Eddie Hall won World’s Strongest Man in 2017 and became the first person to deadlift 500 kg in competition. Most people put that down to training and sheer stubbornness, and both played their part. But in this clip from his 2019 London Real interview, Hall tells Brian Rose about another factor he only discovered later: a rare variation in his DNA that he calls the “Hercules gene”.
It’s a short, light-hearted clip with a surprise family story in the middle, and it explains a lot about how a former swimmer from Staffordshire ended up as the strongest man on the planet.
▶ Watch the full episode: Eddie Hall – The Strongest Man in History
What the DNA test found
Hall says he has done several DNA tests, including a detailed one with the testing company Muhdo. It flagged a variation in the MSTN gene, the gene behind myostatin. Myostatin is a protein that limits how much muscle the body will build, which is why it comes up so often in strength sport.
To explain it, Hall points to Belgian Blue cattle, the breed famous for looking like it has “muscles on muscles”. Those animals carry a strong form of the same variation. In people, he says, the extreme version is very rare. What he describes in himself is a milder one: his body makes less myostatin than most people’s, so the usual ceiling on muscle mass sits higher. In his words, “they call it the Hercules gene.”
Right gene, right sport
Hall doesn’t claim the gene did the work for him. He calls it a case of the stars aligning: he had already decided to become World’s Strongest Man, and he happened to have a frame that could carry far more muscle than normal. The training, the eating and the years of competing were still his. The gene, as he tells it, simply raised the limit on what all that work could build.
The family surprise
Then the story takes a turn. After the first test Hall had others done, and one showed a large share of Scandinavian ancestry. That made no sense to him, because both his parents are British. A conversation with his mum cleared it up: she had been adopted, and her family roots were in Sweden. “So I’m actually a Viking,” he jokes.
He thinks the gene came from her side. His mum, he says, only has to lift a weight for her arms to grow, and her calves are as big as his. His brothers are thick-set (one played professional rugby), and his 10-year-old daughter had just beaten every boy in her school year at arm wrestling. His six-year-old son, he adds, is already showing the same build.
Why Nordic strongmen win
Brian points out that Nordic athletes have a long record in strongman. Hall agrees: Icelandic, Swedish and Norwegian competitors have won more titles between them than any other part of the world. His theory is that the variation he carries may trace back to that same corner of the map.
What to take from it
The lesson isn’t that you need special genes to get strong. Hall’s story is about what happens when an unusual body meets an unusual level of commitment. Most people will never get close to the upper limit of their muscle mass, because the training it takes is brutal. Hall did that work for years, and only afterwards found out why his limit sat higher than everyone else’s.
This clip is Eddie Hall describing his own DNA test results. It isn’t medical or genetic advice.
Who is Eddie Hall?
Eddie Hall is an English strongman from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, known as “The Beast”. A competitive swimmer as a teenager, he moved into strongman, set the 500 kg deadlift world record in 2016 and won World’s Strongest Man in 2017 at his sixth attempt. He has since worked in television and on YouTube, and speaks openly about mental health.
In his full London Real episode, recorded in 2019, he tells Brian Rose how a young swimmer became a strongman, what years of competing at the top cost him, and how he approached the 500 kg lift. You can also watch his London Real Success Secrets: Eddie Hall – Success Secrets.
See everything Eddie Hall has done with London Real on his guest page: Eddie Hall on London Real.
More on London Real
Transcript
Transcript: Eddie Hall – The “Hercules Gene”: What His DNA Test Revealed
0:00 Brian Rose: Have you ever looked into your genetics? Do people ever ask about your genetics?
0:05 Eddie Hall: I have. I’ve done many DNA tests. I did one with a company called Muhdo, who really dived into my DNA, and they found a gene called MSTN. It’s an MSTN deformity, actually. You know the Belgian Blue cows? The big muscly cows that just have muscles on muscles on muscles? They’ve got the MSTN gene, and they’ve got type 1.
0:31 Eddie Hall: Humans can have it as well. They can have type 1, which is very, very rare. I think there have been a few cases, like when you see babies with muscles on them, but they don’t live very long. But then there’s a type 2 MSTN gene, which basically limits the amount of myostatin you produce, and myostatin limits how much muscle mass your skeletal frame can hold. So if you’ve got no myostatin, there’s no limit to how big you can get.
1:03 Eddie Hall: So I’ve got this gene where I don’t produce as much myostatin as any other person. They call it the Hercules gene, and it’s super rare. So basically I can hold a lot, lot more muscle mass than any other normal person. And I suppose the stars were aligned: I decided to become the World’s Strongest Man, and I had this gene to make it possible.
1:34 Brian Rose: Does anyone in your family have it, or is it a mutation in you?
1:38 Eddie Hall: I believe it runs in the family. It’s a funny story, because once I’d had this DNA test done I went and had others done, and I found out I was a large percentage Scandinavian, like Swedish. And my mum and dad are British. So I was like, this doesn’t make sense. We had the conversation with my mum, and it turns out my mum was adopted.
2:10 Brian Rose: Oh, wow.
2:11 Eddie Hall: So I found out my mum was adopted, from Sweden, via my nan. That’s how I found out. So I’m actually a Viking. I’ve got the gene.
2:24 Eddie Hall: And looking at my mum and dad, I’m pretty certain. My dad’s big, nearly six foot three, a 14-stone guy. He’s in his 60s now, but in his day he was a big guy. And then I look at my mum, and she only has to lift a weight and her arms blow up. She’s got calves as big as mine, and I’m not joking, they’re as big as mine. So I think the gene has come from my mum’s side, the Viking side.
2:52 Eddie Hall: I can see it in my brothers, because they’re very thick-set. My brother was a pro rugby player. And my daughter, who’s 10 right now, turning 11, is huge. She’s the biggest in her year, in height and width. They had a sports day the other day and she won a few things, and then she said, “Well, it’s funny you say that, Dad, because we had an arm wrestling competition after.”
3:20 Eddie Hall: I said, “Did you get stuck in?” She’s like, “Yeah.” “Did you beat the girls?” “Yeah.” “What about the boys?” “Yeah.” “What, you beat all the boys in your year?” “Yeah, thrashed them, no problem.” So my 10-year-old daughter is twice as strong as the boys in her year. She’s a big, big girl.
3:36 Brian Rose: Is Strongwoman a thing, or will it be?
3:38 Eddie Hall: It is a thing, yeah. I’m pretty certain she’s got the gene, and I can see it in my lad as well. He’s just started doing some sports, and he’s got that bulk around his ribs and his shoulders are starting to sprout out, and he’s only six. So I think it’s hereditary.
3:54 Brian Rose: The Nordics are typically successful in strongman, right?
3:58 Eddie Hall: Yeah. The Icelandic, the Swedish, Norway. They’ve won a lot of titles between them. I’d say they’ve got more titles than any other part of the world.
4:05 Brian Rose: So your gene may be a variant of that.
4:08 Eddie Hall: I think it is. I think it’s a Viking gene. The MSTN gene could possibly come from that part of the global map.
