Eddie Hall, former World's Strongest Man, picks the deadlift as the single best exercise for overall strength. He switched from high-carb strongman eating to mostly meat and eggs, reporting better sleep, mental clarity, less soreness, and improved cardiovascular performance. He still eats carbs and fermented foods on weekends.
Questions this video answers
Deadlift.
A carnivore-style diet: primarily meat, eggs, and dairy (with some fermented foods).
About half a kilo of steak (and up to a kilo of pasta or rice on the side).
He says roughly 99% of his intake is meat.
He says he's training five-minute MMA rounds and feels like he could 'go again' at the end of five minutes.
Chapters
If you could pick one thing to do consistently, that is the best thing to train, to get strong, the one thing, what would it be?
I mean, it's got to be the deadlift. I think if you're going to pick one exercise for the rest of your life to keep, keep fit, keep strong and keep everything good strength, I would say deadlift because it trains absolutely everything. It does. You know, you think about it, you stood on your feet to start with, so you're working your feet, your calves, in some ways, you know, when you stoop down, you're working your glutes, your hamstrings. Yeah.
You feel it there as well.
Forefront and back, your upper back.
Right.
Your grip, your forearms, your biceps. Everything's taking a blaster. I think it's not blasting really is your pecs and shoulders.
Yeah.
So, yeah, I would say the deadlift pretty much hitting every muscle group in one go.
Okay, thank you. And then what about a hack, diet wise? What's one thing that you just think really helps with strength if you in your diet?
So I've started doing the carnivore diet, which has been absolutely phenomenal for me. So for years and years and years, especially in the strongman days, I would consume loads of carbs. Like, you know, I would have for my lunch, I would have like half a kilo of steak and hot, like getting towards a kilo of pasta, sometimes a kilo of rice. It was ridiculous.
Not far off those.
And then for pudding, I'd have like half a family cheesecake. So. So, like the carbs for me was stupid. Like, stupid amount of carbs.
And were you, were you doing that to get bigger or just because you loved eating carbs?
I think both.
Yeah.
I think to get big carbs is the way.
Yeah.
You want to put size on and, you know, mass carbs. But now I'm in my later years, I would say the best hack is, is just eating meat. Yeah. Just like the carnivore diet, just meat, eggs and dairy. And that, that has honestly been a game changer for me. It has absolutely transformed my life, mentally, physically. Like, I'm sleeping better. I'm so much. Got so much more clarity. I'm remembering things more. My all my blood markers have improved. Every single one has got better. I feel better. My information's better. I'm not as sore, not as laggy. I've got more energy.
Wow.
Because I'm performing just off fats, so my energy levels are actually better. I'm. My cardiovascular is stupid compared to what it, what Used to be, you know, I'm training five minute rounds in, in MMA at the minute and at the end of the five minutes I'm like, could go again. You know, it's, it's, it's surreal what this diet. And I would, I was. If somebody told me in the strong Mondays you could eat nothing but meat and be super strong and fit, I'd be like, off. That's. There's no way. But now I've done it and like, I've cut the carbs out. It is a game changer.
So you've completely cut carbs out of you.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not super, super strict on it. And there will be times, like sometimes I'll do to Friday, nothing but meat at the weekends, you know, no carbs.
Wow. And you don't feel lethargic or feel great, feel awesome.
And you know, the weekends, I'm not like super strict. So the weekends I want a bit of sourdough and my eggs for breakfast. Love some sourdough. Let's say on a Saturday, Sunday night, everyone's having a takeaway. I'll have a takeaway, but I'll just, but I'll just keep that in mind. So I'll just say if you're having a Chinese, I'll have loads of meat and just have a little bit of noodles, you know, just keep the carbs right down. And I still feel good. So that's been a really good hack for me.
And is there a limit to the meat you can eat? You just keep ramming it down.
Keep ramming it down. I think there's been studies, so I'm big into longevity at the minute and there's studies on red meat and longitude. So the government will tell you that the more red meat you eat, the shorter your lifespan and the more chance of death. But if you actually delve into it and go into the studies. So the people that eat the most red meat on the planet is Japan. Right. And Japan have got the longest lifespan of anyone else on the planet. And then I think, second me, I can't, I can't think right now. But let's say second was like Thailand, I don't know, and they ate the second amount of most of red meat on the planet and they had the second longest lifespan. So there's a massive correlation between red meat and the lifespan of a human being.
Wow. So you're not like talking about having protein supplements. You're getting it mostly through actually eating red meat.
Yeah, I have my subs but yeah I'd say 99 of my intake is, is meat which is great because what.
Man doesn't love steak?
I mean it's great.
That's a, this is a glitch in the matrix.
It is a glitch and like you think how do you do that? And there's so many things like if for breakfast I'm having salmon eggs, a little bit of like Greek yogurt sometimes lunch is always like half a kilo ribeye steaks, I'll have chicken wings, I'll have black pudding, I'll have halloumi cheese. You know there's just so much stuff out there and I sorry tell a lie. I obviously eat quite a bit fermented foods as well.
Right.
So I'll eat like has to be live cultured sauerkraut and live cultured kimchi. So I'll eat stuff like that. That's why it's sourdough bread sometimes because it's live cultured. So stuff like anything that keeps your bacteria good.
