Ever wondered why Strongman athletes are capable of achieving humongous feats of strength? Well, the 2017 World’s Strongest Man Eddie Hall has undergone a study designed to reveal some of the reasons. The study took place at Loughborough University and was particularly focused on Eddie Hall’s deadlift power.
The results of the study were surprising, as three muscles turned out to be unproportionally enlarged compared to the others. Those three muscles have helped Eddie Hall become the first person to lift 500 kilograms (1,102.3 pounds), meaning that they could also be beneficial for the standard gym goer. The full study was published in the Journal of Applied Physiology.
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Scientists Uncover the Secret to Eddie Hall’s Herculean Strength: The Surprising Role of Three Key Muscles
The first thing that Eddie Hall did once he arrived at the university was warm up and get ready to perform a simulation of a one-rep-max deadlift. However, he did not have to go through the entire deadlift motion but rather just the pre-lockout stage. In turn, he ended up producing 750 kilograms (1,653.5 pounds) of force, which is truly mind-blowing.
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“We used an isometric mid-thigh pull with the barbell fixed in a static position. This was kind of the closest we could get to asking him to do a maximum deadlift attempt,” said one researcher.
“I’m not as strong as I used to be, but it still proves that I can generate a huge amount of force,” said Eddie Hall.
Eddie Hall then moved on to the MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging), as the researchers wanted to scan all of his muscles. Although he barely fit in the machine, the results came out looking good.
“The MRI scanner is whirring away because we are scanning Eddie Hall, who is the 2017 World’s Strongest Man. The current scanning that we are doing is looking at his muscle anatomy, all the way from his rib cage down to his ankles, so that we can look at and measure the size of his muscles.”
In the meantime, the researcher revealed what the goal of the study on Eddie Hall was and revealed just how extraordinary the 2017 World’s Strongest Man is. Most notably, some of his muscles are nearly two times larger than that of a normal man, while his entire lower body muscle mass, in particular, was 96% bigger.
“The people have been interested in Strongmen and strength sports since the dawn of civilization… So, we are excited to go through the data carefully and see how Eddie stacks out for all of these characteristics and properties. How unusual is he?
Oh, he was very unusual! His muscularity in many muscles is way bigger than anything we measured in other groups, including trained and athletic groups. His muscular development was exceptional, especially in muscles that we wouldn’t perhaps expect to be as developed,” said one researcher.
Check out Eddie Hall’s 500-kg / 1,102.3-lb Deadlift here:
They then moved on to the main question, which was what muscles helped Eddie produce such high numbers of deadlift force. Well, the muscles that had a big effect on stabilizing his thigh were the ‘guy ropes’ muscles, which include the Sartorius, Gracilis, and Gemitendinosus. Apart from those three muscles, Eddie Hall’s quadriceps proved to be insanely developed as well.
“What we found was that there were three individual muscles that provide stability to the thigh and the pelvis that were particularly larger compared to an untrained population, in the magnitude of 140% to 202%.” said another researcher
“We were surprised that the greatest muscular development was of the long, thin “guy ropes” muscles that stabilize the pelvis and thigh. This indicates that these stabilizing muscles may be more important for heavy lifting and carrying than we previously thought,” said Professor Jonathan Folland.
“The muscles of the calf (plantar flexors) and the three “guy ropes” muscles that provide stability to the pelvis and thigh had the largest differences (+120 to +202%) relative to a group of untrained men, with his quadriceps muscles, on the front of the thigh, being twice as large. All these muscles are vital for heavy lifting, carrying, and pulling tasks, staples of the strongman sport.”
While the aforementioned muscles obviously played a significant role in Eddie Hall’s deadlift, the other muscles that were also enlarged, not to the same extent, were those groups that are involved in flexing the hip.
“Some of his other muscles, used in movements that are not so important for heavy lifting and carrying, such as those involved in flexing the hip, showed much more modest differences when compared to untrained men (23-65% larger). And his patella tendon, that his quadriceps muscles attach to, was only 30% larger, despite the quadriceps muscles being twice as large, suggesting that muscles are much more adaptable than tendons with training.”
Watch the video here:
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Eddie Hall is widely recognized as one of the greatest Strongmen in history, especially with regard to the static strength. His 500-kilogram (1,102.3-pound) Deadlift, and World Record at the time, pushed the limits of what was thought to be humanly possible, and we now know how he managed to achieve it. On the other hand, Eddie also held an Axle Clean & Press World Record at one time, showing that his upper body power is exceptional as well.
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