Eddie Hall has built a career out of defying limits in the world of strongman. But one conversation with his doctor made him realise there was one line he couldn’t afford to cross.
‘The Beast’ — known worldwide as the 2017 World’s Strongest Man and the first human to deadlift 500kg — has opened up about the chilling wake-up call that convinced him to step away from the sport that made him a legend.
Speaking to Men’s Health UK, the 37-year-old said that despite feeling on top of the world after claiming the Strongman crown, his body was close to breaking point.
“I walked away from strongman because of health implications,” Hall said. “Nothing was particularly wrong with me, but everything was on the limit.
“Every time I went to the doctor, my kidney markers were always through the roof. My liver markers were through the roof. My haemoglobin. You know, my blood was super thick. And, of course, my body weight was super high. BMI, there was no recording for it.”
It wasn’t a single test result that scared him — it was what his doctor said next.
“The doctor said to me in the end, ‘Look, if you lined the whole of the UK up, all 70 million people in a row, I would pick you out as the most likely person to have a heart attack and a stroke.’”
That was the line. The tipping point.
“That’s what did it for me. It’s doomed. It’s inevitable doing strongman,” Hall continued. “I didn’t want to get to that point where I have a heart attack or stroke and then be like, ‘Damn! Why didn’t I walk away?’”
At the time, Hall weighed 430lbs — nearly 200kg — and was consuming up to 12,000 calories a day to maintain his size. Nights were spent worrying if he’d even wake up the next morning.
“That was a serious concern, being 430lbs,” he said. “Every night was a lottery.”
Since retiring from competitive strongman after reaching the pinnacle in 2017, Hall has undergone a transformation that’s as dramatic as any of his lifts. He’s lost more than eight stone (112lbs), stepped into the boxing ring, and even made his MMA debut. But he’s never truly left the strongman world behind — instead, he’s reshaping it.
While Hall might have left the competition stage, his passion for the sport is far from over. These days, he’s channelling his energy into taking strongman global in new, unexpected ways.
Currently, Hall is in Malta filming Battle of the Beasts — a high-budget sports-entertainment series that he says will reinvent the strongman format for a new generation.
“It’s going to be on a big streaming platform very soon,” Hall teased in a recent YouTube video. “But the competition is looking pretty good. We’ve got 12 athletes — mainly from strongman — and we’ve got a surprise contestant. You’ll have to wait till you see it on the big streaming platform.”
According to Hall, Battle of the Beasts isn’t your average weightlifting contest. It mixes traditional strongman events — think log lifts, stone carries, and vehicle pulls — with more chaotic and crowd-friendly challenges like sumo wrestling, belly flop showdowns, and food contests.
“I’m really happy,” he added. “The production is massive — we’re talking over seven figures for production. This could be the next big thing for strongman, it could really transform it. Take it to the masses. So keep your eyes peeled.”
For a man who once lived off 15,000 calories a day, it was a return to old habits — if only briefly.
But for Hall, the new ventures are about more than just entertainment. They’re about legacy. About showing that strongman can evolve without losing its soul. He might have stepped away from the world’s heaviest bars, but Eddie Hall hasn’t walked away from the sport. He’s just building it into something even bigger.
And considering what happened the last time he set his mind to something, you wouldn’t bet against him.
Featured image credit: Instagram/EddieHallWSM
