In this week’s column, Nino tells of his meeting with Eddie Hall and the man’s unbelievable daily routine!

East Anglian Daily Times: Eddie Hall (worlds Strongest Man) with James Brown and Chris Collins from MUDHO (DNA sports analysis comapany) at the University of Suffolk sports science laboratory Photo: PAVEL KRICKAEddie Hall (worlds Strongest Man) with James Brown and Chris Collins from MUDHO (DNA sports analysis comapany) at the University of Suffolk sports science laboratory Photo: PAVEL KRICKA (Image: Pavel.Kricka@btinternet.com)

This week’s column is all about the extraordinary day I spent with the World’s Strongest Man as part of the Muhdo Health Team who arranged a day of testing for him at the Hub, Centre of Excellence.

I have often heard the phrase, “Man Mountain”, when you meet Eddie Hall, you would think this phrase was made for him.

The sheer size of this man is overwhelming, for me it has associated implications because I come from a world of sport.

I very much appreciate and understand that the bulk represents an unbelievable level of gigantea strength, through pulling, pushing, and athletic power across many challenges.

East Anglian Daily Times: Eddie Hall (worlds Strongest Man) Photo: PAVEL KRICKAEddie Hall (worlds Strongest Man) Photo: PAVEL KRICKA (Image: Pavel.Kricka@btinternet.com)

These challenges are all wrapped up and offered as a challenge through the world-famous Strongest Man Competitions that are televised globally.

The visit by Eddie Hall to the Hub, was special for many reasons.

It represents the opportunities that arise when many entities of the fitness, sport and health world join together to create something just that little bit special. Muhdo Health, a company with global reach in the DNA and epigenetics World, is based in Ipswich.

They have now developed a very special relationship with the Hub, so of course, when Eddie Hall needed a programme of testing, Muhdo Health, knew who to turn to.

The visit from the World’s Strongest Man did not only have benefits for him, it also provided the University of Suffolk Sport and Exercise Science Students with an exceptional opportunity to listen to quite simply an extraordinary athlete, who had a mind blowing and inspirational story that saw him become the strongest man in the world.

The scene was set, Eddie sat down in front of the students on a lifting platform, and where his amazing story began to unfold!

Eddie committed to the three-year process of training for the World’s Strongest Man title, by selling his business which provided establishments with security personnel on site, and became a professional athlete in 2015.

He said he was “regimented”.

“If I went to a doctor and told him what I did, day in, day out for three years, he would say I am insane, obsessed!”.

He carried on talking to the students who were, at this point in a kind of mesmerised state, he told them that his life was a continual process of alarm setting, and everything that his disciplined life consisted of, was for one reason, and one reason only, to win the World title.

The day to day schedule he then went on to describe, was simply and utterly jaw dropping!

2am alarm – raw eggs, protein shake, then back to sleep

7am alarm – eat a full English breakfast, washed down with a litre of ice-cream

9.15am alarm – second breakfast, super-sized bowl of porridge, 5 pieces of fruit, beef jerky, litre of cranberry juice

11.15am alarm - quick snack, 100g pack of cashew nuts and fruit, this was followed by one and a half hours of physiotherapy.

Lunch – large portion of steak, chicken and rice, pasta, vegetables, half a family cheesecake, and 1 litre of ice-cream, followed by a power nap.

3.30pm alarm – second lunch, large portion of tuna sandwiches, flap jacks, fruit, which led to the consumption of two litres of Lucozade and a gym session, while training, Eddie would drink 3 litres of Cranberry juice, one litre of Guernsey milk with a protein shake, large portion of raw steak at the mid-point of the session, with more snacking on beef jerky.

The training session would end at 8pm, where he would drink a litre coconut water. The gym session would be followed by a trip to the spar, where Eddie would stretch for an hour in a hydra pool. This was followed by hot cold treatment, sauna then an ice bath.

Evening meal would start at 10pm, spaghetti Bolognese and Indian Curry, the other half of the family cheese cake, and another litre of ice-cream, followed by a trip to the bottom of the garden, where Eddie has his own home gym, and where he would then climb into his Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber.

The chamber offers the athlete an 100% inhalation of oxygen, which enhances the healing process for the body.

Eddie explained that he would sit in the chamber for an hour and a half, staring up through a little perplex window, until around midnight, when he would exit and have his last meal of the day which would be a protein drink and protein bars.

He completed this schedule by telling the pupils he carried out this routine every day, 365 days a year, driven by the dream of becoming the World’s Strongest Man.

Meeting Eddie Hall, was an experience I will never forget, and I am sure, neither will the students of the University of Suffolk!