Right, right.
Starting point is 00:22:18 And who was the second man on the move? Who gives a fucking shit? That's amazing. We've got some questions coming in for you, I think. Yeah, Eddie, so we have some questions coming in from the live feed, but mainly the first one. You said you wouldn't come back for the money,
Starting point is 00:22:36 but what if, say, whether it be Thor, Shaw, somebody were to break the 500 kilo deadlift fairly recently, would that be enough motivation to get you to come back? I mean I'd be lying if I didn't want to but in all honesty I don't think I could you know it's I just to get myself to that stage was it just took over my life and I've got so much going on at the minute I'm
Starting point is 00:23:04 so busy with all these appearances and traveling the world and obviously getting into the acting side of things and i don't know i just have to someone will have to come and pull 501 i couldn't answer that until it happens you know but yeah every line of the set i didn't want to yeah that's awesome yeah you're gonna be uh you're gonna be itching if you know. But yeah, I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to. Yeah, that's awesome. You're going to be itching if you see someone do that right in front of your face. Yeah, it will be like being kicked in the bollocks.
Starting point is 00:23:39 What has been the biggest challenge for you? I think you mentioned a little earlier, you know, kind of running with weights. And has there been, you know, has of running with weights and has there been, you know, has the conditioning side of things been hard and like, has there been some sort of weird training that you had to do that maybe the rest of us aren't thinking about? Have you had to run sprints or get on an elliptical or something weird? Have you had to do some sort of weird unconventional training to bring up your conditioning? No, I think that was the hardest bit, I think, was staying fit with the weight. You know, I mean, Ryan Shore and Four, you know, they're about 420, 440 pounds.
Starting point is 00:24:15 And Luke, as dense as me, if that makes sense, is definitely the most sepharic out of all the three. Yeah, I saw in the documentary, probably the coolest thing is justic out of all the three yeah I saw in the documentary probably the coolest thing is just seeing you walk through the airport
Starting point is 00:24:29 and your the waddle that you have going on is just unbelievable like it's your legs are so big and your shoulders are so wide
Starting point is 00:24:37 you're walking from side to side with that extreme powerlifting strongman waddle going on yeah it's not a comfortable waddle going on. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:24:47 It's not a comfortable waddle, I'll tell you. You've got to swing the arms quite a bit to get momentum. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so the hardest thing was keeping fit. And on top of everything, you know, all the weight training and the eating and the sleeping and the physio, it was like, it was just seeing, every time I went to do my cardio, all the weight training and the eating and the sleeping and the physio. It was like, it just seemed, every time I went to do my cardio,
Starting point is 00:25:09 it just dawned on me. I just wanted to stay in bed or just stay at home and have another liter of ice cream. That was the hardest thing for me, was to get up two or three times a week and go and do cardio. But I made it as interesting as I could. I did what they call caveman training so it'd be like i'd swap it around every week it'd be like flipping tires hitting tire with sledgehammer um sort of miniature sprints with you know sprinting with farmers sprinting
Starting point is 00:25:36 with you know battle ropes and then on the flip side swimming i could swim in at least once a week i do right now i was swimming once a week where i had to do it in a way to keep it interesting so you know i do two lengths as fast as i could then i have a minute's rest two lengths as fast as i could a minute's rest i do that for an hour but that way it wasn't like a prolonged boring sort of session it was like i enjoyed it because every two lengths i try and beat the time you know i've tried i've been doing 50 meters in around 36 37 seconds and it was interesting for me that every time i'd set off like right i'm gonna do it 36 now that's 135 i just had to find ways to make it interesting um you know sort of sort of like
Starting point is 00:26:16 you know having a fishing line in front of you dangling a mars bar or something it was tough. You started out in swimming, right? Yeah, I was a national champion swimmer when I was a teenager. So I was the best in the country. I was on what they call the Olympic youth squad. Right. Government funded.
Starting point is 00:26:42 I was basically a professional athlete at 12, 13 years old. Wow. You don't really have a swimmer's body, at least not now. Not anymore. I can still swim, though. And I tell you what, I jumped in the pool this morning
Starting point is 00:26:56 and did my swimming, and there's guys in there with swimming caps on, and a whole shard suit, bins, paddles, speedo goggles. I just jump in and I fucking fly past them. I just go back to it. Yeah, they're probably looking at you like,
Starting point is 00:27:11 what the fuck's going on here? Yeah. What's been your biggest hurdle? What's been the biggest thing you've had to overcome in life or in Strongman? I mean, the biggest hurdle
Starting point is 00:27:28 was, it's a good question, I suppose, was the stress of everything, you know? Coming into the World Strongest
Starting point is 00:27:40 Man 2017, jeez, my core levels must have been through the roof. I think the same goes for me for Brian Shore and Four as well. as long as he's won 2017. Jeez, my quarterstone levels must have been through the roof. And I think the same goes to meet for Brian Shaw and Four as well.
Starting point is 00:27:50 You know, I think five weeks before the Worlds, this is when Four developed the Bell's policy. There was so much stress on us guys, you know,
Starting point is 00:27:58 and everybody, everybody, you know, we all had our own fans and everyone said, I'm going to win it. Everyone said Four's going to win it. Everyone said Brian's going to win it. Everyone said, Brian's going to win it.
Starting point is 00:28:06 There was so much pressure on us three guys. I think that was fucking hard. Just to keep going training, to keep eating, to keep plodding forward. Because you get home at the end of the night and you sit down at half ten, eleven o'clock and you just collapse. at half ten, eleven o'clock and you just collapse. How are you able to manage
Starting point is 00:28:28 all that while still being a family man? I didn't. I sacrificed being a family man. It was tough. I saw my wife and kids for an hour, two hours a week. It was relentless. But looking back now, it was worth it
Starting point is 00:28:48 because I can live a much more sort of improved family life, not just for myself, but for my family because I've improved the quality of life for us all by what I've done. So, yes, I'll be honest. I've missed my kids growing up. I mean, my lad's five now. I'm going to make sure I make up for it for the rest of his life. Right.
Starting point is 00:29:12 Yeah, I think people think that you have to be, like, being a parent is a really long-term thing. You know, I think people don't truly understand that. really long term thing. You know, I think people don't truly understand that. You hear stories all the time of, you know, dad not being around for 14 or 15 years, and then he comes back into the kid's life. And ultimately, most kids will accept the parent, even when the parent's like, hey, man, I wasn't around. I'm sorry, but I want to be part of your life now. And you see it often, you know, you have a long time to kind of build that track record. When I was a kid, you know, my dad is my hero. And he's somebody I look up to even though he's only five foot two.
Starting point is 00:29:55 He's, you know, he worked a lot when I was a kid. And when I was 13, 14, he wasn't around a lot. My mom actually was the one to kind of point out to him like, Hey, like you're not really, you are making a lot of money at IBM and things are going really well for you, uh, career wise, but like family wise, like this isn't, this isn't great. This isn't what we decided, you know, we were going to do. And then from there he was around a lot more. And, uh, I always appreciated that. And so I think, uh, the time that you were gone, you're right. You're setting your family up for something much better. I feel like I've done the same.
Starting point is 00:30:28 I think many people that are between the ages of 25 and 35 or so, they have to work hard. They have to hustle, be away from their significant other, and be away from their kids a lot more than they want to be. Yeah, I'm glad you said that because i feel exactly the same about my dad you know he is i honestly my dad was wasn't around you know my dad is still together but my dad wasn't around until i sort of left high school you know it was yeah i mean he was getting into late 40s sort of early 50s and his work or his whole life in a factory you know worked his bollocks off and it was all for us you know he's got also i'm the i'm the youngest of three brothers
Starting point is 00:31:10 so you know i mean i could income to support us and give us a nice house and clothes on our back and food and i commend him for that book yeah i didn't realize that when i was a kid i was i was kind of resentful that he wasn't around like where the fuck is he but then i was like oh we live in this fucking nice house and i got a weight room in our garage and we have a pool and you know we had a lot of nice things so uh it took me you know until i got older to really appreciate i was like oh that's why he's fucking gone so much he was working his ass off yeah we're on the same page we'll totally agreeing I learned a lot from the dad from that that's I'm sort of replicating
Starting point is 00:31:47 it now to my son but I've managed to sort of hit the nail on the head a lot earlier you know he's five now I'm gonna have a
Starting point is 00:31:54 make sure I get involved a lot more and I've got a ten year old daughter as well spending a lot more time except for Wonderworld it's a different life
Starting point is 00:32:03 yeah completely different life are the kids are they showing any interest in strongman or powerlifting or anything like that the daughter not so much but I mean much is is fine he loves watching me I've been trying to get him to bits but he's more interested in sort of Pokemon and Sonic or anything electronical.
Starting point is 00:32:29 But I think give it another year or two I reckon he'll come to grips. I reckon he'll want to get into it. He'll realise
Starting point is 00:32:35 what I've done with my career what I've done for the family and I think he'll realise that he's got good genetics and he should definitely get in
Starting point is 00:32:44 to get involved. Do they understand who you are at all? Either one of your kids? Yeah, my daughter does. My daughter gets it. She's very boastful. Everyone will meet this. That's cool.
Starting point is 00:32:58 I have to make it very clear. Little lad's not really that bad, but it's the norm. It's the normal, but he doesn't know any different he doesn't he doesn't see me as a celebrity he just sees me as his dad doesn't see me as anybody different that's great you have any uh like you have any idea what you'd be able to deadlift uh on in um in terms of power lifting rules um i mean i couldn't give you a definite answer but I think I could do a thousand pounds on lifting rules pretty with some good some good training you know I have to get the grip up right yeah have you ever done a power to me before
Starting point is 00:33:38 um I did do uh geez some years. I think it was back in 2015. Maybe before that. I turned up for a powerlifting competition in Germany. The Devil's Hell, something called that. And I turned up and I forgot my squat shoes, so I didn't do the squat. I just did the bench and the deadlift. I did a 280 bench raw on the 420 deadlift raw.
Starting point is 00:34:12 And I still won the whole comp. I didn't do the squat. You have a pretty big bench. What's the most amount of weight you've ever benched? I've done a 300-kilo bench raw. Shit, that's 661 661 pounds Ladies and gentlemen
Starting point is 00:34:27 That's crazy I've never gone above that I've never gone above that But I can do Because obviously The strongman bench Isn't like A thing
Starting point is 00:34:38 So I just used it As a transfer Over to overhead I think the best Set I've ever done Is 265 kilo for six reps. They were paused.
Starting point is 00:34:49 As far as I'm aware, I haven't seen anyone replicate that sort of weight for those sort of reps. Yeah, the only person I know that can do that would be Bill Kazmaier. Bill Kazmaier benched. He had the world record in the bench press back when he competed.
Starting point is 00:35:07 Is that a record you might be pursuing someday, the world record raw bench press? It isn't. I massively respect the powerlifting industry. It just doesn't do anything for me in my world. I've done so well off the back of Strongman. And I really feel for the powerlifters because they don't get the recognition they deserve. That's right, damn it. Yeah, powerlifting is kind of the... The money's not there in the sport, as it should be.
Starting point is 00:35:43 I think the biggest thing in this country, in the UK, is you've got to have the TV behind you to get noticed, to get the sponsors on board. And that's why the strongman does so well
Starting point is 00:35:53 in the UK. It's televised, you know, on primetime TV over Christmas. And we get very good sort of news feeds. You know,
Starting point is 00:36:02 we get lots of media about us all the time. And it just does really well. Whereas the powerlifting doesn't get anything. It get lots of media about us all the time. It just does really well. The powerlifting doesn't get anything. It's just social media. Facebook. That's why it'll never, well, I wouldn't say never, but at the minute, it's not seen as a thing to do in the UK at all.
Starting point is 00:36:19 Strongman is gaining a lot of popularity because of guys like yourself, Brian Shaw and Haptor Bjornsson. The documentary that was done on you i think was huge uh the more recent documentary that they did i think was called born strong is that right yeah i think that was a really good piece as well do you have any aspirations of um trying to do more stuff for strong man to make strong man more popular and make Strongman better? Yeah, 100%. I'm working with Giant's Life to get some sort of global sort of recognition site set up pretty soon.
Starting point is 00:36:56 And, you know, obviously the Giant's Life, we're looking to expand, we're looking to get to the other countries. And there will be, it's obviously like every sport you know like like the
Starting point is 00:37:07 like the CrossFit Games I think Strongman will be as big if not bigger than the CrossFit Games oh wow what do you what do you think
Starting point is 00:37:16 what do you think would have to be the biggest changes for that to happen if any it needs the right people it needs the right people the right investors you know it's got to be it needs the right people the right investors
Starting point is 00:37:25 you know it's gotta be it just needs some good some good brains to come together and make all this work yeah big TV's gotta be
Starting point is 00:37:34 behind it as well sort of you know the terrestrial channels the Netflix sort of things the subscriptions things have gotta pick up
Starting point is 00:37:42 it's just time you know it will grow as I'm sure a lot of sports will There's subscriptions things I've got to pick up. It's just time. It will grow. I'm sure a lot of sports will in that sort of year and side of things. But it just needs a lot of effort from everybody really for the strongman to get as big as that. Is there too much red tape around the world's strongest man itself? I've heard a lot of athletes over the years kind of complain about the particular, in particular, world's strongest man itself i've heard a lot of athletes over the years kind of complain and um about the particular in particular world's strongest man um is it too
Starting point is 00:38:10 much red tape is this is it too big of a company that uh has a stranglehold on that for that to really grow or do you think that that has potential to grow too um yeah of course it has potential to grow but yeah it is strangled at the minute you It's limited to IMG, I think, believe own it. They just sell it to countries as a TV show. They'll make a show, they'll cut it of millions off the back of one show of Will and Tony's Man. But it could be so much bigger, you know. I mean, the arena shows, everybody always moans, why isn't it live? Why isn't it in the arenas? It'd be impossible
Starting point is 00:38:56 and it'd be boring as fuck to do that for Strongman. But there is scope there to do sort of a live feed, 100%. And I think that's where the money is. Like the AJ just had a fight with Parker in the UK.
Starting point is 00:39:12 The live stream of that was ridiculous money. Absolutely ridiculous. Hundreds of millions of people subscribed to watch that fight. And that's where Strongman needs to be. That makes sense. Who do you think is uh who
Starting point is 00:39:26 who do you think is going to win this year's world's strongest man it's a bit it's a tough that's a tough
Starting point is 00:39:33 question you know I couldn't hand on or answer that because as as you guys
Starting point is 00:39:37 know anything can happen at Strongman right I really want I really want Brian Shaw
Starting point is 00:39:42 to come and take his fifth title I really feel as though he deserves it. He's the most professional athlete I've ever met. He's the man with the most heart. But then you've got Harper Johnson, who looked good at the Arnolds. But, I mean, it's tough to gauge.
Starting point is 00:39:58 I mean, looking at the events, the final of Will Strand, this one, it really is tough to call it. But, I mean, my heart is tough to call it, but I think my heart is saying Brian Shaw and my head is saying Brian Shaw. So, I just hope
Starting point is 00:40:11 you pulled it off. I really do. Who's next? Who's next in line to kind of, you know, get that throne, you know,
Starting point is 00:40:16 after Thor and Brian, you know, clear out a little bit? Like, who do you think is, or do you think Thor will reign supreme?
Starting point is 00:40:24 You know, because he's still, he's still pretty young. In my opinion, if Thor wins the World's Strongest Man, I think he's got, I think he'll be tight.
Starting point is 00:40:35 I think he, I think he's going to end up going into the WWE or along those lines. He'll do well. He'll go where the money goes. I'm certain of that.
Starting point is 00:40:44 He's not interested in that he's not interested in he's not interested in six gold trophies like Ryan is and who's next? I mean we've got some fantastic athletes we've got Gennaccio
Starting point is 00:40:56 we've got Martin Glissis Belsak we've got Jeff Caron Mattias Kaliszkowski I tell you what if he gets his deadlift up he is the man
Starting point is 00:41:07 he is on fire man he really impressed me last year as the world's strongest man and it's just
Starting point is 00:41:14 he didn't place that well at the Arnold's just gone where did he come fifth or sixth or something like that but
Starting point is 00:41:22 he's just phenomenal the performance he puts in and he's got balls he's willing to go all But he's just phenomenal. The performance he puts in, and he's got balls. He's willing to go all out, and he's willing to hurt himself, and he's willing to push the boundaries. So he's one to watch for sure. I really miss some of those old World's Strongest Men
Starting point is 00:41:36 where they weren't really truly World's Strongest Man athletes yet. They were professional football players and professional wrestlers and power lifters like Don Reinhold jumped in there. And they had like Franco Colombo
Starting point is 00:41:54 and Ken Patera. Did you grow up watching some of that stuff? How'd you get into Strongman? Were you influenced by any of those old shows? I remember watching Strongman as a kid and watching the likes of Sven Carlsen you're influenced by any of those old shows? I remember, um, I remember watching Storm Run as a kid and watching, you know, the likes of like Sven Karlsson.
Starting point is 00:42:10 And then as we got on, you know, it was like, we, we got to the sojourners of the Kirsten Mariusz Pudnotskis. Um, and obviously Jeff Capes, you know,
Starting point is 00:42:18 watching all the, all the sort of flashbacks of Jeff Capes winning the world's strongest, like Jamie Reeves, Jolly Tabor. That's very captiv captivated me. You know, three English guys who actually won this title.
Starting point is 00:42:29 And in the back of my head from the age of like five or six, I was like, I want to win that. That's cool. I mean, that's where it came from
Starting point is 00:42:37 for me. Did you ever have a moment where you, you know, were lifting with some people and you just realized you were way different? Well, it's like in my home gym when i was younger yeah just when you were young you know um going yeah going to a local gym or something and uh i don't know your buddies
Starting point is 00:42:56 pick up 200 pounds and you pick up like 600 like was there ever like some sort of weird realization like wow i'm i'm kind of different than everybody or was it all just stuff that you had to really truly work for it was um stuff i really have to truly work for you know the first time i ever walked into a gym i was about 15 years old and uh if i remember rightly i benched 140 kilos as a sort of you know just a quick Just my first ever match bench at 15 years old. I don't know, about 350 pounds maybe. Yeah, that's a lot. And I just realized from day one, but that's because I was sort of an Olympic standard swimmer.
Starting point is 00:43:42 I had a massive head start over everybody else you know it it's sort of 16 years old i was uh 100 kilo 105 kilo when i was 16 years old and i was shredded i had no body fat at all so you know i've had a huge head start and lifting weights was just so easy because i was so thick you know i had lungs, huge heart. And lifting weights was just so easy. It just grew so quick. I've put six kilos on every single year since I started weightlifting. So, you know, yeah, every single year I've put six kilos on.
Starting point is 00:44:16 And it was just so natural. It just felt so easy to do that. Do you have a desire to get lean again? Yeah, yeah, I do, actually. I think I'm actually doing some sort of TV shows in the UK, some series. One of the things we want to do is me sort of do a transformation from beast to beauty. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, so it's on the cards.
Starting point is 00:44:42 It's just when it's going to happen. So there'll be some beautiful Eddie Hall selfies coming our way on Instagram soon yeah Terry Holland's too you're doing this log press just in a couple days right
Starting point is 00:44:56 yeah on Saturday actually and then that's it like that's the last time you're going to compete kind of in that setting is that correct never say never but you know I've got my eyes on Britain's strongest And then that's it. Like that's the last time you're going to compete kind of in that setting. Is that correct? Never say never. But, you know, I've got my eyes on Britain's Strongest Man next year in January. So I want to try and sort of stay in the Giants live shows, the arena shows. I enjoy them.
Starting point is 00:45:19 You know, it's easy for me to train for. You know, I'm not pushing the boundaries. I'm not stressing about meeting Brian or Strunas or you know I'm not I'm not pushing the boundaries I'm not I'm not stressing about meeting Brian or Strunas or four I'm just having fun and this Saturday you know I'm going for the world record log press
Starting point is 00:45:33 which is no easy feat and you know training's not been the best I managed to snap my ankle a couple of weeks back oh shit
Starting point is 00:45:40 but I'm feeling good and you know I always seem to pull something out the back so I'm just good and you know I always seem to pull something out the back so I'm just looking forward to getting stuck in
Starting point is 00:45:49 and see what I can put above my head at last yeah our our friend Gita Larson who's one of your biggest fans over here in the States
Starting point is 00:45:57 she wants to know how your ankle's doing by the way I'm walking on it I can put weight on it I can I can just about do a little bit of a push press now
Starting point is 00:46:07 but that's about it if you ask me to sort of sidestep it, it'd probably snap out again so I've got to have it heavily taped so it can't move but other than that I can walk, I can press so it will heal it'll take about three months
Starting point is 00:46:22 the doctor said, but it will heal no surgery, thank God. In your training, have you ever done any sort of bodybuilding? Has that ever been part of your routine just to help build up size in your legs or arms or anything like that? When I initially started going to the gym, it was all bodybuilding. It was all sort of, everything was just to get big, just to look good. And then over the years, I just sort of added strongman training
Starting point is 00:46:50 in at the end of the sessions. So predominantly, I'd still train as a bodybuilder now, to be fair. I'd just train for, I'd do my basic sort of training. I'd do my squats, my bench, my deadlifts,
Starting point is 00:47:02 my lat pulldowns, side raises. And at the end of the session, I'd do my strongman events. So I still do my squats, my bench, my deadlifts, my lat pulldowns, side raises. And at the end of the session, I'd do my strongman events. So I still do, but I do train as a bodybuilder. I just train as a strongman at the end of each session. What role has your wife played in all this? How has she been helpful in your quest to become world's strongest man? Does she work out with you?
Starting point is 00:47:24 Does she help out with you? Does she help prepare meals or anything like that? Yeah, I would not have won the world's strongest man if I hadn't met my wife. And that's the truth. You know, my wife did everything for me. The stuff that needed doing, you know, looking after the house, looking after the kids, you know, stuff that, school, picking them up,
Starting point is 00:47:45 doing all the night feeding and stuff I couldn't have done if I had to do all that. It would ruin me. Prepping food, prepping the lunch, prepping the tea. Wiping your ass.
Starting point is 00:47:57 Yeah. I'm out of that. You get to be that big, things get complicated back there. And that, yeah, that's what everyone, everyone on the live feed is asking. They're asking for a poop story. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:48:11 You got any good poop stories? You ever blow one out big time doing a heavy squat or deadlift or picking up some of these heavy objects? Oh, God, I've got thousands. That'll be a whole other podcast. Yeah. The best one I ever did was, I think it was Britain's Strongest Man 2012. And I had the shits for about three weeks. I came into the competition.
Starting point is 00:48:36 I said to the promoters, I was like, Luke, I've had the shits for three weeks. I'm still going to try and compete. But just be warned, like, it's not going to end pretty. The first event was the, the first event was the yoke, and, uh, I took this yoke,
Starting point is 00:48:49 I took about three steps, and I just put it down and walked off, and everyone's like, Eddie, you're right, you're right, you're right.
Starting point is 00:48:54 I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm cool, I'm cool. Got back,
Starting point is 00:48:57 changed my clothes, put my knee-up shorts down, and I was like, it was like somebody had fucking melted about 20 duck legs. Yeah, good thing you had neoprene shorts on, right? Seal everything in.
Starting point is 00:49:14 Probably went all the way up your back and everything. I had to have a shower. It was no point wiping, I had to have a shower. Those neoprene shorts need to be in a Hall of Fame somewhere. They need to be framed. Yeah. Probably some little old cleaning lady's got them. Oh, my God.
Starting point is 00:49:31 That's brutal. How does your wife deal with you being famous? That's probably kind of hard on her sometimes, huh? Yeah. Obviously, it's not what the thing is with me. It's not like I've just released a movie and got famous overnight. It's been a very gradual thing because I've been winning. I won UK Strongest Man when I was 23 years old and I've been in the eye since I was 23 and it's just gradually got more and more and more every year game followers
Starting point is 00:50:07 and you know the fame so it's been a very gradual thing it's not like it's sprung on us overnight and I think that's a blessing in a way
Starting point is 00:50:15 it's given me a chance to sort of acclimatise to all the hassle and people coming out asking for pictures people coming and
Starting point is 00:50:22 knocking on my fucking house and asking for autographs and stuff. My wife's the same. She just takes it in a stripe. It's whatever. It is what it is. It's part and parcel of doing what I do. We just keep it that way.
Starting point is 00:50:39 We get on with it, yeah. Any other questions over there, Andrew? No, just the Bearded Woods men wanted to say thank you, Eddie and Mark. It's his birthday today, and this was an awesome birthday gift. Oh, cool. Yeah, but other than that, everyone's just excited to have you on right now, Eddie. Cool, thank you very much. You got anything to plug, website, you got T-shirts to sell, books, anything like that?
Starting point is 00:51:02 Just check out my website. There might have been merchandise on there. EddieHallStrongman.com But yeah, I don't really sell much. Where can people find you? Facebook, Eddie Hall, Eddie Hall the Beast on Facebook and Eddie Hall WSM on Instagram.
Starting point is 00:51:24 That's about it. It's been an absolute honor to have you on the show and I can't wait to get you over here to super training at some point and you can show us what a bunch of bitches we all are over here in the United States. Look forward to it myself. Thanks a lot, Mark. Yeah, thanks again. Appreciate it.
Starting point is 00:51:42 Take care. Take care, Mark. See you later. You want to keep this party rolling? Yeah, keep it rolling. All right. Well, that didn't suck. No, it was fucking great.
Starting point is 00:51:54 You know, guys, again, sorry about the snap, crackle, and pop going on in there. This is the first time we've done a live feed like that. And as we're trying to push the envelope and provide more great content for you guys in many different ways, we're going to occasionally run into some hurdles. But as always, we're going to fucking bash through those hurdles together and we're going to get through it all. Fucking unbelievable. That was a really cool story. How cool was it that, you know, he said he told his dad on his deathbed that he was going to win World's Strongest Man. Dude.
Starting point is 00:52:29 I was like, holy fuck. I was really taken aback when he was talking about, like, I couldn't be a family man. Like, that's the sacrifice that it took. Yeah. And then for him to say it was worth it. Yeah. Like, you hear, like, NFL players that make millions of dollars. Like, if I can go back
Starting point is 00:52:45 I would say no and I would take it all away I don't give a fuck like I'm so messed up in the head now he was like no like it was totally worth it yeah well for him you know and sometimes with NFL players too but he's still only like 30 years old yeah and he's still very I mean he looks like he's 100 because of the beard and the burliness and stuff. But, you know, he's still, he's still relatively young. I think he's, you know, in his low thirties, if that. And I think that as I was mentioning, like, you're not a, you're not a parent in a day, you know, is, and parents, there's no perfect parent.
Starting point is 00:53:23 You know, you don't get instruction book when you get kids. And even if you did get an instruction book, half of it would be wrong because there's no real right way to do it in the first place. And it's just good that he's mindful. Being conscious is the key to anything. We talk a lot about diet. We talk a lot about training. People talk a lot about overtraining. People talk about undertraining.
Starting point is 00:53:44 People talk about sleeping too little. People talk about sleeping too little. People talk about sleeping too much. People talk about eating too much, eating too little. I mean, the list of shit goes on and on forever. But being mindful is the most important thing. Are you the greatest dad on the planet? Well, maybe you're not. But if you recognize that, maybe there's some things you can do about it. Yeah. Maybe you can kind of switch gears and try some different things. I think it's a good story, you know, about him just doing any and everything that he can to, you know, become world's strongest man.
Starting point is 00:54:20 Then he was actually able to fulfill that. A lot of times that doesn't happen. For me in powerlifting, I had goals of hitting certain weights and certain lifts and stuff. But unfortunately, in powerlifting, we don't really have a Super Bowl. You know, we don't really have anything that's the best in this, like one federation and this one league in this, you know, under these particular circumstances. And, uh, for him to have, uh, such a precise goal and to be able to fulfill it, it's got to feel really fucking good. Yeah. What a fucking savage. Yeah. He said the first time he walked into gym, he benched like 350. Jeez.
Starting point is 00:55:12 I mean, I was, I, you know, growing up, I was, I was pretty strong, but, um, I also started lifting a lot younger than, uh, than he did. But, um, I think, you know, what I can recall benching was around like maybe, maybe around 75 or 95 pounds, but I was like 12 or something like that. But my friends couldn't really bench the bar hardly. They were like, they were too uncoordinated to really try to figure it out. But it wasn't too long after that, that I was benching like 135 and 185 and things like that. But being the first guy to deadlift a thousand pounds, I know that he, you know, went after that with everything he had. Being the first guy to deadlift a thousand pounds, I know that he, you know, went after that with everything he had. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:55:57 He talked about, you know, passing out and having like high blood pressure and just, it sounds crazy, but I think we're all guilty of doing things like that to some degree. You're thinking to yourself, well, why the fuck would anybody do that? Well, it wouldn't be any different than your doctor saying, hey, you know what? You really need to change your diet. You have high blood pressure and then you still are rolling through McDonald's. It's like, it's just habit. Like, it's just a thing that you are still doing. And in his case, you know, he had a goal and he was too fixated on that goal. You can become addicted to things that are good and you can become addicted to things that are bad. But in any case, when you get too addicted or too one way towards anything, you lose balance. And when you lose balance is when you get yourself into
Starting point is 00:56:35 some trouble. What if you love it though? Yeah. I love what I do here and sometimes I'm like, oh shit, I got to go to bed. But same thing with him. Like, if you told him, like, oh, it was probably not the healthiest thing for you to go for that, you know, that 1,000-pound deadlift, he'd be like, well, fuck it. I love it, though. I think people just need to make sure that they love it, you know, because I think it's easy for now. It's easy to say that you love it.
Starting point is 00:57:01 When we're on our deathbeds, we won't love it. We won't love anything other than, like, taking that you love it. When we're on our deathbeds, we won't love it. We won't love anything other than like taking that next fucking breath. You know, it'd be the only thing that really truly matters to us. And I'm going to be on my deathbed and say, I wish I didn't take all that shit. Or I wish I would have took care of myself. Like you're just going to be regretful about everything.
Starting point is 00:57:18 You know, people kind of say they have no regrets. It's like, well, they haven't met the grim Reaper quite. I haven't been face to face with death. And I think we'll all have some regrets as we, as we, you know, we're all, we're unfortunately, we're all kind of heading,
Starting point is 00:57:33 heading in that direction. And I know, you know, from, from knowing people that have gotten really sick before they're like, yeah, you know, I wish, I wish I did this or wish I did that. It's not so much about, you know, wishing that you like asked a certain girl on a date or it's not anything like that. It's always more, uh, just health related, you know, and ultimately everyone's going to care about their health. And ultimately everyone's going to care about their strength because, um, if you're not strong enough to get out of bed, you're not strong enough to move, then you're going to die shortly thereafter because you're not moving around much.
Starting point is 00:58:07 But you know what? I've been kind of chasing after Eddie Hall a little bit for a while. I mean, I really, really appreciate him taking the time to be on the show today. I've been talking to him for a long time about having him come to super training, and we will get that situated at some point. Um, I think it's cool that he's, uh, you know, putting world's strongest man in his back pocket and his rear view mirror. And, um, he's taken that title and, and running with it. I think that's a smart move because I do think that, uh, he needs to move on to, to other things. And I think he's, he's kind of, um think he's kind of outmatched in a way.
Starting point is 00:58:48 You know, he's got Hapthor Bjornsson and Brian Shaw. These guys are six foot eight. They're designed to be these huge, huge people. And maybe Eddie Hall is not designed to walk around at over 400 pounds for very long. You know, and so he's got to make some decisions. I think, you know, none of them are probably designed to be that big, but at least the other guys are taller. Yeah. You know, they're six, seven inches taller.
Starting point is 00:59:11 Yeah. Anyway. It was cool of him to also talk about, like, his relationship with Shaw, you know, and then kind of say, like, yeah, my heart's with him, but you never know. Yeah. I thought that was really cool for him just to be open, you know, because sometimes you don't. That's going to be open, you know, cause sometimes, yeah, sometimes, you know, when you're out on the outside looking in, you don't want to side with this side or that side because, you know, anything could happen, but for him just to be like my heart's with Shaw, I'm like, dude, that's, that's fucking cool. I know Brian has mentioned he,
Starting point is 00:59:37 um, you know, when I've talked to him before, we've, we've, we've discussed, you know, things that make world's strongest man more popular. And we talked about just using a little bit less weight on stuff. Um, I can't remember what the weight was on the yoke this year, but it was like 1100 or 1400 pounds or something, something just insane. And they don't move it very far. And, uh, obviously they don't move it very far cause it's a fucking shit ton of weight. Right. Um, but it might look more dynamic or it might look cooler if they were able to move it further. If they just had less
Starting point is 01:00:07 weight, they might be able to move it further and it might have a more appealing look to it. What that would also do, if the weights were lighter and I know some of the purists of World's Strongest Man are like, fuck no. What it will do is it'll reshape the athlete. The athlete doesn't have to weigh 440 pounds. And I think, you know, Brian's legacy, especially with Brian, I know for a fact, I mean, he mentioned that's his main goal is to make the sport better than when he came into it. He wants to, that's, that's what he wants his legacy to be, to make the sport, make the sport better. And you see some of these guys that are on here are fairly fit.
Starting point is 01:00:46 Some of these guys are in pretty good shape. They don't have big stomachs. They don't weigh 400 pounds. How cool would it be if more of the athletes had a choice to be that way rather than being these guys are at a huge disadvantage by not being as big. And you can see, again, they're carrying it just a few feet and guys are blowing off their biceps and all kinds of things are happening to them as we're watching some of the video footage of it. But I think it's definitely something to look into. Just having the weights be a little bit lighter, it would give us a slightly different looking athlete.
Starting point is 01:01:26 And obviously we don't want them to be pussies. We want them lifting some crazy, crazy weights. We want to see them doing extraordinary things and pushing to the limits. But again, if they just took the weights a little further, they walked with a little bit more, I think just look more jacked overall. Yeah. To give it, give us an opportunity. I mean, Brian Shaw, like one of the guys that he trains with all the time is like five or six percent body fat, but he's 240 pounds. And at 240 pounds, the guy's way too small for strongman, you know, which sounds kind of crazy is that he's too small. And I do think it is a sport for giants. I don't think there has to be weight classes. I actually think that that's a fundamental problem with powerlifting is that there's, there's too many, um, all the weight classes and five, 1,565 pounds. Wow. All the weight classes, I think kind of fuck everything
Starting point is 01:02:15 up. Like people don't want to see small people lifting heavy weight for small people. People want to see big people lifting the most amount of weight possible is truly what people are going to admire. And some people do like to see the guy who's, you know, 165 pounds, you know, bench, you know, 400 or whatever. Those are amazing feats of strength, but it's not the same as watching a guy who's 330, bench 700. It's way different. Yeah, nobody wants to watch somebody like me try to lift anything. No, no, nobody wants to watch you do anything. You can tell by my Instagram views for what I posted. That's why we don't have one camera.
Starting point is 01:02:55 Oh, we do have one camera facing your way. One's on me, but I hardly ever use it. Yeah. It's kind of dark over there. That's why I haven't used it. You should be like Dr. Claw. You should never see your face. Just cover, what was that?
Starting point is 01:03:10 Shit. What's that? Inspector Gadget. That was Dr. Claw on Inspector Gadget. Yeah. Now with Tim Allen, we're his neighbor. You just see his nose or whatever. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 01:03:19 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Looking over the fence. I just have it over the computer screen. You just see my glasses that are just glaring. This podcast is really dying. Each day just keeps getting worse. I mean, we started out the week with Margo Alvarez. Her podcast was terrible.
Starting point is 01:03:38 She's a shitty athlete, way out of shape, not any good at CrossFit. She's not strong. She didn't deadlift 410 pounds here at Super Training. And then today was awful. Eddie Hall, world's strongest man champion, and the first guy to deadlift 500 kilos. And tomorrow it gets worse. So much worse. Tomorrow it gets worse.
Starting point is 01:03:58 Well, and then Monday was pretty awful, too. We had the co-founder of Quest Nutrition, Ron Penna. Yeah, that guy was terrible. I mean, that guy built a billion dollar company. That's so shitty. Like who cares about money? Everybody's heard his story. He's been everywhere, right? He's literally been on everyone's podcast. He's been just fishing around and going, bouncing from one podcast to another. And it just keeps getting worse. And tomorrow it couldn't get any worse. We're talking to the vertical diet man himself, Mr. Eggplant, Stan the Rhino Everding. You know, Stan, every time I text him something, he always, every single time, texts me something sexual.
Starting point is 01:04:37 So, I think there's some, like, sexual tension that needs to be worked out between him and I, maybe before or after the podcast. A lot of people would pay for that. Yeah, I don't know. Pay for what? To catch that sexual tension with the rhino. Oh, oh. Yeah, yeah. You know, the last white rhino died. Oh. The last white rhino on the planet is fucking gone. We'll have to talk to him about that. See if he feels like he's in danger. Yeah, he might be. We'll have to talk to him about that. See if he feels like he's in danger. Yeah, he might be.
Starting point is 01:05:09 But yeah, we'll have Stan on here tomorrow. Get your questions ready. I think we're going to try to go around 11 o'clock. As always, give us a couple of minutes, give or take. We are powerproject.live. That's correct, right? Powerproject.live. Always go there. Tell your friends. Tell your buddies. and let people know what's up.
Starting point is 01:05:31 Tell people to start watching this fucking podcast. We're on iTunes. We're on Google Play. Google Play, Stitcher. Yeah, YouTube's pretty much anywhere you can get a podcast, we're on there. We're on your mom's Facebook, too. We're all over your mom's Facebook. Mm-hmm. Strength is never a weakness. Weakness is never's Facebook, too. We're all over your mom's Facebook. Mm-hmm.
Starting point is 01:05:46 Strength is never a weakness. Weakness is never a strength. Bye.

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