Eddie Hall has achieved so much greatness in his life, already at such a young age. In 2017, at just 29 years old, he was crowned the world’s strongest man, but has already retired from the sport? When did this happen, and why did he make such a bold decision? Let’s find out.
Eddie Hall retired from the World’s Strongest Man competitions back in May 2017. Hall said that he always planned to retire after he won World’s Strongest Man, going out with a bang, and wants to preserve his health and lifestyle so he can spend more time with his family.
To find out more about Eddie Hall’s amazing journey to become the world’s strongest man, and more on why he retired and how bodybuilding can be such a danger to your health, keep on reading!
Eddie Hall Going to Number One
Eddie The Beast Hall made it to be the number one alpha male in the world back in the 2017 World’s Strongest Man competition. He broke records by becoming the first person ever to deadlift 500kg and describes his feat as fulfilling his dreams and achieving what he set out to achieve.
Here’s a clip of his impressive feat that will truly blow your mind;
How to Become the World’s Strongest Man
Eddie’s journey from being a kid to the number one deadlifter in the world was not an easy one. Eddie has frequently spoken about the physical and mental capacity you need to become the world’s strongest man – and it’s not easy.
Eddie’s number one rule for becoming the best is goal setting, and for him, that meant setting the goal to become number one. However, this means so much more than just saying to yourself that you’re going to do something; but instead means going public with your goals, telling people around you about them, and working hard to make sure you’re held accountable.
It’s all about creating the inner fear that you’ll let people down if you don’t work hard to do what you said you’ll do. That includes yourself. But, as you can probably imagine, it’s not all a mental game, but you also need to put the work in.
Eddie has always been an active person. From the age of five, he was a National Champion when it came to swimming and already developed the habit of practicing around 15-20 weeks in between school. This means he already put himself into a place where he was fitter and mentally stronger than those around him, giving him a helping start when it came to becoming a strongman.
Then you have to take considerations like diet into account.
Eddie shared an insight into what kind of diet he followed, which involved consuming around 12,500 calories per day, which basically means he was constantly eating. He stated in an interview;
“From the second you wake up to the second you got to bed, you have got something in your hand, you are eating or drinking something. It involves setting alarms, so you get up at 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning to eat, you know.”
While it may sound easy to eat for so long per day, perhaps even enjoyable, we can see how quickly it would become such a chore and that maintaining a 30-stone weight would be incredibly hard work – as stated by the number one man himself.
The Dangers of Being the World’s Strongest Man
The main reason Eddie Hall decided to retire from competing as the World’s Strongest Man was due to the impact the sport was having on his health. In an interview with The Malestrom, he spoke in-depth about how he came to this conclusion.
When he went for the title to deadlift 500kg, Eddie states that it was one of the most dangerous things he has ever done. After the event, he talks about how he lost his vision for four days and was struggling with a concussion. He also described how he found blood coming out of his ears, his eyes, and his nose, and while he’s happy he won the title, he would never put his body through something like that again.
To become the World’s Strongest Man, you have to give up so much, and Eddie is very open about the sacrifices he had to make. In the interview, he said;
“You have to be a 100 percent selfish person; nothing else matters apart from yourself when you’re training to be number 1 in the world – if you lay off that track for even a week, it’ll take you four weeks to catch up.”
Imagine. Eddie shares that he didn’t go on holiday with his wife for seven years, nor did they have their honeymoon, despite having been married four years at the time. He had to miss birthdays and school plays and had to focus on solely doing everything for himself to be number one.
With that in mind, it’s easy to see that there are not just physical repercussions for becoming the number one in the world, but the mental and social impact that the necessary training and commitment you have to have can have such a massive effect on your wellbeing and the ones you love.
It’s easy now to see why Eddie would retire. He got to number one, he reached his goal of becoming the best in the world, and now he can sit down and let other people have their turn while focusing on all the other important aspects of his life.
We think that’s a true inspirational feat that many of us could aspire to take onboard.