When Hafthor Bjornsson tore his pec muscles in April this year, he called it one of the worst injuries in his career. The gnarly-looking wound soon healed, but the champion took his time before returning to the arena. However, with his recent announcement of getting back to competing at strongman championships, the athlete still has a long way to go.
Bjornsson has since been sharing his training routine with fans, weeks before his first strength sports championship, the Arnold Sports Festival. In order to go head-to-head with the current champion, Mitchell Hooper, the Icelandic hulk has been going the extra mile, hoping to break some records along the way. And the recent video uploaded by Thor shows exactly that.
Yet, since his injury has been quite traumatic, Bjornsson confessed that it has impacted his strength to some extent. And this, in turn, has affected his performance.
“Honestly, in my opinion, because of the pec tear and the boxing, my shoulder strength has probably been most affected since everything, you know. So, what I’m trying to say is, I need to really gain strength and get some momentum.”
Regardless, the 35-year-old strongman champion was determined to bounce back in full force. He took up the challenge of doing three sets of axle clean and press, with one rep each, every day. The weight he chose for himself right off the bat was about 330 lbs. However, he will eventually work his way up to the competition.
Towards the end of the video, Thor checks in with the cameraperson and the audience, asking to take a look at where his pec tear was once. There was a significant improvement, and, save for a small scar, the muscles looked good. He performed some sets of bench presses cautiously and succeeded.
This is just scratching the surface for the Icelandic athlete, as he plans on overthrowing other strongman icons for the title. And while there are many potential contenders, Bjornsson specifically had his eyes locked on Hooper.
Hafthor Bjornsson openly challenges Mitchell Hooper
Friendly rivalry always spices things up in competition, and it looks like Strongman fans have their new duo. After his comeback announcement, Bjornsson has been calling out this year’s World’s Strongest Man, Mitchell Hooper, to fight him.
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Hooper won the crown of the World’s Strongest Man 2023 and became the first Canadian strongman to do so. However, now he has an Icelandic ‘Mountain’ to worry about. With open call-outs, Bjornsson has sounded the bugle and is ready for war.
