Winning the World’s Strongest Man title is the pinnacle of the sport, but for Eddie Hall, the pursuit of that dream came with a price he genuinely believed could be his life.
Speaking during an interview with Rob Moore, Hall opened up about the extraordinary physical condition he was in before claiming the biggest prize in strongman, revealing that doctors had warned him he was at an extreme risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke just weeks before the competition.
For Hall, walking away wasn’t an option.
Instead, he pressed on towards the title he had spent years chasing, despite believing each night could be his last.
Reflecting on the health scare that changed everything, Hall explained that the warning came after undergoing extensive medical tests just five weeks before he became World’s Strongest Man.
He said: “The only health scare I had really was five weeks before I won the World’s Strongest Man as I went to a doctor and had a full blood work and everything was on the brink.”
He revealed that virtually every major health marker was flashing red.
“Kidney markers were like off the charts. Liver markers were off the charts.”
But the biggest concern wasn’t his organs alone.
“The biggest concern was my haemoglobin, like the thickness and sludge of the blood, you know, how the consistency of your blood is,” he said.
Hall recalled how the doctor tried to explain the severity of the situation by drawing a scale comparing bodyweight and associated health risks.
“He just put me into a… he drew it on a piece of paper for me and was like, right so you’ve got the fat bastard scale,” Hall said.
The heavier the individual, the greater the danger.
Yet Hall’s size placed him in an entirely different category.
“I was 200 kilos. So when you put me into a chart, you’ve got high risk, super high risk. And then I was like, Eddie risk,” he said. “I was up here like off the charts.”
The diagnosis was brutally direct.
“And he said heart attack and a stroke risk very high… extremely high, definitely going to have heart attack and a stroke.”
The warning forced Hall to confront a reality he had largely ignored throughout his rise in the sport.
“And it was like, wow. And that’s when it sort of hit me as like I am on the brink,” Hall revealed. “Everything was working overtime to keep my body from having a heart attack or a stroke.”
Despite hearing those words from a medical professional, Hall made the decision to continue training for the biggest competition of his career.
He admitted the doctor’s assessment terrified him.
The message became even more sobering when the doctor compared Hall’s risk against the entire UK population.
Hall said it finally put everything into perspective.
“It just made sense when he laid it out like that.”
The fear wasn’t limited to the doctor’s office.
Every strange sensation became another reminder of what could happen.
“I remember there was like… you sort of drive into the gym, and you felt like a little palpitation in your chest. You like, ‘Oh, this is it.’ You know, you’d have these scares. But for me, those were real concerns.
“You know, you get those little ache or something in the chest. You like, ‘Oh, f***. This is it. Oh god, no.'”
Rather than easing off, Hall threw everything into those final weeks of preparation.
Looking back now, he admits it felt like there was only one acceptable outcome.
“It was almost like a suicide mission,” he said. “It was almost like I just didn’t care because I wanted to win that title so badly.”
The obsession had reached a point where nothing else mattered.
“It was either win the World’s Strongest Man or Life is not worth living for.”
Hall revealed he developed a nightly ritual before going to sleep, mentally preparing himself for the possibility that he might never wake up.
“I was honestly going to bed every night, and I sort of had the conversation in my head, if you don’t wake up tomorrow, are you going to be sorry? And I’d be like… I have to win this title.
“I honestly thought I’d go to bed every night thinking I wasn’t going to wake up the next day.”
For Hall, becoming World’s Strongest Man fulfilled the ambition he had spent years risking everything to achieve.
But it also marked the moment he knew the pursuit could not continue if he wanted to protect his health and his future.
Featured image credit: Rob Moore / YouTube
