Mark Bell's Power Project - EP. 345 - Eddie Hall

Episode Date: March 13, 2020

Eddie Hall is the 2017 World’s Strongest Man, multiple Brittain’s Strongest Man, and current all-time Deadlift record holder at 500kg or 1102lbs. He is also featured on the History Channel series, “Strongest Man In History”. Let Eddie know you liked this interview on his Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/eddiehallwsm/ Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Visit our sponsors: ➢Icon Meals: http://iconmeals.com/ Use Code "POWERPROJECT" for 10% off ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $99 ➢Perfect Keto: http://perfectketo.com/powerproject Use Code "POWERPROJECT10" at checkout for $10 off $40 or more! ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ https://www.facebook.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mbpowerproject ➢ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/powerproject/ ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject ➢TikTok: http://bit.ly/pptiktok FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell ➢Mark Bell's Daily Workouts, Nutrition and More: https://www.markbell.com/ Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/ Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz

Power Project crew, what's going down? This is a huge day for us on the podcast. Although we've had Eddie Hall on in the past, and then we've had times where we were going to have him on the podcast in person, but schedules just didn't work out. On this day, it finally did. And just in case you don't know who Eddie Hall is, Eddie Hall is the 2017 World's Strongest Man winner. He is the world record deadlift holder right now at 500 kilos. Or for us in the States, that's two pounds over 1100 pounds, which is insane. Again, he's the only human being that's been able to do that. He's also been featured on History Channel's Strongest Man in History TV show.

And overall, he's just one of the best dudes we've ever had on the podcast. Eddie is such a likable guy. You guys will see throughout the video, we just all have such a gigantic smile because he's making us laugh. He's telling us so much good information. We had a blast podcasting with Eddie Hall. We get into kind of a bit of his origin story about how he caught a big break and was able to compete full-time and start striving to be the world's strongest man. We also asked him about the mindset that he had to get into in order to deadlift 1,100 pounds or 500 kilos. And although he doesn't openly share exactly what he was talking about, we kind of got an idea of where he had to go. And it was kind of a dark place, but he explains that,

you know, that's what he had to do in order to be able to lift such a heavy load. He also went into detail and explained why he is the world's strongest man, the strongest man to ever walk this earth. And after he gives his reasonings, I don't think anybody has any legit arguments against it. Thank you so much, Eddie, for making this happen. And real quick, I'll get out of your guys' way so we can start this episode. But thank you to Piedmontese Beef. You guys know it is the absolute best beef in the universe. Like I said earlier, we went to some amazing steakhouses when we were on this trip in Columbus. Unfortunately, none of them can hang with Piedmontese Steaks. I know what that sounds like, but trust me, as soon as I got home, I cooked up some flat iron steaks and I just easily compared the two and it's

just, they're night and day difference. Piedmontese steaks taste so much better. It's really remarkable what they're able to do. What's even better is you guys can actually get them for 25% off. Head over to piedmontese.com right now. That's P-I-E-D-M-O-N-T-E-S-E.com at checkout. Enter promo code POWERPROJECT for 25% off your order. And if your order is $99 or more, you get free two-day shipping. Thank you again, Eddie Hall.

If you guys are digging this episode, maybe if you heard something that he's never said before, hit him up on social media. We'll have his links down in the YouTube description and the show notes. Let him know what you think let us know what you think and we'll catch you guys later enjoy the show all right mr hall um so you you have uh you won the world's strongest man and then you walked away from the sport in some respects right yeah and Yeah. And now you still... Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we're good to go.

Yeah. Ready, ready, and go. Tell us all about yourself now. So you retired from Strongman, going out on top, but you still compete, right? No, fully retired. So, I mean, I do bits and bobs. Exhibitions and stuff like that?

Exhibitions, appearances, but yeah, you won't see me compete an actual strongman again um i might come back and do the odd team show but i'm not i'm not interested in coming back and seeing what i can do myself because i've you know been there done the pinnacle that's all i wanted didn't want anything else yeah pushed yourself as hard as you could what's the difference in body weight would you weigh would you weigh when you're competing versus what you weigh now so at my biggest, I was just shy of 440 pounds. That's around about the time I won the World Strengthsman.

He speaks our language. He talks in pounds too. Thank goodness. Dumbs it down for you. Right now, sitting about 385 and just like a nice comfy weight, keeping the size size keeping the brand but um able to walk about without chafing not out of breath can climb stairs you know put my own socks on those kind of things so it's a much better quality of life at this weight what'd

you do to lose weight anything in particular um so for the initially just cut the carbs out and went very sort of keto. Um, and then I found that that did, it wasn't very sustainable. Uh, started getting ill quite a bit after about a year. And then I've just slowly sneaked carbs back in. So I do sort of now I do sort of timed carbs. So I'll just have carbs before training, during training, a little bit of dinner, a little bit in the evening, you know, so a bit more control with the carbs, that's all. What's a little bit for you, by the way? I mean, each meal, you're probably talking like 200 gram of carbs, maybe 300. Damn.

And that's very low. Like, you know, competing, you'd be talking a kilo of carbs a meal, getting up towards, yeah. Jesus. And this is how many times a day? What, now? Yeah. Three, many times a day? What, now? Yeah. Three, four times a day, whatever's convenient for you. Yeah, probably meal-wise, I probably eat about six decent-sized portions a day.

Still getting after it. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, definitely. And then, you know, not a lot of people know this, but it's been documented a little bit. You have a swimming background. And when did you start swimming? So I started swimming when I was five years old.

My two older brothers were part of a swimming team, and my mom was a swimming teacher, so I was chucked in the pool at two. So I basically learned to swim at two, and then age five, obviously, couldn't really be left at home alone. So when the brothers were training, I would go and join in, do the swimming galas at the weekends, and became somewhat obsessed with the competitive side of the swimming, mainly just because I hated my brothers beating me.

But when you're that age, someone that's a year older can be a huge side difference. So they had a massive advantage, and I hated it. I couldn't stand it. I was coming home, home like what can i do to get faster stronger uh training harder and by the time i was 10 i won the national championships and that entered me into the what they call the world potential squad so basically the gb team for the juniors and i was in the gb squad for the best part three years and then told the head coach to go fuck himself and off i went why did you tell me go fuck himself it just became so because it became very sort of olympic standard you were seen you had to do so many hours so many

lengths so many so many you know kilometers a week in the pool and i was i was a sprinter you know even though i won the 50 meters to the 1500 meters my specialty was sprinting like 50 meters explosive power and this head coach just just got it in his head that you know volume is key for swimming so i ended up going from swimming i don't know 10k a week to then swimming 30K a week. And it just became unenjoyable for me. And for a 13-year-old kid, staring at the bottom of a swimming pool for X amount of hours a week was not fun. So, I mean, I was a deviant child, very misbehaved, and kept getting in trouble.

And then I think it was one day he had a stupid, it was very military, he had a stupid black tick system. So if you got three black ticks, you were sent home and like, you know, if you answered back, you got a black tick. If you were late for a training session, you got a black tick. And of course, day one of this black tick system,

I got three black ticks. Headcoach wants to see you in the office. And I said, I'll tell you what, tell that fat cunt to go fuck himself. I'm off. And that was literally me at 13 years old, like, just fat cunt go fuck himself i'm off and that was literally me at 13 years old like just fuck off i'm not interested and that was it done uh why do you think you were like that upbringing or just uh you wanted to challenge things or um i just think

that if something was work you know something was working you know like if your radio is working in your car would you take it apart and start fucking adding bits to it? And you know, you wouldn't, would you? And I think that's, that was my main sort of grievance with the swimming was I was, it was working. My times were going up constantly. And then this head coach came along and just dragged me right back down.

And I just, I couldn't do anything about it because my coach at home was being told, you know, we had to do this, had to do that. And if you didn't, then you were chucked off the squad and your swimmer. So I was basically forced to do this huge amounts of volume that i didn't need to do for my specialty you know a 50 minutes freestyle in terms of you mentioned you

had three brothers right two two brothers were they as athletic as you are because like usually that tends to run in the family yeah i mean james and alex have both been very athletic um james went to the Nationals. Alex didn't quite make it, but he's always been in sport. You know, he's made a whole life out of sport, doing physiotherapy and teaching the PT courses and stuff. James ended up being a professional rugby player at a high level, played for the Falcons and then ended up in Bristol

for the last part of his career. Buggered his knee and now he's another retired athlete in the whole household. But yeah, we've all, I mean, mum as well. My mum's hell sporty. She used to do the full Ironmans. So you do like the 5K swim, the 100K bike ride, and then a full marathon at the end. She used to do the full Ironmans up until probably a year ago,

two years ago, and she's 58 now. so the whole family is very sporty definitely you know we've all pretty much made our careers out of sport in some respect what's it like to be part of a tv show um you know you spend your whole life you know working towards this 1100 pound deadlift you spend your whole life want to be world's strongest man and you got a lot of recognition for that especially in your hometown but then people aren't going to know you the same way they're going to know you or you won't get the exposure uh unless you get on like a tv show like you guys did what has that been like and and do you like like it or do you kind of like halfway resent it because you're like man like i'm i'm more than like what we're able to portray on the show it's it was a tough one i mean are you about the strongest one in history yeah i mean that was

a i thought it was a great show um i think the history channel aren't doing a season two and i think the main reason is you know only five percent of the population sort of train you know keep fit keep healthy you know eat properly that and that that's that sort of stats that's that's the way it is so i saw it as only five percent of the population are pretty much going to watch the the show and then how many percent of that five percent actually give a shit about strength sports not that many so uh i think it did the rounds in the strength world but i think in the general public from what i gather feedback from the uk no one no one really bothered with it where i think um so in the uk i mean i won the uk strongest man in 2010 and that's been a televised event since um sorry 2011 and every year i've won you know one uk strongest man kept adding to the

accolade and i suppose that fame's just just slowly and slowly just crept up very nicely over the years it's not like it's not like overnight one big brother and you know become famous it's been a very nice gradual thing and i suppose i've become very acclimatized to it you know in the uk i'm a household name in the uk i literally cannot go shopping can't take my kids out honestly can't can't do family days out it is ridiculous um and i do me honest with you it gets on my tits like the fame is hard we can see the pressure on your tits from here being in the limelight is really hard like you just there's no off switch your consular i could you know i could you didn't really set out for that necessarily not necessarily probably enjoy some of it right

yeah of course i mean i knew it was going to come with the territory you know you you want to be the world's strongest man you're going to be famous whether you like it or not um but i suppose that the tv shows have added to that you know i've also done my own TV show in the UK called Eddie eats America. That's we've just sold to, actually I shouldn't say nothing, but it's airing in the, in the States very soon on a, on a,

on a big channel. So, you know, it's, it's just a little bit slight, just keep adding on and keep getting more and more sort of recognizable. Um, it's part of the territory.

It's, it's, it's just something you've got to handle. If you don't handle it well, then you know, you're not going to, you're not going to, you're not going to do well. You're not going to make money out of it. So's just something you've got to handle. If you don't handle it well, then you're not going to do well. You're not going to make money out of it. So I just take it in my stride, take it as it comes.

I'm always trying to be super respectful with the fans, but that's not replicated back. Yeah. How do you manage it? You said you really can't go to the grocery store. So if you need to do something, how do you get it done? I just have to blunt the force. If I need to go to the grocery store. So if you need to do something, how do you get it done? I just have to blunt the force. If I need to go to the shopping, I grab my shopping cart, get in there.

I do my pictures and autographs, but it's just... You have to be prepared for that mentally, going in. What could be a 10-minute shop takes me half an hour. And that's the reality of it. Everything takes me so much longer because I'll go get a box of cereal picture pick up a carton of milk picture get the butter picture it's like it's just non-stop um honestly i mean i've learned a lot from from actual arnold schwarzenegger from hanging with arnold quite a bit and you know and he put it in respective to me once you know can be as rich, as famous as you want,

but if you don't give back to the fans, then what have you got really? And Arnold loves his life. Absolutely loves his life. And you see all these celebs that don't love their life. They're rich, they're famous, they've got everything you ever want, but they don't enjoy their life.

And Arnold does. And I think there's a massive takeaway from that is he's just like, go with the flow. If someone wants a picture, do a picture picture if you want off time get your security to give you off time it's uh there's always ways around things to just make sure you're comfortable in life and I suppose that's the key really making sure that you're happy if you're not happy then make yourself happy you know change something and what does your family think about all the uh you know fame and not being able to go to the damn grocery store i mean obviously the wife and kids are fine you know they obviously

don't get recognized like i do but um when they're with me they hate it absolutely hate it you know i took my kids to um like a wildfights wild wildlife safari in the uk where you drive through meet the animals and then you go to a park the The drive-through was fine. And then when we hit the theme park, it was like a dinosaur rollercoasters and all that. And I was there 30 minutes and we had to leave because every five seconds someone's coming up, can I have a picture? Like, no, mate, I'm on a family day out.

But that might seem innocent. It might take you three, four seconds to say no to someone. But when it's one after the other after the other after the other, you get 100 metres and you've had to stop and tell five or six people each time to say, I can't do a picture with you because I'm with my family, and then your family get upset. My son literally couldn't enjoy the theme park, but we had to leave because I was getting that molested theme park.

It's ridiculous. And then it just puts you in a bad situation where that one fan now is going to be like, dude, Eddie's a dick that's that's the thing you can't win yeah you can be as polite as you can be you can say listen man i'm so so sorry i'm with my family i don't want to upset my kids but it's only going to be two seconds exactly yeah but that's but it's everyone everyone everyone just thinks it's just them you know why oh it's only's only me asking. No one else was asking for a picture. Everybody listen up for a second here. You know, make sure your fucking phone's not on video.

Like, you know, get your shit ready. You know? Oh, wait, I just took a picture of myself. Or it's like... Yeah, yeah. And they hand... Somehow the camera or the phone always goes to the most retarded person in the room.

It does. It's like, can we hand it to someone who's not 100 years old that knows how to operate the goddamn thing, and they're trying to get different angles, and they get it on portrait mode. You're like, all right, settle down. That does bubble my piss.

You're taking time out of your day to do a picture of someone and hand it to grandma, and grandma's taking selfies. It turns into a photo shoot. Oh, God. Yeah, that's not nice oh man but you know for you it provides it provides you guys with a with a life that is

probably different than it was maybe six or seven years ago for you so you got to kind of take the good with the bad right that's exactly it you know i appreciate the fans i love to give back but there's got to be that off time and i'm afraid when you're out in public there is no off time so you've got to you know i've got there's nowhere to hide for you know well that's it i mean i'm like yourself mate you know i've got a nice big house nice secure and i just i just have to lock myself away from the world keep my family safe and and do our own things really you know if i go for a meal out i i have to warn the restaurants you know can you please keep people away from me and i'm on a date with the wife and um you know if i go to theme parks now i'll have to hire security just to come with just to batten people off just to say no he's not doing pictures otherwise i spend

my whole day doing it myself um nights out i can't you know i have to have close protection not for protection but just to keep people away from me just so I can actually have an evening, you know, it's that's the point it's got to. How did you meet your wife? So I ran a lot of the security in my hometown. So you know, pubs and nightclubs and everything. And I think I was just doing the rounds one night just paying the wages and bumped into the wife and had a bit of a hot tub party back at my place so lucky little sausage she was and the rest is history that's it that's it yeah how long you guys been together for um so what we're 2020 we met probably around around about this time in 2010 so you know 10 years been

married eight years coming up this year so yeah you guys got some netflix shows you're into um you get a chance as a family to sit down and watch them travel a lot we try you know probably from sort of 8 p.m onwards every night but you know we're trying to you know sort of phones down it's up it's me and her but that oh you know phone's always going off it's hard not to be like oh i've got to just got to reply to this guy and then five minutes later i'll just go reply to this guy and it does happen you know it's a it's a very i've actually just as of next month i've got a full-time pa so just to handle shit like that just to give me that time back with the

family um so i mean tv wise sorry um we just watched the odd series you know like stranger things and and uh honestly i couldn't tell you know we try and find the odd film what about like some of these uh reality tv shows what's one you guys are talking about love is blind what is what blind love is blind don't start it uh just is it like uh it gets you in like a dating show my wife's watching all the time but i haven't really it's a great train wreck to watch there's something in the uk called love island have you heard that i've heard of it oh yeah i have a friend that watches that absolutely fucking god is that where they put they put people on an island together or whatever it's basically you know people that are like 10 out of 10s, like proper gorgeous people, put them in an island together,

all single, and I think they have to partner up with somebody, and if you're not partnered up with somebody, then you have to leave. So you're forced to be with somebody on the island. They just sit there and talk absolute garbage, but my wife is just, like, glued to it. What are some maybe weird things that people might not think that Eddie Hall would do? Like, are you sitting there watching, like, Real Housewives

or Orange County and, like, getting into it? Is there anything like that? You know what I love doing? If you ever get, like, half a day or a few hours, call the duty. Just sitting. Yeah. Just sitting. And you go online and everything and blow people up.

And my username, well, fuck it. Username, Eddie Hall WSM. Yes. And the amount of friend requests and messages is hilarious. Do you get a lot of people like, dude, you don't even sound like Eddie Hall. This is bullshit. I'll be on the speakers. I'll be talking to people. I'll be talking to people.

I'll be like, go left, go right, behind you. And then somebody will be like, are you fucking the real Eddie Hall? And I'll be like, yeah, I'm the real Eddie. They'll be like, no way, prove it. I'll be like, how? Eddie Hall wouldn't play college. He's too busy deadlifting. And I'll be like, what's your Instagram account?

And I'll just follow him. And they're like, no fucking way. It's quite funny. And they're like, no fucking way! It's quite funny. And they're all like, you know, like 30, well, you got like 30 year old men,

but you got 10 year old kids as well. But it's always the, you know, the old, you know, the sort of 30 year old guys that are like fucking obsessed. Man,

the little kids, they talk a lot of shit on there. Oh, fuck yeah. Oh man, yeah, I've been ready to like travel across the country

to go and rip some little kids head off because you called me a douchebag for getting killed. What about movies? I mean, you have too much shit going on. You've got another show coming. But we were talking about it yesterday. You would be the best villain ever because you'd be one of the guys that you kind of almost root for.

Yeah. Well, there's quite a few things in the pipeline. And again, it's all under contract, so I can't say too much. Have you seen Falling Down with Michael Douglas? Yeah. That's like one of my favorite movies. Right. I love that movie.

Good. So I've basically been commissioned a lead role in a film, and it's basically the UK version of Falling Down. Oh, no way. Dude, congrats. Yeah, big deal. Falling Down is kind of like a middle-aged man who just like everything just comes on glued all at the same time,

and you just watch his life kind of spiral down. But he does everything that everyone would want to do, but never does because they would get in trouble. It's funny. There's a scene in the movie where he's on a golf course, and somebody says something to him, and he takes their golf cart, and he crashes it on purpose. He just puts it in neutral and shoves it down a hill, and it goes into a pond. And then the old guy on the golf course, and he's holding his heart. And he falls down and he can't breathe.

And he said, now you're going to fucking die in those stupid pants. Because he's wearing checkered golf pants. It's a weird movie, but it's fucking fun. But the best one is when he goes to Wendy's or something. And there's a picture of a beautiful burger in the back. He's like, I want that burger. And it comes out and it's like a sloppy pile of shit. And he's like, what the fuck is this fucking shit?

Pulls out a gun. You motherfuckers. You're always fucking ripping me off. Yeah, he just, he just, it's just all this stuff surmounts and then he just like loses it. Completely loses it. Yeah. So, so basically doing that, like a UK version of that

based in and around Manchester, sort of in the suburbs. like a UK version of that, based in and around Manchester, sort of in the suburbs. Gist of the story is, a man that's sort of, because of the Brexit, absolutely surrounded with sort of immigration,

works with immigrants, works for an immigrant, loses his job to an immigrant, gets in a fight, loses his sight to immigrants, but then it all twists around, and he's in hospital hospital and basically in this fight gets acid thrown in his face

and then falls in love with an immigrant, with a doctor. And then obviously when he gets his sight back, it's like, oh fuck, what have I done sort of thing, but it doesn't matter because it's like what's on the inside. But then the twist again,

the flick switch moment is when she's killed by an immigrant and then it's rampage time. Everyone dies. It makes me feel like Black Mirror. The twist, again, is the flick switch moment is when she's killed by an immigrant, and then it's rampage time. Everyone dies. It makes me feel like Black Mirror. It's very Black Mirror-ish. Love is blind mixed with Black Mirror.

I'm curious about this because you met your wife in 2010. You were a competing strongman at that time, right? Just that. I was like, I won England england strongest man in 2010 and i've heard i've heard you talk about how much like that the world like the competitions took in terms of time from the family and obviously i'm guessing year by year you spent more time concentrating until i heard you mention that you there was time that you only saw your kids maybe once two hours a day a week a week yeah yeah so how like how did she get okay with that because at the beginning i'm

guessing it wasn't like that but then it just continued until you reached the pinnacle how did that evolve it was it was tough i mean when we first met it was like you know i had this i had the ambition to be the world's strongest man i set the goal at 19 told everyone it was all over my social media everyone knew i was chasing this, you know, she was with me pretty much around, I think just before I won my first English title, she was with me. And, you know, I was working a full-time job. So I was a truck mechanic doing 10 hours a day,

60 hours a week. And then obviously the security company kept me busy at night. So I was working a 10-hour day, seven till five, going to the gym, training for four and a half hours. And then it'd be home, quick shower, back to eat, back out, working 10, 11 p.m. till 3, 3 a.m. in the morning. And then back to bed, you know, three, four hours sleep a night and then back up and back to work. And I was doing that six days a week.

And then on Sundays, it would just be a full sort of sleep recovery day. I couldn't even open my eyes you know that sunday was like a recovery day to recover from the week just so i can go back on monday morning do it all again so it was uh it was relentless like the amount of the amount of hours i put into strongman towards the end i mean i did end up in 2050 and i ended up quitting my job, selling the door business, for the purpose of becoming the world's strongest man. But all those hours that I got back from the work in the doors and the day job, I just put more hours into the strongman.

I remember a while back, you know, it was quite funny actually. Some kids played knock and run on my house um a few years back france snowball was at my house and i just i had the brain power to sort i saw him coming up the street it was happening quite often so i got my shoes on ready i'd buy the front door with the handle like that and the snowball hit boom got out fucking about 20 kids just dispersed and i managed to catch this little fucker up in alleyway and i'm finally gonna admit this now to your mom i beat the fuck out of you and you fucking deserved it so i beat the fuck out of this little kid

and uh just to just to put a statement out like if anyone comes near my fucking house again you're getting fucked up and his fucking mom managed to get a hold of me on social media was just slating me online or all this and you know and i said look i've got a baby in the house you're smashing your kids are smashing my windows and whatever else and she put why don't you try getting a real fucking job you bum and i thought you motherfucker like i'm with the hours i put into strongman like when you actually weigh it up you know you're talking four to five hours of training a day four to five hours of recovery stretching physio hot cold chiropractic shockwave treatments you know easily that's 10 hours there then you've got the food you know you're eating for four or five hours a day if you actually put

the fucking hours in like and calculated it i was working three three three full-time jobs that's how i saw it the amount of hours i was putting into this and then you get some snotty nose little twat who just fucking says something like that and you just fucking blow you know like your fucking head blows up it's uh hard for people to relate you know to how much time it would take to be the world's strongest man did you at 19 when you were setting out and when you were talking about it you know a few years later did you did you really understand at 19 what it was going to take or did you just kind of think you had what it takes i i thought i had what it takes you know i'll never forget my very first world's strongest man 24 years of age flying out out there. I was so confident, you know, so arrogant. I'm going to win this, you know, at 24.

It's nice to have that blind confidence, right? It is until you meet Brian Shaw and Four and Big Z. And then you realize like, fuck, what have I said? You know, what have I set the target? What have I said? I like the economy, Greg. You've said it. Now you've got to back it up.

I didn't really hit home until I went to my first world strongest man and i realized how big these guys are and how strong i've got to be to beat these guys um but yeah the first sort of 19 to 24 is i've got this you know it's going to happen but then it fucking hit home very quick what was the change from 24 to 27 you want at 27 or 29 29 what was the change from 24 to 27? You want a 27 or 29, 29? What was the change there? So, I mean,

I quit my job at 26, um, and then sold the door business at 26. And that's, that's where the change came in. You know, I was coming, I think,

um, 2014, I was sick, the sick strongest man in the world. So I came safe. And then, but the thing is, it was such a big margin between the top

three and then four fifth sixth it was huge you're talking like 20 points and then i quit my job and then 2015 i i was the fourth strongest man on the planet and i think i was something only like eight points off the lead you know eight points off and winning the world's strongest man and that that sort of year that one year of of not working full-time and putting more emphasis as the strong man just proved that what a difference it made it closed that gap massively um and then it just carried on from there really just kept progressing i was able to be full-time and and dedicate myself to that maybe just get rid of excuses because like you could use that as an excuse like yeah yeah oh brian shaw is brian shaw because he gets all day to be brian shaw and that guy's

that way because he has this and he has that and then now you put all your chips in and you're like well i i don't have that excuse to lean on anymore that's an important that's a very good point you know and that's something that i was a big advocate of in 2017 is I didn't have a single excuse I remember walking into 2017 I was so fucking confident I was going to win it I'd already spent the prize money before I flew out there I was just so confident and I remember saying to myself just before the sort of last event and I said to my physio because he flew my physio out with me. And I said, you know what? No matter where I come in this, wherever I come, first, second, third, tenth, or whatever, I know for a fact I'm the only person at the final

that didn't have a single excuse. Wherever I was, I couldn't have stood there and said, you know, if I came second and lost by a point, I couldn't have gone, well, I missed a meal five weeks ago or I missed a training session six weeks ago. I didn't have, for a one-year solid, I didn't miss a beat, not one fucking beat. And that, to me, made me that super confident person.

And it paid off. I think if you've got the confidence as well as putting the work ethic in, you've got it. I've heard from some people that when Brian Shawrian shaw won his most recent one it's like oh well he does it full time he doesn't have to work it must be real nice must be easy what was harder working the three jobs or becoming world's strongest man honestly like in terms of like killing myself i would say working the three jobs with the training was the hardest time in my life. No, I was easily working 100 hours a week.

Easily. And putting training in, you know, a good 20 hours of lifting weights. Doesn't leave much time for sleep. Oh, my God. I was absolutely. I remember looking in the mirror one day and just like the biggest black bags under my eyes. You're like, I look like shit. Yeah.

Big fat mess. I haven't shaved for a month you know just like and at that start i looked at i thought i'm gonna fucking die like literally i if i i kept saying every time every night i was coming in from the gym i was like getting home at like 10 p.m after my workouts and everything i'd be like what's up baby i seriously i'm gonna kill myself like i just can't take it anymore and that was every night for like three or four years and then the opportunity arose to quit my job and i was like fuck it like the wife was like don't do it don't do it you know you've got bills to pay you've got to support me and the kids i said i've got to i've got to take a chance what was the opportunity was it just further sponsorship and stuff like that? So it was a pretty unique success story, really.

I mean, obviously, I was working all these hours, absolutely killing myself. And I joined a gym, a local gym that had a spa, sort of like a hydro and steam and sauna and ice bath. So I joined the gym. Tanning beds. Yeah. All the stuff you need. You've got it yeah yeah um joined the gym and the owner of the gym was he owned the gym and he was scared that was going to

absolutely rip his gym apart so he asked to meet me before i was allowed to join so i met the owner of the gym who happened to be a multimillionaire, a very famous millionaire in the area. Have you seen the Secret Millionaire they do in the States? Yeah, I'm familiar with it. Where they go undercover. So he did the UK version of that in the UK. And he brought me in and just, what are your plans? What are you doing in the gym?

And I told him, I'm only coming here for the recovery. I'm not going to turn the place upside down. And he said, it's quite fascinating. And he's from pakistan and his dad was a strong man in in in his village he was like the strongest like famous in pakistan um and then he emigrated to the uk with pretty much nothing but an onion barge in his back pocket and became a multi-millionaire and it was just like a real big success story and he said you know he's only where he is today through the kindness of of the uk people you know people giving him opportunities giving him chances in life and he basically said i'm going to give you a chance i'm going to give

you an opportunity quit your job and i'm going to i'm going to back you bills wise i'm going to pay all your bills make sure you're funded uh i'm going to give you five years and i said i looked him in the eye and i said i'll do it in three shook his hand and i won it to give you five years. And I looked him in the eye and I said, I'll do it in three. Shook his hand. And I won it two and a half years later. So he... Paid like your rent or mortgage or whatever? He gave me enough money to pay my mortgage, pay the bills,

give me some money for food and just said, there you go, off your way. Go and do me proud. And he then became my manager. So he's been my manager ever since still is now one of my managers and uh within six months he you know he got me a number of sponsorships and was able to he didn't have to pay me any more any more money and just you know i'll be a manager and i'll take a cut and that's that's the way it works since so he's uh done me very proud that's amazing what would you have to say to somebody who is maybe like i think when we're

younger sometimes we're like you said like i'm gonna kill like i'm gonna kill myself i can't take it anymore what would you say to someone who's younger who is like waiting for someone to save them like they're hoping for a situation like that like that doesn't normally come along and it only comes along to those that are not even seeking it like you weren't really necessarily necessarily looking for that you were just working your face off right yeah yeah i think that's that's comes along to those that are not even seeking it like you weren't really necessarily necessarily looking for that you were just working your face off right yeah yeah i think that's that's the key you know if you keep your head down work hard then things do come your way it wouldn't necessarily be in the form of a millionaire but it could be in the form of a big protein a protein company or

drinks company or you know could be anything to do with the sport. You know, someone just wants to back you. But once I signed with my manager, the deals that came in, you know, I was earning, I don't know, US, like 60, 70,000 US a year. You know, not a very good paid job. And then he doubled that within six months of me quitting my job.

So I was doing zero hours and earning double the money pretty much and uh and it just went up and up and up from there it's i can just put it down to being yourself you know having a personality i think is what took me a long way in the sport you get a lot of guys that you know win big competitions and and and well i mean there's two people from the uk uh jamie reeves and gary taylor both won the world's strongest man and both went back to full-time jobs afterwards and it's like you can't be that person you know you've got to got to win a title and utilize it and i found that having a brand gave me these all these opportunities and now you know we're talking

three years after I won the World's Strongest Man, I'm still riding that wave harder than anyone. You know, I'm fully on top of it on a surfboard. All money's going underneath me. It's brilliant, you know. But yeah, having a personality, I think, is what's separating me from the rest.

Being able to, being a people person as well, you know, always giving back to the fans, always trying to respond to people. You know, anyone asks for a picture, you've got to do it. You know, anyone asks for an autograph, you've got to do it. I think it was the brand that separated me from the rest. You know, the Beast. Arnold called me the Beast in 2015 in Melbourne.

And that was it. I was the Beast then. That was the brand. I was the thing the like chip on your shoulder maybe has been removed as well like from winning world's strongest man and from doing 1100 was it just like oh man now i can like not be such a dick to people like i don't know if you were dick before no i was i would imagine that you would be right like at least a little bit some people you have to be you have to be you know especially the other athletes i was an absolute twat martin's lysis said to me the other week the first time i ever

met him at worlds um i think it was 15 or 16 apparently i walked up to him slapped him on the back he's like what are you doing here you doing the kit or you're competing and he's just like you motherfucker like just proper getting in people's head all the time you know uh pulling tricks on brian pulling tricks on four big c um just being that you know just being that cheeky character really just getting in their heads but being funny with it i think was the key you know not taking it too seriously um i've had some good fun over the years i wound a lot of people up when uh we had you on the phone i think like a year ago and it was right after you had pulled your deadlift yeah um i had asked you i'm like man if somebody chips it they just barely beat you

you you didn't say that you would come back maybe you did you said uh it would it was a maybe it was a hard decision for you to make at that time when i asked you is that decision way easier now that you're a little bit further removed from it oh Oh God. Yeah. If someone was to come and pull 501 kilo, good luck to him. Yeah. It's fair play. You know, if they can do it,

I know what it takes and I'll be the first man to come up and shake the hand. I will. Cause I know what it takes. Or what I will say is, is that the world record went up by one kilo a year for the best part of 40 years. Yeah. And then in one day i added 37 kilos to that

so i did i did something special i did something real special that would be like somebody running eight seconds in the hundred meter i mean exactly about you say put it in perspective right someone all of a sudden out of nowhere runs fucking eight seconds yes it'd be like you say bolly knocking 0.8 off his world record pretty much yeah yeah um and i just feel like you know someone were to come and break it by one kilo it's it's a bit a bit it's a bit catty you know it's like if you're gonna break it break it like a man um but you know i can't be that naive enough to say that nobody's ever gonna break it because i believe there are people out there that can break it i believe four can break it um has he got the genitalia to go out and actually get it done we'll see you know we'll see all right it sounds like to me that you're a believer in

like the law of attraction like you you put it out there that you're gonna that you're gonna win the world's strongest man and then all these things kind of happen to you later on that uh i think got attracted to you because of what you were putting out in the universe. Yeah. Even like the millionaire coming and kind of helping you out. So do you kind of live your life that way? Yeah, I kind of do. You know, I set goals very vocally, you know, whether it be internal with friends in the gym or whatever or family.

But I'm a very vocal person. You know, if I say, you know know like now i'm chasing hollywood i'm gonna i'm gonna get to the movies i'm gonna do the acting to get in the in the tv side of things and it's happening you know and and i remember you know when i quit the wheel strongest man um you know a lot of sort of like the organ what you're gonna do now well i'm gonna you know what i feel like following in the footsteps of arnold and going chasing a bit hollywood you know getting into movies and it was named names, but somebody apparently burst out laughing at that comment and,

uh, they were corrected very quickly. It's like, you know, Eddie Hall, you know, he, he,

he set to become the world's strongest man. He said, you know, and you have to work fucking hard for that. It isn't handed to you. And I, he will do exactly the same going into the acting world. And they're completely right.

You know, I've been doing, we've been doing acting lessons now for the best part of three years i've landed two tv shows uh one of them coming on to a second season i did a lead role in a film i'm doing a huge production documentary of arnold schwarzenegger um other bits and bobs in hollywood as well that i can't sort of talk about so it's happening you know and i was again very vocal about it and like the conor mcgregor if you say something then fucking back it up otherwise you look like that dickhead any of this come from your childhood or anything like that or

like where like uh you have you have good parents that allowed you to kind of dream or like where did some of this come from i actually think the opposite i think my my parents were actually very negative you know you know i said i was going to be the world's strongest man when i was five years Like, where did some of this come from? I actually think the opposite. I think my parents were actually very negative. You know, I said I was going to be the world's strongest man when I was five years old, and they just burst out laughing, literally. And subconsciously, I remember that. I don't blame them. You know, it's all jokes and giggles.

But subconsciously, I remembered that, and it stuck in the back of my mind, you know, growing up into being an adult. My brothers as well, you know, having two older brothers, I um my brothers as well you know having two older brothers i think was a huge thing that made me competitive you know that started with the swimming i've got to beat my brothers at swimming then i surpassed them in the swimming and they were replaced with the michael phelps the ian forbes you know then i've got to beat them and when the swimming sort of went to shit um those big brothers then became Brian Shaw and Half 4 and Big Z. So I've always sort of just replaced that competitive monster, really,

and just kept tracing something. And now, believe it or not, my competitors now are the Varno Schwarzeneggers, the Sylvester Sloans, the Rocks. Maybe entrepreneurs, stuff like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, business for me is booming right now. You know, I've got God knows how many businesses and they're all doing very well.

And I've just signed to do the Arnold Classic UK at the NEC and one of the biggest expos in the country with Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2021. So, I mean, you know, 50-50 business owner with Arnold Schwarzenegger, that is something I thought I would never say, you know, as a five-year-old kid. It's weird, right? Watching the Terminator, you know, 50-50 business owner with Arnold Schwarzenegger, that is something I thought I would never say, you know, as a five-year-old kid. It's weird, right? Watching the Terminator, you know, watching Arnie walk in butt naked,

kick the shit out of 20 Outlaws, five-year-old kid drawing the floor, and it's like now I'm in business with the guy. And it really is surreal, like very, very sort of, very weird. Very weird. But as far as everything goes with acting, you said you started three years ago, so that means you started, like, was it right after you won or pretty much yes so within i think three months after i won the world's strongest man i uh yeah seeked out an acting coach i've been doing acting lessons and that was like in the back of your head before that too i'm assuming

pretty much i mean arnold again arnold put it in perspective for me you know you've got to know when your time's up. You know, won the World's Strongest Man. That was my target. And for me, other than winning it six times, what else can you do with the sport? You know, if you win it two times, does anyone give a shit? Let's be honest with ourselves.

Like, Brian Shores, I mean, fair play. Brian's a phenomenal athlete. He's won the World's Strongest Man four times. But I don't think, for me, I think, fair play. Brian's a phenomenal athlete. He's won the World Strongest Man four times. But I don't think, for me, I think he could have won it the once and then rode that wave and kept going up and up and up and become, he could have become a huge superstar in the States. Absolutely huge. He should be presenting the Super Bowl. He should be out there, you know, in movies.

And he's not because he's kept in the strongman game strongman's great you know it's very addictive but you're trapped you are yeah you it's an addictive sport you are trapped but arnold put it i was speaking to arnold last night he says you you've got to have your brain switched on you know you can like he did the mr olympia and then you've got to you've got to flip the switch you've got to change your channel you know you've got to put all that energy into something else because you can't be Mr. Olympia for the rest of your life. You've got to know when your time's up and ride the wave somewhere else. I love what you're saying here.

I see so many people get trapped. We see it in all-strength sports and bodybuilding and stuff too. Ronnie Coleman. Yeah, the guys get trapped in there for too long, and you did a great job knowing when to switch gears from swimming, then knowing when to switch gears from strongman, and now you're doing acting and stuff like that. So I think that's great.

What is the most challenging thing about acting? It's fucking not easy, right? Yeah, exactly. I mean, people think it's easy. People think you just... That guy's a shitty actor, and they don't really even know what they're saying. God, yeah.

I mean, people just think you're reading a script off a screen. No, man. You've got to learn body language. You've got to learn how to release your emotions. Acting for me is about reacting. So it's so easy to learn a script and me and you sit here and just read lines to each other, but a good actor will react. So you'll say something to me and I will process that.

Right. And I'll react in my way. If you're just reading lines back, that makes you a bad actor. It's about, it's about reacting. Acting is that, and that's what I found.

That's the number one tip I can give anyone in the acting world. It's react to what you hear. Don't just repeat what you know is coming out. Do you, do you kind of watch and study people like not even necessarily actors but like uh if you if you watch the way people react in real life to certain things and you can apply that into acting like maybe you just notice how someone reacts to a text message or something then you can kind of pull like i recognize a lot

of stuff i'm not really into like acting or whatever but i i am into film i love watching movies and stuff like that so i just i'll recognize that in a person or sometimes when someone is a is a real character and they they emphasize stuff a lot i'm like you couldn't you couldn't pay or you couldn't train someone to act the way that guy's acting right now yeah no exactly that um i mean one of the hardest scenes i've done with my acting coach so far was um pretending to be a father whose wife just had a baby and she was dying of cancer and she was in hospital while she was sort of registering the the name you know the child and i had to sort of hug this pillow just hold the mic up a little bit more i had to hug this biceps are cramping up and uh sort of pretend i had a baby in my arms and have a conversation with a nurse of like how my wife's

dying of cancer and you know this is little timmy and and uh you know to actually fake cry and sort of nail that scene off was a big step for me you know releasing emotion that was probably one of the hardest things i've had to do is like on camera sort of release emotion and cry on cue was really tough but i feel like you know after nearly three years of it i'm getting there i'm sort of getting to the point where it's all coming together now what about the opposite maybe like a script asks you to like um to start singing or something something where you're like fuck i'm embarrassed to do this i think if that came about then you know, like I do with anything, I take it seriously. I hire a singing coach and get to it.

Oh, shit. Just give it your best shot. The big guys, you know, they always get, like, killed off early and stuff. Do you have your limitations on, like, what you would accept as, like, a role? You know, like, sometimes they make fun of the big guy. You come into the room and everyone thinks

you're going to, like, kick everyone's ass and you, like, slip on a fucking banana peel. You know what? That's quite funny. I mean, I'm good pals with a guy called Martin Ford. Have you heard of seeing him? I've heard the name before. And he's just landed a big part in the new Fast and Furious franchise,

sort of like one of these sort of corporals working alongside and beating the shit out of people. And me and him both went for a part in a film not so long ago. And he told me, he said, I've just auditioned for this part in this film, said the name. And I was like, all right, I've gone for the same. I said, it's not that gay soldier, is it? And he's like, and he went, yeah, it is. And basically.

Like here, wear these. Yeah, yeah. So basically it was playing the part of this soldier that like sucked off of a soldier so i get what he wanted and all i was just like he's like would you have done it and he's like yeah fuck it you get what you're giving like that role wouldn't be that big of a stretch for me i'll try it out well yeah i think that's you've just got to take a bit of a relaxed approach to the acting side. You know, if the producer wants you to go on set and get bummed, then be prepared. You know, I'm curious about this because in that video you talked about in terms of the 1100 pool,

you hired a psychiatrist who helped you visualize something. I don't know exactly what it was because you were kind of vague on exactly what you had to go to. exactly what it was because you were kind of vague on exactly what you had to go to but having to force yourself to do that does that help at all with where you're trying to go right now and acting at all do you have to do you use that type of yeah 100 yeah it's it's i mean to channel into sort of memories and even make memories up to change your emotions is something that i learned during the strongman game you you know, and in training as well, you know, I could be there with my training partners,

joking, giggling, you know, taking the piss, talking about birds, and then flip that. Literally, it'd be like,

ha, right, 400 kilo on the bar, boom, boom, boom, and then back in the room. And it's like,

oh, that's fucking, that was a good laugh. You know, it's just, it's that you learn that with strongman. You've got to be able to flick your emotions very, very quickly. And I think that's why I found acting quite easy in that respect

because I've kind of been doing it my whole fucking life with Strongman. Walking into the arena, it's not Eddie Hall walking out, it's the Beast. And you turn into this arrogant, sort of very confident monster that struts around showing off his bollocks and, you know, swaying like John Wayne. You know, doing the cutthroat symbols to four and, you know,

doing all that kind of stuff. That is acting. You know, in the arenas, that is acting. And it's very fun to sort of transfer that over and actually onto a camera and, you know, in scenes.

Anything ever happen with wrestling? Pro wrestling? They ever approach you? Vince McMahon or anybody like that? Triple a camera and, you know, in, in scenes. Anything ever happened with a wrestling, pro wrestling, they ever approach you, Vince McMahon or anybody like that? Triple H? So, I mean, after I won the world's strongest man,

there was some conversations, but it just, it wasn't for me, you know, a lot of travel and it's, it's a different, different world. You know,

the money, the money I'm earning, it's like the, the, the wrestling isn't that far above that. Right. And for the work that you'd have to put in for the wrestling to get that same return.

Yeah, it's a lot of work. It's more. It's way more than people think. They're great athletes, too. Incredible. I've got such admiration for the wrestlers. Like, incredible. You know, on the road, best part of 300 days a year,

four shows a week sometimes. The training, the travel. Like, fuck that. Yeah. Fuck that. Yeah, it would be absolutely uh brutal yeah i saw a video of you a long time ago and it was one of the videos where i was like oh shit like this guy's coming like this guy's gonna fuck people up and it was you i think you

were doing 400 kilos and it looked like you were in like a dungeon of some sort like you were just like lifting in the in the corner of this gym and you did the weight like insanely fast i don't remember how many reps you did but you just like and you just kind of like pump the reps like you didn't even really like lock them out you just kind of moved them around a bunch and then you locked the last one out and then you dropped it i think and then or you put it down however you put it down and i think then then you just like laughed like a complete madman do you remember that video i think i do um i think it was um the very first time i pulled 420 kilos i think that's what you're on about so yeah like 900 plus pounds right and i pulled it for a speed rep i think i remember it's put

up pause at the top of the lift and just like yeah yeah just sort of like because i knew that was like that was statement back then that was a statement you know standing up as fast as you can stand up stand up out of this chair with 420 kilos in your hand and i just thought i've got this that was pretty much i mean that was um maybe a few months before the uh my very first world record attempts against benny magnus the one i dropped yeah that was a few months before that and that's when i sort of knew this is this is my talent you know deadlift and it was something that just became my thing and i think before that i saw you a little smaller like you were in you were in good shape i mean you looked amazing but i think when i saw the video of you pulling that 920 you were bigger too and i was like oh he's like

he's going he's going all the way in you know was that around the time that uh you started doing strongman full-time as well i think that was just before so it was actually um the weekend i pulled the 461 and dropped it that was the weekend that i never went back to work because that was my sort of final decider i was talking with a manager at the time you know if and annoying whether to quit my job take the risk and go and chase this dream and then it was you know i pulled 461 and then given the down signal and then dropped it was disallowed the lift and it went from earning sort of 10 grand prize money to nothing oh shit and it was a big kick in the balls you know working 100 hours a week and whatever else and i just thought to

myself why the fuck am i doing this why am i killing myself why am i why am i working 100 hours a week and you know training 20 hours a week just to pay money to go and entertain people and that was sort of like the flick switch is do i quit my job and go for this or do i quit the strongman and concentrate on my job and i just thought i cannot work until i'm 65 i cannot be a norman i can't do it so that was the weekend i thought fuck it that work until I'm 65. I cannot be a Norman. I can't do it. So that was the weekend I thought, fuck it, that's it. I'm quitting my job, sold my door business. And that's the weekend I became a full-time athlete.

I think maybe a lot of people are missing, you know, they hear you talk about the mental game, and we'll jump into that in a second. But I think sometimes when people see someone like yourself and they see you start to reach some of these levels, they're like, oh, that's genetics. It's a combination of genetics. And he just probably trains his face off all the time.

He trains his ass off and he gets in there and just trains like a madman. But you know a lot about training. And who knows better about deadlifting than yourself? How are you able to continually increase your deadlift because most people they'll they'll get to a 600 pound deadlift or 700 pound deadlift and then it just tapers off they have a really hard time making progress how were you able to go from seven to eight to nine through a thousand through 1100 through places that no one ever even thought was possible before um it's a tough one i mean andy bolton proved the world wrong when he pulled a thousand pounds and i think it was just that that that sort of someone showed me an article

once about andy bolton's that that before that somebody i think somebody put a million pound prize money if anyone ever pulls a thousand pound deadlift in my lifetime i'll give him a million quid and that was like i've published our article. And then when Andy Bolton pulled a thousand pounds, this guy disappeared off the planet Earth, you know? And that, for me, it was just like that magical number. And I thought to myself, when I started pulling up towards the thousand pound mark, and that was kind of like my limit.

You know, I thought, the human body can't do more than this. And then another sort of year into the training, and it's like hang on a minute i'm speed repping the world record now you know i'm standing up with 450 kilo in my hand again as fast as you can stand up out of a chair and i suppose that was the the it's like tom saltman doing the apple stone yesterday it's just like he's setting new standards like where's the limit you know and i spoke to tom after he's like you going to go for 700 pounders? He's just like, yeah, fuck it, let's do it. It's just, where do you go with these things?

I suppose, for me, it's goal setting. It's like, yes, I've always wanted to be the world's strongest man, and I've always chased that, but having little goals on the side helped me progress a lot quicker. And I think the deadlift was one of those. I've hit plateaus like everybody else. I think for for years and years and years i was stuck at 420 kilo and then fucking horrible deadlift it was shit um but i was stuck on that for probably the best part of four years you know wouldn't go any higher and then i took a step back i was like

what am i doing wrong like why can't i progress there's got to be a reason took a step back sort of just jigged my my technique you know a little bit just you know a few feet moving in a little you just experimented experimented yeah and then right and then it was a again you know i started surrounding myself with a decent team and they explained to me you know the fast twitch fibers the slow twitch fibers and how that would recruit with the deadlift. And basically, you've got to train those muscles individually. So if you don't train your fast twitch fibers, then how are you ever going to get explosive power? So then I took a step back and started doing speed reps.

You know, so sort of doing 50, 60% of a max and just as fast as you can from A to B. And that was just creating that sort of power off the floor and that's when my deadlift started creeping up mega quick i went from in one year i went from 420 to 461 in one year and then from there it took me two years to get from 460 to 500 do you think you like did more in training or did a little bit less in training i'd say it was a bit of a weird one because basically i'd do a week of speed and a week of heavy and so you'd flip flop back and yeah yeah whereas before it would just be every single week come in and maybe too much every single week i was coming in and pulling 420 kilo every week and but at the time it's like that's the best thing you can do to get strong but then

no it's not you know i learned that the human body cannot recover from a maximal deadlift within 10 days so every seven days especially for your strength level and size yes so every seven days i was going back in and just ripping myself ripping myself ripping self almost going backwards sometimes and then i realized that i've got a i've got a that's why the the slow twitch and fast which came in so one week i would train super super heavy sort of training the slow twitch fibers and then the next week it'd be the the speed reps training the fast twitch fibers so whilst one's working the other is resting and that's how i treated it i treated the fast twitch and slow twitch fibers as two totally different two totally different muscles it's almost like having a it's almost like having uh two sets of hamstrings

that's how i that's how i envision it like this one's doing fast twitch that one's doing slow twitch and i train one one week and one week the other do you think when people ask you about like sets and reps and kind of like uh the uh nuanced stuff that they're maybe missing the bigger picture you know they ask you like because i get questions like that a lot you know people say uh they're like hey man i got a question for you i always think it's like going to be some cool like life question i can help them get out of a jam or something and they're like i'm really struggling with my bench like i can't lock out shit you know and i'm like oh my god you know i kind of think they're sometimes missing the bigger picture.

Do you kind of feel that way sometimes? Yeah, I think people like don't quite, like I was explaining to you, you know, it's breaking it down. And I think that's what you've got to do sometimes if you're stuck in a rut. Take a step back and don't be so arrogant. You know, everyone can learn. Even me now, I'm still learning new ways to train and, you know, improve myself. And I think people get into this sort of stigma of I've learned it, learn even me now i'm still learning new ways to train and you know improve myself and i think

people get into this sort of stigma of i've learned it now now i know the best and i'm just going to stick with this no one's no one's bit too big not to learn something new and i think that's that's the key is take a step back and be willing to learn new things and try different things if i didn't have that attitude of trial and error you know of like willing to try different things then i would never have done the 500 and never won the world's strongest man if i'd have if I didn't have that attitude of trial and error, you know, of like willing to try different things, then I would never have done the 500 and never won the World's Strongest Man. If I'd have kept coming in every week

and doing 420, 420, 420 for 20, my max would probably still be 420. Along with that speed work, was there anything else you added to your training? You said you started training smaller muscle groups. Was it by doing speed work or is it by adding in different types of movements? I would say i

alternated my squat as well so one week i would sort of do a wide stance squat and then narrow stance squats um one week would be safety bar one week would be normal bar one week would be leg press one week would be hack squat so i think it was for me it was and again it was like training to like the inner and outer of your quad. So every week I was doing like super heavy squats. Like every single week I was coming in and doing 360 kilo squats. I don't know what that is in pounds. 50 something.

I think it's more 800, I don't know. Closer to here. Yeah. And every single week, again, I was coming in every single week and doing eight reps with 800 pounds raw like no knee straps squidgy trainers no belt just doing that every single week and then it was like again like take a step back you've got to switch it up so then that became i would do eight reps with 800 on the normal squat and then the next week it would be six reps of 800 on the normal squat. And then the next week it would be six reps of 800 on the safety bar squat. And I saw that and I felt the difference.

Like one week the outer quad would hurt. And then the next week the inner quad would hurt. And then I got it in my head. It's the same as the deadlift. It's like training two different muscles. And again, it's that 10 days concept. Your body cannot recover from a heavy, heavy lift in 10 days. That's the fact.

So you have to switch it up. You have to train in or out, whatever, fast twitch, slow twitch. Do you remember what your calorie intake was during this time? Oh, fucking hell. I mean, I never actually sort of wrote it down as such. I just ate whatever I want. Easily, I mean, very easily, 12,000 calories a day. That's like no problem. Some days mean, very easily, 12,000 calories a day. That's like no problem.

Some days, 14,000, 15,000. But that was, again, that was a full-time job, getting the food, and fucking expensive as well. I know you talked about this quite a bit, but let's kind of shift gears into talking about that mindset that made you a champion and the mindset that eventually took you to that 1,100 pounds. Because as you were saying, it was know well above previous records and stuff so how you know hiring a sports psychologist i believe that's what you did right and and uh in doing that you know did that like

unlock some crazy potential that you that you didn't have access to before i think it gave me the sort of capability to sort of have a bit more of a flick switch. I mean, everyone's got a flick switch. You know, you could be in the gym joking around, training with your pals, and then, you know, you're doing a max bench. And everyone's got that flick switch.

Like, right, let's get serious now, boys. Everyone shuts up. Everyone, you know, egging you on. And I was just able to add onto that flick switch. I think that, you know, when that referee whistle blows and he's like, right, go ahead, do your max lift or, you know, you're running with weights or whatever, your adrenaline pumps, you know,

you're not thinking about anything else. You're just thinking about those weights, nothing else. And, but there's ways to add to that. You know, I could turn that, I could turn that weight into my child, you know, and I've got to lift that weight off my child in order to save my child. And those are the sort of things that, you know, you'd be getting in my head walking into lifts, you know,

I've got to pull this bus as fast as I possibly can because my kids are under the wheels or whatever, you know. It was just little tricks of the mind. I mean, the deadlift was a special one. You know, I managed to, again, i don't want to get too far into that because i'll get really upset but create a scenario in my head where someone was doing something to my kids and it just lit me up like i fucking i never forget this is like when i pulled the 500 and i remember staring at the at the referee and just sort of twist him out and i just turned the referee into this fucking devil and i just remember staring

at him and you know you're that angry like there was no human on that planet that could have stopped me from fucking killing that guy if i wanted to that day like i would have i would have plowed for 200 policemen i was fucking raged and I just managed to get myself so wound up. And then it's like, boom, right? You're the fucking devil. And strap onto that devil and rip that fucker up. And that was a very weird and unique thing for me to do. But to master that was fucking hard.

Because it's not something you can do very often. Oh, it's really weird because you can put yourself in a a really weird spot like you were saying you get upset yeah i've done that before where i've made my stuff like hysterical like i almost couldn't breathe yes and i didn't even fucking do anything yet you know because i got myself so wound up or even i even got myself to like cry yeah i'm like oh shit like that's whatever i whatever i touched on right there that's not good yeah i need to fucking back out of this yeah yeah yeah you take it too like that's, whatever I touched on right there, that's not good. I need to fucking back out of this. Yeah, yeah. You take it too far sometimes.

That's the thing. If you think about the wrong things, then that can have a very detrimental effect on your lifting. If you're walking into a deadlift thinking about flowers and fucking teddy bears, then you're not going to do very well. If you're thinking about killing 200 people in a fight, then you're going to do very well. If you're thinking about killing 200 people in a fight, then you're going to do all right. So when you were like having to practice this up to the 1100,

was it more, I guess, severe when you actually did that lift? Because you practiced it. So I'm guessing you practiced it during lifts too. It wasn't. No, it was. So, I mean, talking with a psychiatrist, it was very light. Right. What makes you angry?

You know, what drives you in life? What do you love the most? You know, just sort of digging at things, finding what made me tick. And then we found that tick box. We found something that would. I found something that I'm majorly, you know, obsessed with, in love with, and that's my kids. You know, they are the number one thing in my life.

And then the psychiatrist started touching on little little scenarios with them well what if this happened how would you feel and i'm like yeah i'd fucking i'd kill them and then you add a bit in or how do you feel then and then we got to a scenario it was just like where i was just like fucking shaking and angering on a couch just like and then the psychiatrist's like okay calm down calm down we found it there we go and then it was just like channeling in on that one sort of scenario little bits every week just every week when i was doing my deadlifting training just a little bit not getting too wound up but just like oh right okay here we go and then as we got closer to the competition that thought process just got stronger and stronger and stronger until on the day it just became a reality it became slight when i was lifting that weight you zoom in on my eyes like i'm not in that fucking arena i'm i'm elsewhere i'm not lifting

that weight in my head i'm lifting something wrong as someone else if you would have died from the lift do you think it would have been worth it because like you kind of sound like you almost did like you had blood coming out of your eyeballs and ears and stuff right yeah couldn't see sorry that's a coronavirus game um yeah it was pretty pretty harsh you know the the i think it was more so not the actual lift but the the the the complete arrogance of sort of holding it at the top of the lift and just having a little look around like fuck the world like you're all you're all fucking wrong because the the i mean as you know you know the the hate and sort of negativity i got around the 500 was quite high you know even the promoters over strongman no one believed it could be done so that was a very satisfying moment standing there at the top of that lift

and just smirking to those people really just sort of like fuck you here it is do you think anybody else will be able to tap into that type of mindset like i'm sure people are capable but do you see anybody that right now is you know what i don't know i mean for me to pull the 500 i mean i think i've said this many times is that in the lead up i couldn't pull above 460 in training like and i didn't really try i tried to 480 once and failed it and i was just like oh fucking it was just bad for my head to do that so i believe that you know the sort of theory that most athletes only have access to 70 of the muscle fibers that's a fact anyone that can tap into that 100 of the muscle fibers that's the man that's going to do some damage in the world and i managed to do that i i believe at the time

physically i was only capable of lifting 470 47575, something like that. And I was able to tap into that sort of side of the brain to reduce, release the adrenaline and go to that margin, get a hundred percent muscle fiber recruitment and lift the 500. As anyone like fours, fours, I believe that four is stronger than me right now in deadlift. I do believe that, but it's having that extra edge to tap into those muscle fibers to go to that 500. Has he got that. I do believe that. But it's having that extra edge to tap into those muscle fibers to get to that 500. Has he got that? I don't know.

That's down to him as an athlete. It's a tough thing. If you didn't have kids, would there have been anything where you could have built up in your mind that would have got you to the same place? I couldn't really answer that. I don't know.

I could have done that with my wife, my mom dad my brothers i don't know i don't know how wound up i'd get but my kids was a very touchy one you know everyone if you've got children you'll know what i'm on about that's it's a very you've got that connection you know it's your own blood you know you've watched those kids grow up they are your wife you know nothing else matters really you ever gonna get a real job are you gonna be a bum tell you what man i'm gonna carry on being a bum for the rest of my life it feels pretty good how do you uh deal with the negative comments because you mentioned that you know that comment from that mom kind of bugging you a lot sounds like you've utilized a lot of it as positive energy yeah definitely you know any any negativity in my life i'll flip it on

its head you know if someone says you can life i'll flip it on its head you know if someone says you can't do something it's like another another piece of coal in that fire to make me go out and do it um the 500 kilo was the prime example you know um it wasn't just the general i put it on facebook and the reaction was actually quite funny i don't know if you were it was everywhere you know everyone was talking about it. And I would say 95% of the sort of following were like, nah, talking out of his ass, like not going to happen. I know for a fact the promoters didn't believe it can be done. All the strongmen believed it couldn't be done.

There's not one strongman that said Eddie's going to do that. Not fucking one. Friends and family, you know, I think they put the face on of like, yeah, you can do anything, but I don't think there's anyone that was like,

stood by my side like, you're going to smash this. There was no one, you know. Not wife? No. Damn.

But I think, you know, but she'd say it, she would support it, but it was like, no one, you know, when you're like,

the only person I would say who actually truly sort of backed me was my training partner, Luke Fulbrick. He was there through thick and thin. And I remember it was, I think it was three weeks before the 500 and I pulled 450 for a speed rep and he just went, he just like sat in a chair, he was just like shaking his head. He's like, mate, you're going to fucking smash that 500. But it took until three weeks before for someone to go,

you're going to fucking do this. And it meant the most coming from a training partner because he never blew smoke up my ass. He never once said something that I knew I wasn't capable of doing. And that, that one comment from him perhaps just gave me that little bit more confidence to sort of walk in, you know, I can do this now. Look at what you did for the deadlift, you know.

If you look at, like, the last maybe two, three years or so, since you hit that record, I think maybe last year, there's, like, five or six people doing over 1,000 pounds. Yeah. Like, that's amazing. You created that. I think that's awesome. It's definitely raised raised the bar literally

in the strongman world and i mean it's like four now you know four is going for this 501 kilo deadlift we wouldn't even be talking about that if it wasn't for me you know people would still be thinking it's not possible do you know roger bannister is yeah yeah yeah so the first man to run a four minute mile yeah it was and this is this is reality if you google it everybody exactly the same as me what an idiot what a dickhead it's impossible like a deluded motherfucker he did it within two months i think three other people did it within two years 50 people no there's high school kids and stuff that do it yeah yeah yeah exactly it was just one man that gave the the sort of world the belief that it can be done and i did

that with the deadlift so i i made it i made people believe it can be done and that that in turn takes everyone's training up a peg and as you say like a thousand pound deadlift now are just popping up everywhere it's like the normal the normal thing is a thousand pound deadlifting strongman now um and who knows you know maybe 10 20 years from now maybe 500 kilo will be talked about as a normal thing you just don't know last we talked to you uh we had a uh a poop story you know you had a poop story for us you said you can't you know be dead lifting 900 and a thousand pounds and 1100 pounds without without having some poop problems here and there especially with the amount of food that you eat so do do you have any new news on the poop stories?

No, not really. I mean, I think it's quite regular that you shit yourself in the leg press. That's quite the norm these days. I don't know if that is normal. That might be your normal. Let's be honest, guys. Come on.

The odd Malteser just pops out. The thing is when you're on a leg press that little malteser turns into like a 200 wiper you know because it just goes fuck it just how's that happen i don't know man it turns into a color it turns into like it goes up your fucking backside and everything it's it's not good but i i'm of the belief that in a maximal lift unless you pass out or shit yourself, then you didn't try hard enough. You didn't have enough weight on the bar.

Yeah, and I did both. Just saying. So you talked about it earlier how Shaw should have won one and took off. So he's won multiple. Thor's won multiple. You've won one. because you were the first to pull that deadlift do you think that um you are able to walk away because your legacy is set because i think that's why people hang around too long because they want to be i want the most or i

want that something special to say they want that something special to say yeah i've done it let's fuck off so do you think you've done enough for your legacy as far as an athlete i think so i think so i think i've i've become the roger bannister of strongman literally you know i i've set the standard now for everyone else to chase and it's like it's like do you remember who the second man to run a four minute mile was and i know i always say this and people kind of know the answer americans know the answer more than uk but who's the second man on the moon people kind of know the answer. Americans know the answer more than UK. Who's the second man on the moon?

And you might know the answer to that. But a thousand years from now, a thousand years from now, are they going to remember the second man on the moon? Are they? Fuck. They're only going to remember. They're only going to remember Armstrong, you know, and that's the reality. And I think that's that for me, that was that takeaway moment for strong man was like, I've done it now. You know, I've set the standard of, I believe, I think that's that for me that was that takeaway moment for strongman was like I've done it now you know I've set the standard of I believe that that deadlift has potentially

set me in the stone as one of the if not the strongest one in history and if people want to argue that then come and fucking pull more you know come and fucking show me how to do it then in kind of a finishing up, I know you're, you enjoy your time here in the States. You're here often. Uh, but what's something that annoys you about America or Americans?

Oh, it gotta be something that chaps your ass. Oh, he's like, where do I start? He's got a whole list. You got all written out. Not at all.

Not at all. Um, or maybe even what's, what's major differences between where you live and i think just the food really i mean the food's better over here that's it yeah no one knows how to be fatter than us yeah exactly um i mean that honestly that's that'd be my only sort of difference really would be the food you know the people are just as nice and um getting about it's great america's got more of a more of a feel feel free feel to it you know you you know i think i was in florida last year for the world's strongest man riding around on a holly without a helmet sunglasses on music blaring and that for me like you can't do that in the uk and that for me was

was proper nice that was freedom that was that was like probably one of the nicest sort of times in my life is just being on a harley riding around florida on a big two liter harley and just having a great time it's brilliant that's great all right hey thank you so much for uh your time is there anything you want to uh plug is there anything you want to try to draw attention to business wise or no i mean if just follow the youtube you know eddie hall the beast um the website's eddie hall strongman.com just check it out it looks like you're having a lot of fun with your youtube channel i saw you did some stuff with uh stephy cohen yeah recently did you guys deadlift or what was no we just had a bit of a shoulder workout yeah she's a strong little ass isn't she yeah she fucking is yeah she's jacked, too. Yeah.

Yeah, she's ripped. Yeah, hella impressive. Andrew, take us out of here. If you guys want to hit us up, that's at MarkBell'sPowerProject on Instagram. Mine personally is at IamAndrewZ. Please make sure you're following on TikTok and Twitter, at MBPowerProject.

Thank you to everybody that's been rating and reviewing the podcast. And Seema, where are you at? I'm Seema Inyang on Instagram and YouTube. I'm Seema Inyang on TikTok and Twitter. Mark? Thank you so much, Mr. Eddie Hall. We really appreciate it. You're a legend in the sport,

and you definitely are one of the strongest men to ever walk the face of the earth. I've been a huge fan for a long time, so I really appreciate you. I appreciate you pushing that deadlift to 1,100 pounds, and then now we get the excitement of watching everybody else try to gun for it, and you get to see people hitting 1,000 pounds, and we'll see kind of what happens, everybody else try to gun for it. And you get to see people, you know, hitting a thousand pounds.

And we'll see kind of what happens and we'll see who gets it. But maybe, as we talked about earlier, we talked about the law of attraction. Maybe you can use the law of attraction in a negative way and just think negative thoughts that no one's ever going to break your record. And just, you know, keep them down. I think a nice way to end this would be to say, you know, there are people out there that I believe can pull the 500 kilo deadlift. But in my honest opinion, I think they've got more chance of shagging the queen. There we go. You heard it here.

Strength is never a weakness. Weakness is never a strength. Catch y'all later. What up, podcast? Man, I love that episode. Thank you guys so much for listening in. And thank you to everybody that's been rating and reviewing the podcast on iTunes. It helps us out so much.

Right now, we want to give a super big shout out to the great Muda. I think I said that right. Hopefully I did. So we'll call you Muda. I think that's about right. Muda says, the home base for my fitness journey. Quote, the attitudes held about general fitness by Mark and Seaman Andrew, while all taking different paths to the same goal, more or less, makes this podcast my home base for

my own fitness journey. The diversity in the guests on the show provides a bevy of information that anybody on any kind of regimen can find useful. And to say that these folks know a thing or two about lifting and exercise is an understatement. Also, as a Poughkeepsie expat, it's nice to see someone leave and be successful. Get strong, stay strong, be stronger. Good use of the rrr. Thank you, The Great Moda. Sincerely appreciate that, man. I don't know how long that took you to write that, but that short little bit of time out of your day to write that does so much for us. So thank you so much. If you listen right now, if you would like to hear your

name and your review right on air, head over to iTunes, drop us a rating and a review, and you could hear your name on air just like the great Moda. We'll catch you guys later. Peace.