‘Surprising’ secret of Eddie Hall’s phenomenal strength and it’s all to do with the legs.
Researchers claim that athletes like world-class strongman and deadlift champion Eddie Hall get their power from a set of three long, thin muscles in their legs
Scientists believe they have discovered the key to becoming the world’s strongest man like Eddie Hall – and it has nothing to do with bulky arm muscles.
Researchers at Loughborough University claim that athletes like world-class strongman and deadlift champion Eddie get their power from a set of three long, thin muscles in their legs.
Known as “guy ropes” muscles, the trio work to stabilise the pelvis and the thigh, like the guy ropes used to secure a tent.
Jonathan Folland, professor of neuromuscular performance at Loughborough University’s School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, said: “You would anticipate that someone who is extraordinarily strong, like Eddie Hall, would have very big muscles – and you can, kind of, discern that by looking at him.
“We expected the big muscles involved in extending the knee and hip would show the greatest development. While these muscles were certainly well developed, we were surprised that the greatest muscular development was of the long, thin ‘guy ropes’ muscles.
“These muscles have had very little attention scientifically, so we don’t really know how important they are in different tasks. But to find that they were really very well developed in someone who has spent decades lifting and carrying heavy loads – and is very good at that – was really interesting.
“These muscles clearly are more important for lifting and carrying very heavy loads than we previously thought.”
The researchers invited Eddie, from Clayton, to take part in a series of tests at Loughborough University, including MRI scans and isometric mid-thigh pulls – a reliable way to test maximum strength without performing a deadlift.
Their aim was to understand more about how strong people’s muscles are across different populations, from extremely strong athletes like Eddie – nicknamed The Beast – to those who are weak and frail. Eddie‘s results were then compared to more than 200 people including elite athletes, people who trained regularly and untrained individuals.
And researchers found the “guy ropes” muscles, known as sartorius, gracilis and semitendinosus, were 140% to 202% larger in Eddie, compared with men who do not strength train.
Eddie, who won the World’s Strongest Man title in 2017, also held the record for the heaviest deadlift in history of 500kg until it was broken by Iceland’s Hafthor Julius Bjornsson in 2020. Prof Folland said: “People have been interested in strength sports and strong men since the dawn of civilisation… but the amount of scientific work studying people like Eddie Hall has been almost zero.”
Findings published in the Journal of Applied Physiology also revealed Eddie’s lower body muscle mass was almost twice that of untrained men while his quadriceps muscles, which are on the front of the thigh, were twice as large. The calf muscles – known as plantar flexor – were also 120% larger than the untrained men, the researchers said.
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