- Eddie Hall competed in one of the toughest eras of Strongman but still managed to leave his mark, becoming the first man to deadlift half a ton and winning the 2017 World’s Strongest Man. However, after claiming the most coveted title in the sport, Eddie announced his retirement, choosing not to compete anymore. Hall now revealed that the decision was made because of his health, as he had an exceptionally high risk of suffering a heart attack or a stroke.
Although nearly ten years have passed since Eddie Hall retired from Strongman, he still remains very active. He has mostly been focused on combat sports for the past few years, having fought against Hafthor Bjornsson, Mariusz Pudzianowski, and the Neffati brothers. Hall is now eyeing a potential matchup against Dillon Danis, but he needs to cut down to 300 pounds (136 kilograms) in order to make it happen.
Eddie Hall Opens Up on His Health Scare in Pursuit of the 2017 World’s Strongest Man Title
Eddie Hall pays close attention to his health, but during his preparation for the 2017 World’s Strongest Man, his medical results were alarming. He had problems with his kidneys and liver, but the biggest issue was his hemoglobin and cardiovascular health. Eddie’s doctor tried to paint a picture for him, saying that people much lighter than him are at risk of suffering a serious medical condition, but that Hall, in his state at the time, was definitely going to suffer a heart attack or a stroke at some point.
“The only health scare I had really was five weeks before I won the World’s Strongest Man. I went to a doctor and had full blood work done, and everything was on the fu**ing brink. Kidney markers were off the charts, and liver markers were off the charts.
The biggest concern was my hemoglobin, like the thickness and sludge of the blood. The consistency of your blood. He just put me into a—he drew it, and I remember him drawing it on a piece of paper for me and being like, “… So you’ve got someone who is 100 kilograms (220.5 pounds), a big human being that’s going to be on the top end of that scale, which is like heart attack risk and stroke risk. And then you’ve got someone like 130 -140 kilograms (286.6 – 308.6 pounds). They’re way off the chart. You’re in the danger zone here. Your hemoglobins are thick. Your liver and kidneys are on the brink.
I was 200 kilograms. So, when he wrote it down and put me into a chart, you’ve got high risk, super high risk, and then I was like off the charts… definitely going to have a heart attack and a stroke. And it was like, wow. And that’s when it sort of hit me as like, I am on the fu**ing brink.”
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Eddie Hall was aware of the risk at the time, but his doctor’s words proved to him that it was much more serious than he thought. Specifically, his doctor revealed that, in that exact moment, he would single out Eddie as the most likely person in the UK to have a heart attack or a stroke based on his results. That is why Hall decided to retire immediately after achieving his goal of winning the 2017 World’s Strongest Man, choosing to take care of his health instead of pursuing more titles.
“Everything was working overtime to keep my body from having a heart attack or a stroke. So that’s why I won my title and retired. Just get that body weight down instantly. Just get those markers down and just get myself out of that danger zone territory.
I mean, when a doctor’s looking at you and he’s saying, “If I lined 80 million people up or 70 million people up at the time, the whole population of the UK, if you lined everybody up in a row, who’s most likely to have a heart attack and a stroke?” He said, “You’d be at the top of that list.” I’m like, “Yeah, that’s it.” It just made sense when he laid it out like that, put it in the chart and talked about it.
And I remember there was, like, and we all get it, you know, you sort of drive into the gym, and you feel like a little palpitation in your chest thinking, ‘Oh, this is it.’ You get those little aches or something in the chest. And then you’d recover like it’s fine. I’ll carry on.”
Even with all of that in mind, Eddie Hall did not want to give up his goal of becoming the World’s Strongest Man. Instead, he believed that life would not be worth living if he did not reach the top of the podium. So, he would go to bed to sleep, thinking that he would not wake up, but accepting the fact because the title was worth taking the risk.
“Those were real concerns for me. And I’ll never forget the last five weeks of training for the World’s Strongest Man. And it was almost like a suicide mission. It was almost like I just didn’t care because I wanted to win that title so badly. It was either win the World’s Strongest Man or life is not worth living for.
So, I was honestly going to bed every night, and I sort of had the conversation in my head. It was like, 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. That was my sleep routine of talking to myself, trying to convince myself that nearly dying or possibly dying is going to be worth it in the long run. And it was…”
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Eddie Hall weighed nearly 200 kilograms (440.9 pounds) during the final portion of his Strongman career. While that is not unheard of in the sport, it is important to note that Hall was much shorter than the likes of Brian Shaw and Hafthor Bjornsson. So, the weight had a much more damaging effect, as revealed by Hall himself. Luckily, he managed to get everything back to normal with time.
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