‘The Mountain’ Explains How He Trains And What He Eats To Stay As Big As A God Damn Landform

Hafthór Júlíus Björnsson is the owner of one too many diacritics in his name and a physique created from marble. At 6’9” and pushing 400 pounds, Björnsson is a walking, talking piece of earth. It makes sense he’s the destructive Mountain on Game of Thrones. It was a role he was destined to play.

Destined, but not born, because while Björnsson is breathing skyscraper now he was once a tall, thin basketball player in his home country of Iceland. Seven years ago, Björnsson tipped the scales at 230 and just decided one day to get as big and strong as humanly possible.

Björnsson talked to GQ about his workout, his diet and how when he’s not eating he’s usually training and vice versa.

On Trading In Lay-Ups For Deadlifts

“I was always getting injured. I injured my ankles quite badly. I had to have surgery. So the second time I had an operation I decided to take a break from basketball to heal my foot. I could train more then, and I just fell in love with the weights, fell in love with training hard, started to put weight on quite fast, started to get strong really fast. I saw results.”

On What He Lifts To Stay The Size Of A Mountain

“We pull airplanes, we pull trucks. We run with cars on our shoulders. We lift quite heavy stones. We do all kinds of crazy things. The thing that I’m probably most proud of probably is my Viking record. The 1,000-year-old Viking record I did in Norway this year. The log weighed close to 1,500 pounds, if I remember right.”

On What It Feels Like To Break A 1,000 Year Record

“I had to take at least four steps to break the record. And I remember when I went under the bar and I tried to pick it up and I felt the pressure going from my neck through my body and straight to my toes. I felt like my body was going to collapse. I took a break, took a good breath, went under again. I took a step, I felt my back was strong. It was going to hold, so I carefully took another step. I faced straight ahead, more pain in my back. My third step, it felt like my body was going to break. I took a fourth step, and I realized I broke the record. After that, I felt my body was quite fucked up. [laughs] It did heal up quite fast after the record. I did celebrate with my friends, and I ate a lot.”

On What He Eats To Stay The Size Of A Mountain

“I eat a lot of sweet potatoes, a lot of meat, fish, chicken, good fats like cocoa butter, almonds. I love greens, like spinach, avocado, broccoli. I eat very healthy overall—but because of my weight, I need fast carbs, easy carbs. So maybe before a training session or after a training session, I eat what I want.”

Björnsson also took a friendly shot at UFC fighter Conor McGregor about their recent sparring session. “He was trying to punch me. I didn’t feel anything.”

I’d pay money to see that fight for real.

[via GQ]