Mark Bell's Power Project - Power Project EP. 96 - Hafthor Bjornsson

Episode Date: August 20, 2018

Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson (Hafthor Julius Bjornsson) is an Icelandic professional strongman and actor. He is the 2018 World’s Strongest Man and is the first person to have won the Arnold Strongman Classic, Europe's Strongest Man and World's Strongest Man within the same year. He plays Gregor "The Mountain" Clegane in the HBO series Game of Thrones. ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots ➢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/markbellspowerproject 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

All right, well, we're here today with the world's strongest man. Amazing job getting that title. That is a really exclusive thing to get, a tough thing to get. The competition level has been driven through the roof over the years. There's just more and more people coming to that sport. And over the last several years, it's been kind of going back and forth between several people. You got, obviously, Sojourner Savickas, who's been kind of going back and forth between several people. You've got, obviously, Sajuna Savickas,

who's considered the greatest of all time. You've got Brian Shaw, who's won it four times. You've got Eddie Hall, who won a championship as well, and then you were able to get one in there. Let's back everything up, and let's start from the beginning. What was your childhood like? Were you always always attracted to strength or did you play other sports um first of all thanks for having me mark i appreciate that thank you um in the beginning of my um childhood i um i didn't play a large sport until I was maybe, how old was I?

I was 13 years old when I started to play basketball. And played that until I was 17. It was pretty good, I would say, you know. I always wanted to be good you know and I tried very hard but I broke my I broke my wrist

ankle twice and I had to pull out decided to take a break for a year because I was always

injuring myself which can be very frustrating when you're trying to become a good athlete in your sport. I was always hurting it, you know, but I broke it twice. So in my second surgery, I decided to take a break, start to lift weights more, which

I always had interest in, you know, but with all the running, I couldn't really gain a lot of size. Right. So with the break I took this year, was was just supposed to be a year you know yeah I ended up to be pretty long year I I saw very um dramatic you know gains in the first year I got stronger stronger each year it's it's you know month day like i just got very i got in love with lifting weights very fast so it's straight i know you know iceland is is known for its strength and it's uh not a huge country uh but it produces a lot of strong athletes a lot of strong athletes, a lot of great athletes, and a lot of the females that have won CrossFit Games world titles

are from Iceland. What is it about the country? Is there something in the heritage, or is it something that's done traditionally that makes people strong, or is it mindset i think it's like definitely a lot of different you know things that play a big role in it you know um the people had to be very tough to be able to live in the condition in iceland it wasn't easy to live there back in the old days. So, you know, the strongest people survived.

And I think also we are a small nation with only 300,000 people. We live in this big island. We want to stand out. We want to make our country proud of um make you know make our country you know proud of us you know right so we try try very hard to uh do well in sports there's not not a lot of things to really do during the winters as well it gets very cold dark so i think people as well they just you know get in the zone and they just eat, sleep, and train. A lot of people, not always everyone, but the athletes for sure do that. They just get in the mindset, they just train, eat, and sleep.

Are a lot of people there health conscious? Like here in the United States, if you're in Los Angeles or San Francisco or some of these bigger cities, people might be kind of health conscious. But if you're in the middle of our country, that's where you'll see a lot of obesity, a lot of people not paying attention to what they eat. What's Iceland like? Yeah, I think, you know, it's like overall, you know, if you look at the population, people are, you know, getting more and more into the health you know thinking more about the body and you know thinking more about

themselves but if you just if you just look like not just 20 years ago it wasn't like that it's getting better and better each year do you have

other family members you got brothers sisters and things like that I got two sisters and are they tall they are for

like women they are tall but not giants like myself things like that? I got two sisters. And are they tall? They are for women. They are tall, but not giants like myself. Where did this come from? Family heritage at all or just a random selection? Yeah. So my father, he's tall like me. He's about the same height? About the same height.

Wow. Then he has three other brothers they're all similar height as well oh holy shit yeah and then my grandfather his father he uh is um like same height as well so it definitely it's definitely in the tunes is there some old stories about how strong some of these guys were back in the day like just doing construction work or things around the house or something like that? Yeah. I mean, my grandfather, he lived in a farm for over 30 years. So my dad and his brother, they all got raised on a farm.

Right. Like most of their childhood, you know. So they were all pretty, they were hardworking guys. They worked a lot, you know, woke up early and worked throughout the day. So they were all pretty strong, you know. They had to, you know, lift different things, you know. And there are, you know, stories with my father, you know, lifting big stones, you know, in the farm, just playing around.

That's our pre-unique, you know. So it's definitely in the genes just playing around that's our pre-unique you know uh but so it's definitely in in the genes you know definitely with the height and strength i think you know yeah like like naturally just strong guys was that something as a young kid maybe you admired seeing your dad like just being so big and like picking up heavy shit maybe you were like oh my god yeah definitely i i i remember my dad was always in great shape. When I was young, he looked good. He didn't train, but his body was just very well shaped. He had abs, bicep, tricep, chest.

He just looked very good. That's awesome. Most of the guys did because they were hardworking guys. They worked on a farm and they were both nice. So I remember my dad like that. I think looking back, I mean, I didn't realize it when I was young, but looking back, I think that's inspired me. Like, I want to look like my dad.

He looks cool. He's a cool dude. So, yeah. Is your dad still around today? Yeah, he is still around today we are best friends we talk what does he think of you winning the world's strongest man championship he supports me a lot yeah um comes to most most of my shows that's great um he's very proud and he is very great guy that's really cool when some people come on this podcast

and sometimes they'll say they had no support from their parents, I'm always like, man, that must be really tough because I always felt like I always had good support and I always had good love in my family. Yeah, same here. I'm very happy with everything I have behind me, my parents, my family, my sisters. happy with everything I have behind me, you know, my parents, my family, my sisters, you know, it's not something, you know, given, you know, I'm just very fortunate, you know, that I have just a great family behind me, and it has definitely helped me achieve my goals, and helped me to push me.

When you see the people that you love behind your back and they come to your competitions, you want to push harder and each training session, each meal that you're thinking about, you're doing it not just for you, obviously's it's you know for you but you're thinking about the people that you love as well you want to make them proud do you feel happy with yourself you know like a lot of times people win stuff and it doesn't necessarily always maybe give them exactly what they want maybe doesn't always uh fulfill everything inside do you feel you feel good do you feel good about yourself?

I do, yeah. I am very happy with myself, with this year and everything that's going on in my life. But I'm not done yet. I still have fire inside me. I still want to win more titles. It's not like I just won and I'm just like,

oh, it's done. I'm finished. I'm happy. I'm just going to retire. it's not like i just won and i'm just like oh it's done i'm i'm finished i'm happy you know i'm just gonna retire it's not like that i still i even i probably have more fire inside me now than ever before i wanna that's great i wanna become even better and i wanna you know every aspects of life you know i just want to push myself and see how far i can go a lot of people don't realize that sometimes you know when you're going towards a goal you can go at it with everything that you have um you could put in all the effort in the world and you can have the food right and your sleep right and still at the end of the day damn it there's somebody else getting the first place trophy and you've had that happen several times you know at the arnold and at the world's strongest man what have you learned from some of

those things yeah definitely a long it doesn't feel like a long journey to me but when i look back i was six times on the podium before i won it you know the world songs man three three times third three times second yeah and what I've learned throughout those year is hard work pays off being consistent and never you know giving up you know throughout my career I've been quite busy I got involved in Game of Thrones. I got that part quite soon. Everybody loves that. Quite soon in my career.

So I got quite busy. Like, it wasn't just throwing money. I was traveling around the world doing all kinds of stuff. Commercials, filming for Game of Thrones, you know, movies, whatever, you know. So I've been busy, but I managed to make it work Thrones, you know, movies, whatever, you know. So I've been, I've been busy, but I managed to make it work together, you know.

This year was very good for me, because most of the filming was after World of Warcraft Men. So that's the first year I've managed to film most of my, you know, shooting days after World of Warcraft Men. So that worked out great for me. I had some filming days, but not a lot. You know, most of the filming days were after World of Swordsmen

and some of the days were up to 18 hours of work, which is crazy. You can't really train, and probably when you're, like, shooting that long of a days. Yeah. Yeah, and people don't, maybe they don't understand, you know, strongman training is is pretty specific you can go in the gym you can lift some weights and that can help transfer over to strongman but without the implements and stuff you can really be at a disadvantage right if you

don't have some of the things around that you need for sure for sure you can you know work on your like strength you know just like the you know over overhead presses deadlift can you know work on your like strength you know just like the you know overhead presses deadlift squats you know you can work on your you know basic you know strength but being a good strongman isn't just showing up in the gym and doing heavy squats and deadlifts. You have to learn the events. And there's a lot about technique as well. You have to find the best way to make the events work for you. To become the best in the world, you have to be good at everything so you have to train everything and we usually don't know the events until maybe um

eight weeks before not even it depends really you know so it's you have to like throughout the year you have to train everything basically do you feel like uh at some point when you were finished finishing second and third that uh maybe um you were also maybe paying attention what the other guys were doing maybe like eddie hall would hit a big lift you know instagram's a big thing and you see all these lifts now and eddie obviously has had a big deadlift and everything you sometimes see some of the things the other guys do and maybe you were enticed by that maybe it steered your training the wrong way or uh no i never was concerned of what the other guys were doing i was always just focusing on myself um working with my coats you know working on my goals working on getting myself better

um I like to post videos on my social media for my fans to keep them happy you know um but I'm just here trying to get myself better yeah I'm not too worried about what all the guys are doing that's an excellent way of looking at it and i saw some of the lifts that you were doing you know going into world's strongest man and i think a lot of people that follow strongman training and just follow strength training in general sometimes they'll look at somebody and they'll go wow like either this guy either this is just part of his training and he's just really really incredibly strong uh or he's peaking too early you know i saw you squat 900 in training which i yeah i've never seen anybody you know over six foot five i don't think squat over even 800 pounds much less 900 pounds

so that was a remarkable feat and then i think an 881 deadlift for some reps maybe three or four reps or something like that it looked pretty whatever the case was i just remember it all looked pretty easy yeah and i remember in talking to stan because stan was getting with you at the time he's like yeah i don't know you know i said i said look i said stan i said how much do you and I know about strongman training? He's like, we don't know anything about it. I said, that's right. I said, you know, probably just leave that up to his coach.

But I said, if you look at the lifts, they look like they're done pretty easy. So in my opinion, from what I saw, it didn't even look like they were real maxes for you anyway, even though they were heavy. Is that how they felt or did they feel like they were? Yeah, you're definitely right. I never train, you know, when I'm preparing for a contest,

I never train to failure. I always have more left in the tank. And that was always the case, you know, and all of those widgets that are put up there, I always had more in the tank. I never trained to failure and it was all planned out weeks, weeks before, you know i had it written written out on papers and and each week was planned you know obviously you know

you make some changes throughout the weeks if something happens or something audible switch things up yeah but everything was planned i felt very good i was very consistent dedicated with my training diet diet, and everything. So everything felt great. Just, you know, training and everything was just perfect, you know. With that amount of training, do you need some, like, down weeks? You know, like you're squatting real heavy and deadlifting real heavy and then probably working on some of the events and stuff.

How does some of that work as you're going into the contest? Yeah, I think everyone is different, you know, with, you know, their body, how they recover to, you know, training and everything. I think my body does recover quite nicely with training, you know. But obviously, you know, after, you know, heavy sets of deadlift and squats like I was doing there, you have weeks where you're doing a little bit of lighter sessions. But my lighter weeks were still heavy for a lot of people.

I was doing maybe, I can't remember it, but let's say if I did 400 kilos squat for two reps, the next week I did maybe, um, three 50 for five reps. Right. We're still heavy, but it wasn't crazy heavy for me, but numbers, numbers are big. Yeah. Allowed your nervous system to probably recover and carry into the next workout. Yeah.

Do you think conditioning plays a big role in it? Cause it seems like, uh, you gotta be in shape enough to be able to handle kind of the brutality of each workout yeah for sure for sure i i think um um it does play a big role um i'm a big fan of uh 10 minutes walk after my meals you know yeah getting the blood moving and stuff like that and i'm also a big fan of uh hot cold. I have a hot and cold, you know, at home. And I use that a lot for my recovery. And I think it works great for me at least, you know, so I'm able to push myself in further and further. So I think a lot about how can I recover myself

so I can train even harder? How can I push myself? What can I do to become better? Like in any way like it's not just it's not like it's not like i'm just eating six meals a day and just training two hours a day it's a lot of other things involved that i'm doing to making sure that i'm getting as strong as possible and i'm recovering as fast as possible you know stan's not the first person to ever do it but he was somebody that brought that mentality into powerlifting and he's

somebody that brought that mentality to some of the strongman athletes as well where it was like when stan came into powerlifting he took the straight up mindset that he had from bodybuilding which bodybuilding is a 24 hour process. You have your lifting of your cardio, but then the nutrition is a huge part. And then without the sleep, without the sleep, you're really shooting yourself in the foot because the food's not working properly for you if you're not sleeping. And the training certainly not really doing anything. And if you're trying to burn fat Or gain muscle or gain strength Sleep is kind of where it all starts

You know And Stan brought that approach in And I know he's helped you with your diet and stuff Do you think that that ended up being a huge factor In some of your changes and PRs and stuff too? 100%, 100% It helped me a lot I'm very, you%. It helped me a lot. I'm very, you know, it helped me a lot.

He taught me a lot about, you know, how important the sleep is and also with the diet, you know. You know, he was like kind of at some points he, like in the beginning, we started to work together two years ago. And having him around, guy that knows, you like he like he's very you know he he knows what what he's saying so all the tips and everything i got from him you know um worked out great you know i loved it and i love it you know he's a great guy and you know it worked out great for me and I'm still on on his diet

still using my CPAP like he like was nagging me to do and I were actually I'm I have

hard time sleeping because of my size yeah but after I got used to using my CPAP you know the sleeping machine

it totally changed the game right and he was the one who was always nagging me about that you know after you have to be on the sleeping machine, it totally changed the game. Right. And he was the one who was always nagging me about that, you know, you have to make sure you're getting, you know, your sleep, you have to make sure you sleep with it. And I think that was also a big factor, you know, obviously the diet but also the sleep, you know, sleep part. I wasn't sleeping very great before.

Always weighing a couple of times a night, probably three, four times. Now, yeah, I wake up maybe once, twice maximum to pee or something. But I'm sleeping better. I wake up fresher, feeling better. So that was a big factor for me. That changed the game. Anyone that's listening to this, to this you know you know it's a good sign when you go to when you go to work out and you like a lot of guys are into like taking tons of like pre-workout and getting all hyped up and crazy for the workouts and teach their own you know do do your thing right but if you are still doing all that and

you're taking stimulants and trying to get yourself all fired up and there's nothing there to draw from then your nutrition is not on point or and or your sleep and that's something i learned too over the years is like that my sleep was really poor i think i'd sleep for two hours at a time if i was lucky when i was heavier and it was just i'd go to the gym I had every intention of doing the best that I possibly could. I wanted to put everything I could into those workouts, but I couldn't, you know, just like, it just felt like, um, I just didn't feel fresh enough. Didn't feel like strong enough. And then, you know, sure enough, like two weeks later,

I'd get a little bit better sleep and the workout would be through the roof. It'd be a lot better. And so that was a huge, made a huge impact on me as well when as you were traveling and stuff has a lot of that stuff changed i know stan is really adamant about the meal prep yeah eating your bison and your rice and getting all these uh certain foods in um what did it look like before you met stan would you kind of just grab a burrito or grab something on the run or yeah it definitely changes the volume you know I always I never traveled with my sheep pup or never like yeah I tried to you know meal prep food with me and tried things but I I wasn't as consistent as I am

today you know he helps me a lot with the meals as well you know um getting those when i'm traveling you know and um and whatever whatever whatever i'm going these days you always take my sheep but that's the first thing i do unpack my bag making sure my sheep is is there that's the first thing you know yeah if i if i don't have it i'm not sleeping that's that's just the case i would just buy it so if i would forget it i would just figure out to get it you know that's the case. I would just buy it. So if I would forget it, I would just figure out to get it. That's the case. I can't sleep without it today. And also with the meals, I just get frustrated and angry if I don't have my meals.

I have to have my meals. It's just part of me today. Right. And he taught me that. He me to be um this consistent you know you're a professional you know it's like if you just think about it this way um you know let's say we were hanging out with like conor mcgregor right and if conor mcgregor has a fight coming up and he's just sitting there eating some chipotle you're thinking like and he's and he's sipping on like a diet coke in your head you're thinking man he's not really doing everything that he can to be the best or if

you see you know one of these dudes they're out till two in the morning partying or whatever it's like well like i said he wanted to be the best but i don't think so yeah he's not actually following through with the action and that gets to be the best, but I don't think so. Yeah, he's not actually following through with the action. And that gets to be the hard thing. I'm sure before you met Stan and before you met your strength coach, what's his name, the Australian strength coach? Sebastian Orup. Yeah, before you met some of these guys,

I'm sure you were highly dedicated and putting as much into it as you thought possible. But then these guys kind of show you like another level. Yeah, I mean, I was dedicated before I met them. you thought possible but then these guys kind of show you like another level yeah i mean i was dedicated before i met them but having those guys around great guys great guys um pushed me to the next level you know i think stan mentioned something about like maybe at the arnold or something he was like shopping for food for you and like pillows or something like i don't even remember what it was but yeah just making sure you're comfortable.

Yeah, making sure I have everything I need, all the meals I need, and just making sure I'm on point in my game. It's very good to have him on my team, and he's helped me a lot to see my goals. Both of those guys, Sebastian Orp and Stan, everything. What about massages and stuff? You got to do a lot of that too? and and stan everything what about like massages and stuff you got to do a lot of that too i'm not a big fan of massages you know um i never personally got a

ton out of them either to be honest no but i like i said before i do a lot of hot and cold a lot of hot and cold like um in my preparation um when i'm like just focused and full forced into it, I'm probably doing hot and cold minimum three times a week. Yeah. And that's not easy to do, but you probably got used to it though, right? I got used to it.

Sometimes even more. Some weeks, like I did just five times a week, you know, I was just very dedicated. Like before I went to sleep, like 10 o'clock, I just went hot, cold, hot, like four four four sets so five five sets depending on how felt you know i just went straight to bed i just got knocked out has there ever been a time you know like as you were progressing and as you were going through all this and pushing as

hard as you can have there ever been a time where you just kind of were super frustrated? Like, man, I don't, I feel like I'm doing everything I can, but fuck, I don't know what to do next to get better. You ever feel like stuck or kind of anxiety about trying to get to that next level sooner? Maybe in the early in my career,

I was expecting too much too soon of myself. But nowadays I understand if you want to be successful you have to work hard. You have to be consistent. And when I'm very consistent, when I'm working very hard, I will see the results. They are going to come. And you just have to follow the program. And when you follow the program, step by step, day by day, month by month, then you see progress. Happens every year for me now, the past few years. I'm always getting stronger better i haven't been getting weaker so that's great right um and you also have to have the mind right you have to

believe that you can't become the in in whatever you want to be like if you want to be best swimmer in the world or best football player or best powerlifter or whatever you know you have to believe that you can't become the best if you don't believe it then i can't see myself you're gonna like i've always believed in myself and always you know nothing is impossible for me i like if i wanna do something i can't do it and i always tell myself i can't do those things like if someone says thor can you squat a thousand pounds i say yeah yeah i can i can't do that yeah i just need i just need the time and preparation um yeah yeah probably i mean honestly if you prepped for it maybe gained a little weight probably wouldn't be it probably wouldn't even be hard yeah i mean my plan this year was to squat a thousand but then like then i was just speaking to my to my coach i was actually

speaking about it to stan and sebastian at the time and they both agreed that you know it wasn't necessary for me to go heavier on the squad so i was already strong enough right um we weren't i wanted to work more on my uh deadlift so i took the squat a little bit you know i went down a little bit on on that area and focused more on the events my deadlift and my overhead press how much you bench press um i don't really like yeah there's overheads and stuff yeah there's a bench press in my program you know but you know the stronger i get the more i go to like incline incline bench press and then i you know it goes up a higher higher and um i've i've done um i can't even remember the numbers. I've done 220 for eight reps quite comfortably. You know, KT.

I haven't done one rep bands in a long time, like max, when I'm very strong. Usually when I'm getting this strong, I'm working on bands that's more like four rep rep of friends or even higher you know i'm not man and mainly to work the triceps or something for the workout for the blog and stuff like that definitely yeah yeah the risk to reward on some of these exercises just isn't worth it you blow out a peck and uh you know you tear a peck and you're gone for a whole year you know take a really long time to recover from that and then

Who knows what complications might happen after that So you gotta be careful with the selection Of exercises Do you like to do any bodybuilding Do you like just for like hypertrophy sake Do you go in and like train arms Or shoulders or And like actually get like blood into the area

Or you don't do anything like that I do do that you know um like after a long travel maybe i want to hit the gym but i'm not really there to hit a big you know session then i walk in the gym and i do some like body pump you know just to get the blood moving and feeling better you know yeah is it fun being world's strongest man like when you you know you run into different people going through the airport and they say, what do you do? Like rather than even saying you're a competitor, you can just kind of flat out say, well, I'm the world's strongest man.

Yes. It's got to feel really good to be able to say that. It is a nice feeling, and I've said it a couple of times, obviously. It's great, you know, because I'm a big dude and, you know, and if people don't know me and they're maybe talking to me and they ask me, dude, what do you do? Are you a professional wrestler or, you know? Yeah, yeah.

And I tell them I am the world's strongest man. And they're like, it's a good feeling to say it. So I don't hesitate. I'm just like, I put it straight out there. They're probably just like, well, that makes sense. Yeah. That's pretty awesome. Has there ever been times in your life, you know, professionally,

I know you've been, you know, chasing after some success outside of the strongman arena. Has there ever been times where you've been like depressed or had anxiety just about, you know, the type of work that you're going to do or your future or anything like that? Yeah, definitely. I think everyone, we're all human and I've been depressed before and have a lot of anxiety and stuff like that. that. Actually, late last year wasn't great for me and didn't feel very great, but I always believe when you overstep something hard, something difficult that's going on in your life, you become better, you become stronger.

And there were time in my life where I've just, fuck it, I can't do this, it's just too difficult. Just too much going on and stuff like that. I felt like just giving up. But then you think about your family and just your salary. You're not a quitter. I'm not a quitter. I want to, you know, so it's like you make a decision,

and with the decision you become so much more dedicated you know yeah the dialogue that you have to to yourself sounds like it's very healthy you know you said uh earlier that you know can i squat a thousand pounds can i you can start to take those questions outside of lifting um can i make more money than i did last year um uh you know it just it could be anything you could set your mind to to pick any any type of goal and the answer is yes like you can get there's always room to get better um you look at like someone like the rock or someone like tom cruise and you know you'd you know, can Tom Cruise get better at his trade? He would say, yeah, of course I can. You know, he just, it's going to take time.

You'd ask the rock, say, you know, do you think you could handle doing more work or more of this or more of that? And he'd probably say, yeah, I just need to figure out, you know, how to schedule it or whatever and done deal. Like, I think we all have areas where we can improve. And I think that's great that you shared that um so you kind of worked yourself through that by kind of thinking about your family and thinking about uh some of those things about your your own like morals and values placed on not being a quitter yeah for sure there's a reason why people are successful because they they believe in in themselves and they work hard.

You know, success doesn't come with laziness. Right. It comes with hard work and, you know, believing in yourself, believing that you can be whatever you want to be. There's a lot of, yeah, persistence and perseverance, and it takes a long time. What age were you when you kind of realized you were different? Like how old were you when you were kind of looking around and maybe you lifted or did something and everyone was like, whoa, like that was different.

What's going on with this guy? I never really thought about myself like I'm different or something, you know. I think. You didn't notice that you're a giant? I mean, I know I'm a tall guy. Yeah. Obviously. But I've never really, you know, I think we're all equal, you know?

I guess you grew into this over a long period of time too. Yeah. You've always been tall, I'm sure. Yeah. But then the frame tall, I'm sure. Yeah. But then the frame probably took a while to build. I mean, I had to work very hard for my size and everything, for the success I've had. It's a lot of hours and sweat, tears, and stuff that went into it.

It's something that wasn't given. Success is not given to anybody. that wasn't giving success is not giving to anybody you know it's it's it's it's like i've said a billion times before is this being consistent yeah being consistent you know and and believing in yourself having also having the right support is also very important you know having the right people behind you i have a very good team behind me. And I think that's also very, very important to have the right people there. You have training partners? I have training partners. I have my own gym back in Iceland. Not a big gym, but very nice

personal gym where I train with my friends. Stefan Søder-Pyresson is Icelandic strongman who actually placed fourth place at the World Strongest Man 2009. He is one of my training partners. He's also kind of like been my mentor in my career. He's taught me a lot, that guy as well. He's a great guy. We're great friends. We travel sometimes together, and we train a lot together.

What about some of the other Icelandic guys? You get a chance to train with them? Or what has it got, like Benedict Magnusson and some of the Magnus for Magnusson, some of those guys? Yeah, I've trained with them all. Magnusson lives now in the UK so I can't train with him a lot um what do you think about Benedict Magnussen I mean what like what a talented athlete like holy shit that guy was you know I don't know

if he's still on the circuit in terms of competing in strongman and stuff anymore but holy shit man that guy was one of the stronger people i've ever seen come along in the last you know 20 30 years that guy is very very very talented and he he could do like he is so strong and like i i don't even think that he knows how strong he is yeah he like if you put his mind through it you know i think you could you know do some crazy numbers you know he yeah i think he's like bench pressed like 600 pounds he's squatted over 800 pounds and obviously he has the he has the biggest deadlift in powerlifting history um he's just unbelievable and i've never seen calves like that before. He's got those mutated calves. He doesn't even train calves.

That's the scary part. Yeah. There's some talented people out there. And when you get into the World's Strongest Man, I mean, you're seeing these guys that keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger and more athletic too. People are able to move fast. They're able to move heavy weights around quickly.

What do you think about the structure of World's Strongest Man? Do you think that's, do you like the fact that a lot of times these weights are getting like these crazy, crazy numbers? Or do you think it would be better to see a more athletic approach where maybe the weights are a little lighter?

Say for example, on something like a yoke walk you know say it's you know a thousand pounds or 1200 pounds and you get to see the guy go further or you get to see the guys race with that weight rather than i think sometimes it's like 1800 pounds or something like that or what do you think of some of those dynamics in there? Yeah, I think, you know, the guys are just getting stronger as well. You know, it's, you know, we are, you know, pushing the organization as well. We are lifting more, you know. That's why they're making it more challenging. Yeah.

Because everyone gets so strong. We're just getting stronger. And the level today is just insane. You know, the guys are so strong. So it's getting out of hand for a lot of people, obviously, you know, because the weights are just getting heavier and heavier. But the guys are also getting stronger. I would like to see more movement in the sport,

you know, like not as crazy heavy in some of the events maybe. Like how much do you weigh? I am right now like close to 185 kilograms. And then when you compete, are you 200? Probably like 10 kilograms heavier yeah like maybe i'm heavy is close to 200 and i'm like i mean like 195 probably and so possibly if there was like more movement or more athleticism brought into the sport maybe you could potentially weigh less on game day and maybe walk around healthier i don't know i'm not sure yeah for sure i mean um i mean you wouldn't have to compromise and get and get so large because the sport wouldn't require it as much yeah right definitely um that's what i when i look at it those are the

things i see like i understand what they're trying to do but sometimes when i see the yoke carry and i know the guys are getting stronger um but i see it's like 1800 pounds or whatever i see somebody carry it and they stumble with it they only move and i say only it's 1800 pounds but they only moved it a certain amount of feet i think to the crowd they don't understand they don't understand they don't understand they'd i think they'd rather see you travel a little further with it might be more exciting if there was a little bit of a race with it or a medley you know those kinds of things i i do agree you know it would be better to have um maybe a bit um light lighter so that you know it's it's more... Yeah, I do agree, but it's...

Just do what you got to do. Yeah, just got to do what you got to do. We're all in it to be the best. End of the day, I think we find the strongest man. Yeah, that's true. I think that's for sure. You know, something that people don't realize in strongman is the warm-up. You know, the warm-up for these, you know, stone lifts and the warm-up.

And, you know, world's strongest man, I'm sure that Arnold is set up as well as they can get those set up. But some competitions earlier in your career, sometimes to prepare for a stone lift, you might just lift a barbell a bunch of times, right? Because they don't have like extra stones, right? Sometimes the warmup is like unconventional and not really all that related. And you don't even know what the stones are going to feel like

because they might be lopsided. People throw weights in the stones, like literal, like 45s and 25-pound plates in there on the amateur level to kind of create these certain weights, right? the equipment that we have assessed to being able to get warmed up for the events. But it's getting better. It's getting better with Rogue Fitness. They are great.

And they always... They just signed... This year, they partnered up with um world's longest man and it got it got 10 times better that's great so it's it's it's getting better and better but it's definitely room for uh like like they can like improve it for sure what's something you would like to see the sport do because the sports you know the sport's popular it's on tv um but you know there's probably it's a great sport there's probably still more room for the sport to even do better what's something you would like to see the sport do um i would like to see them for sure you know the first thing that comes into my mind is that

they would show it you know i think it, I understand it's hard to show it live because it's over like a few days. Right. But, you know, show it a week later would be fucking fantastic. They show it like three months later. Yeah, they're too old school. And I think, you know, with today's social media and everything, they have to, you know, step up their game and, you know.

Yeah. Get it out sooner for sure. Get it out sooner for sure. social media and everything, they have to, you know, step up their game and, you know. Yeah. Like. Get it out sooner for sure. Get it out sooner for sure. I think that would help the sport a lot, you know, because people with the internet and everything today, people, you know, get the information day later or just the same day, you know.

How did you get into Strongman specifically? Into Strongman specifically. I got into it just, you know, it's a couple of my friends were going to compete at Westfield Viking back in Iceland. And I knew that I was stronger than them. So I decided that I wanted to give it a go give let me show you how this is done yeah i just like i i wanted to try something out new you know i was very lost in my life at that point i was 20 years old didn't really know what i was doing just training like i was very lost you know

so i wanted to try something out something new tried someone out felt in love with it straight away and been in been in been in in it in it since and it you know

it definitely has changed my life you know you know at the time I was working you know in clubs as a security guy fucking terrible job

but I'm I'm happy where I'm where I am today yeah that job's the worst being like a bouncer yeah yeah working working nights like that and all that kind of stuff um so you're involved in some uh you got some sponsorship you got uh rogue fitness i believe right yep and then did you create like a bar with them or uh you made something i made a product with them yeah power bar yeah i have a power bar and a thor hat i'm wearing now i have a couple of teasers with them as well um and i'm sponsored with uh spd as well they're one one of my sponsors um and um noon

noon uh like hydration hydration tablets i love those things yeah those are those are great i just signed with them great company something something like all of my companies that i'm working with are companies that i'm very proud to be with you know yeah i tried to pick you know i'm there's obviously a lot of you know different companies trying to reach out and they want to sponsor me but i've learned throughout my career that i need companies that i believe in myself right something that i can promote without like feeling that i'm forced to you know like like i'm proud of you know that i use non-hydration you know it's right it's something that um keeps me keeps me hydrated and healthy through throughout the day and years you know um and i'm you know proud to be working with rogue fitness great company great people behind it you know and and as well

as spd you know great things they're doing you know um with uh the noon tablet that was actually stan efferding's first introduction to hydration yeah because uh jesse burdick and myself were at a meet that stan was competing in and stan was going to give up like he he was just dehydrated uh he wasn't feeling good um he he already is very pale but he turned even whiter than he already is. And he was just looking sick. I mean, he just was not looking good. And I was like, man, I think, you know, I said, what have you been drinking? And he's like, I've been drinking tons of water, and then I had a lot of Gatorade.

And I'm like, man, like, that's's the water dehydrates you and pulls out a lot of electrolytes yes gatorade is not good man and i said gatorade is not good either because it's giving you a lot of sugar and in order to keep up with that amount of sugar and that amount of carbohydrates then you need x amount more water and we don't have time to replace all that and so i said here try these these got sodium potassium calcium he sucked down a bunch of those got back out on the platform the rest is history and ended up breaking some world records that day but he he was going i mean he was on his way to the hospital he was like i'm going to the er and i said no this is not the way power thing works i said

we leave the numbers in we've still got a deadlift i said just if you still don't feel good in a little bit then i agree with you let's get the hell out of here because we got to be smart but drink this and relax and he did and he was able to come back stronger than ever now he's promoting everybody to uh dump salt in their drinks and salt their food and and everything like that is there any other business stuff that you're involved in other than your acting stuff that you're doing? Yeah, I have my own gym back in Iceland, Thor's Power Gym, which people can come in and buy at day passes.

But it's kind of a private gym, but you can come and train if you want to. We have to find the time together so they can come and train if you want to with you know we have to find the time together to that so they can come and I'm I have my own spirit I have my own Icelandic mountain vodka and Icelandic Eagle Gin it's called Icelandic mountain spirit company that I started with a couple of my friends it's been growing throughout the years it's not an old company but it's been growing

it's a fun project that I started with a few of my friends cool are you excited about that kind of stuff? passionate about learning business? yeah I am you know it's something that I you know I am for sure that's and we are now in a couple of different you know places we just like not too long ago we got into a costco in the uk uh that's great trying still to get in in into the states. It's hopefully soon,

but we are, you know, getting wider and wider. It's water, basically? Is that what you said? It's vodka. Oh, vodka. Yeah, sorry, sorry. Ah, vodka.

That changes everything. Yes, it doesn't keep you hydrated, but it's it's uh it doesn't keep you hydrated right but it's it's it's good before sleep you should watch the ronnie coleman documentary if you haven't seen it already yeah it's on netflix and on itunes and there's a good vodka story in there oh yeah i've seen it yeah it's great you've seen it yeah so he has like those shots of vodka and then he gets back on stage the next day and he's just all jacked because it actually helped dehydrate him a little bit to help pull some of the water off him and stuff like that.

And then so with your acting career, what's going on with that? What you got going on? I just finished filming season eight with Game of Thrones, Ég finnst bara að fylgja season 8 með Game of Thrones og ég hef hlutin fyrir þáttu til að fylgja, take big roles because it's like, let's say if I'm filming for three, four months straight, 12 hours a day, it's impossible for me to become the best. It goes against some of your main goal, which is continuing to be the world's strongest. I want to define my title.

I'm 29 years old now, and I want to define my title. So you have to make choices. I'm here today in LA because um i'm working here in a commercial i do travel quite a bit doing different things um doing commercial which doesn't take too much of my time but you know i i still have to make a living you know a commercial is just maybe two or three days worth of work, something like that. It's not nearly the commitment of a movie. Yeah. I think we've got to get you in an action movie,

like against The Rock. He could be like the main bad guy. How do we do that? Well, who do we got to talk to? Maybe The Rock? I don't know. Yeah, in the future, you know. I mean, you've got to be able to beat him up.

I mean, he's pretty big and strong, but he's not the world's strongest man. Exactly. But, you know, with him in it, you'd probably think that he would probably beat me up, you know. That's true. Did you see, or I think I saw you boxing not too long ago. And then did you do some stuff with Conor McGregor a while back? Yeah, a good friend of mine back in Icelandeland he he was a professional boxer and and sometimes we play around together yeah i think from what i remember now i think about it i think it was you

and i remember watching it and like you guys were going at it didn't look like playing around look like you guys were going at it pretty good yeah Yeah, that's a couple of years ago. Yeah. Where me and my friend were just playing around. It went pretty serious. Well, I was watching it and I was like, this is really crazy to see how well you're moving and stuff and throwing these punches. But then I started noticing the other guy and I'm like, oh, he's in there with a savage.

This guy's a pro. And you guys were going back and forth, but then he was kind of getting the better of you just cause that's what he does. Yeah. Yeah. He, he is, um, and he's a big as well. You know, he's a tall guy and he weighs, you know, in a, I use KT. He, he's probably close to, um, uh, 140, like three, 300 pounds, you know? You guys got to watch it on YouTube.

He's a big guy as well. It gets intense. So it's, uh, yeah, we know. You guys got to watch it on YouTube. He's a big guy as well. It gets intense. So it's, yeah, we've got liberty intense, yeah. How did Conor McGregor do against you? Yeah, it was so funny. You know, I was filming in Belfast with Game of Thrones, Belfast with Game of Thrones and a friend of mine, Gunnar Nelson, was in Dublin with Conor McGregor. They were training for a fight together.

He was preparing himself against Alto, you know, the great fighter. Yeah, great fighter. He knocked him out in like, what, two seconds? Right, yeah. So I was talking to Gunnar and I asked him if he could come and watch the session, because they were training very hard for this competition. So me and my friend, we drove over,

went and watched the session, and it wasn't planned. And we just, in the the heat we took some pictures and then they you know we were just joking around and and somehow we got you know started and we were just sparring you know i was i was wearing my i was wearing socks and jeans so you can definitely see it wasn't you know planned right It was just like two guys full of testosterone joking around. That's cool.

What do you got coming up next strongman-wise? Any competitions coming up? Yeah, I have one competition coming up in October. It's a new competition in Dubai. I think all of the big guys are competing at yeah so i'm i'm training for that right now um um do you have to have like one

one other competition in there at least once a year to um to be able to do the arnold and to be able to do the world's strongest man able to do the World's Strongest Man. Maybe you don't need to qualify necessarily, but do you need to tune up a little bit or no? Or you just like to do it because you like to do it? I like to do it to keep myself motivated, to keep myself to have some goals. Right now I'm preparing myself for this show. So, you know, it's good.

It keeps me on the point. It keeps me eating my six meals a day. It keeps me, you know, on a training schedule, even though I'm busy. Is there any variables with your food? Is there any variables with your diet? Like are you able just to like eat a pizza here and there or have some ice cream or are you pretty just?

I'm pretty consistent, but like maybe once a week I give myself a space. If that, you know, it depends. If I feel like I want to, I give myself a little bit of space and I have myself a pizza or burger or whatever. What's your favorite food? Favorite food?

Probably steak and rice, to be honest with you. What do they have in Iceland that they don't have here that you really like? Any sort of specific meals or anything like that that you like over there? Well, you guys have basically everything that we have. That's true. But we have, you know, I like our know our icelandic lamp is is is pretty unique and good um nowhere else in the world i think it tastes as good as in iceland very cool well it was amazing having you on the show i thank you so much i mean i can't even begin to express

in words it means a lot that you took the time to come here i know that you're really busy uh you're down here shooting a commercial you're in television you're in movies you're the world's strongest man congratulations on that uh that is really uh unbelievable and i'm sure you'll be battling right with some of the best again this year and at the arnold as well congratulations and good luck with everything. Strength is never weakness, and weakness is never strength. Catch you guys later. Yeah, thanks so much for having me, man. Appreciate that.

Yeah, definitely.