When legendary bodybuilder Ronnie Coleman recently spoke about the devastating toll his career has taken on his body, even Eddie Hall appeared to be left in shock. In his prime, Coleman he was known for lifting superhuman weights, be it 800-pound squats, or 2,300-pound leg presses. But as powerful as Coleman was in the gym, his body paid a steep price outside it. 

Coleman recently recounted the staggering tale at The Good, The Bad & The Beast with Eddie Hall, of how he used to have in an average 3 surgeries each year, behind the glitz and glam of his eight Mr. Olympia title. While Coleman’s legacy remains unmatched, the journey he has lived off the stage, in hospitals and rehabilitation, reveals the extraordinary price he has paid for greatness.

The Aging Titan

Ronnie Coleman’s dominance remains one of the most celebrated chapters in bodybuilding history. Dominating  the Olympia stage from 1998 to 2005, he not only won eight consecutive titles but redefined what size, strength, and conditioning looked like in the sport. But the strain of lifting record-breaking weight eventually took its toll. 

Coleman began suffering disc and spinal damage, leading to surgery after surgery, that involved procedures on his back, hips, and neck. So when Hall inquired about how the surgeries alongside the recovery from each must have taken a toll on him, Coleman recounted one such attempt: “They would do surgery on my back, and the screws that they put in would break. They broke it three or four times in a row.”

This left Hall visibly shaken and when he further inquired that if things continually kept on getting worse after only little recovery, Coleman shared another painful saga. He shared how once after his hernia was shed off, his disk had started to disintegrate. He explained, “ It's like you had a stack of cans, you pulled one out, rest fall.”

Coleman further shared how while he was ‘apparently’ on his prime, he was still dealing with a lot of pain- “Because I remember the last Olympia did, I could barely stand on stage for two, three minutes at a time. When I was that last Olympia. I would go out there and pose. As soon as I came on stage, I would go to the back and just sit down.”

While Coleman remains open about the daily battles he faces, Hall himself has also been candid about his own injuries from his strongman career. But in the end, it appears that despite broken bones, discs and screws, Ronnie Coleman still stands strong. 

Written by

Joyita Das

Edited by

Sagnik Bagchi