Thor Bjornsson adopted a 4,000 calorie diet and intense training plan to lose 60kg for his boxing clash with Eddie Hall.
The Icelandic star will face strongman rival Hall tonight in what is being described as the heaviest boxing match in history. Both Bjornsson and Hall are famous for competing against each other in the World's Strongest Man competitions.
Bjornsson used to enjoy a monster calorie intake of 10,000 calories each day at the height of his strongman career which would see him in peak deadlifting condition. Now he has made a huge cut to meet the demands of his 60kg weight loss.
He weighed in on Thursday at 152kg, more than 10kg heavier than Hall.
Now he eats five meals a day with significantly less calories with a huge focus on steak to fuel his training workouts. “For breakfast I have steak, oatmeal eggs and berries," Bjornsson told Mirror Fighting . Second meal my food is rice, steak and zucchini.
"My third meal I have fish, potatoes and some kind of creams. My fourth meal I have salmon, rice and spinach. Then my last meal of the day is a meal of Skyr which is like a type of Greek yoghurt with some mixed berries and peanut butter."
Bjornsson begins his day by consuming 250g of Flank steak with a combined 210g of oats, strawberries and blueberries. His second meal comes immediately after with 250g of beef tenderloin with a portion of rice. His third and fourth meals involve 225g cod and salmon portions with 250g potatoes and 100g of spinach and rice. His final meal consists of 250g of yoghurt mixed with 30g of peanut butter and another 100g of berries.
Bjornsson's diet has been complemented by training which is vastly different to his previous strongman routune. He previously trained three times a week and had a split of strongman exercises including squats, overhead press and deadlifting.
Now Bjornsson has introduced boxing elements to his training alongside a new focus on strength and conditioning to improve his endurance for the grudge match. “A typical training day is that I am training at 10am in the morning, usually some boxing stuff working on my technique and on the pads things like that," he continued. "Then I am training again at 4pm or 5pm and then we are doing some running alongside some strength and conditioning workouts. Before we mixed this in with some sparring.
Bjornsson begins the day with focus on his boxing work using a skipping rope and pads to warm-up and begin his session. He then moves on to technical boxing which involves sparring where he is known to have worked with professional and amateur fighters including heavyweight star Martin Bakole.
What do you make of Thor Bjornsson's diet plan and boxing training? Let us know in the comments section below
He us later put through conditioning exercises including and burpees and medicine-ball work before moving into aspects of improving his boxing technique with coach Billy Nelson. This includes working on his defensive skills, variety of punching combinations and footwork.
His training session in the evening consists of strength and conditioning including going for a long run to improve endurance and stamina. Bjornsson has frequently spoken about the importance of improving these aspects before stepping in the ring.
He has relaxed his training recently ahead of the fight in a bid to avoid injuries, and has recently been working out in Dubai during fight week. “This morning I was having treatments, hot and cold with the sauna," Bjornsson added . "I am just training, eating, sleeping and relaxing. Nothing else, nothing more.
"But I am staying busy, one hundred percent. But I am not training too intensely, small technique work just to stay sharp. This morning I did six rounds of shadow boxing and then tonight we will do some pad work and technique work but nothing crazy.”
