Strongman Eddie Hall has spent much of his 2020 training attention on his upcoming boxing match against rival Hafthor Bjornsson, set to take place next year. But between ramping up his cardio workouts and implementing moves like box jumps, he’s still having fun by challenging himself with other alternative training modalities, like the Olympic shot put and the U.S. Navy SEALs Physical Fitness Test. Most recently, he tried out some other Olympic throwing events with his friend Pat. They gave both the discus and the hammer throw a whirl.
“I did it in high school, before I was expelled,” says Hall of the discus. “But from what I remember, it’s hard. It’s a big apparatus to fit in your hand, and 2 kilos (about 4.4 pounds).”
He looks up the world record, which was set in 1986 by Juergen Schult who threw for 74.08 meters.
On his first throw, Hall only get is 36 meters.
“Pretty terrible,” he says.
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He then decides to watch the video of Juergen Schult when he broke the world record to copy his technique.
“Big sweep up, two rotations and it’s gone. That’s quite incredible,” says Hall. “It’s all about getting that speed up in that rotation.”
With his new knowledge, he tries to implement the rotations, but struggles to even get the discus out of his hands.
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“I can’t get it,” he says.
With some more practice, he finally sends it flying.
“That was worse. It really hurt my arm,” he says, as he measures it out at 33 meters. “When you’re not used to this kind of thing, you haven’t got the techniques, so you’re trying to use all your power and you end up overstretching your arm, your ligaments, pulling your shoulder, biceps, triceps. And it’s not comfy when you start to get an arm ache from doing stupid things.”
He doesn’t want to give up until he reaches 40 meters, and on his next throw he nails it with a 42 meter throw.
“I’m happy with 42 meters, first time doing it since I was like 12 years old,” says Hall. “As I say, being a Strongman, I’m very good at moving weight from A to B, but functionally not so good at putting it into action. That is very technical, and it is absolutely mental. That must take years and years and years of mastering that technique.”
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The lads also tried tossing the hammer, another event in the Olympics. The results were much the same. Hall and Pat should probably stick to their normal training.
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