Exercise scientist Dr. Mike Israetel is back to break down the training of another strongman legend. In a recent YouTube video shared on December 13, 2024, he critiqued the strongman training and athletic performance of Eddie ‘The Beast’ Hall.
Eddie Hall has left a massive mark on the sport of strongman, routinely showcasing otherworldly strength, endurance, and power. In 2017, he reached the pinnacle of his career, capturing the World’s Strongest Man title against a stacked lineup of top-tier talent.
Though, his WSM victory only scratches the surface of what he’s been capable of. A year before winning that prestigious honor, he solidified his name in the sport’s history after setting the world deadlift record, which amounted to a staggering 1,102 pounds (in competition). Although this feat was broken by his rival Hafthor Bjornsson, many still regard Hall as one of the strongest men on earth.
Exercise Scientist Critiques Strongman Star Eddie Hall’s Training
Given his shocking power and strength, physiologist Dr. Mike Israetel took to YouTube and gave his account of Hall’s strength and athletic pursuits.
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“Today, I have the great and distinct honor of examining in depth the Mr. Eddie fucking Hall. Eddie Hall, former World’s Strongest Man, one of the strongest humans to ever walk the face of the planet and a trained boxer.”
To kick things off, Dr. Mike Israetel explained why the particular training strategy that Eddie Hall uses might not be ideal for individuals who aren’t already strong and muscular.
“If you are already big and strong and you want to reach the pinnacle of explosive athletic performance for your sport, do a little bit of training specifically geared for really fast contractions of your muscles, ballistic movements and that sort of thing, is really, really wise.”
Instead, Dr. Mike Israetel recommends people focus on getting stronger by working on speed and power training, unless, of course, you are Eddie Hall.
“I will say, in direct literature, it’s clear that up until you get very strong, and some of the literature indicates like a squat of double your body weight to roughly parallel, actually getting stronger makes you more powerful, which is to say explosive than just working on speed and power training.
So if you’re not really strong yet, explosiveness training can help, but just getting stronger helps better. Of course Eddie Hall is way stronger than those normative standards so he should be using this.”
When analyzing Eddie Hall’s next movement, Dr. Mike Israetel revealed that he is doing a variation of burpees and also emphasizes the versatility of this movement, especially for combat sports athletes.
“Very cool. Very cool stuff. So these are basically burpees on the fist. Burpees can teach you a lot of really good stuff and get your motor patterns going, they really do help reinforce level changes, which is critical for a variety of sports.
If in a combat situation, you get knocked down, getting up quickly before your opponent has a chance to advance their game on you is a really, really good idea, and obviously this trains the explosive upper body musculature really well. This is a really swell movement” Dr. Mike Israetel explained.
Next, Dr. Mike Israetel discusses how medicine ball slams can be great but points out how individuals can often perform them incorrectly.
“Medicine ball slams are excellent for the anterior chain, all of the muscles that pull you down this way. The thing is, most people do them wrong.
How? They don’t use a medicine ball that is sufficiently heavy to require you to really push super hard. Two, they kind of just mail it in.”
To help his followers understand how to properly perform medicine ball slams, Dr. Mike Israetel shared a few tips that he uses when doing this exercise.
“You have to visualize ultimate power generation. One of the ways that’s has helped me is, there is something on the ground that you have to destroy with the medicine ball. It’s not so fragile but it has its limits and only if you throw the ball as hard as possible at does it break and you win the game. That’s how every throw should be approached.”
“Another tip, every throw in a medicine ball throwing training exercise has to be treated as a one throw at a time. Don’t you dare save up your shit.”
“The best way you train power is to try sort of really close to your hardest every single rep.”
In regards to Eddie Hall’s intense 500-pound incline lift, Dr. Mike Israetel couldn’t hide how impressed he was with the level of control he maintained throughout his reps.
“Here, Eddie is leisurely inclining 500 pounds. So a full dead stop and unload with that center of control, this is like, he could probably do a set of six or seven of these with normal cadence no problem. This is beyond insanity.”
Lastly, Dr. Mike Israetel addresses Eddie Hall’s incredible 1102-pound deadlift.
“This is legendary and monumental. I want you guys to give that some thought if you’re at home listening to this. What you witnessed was a categorically superlative feat of humanity. This is not something anyone just does.
It’s just out of this world beyond impressive.”
Dr. Mike Israetel wraps up the video by giving his overall thoughts and analysis of Eddie Hall’s insane training regimen.
“That was intense. Eddie Hall’s the man.
So, Eddie Hall gets a legendary strength out of ten and, he gets two ratings, a person who was the first human being ever to deadlift 1100 pounds out of ten.”
This isn’t the first time that exercise scientist Dr. Mike Israetel has broken down the training routine of a strongman legend. In the past, Dr. Israetel critiqued the workout regimen of 2018 World’s Strongest Man Hafthor Bjornsson, acknowledging his smart strategy of lowering weights when working around injuries.
Of late, Eddie Hall has been a busy man. He recently lost an arm-wrestling match to fellow strongman great Brian Shaw. Given Eddie Hall’s incredible achievements, including his title as the World’s Strongest Man, Dr. Mike Israetel was deeply impressed by his power and strength during training.
What especially stood out to Dr. Israetel was Hall’s remarkable control and precision while lifting massive weights, a testament to the sheer skill and mastery that has fueled his success both in the gym and on the world stage.
RELATED: Eddie Hall Floored by Leg Kick from Kickboxing Champ Rico Verhoeven
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