- You ever looked into your genetics?
And do people ever ask where your genetics are?
- I have, I have, you know.
I've done many DNA tests,
I've done one with a company called Muhdo,
who really dived into my DNA, and they found a gene called,
it's an MSTN deformity, actually.
And you find it in, you know the Belgian Blue cows?
You know the big muscly cows that just have muscles
on muscles on muscles?
So they've got the MSTN gene and they've got type 1.
And humans can have it as well.
They can have type 1, which is very, very rare.
I think there's been a few cases of people,
like when you see babies with muscles on them,
but they don't live very long.
But then there's a type 2 MSTN gene where they,
basically, it limits the amount of myostatin you produce,
and myostatin limits how much muscles mass
your skeletal frame can hold.
So if you've got no myostatin,
there's no limit to how big you can get.
So I've got this gene where I don't produce
as much myostatin as any other person.
And they call it the Hercules Gene.
So it's super rare.
So basically, I can hold a lot, lot more muscle mass
than any other normal person.
And I suppose it was just, the stars were aligned
that I decided to become the World's Strongest Man
and I had this gene to sort of make it possible.
- Does anyone in your family have it
or is it a kind of mutation for you?
- I believe, um, sorry, pulled my microphone off.
- That's fine. - I'll put it back on.
I believe that it runs in the family.
I mean, I found out, once I had it, it's a funny story that,
'cause once I had this DNA test done,
I went and had others done,
and I found out that I was a large percentage
of Scandinavian, you know, like Swedish, Switzerland,
and my mom and dad are British.
So I was like, this doesn't make sense,
so we had the conversation with my mom and everything
and it turns out my mom was adopted.
- Oh, wow.
- So I actually found out that my mom was adopted
from Switzerland or that--
- Sweden, or whatever. - Sweden.
Via my nan, and that's how I found out.
So I'm actually a Viking, you know, I got the gene.
And then I'm pretty certain, looking at my mom and dad,
my dad's big, my dad's six foot three, nearly,
14 stone guy, he's in his 60s now,
but in his day he was a big guy.
And then I look at my mom and she only has to lift a weight
and her arms blow up, and she's got calves as big as mine,
and I'm not joking, they're as big as mine.
So I think the gene has come from my mom's side,
from the Viking sort of side.
And I can see it in my brothers
'cause they're very thick-set.
My brother was a pro rugby player.
And then my daughter, who is 10 years old right now,
turning 11, and she's huge.
She's the biggest in the year, tallest and width,
and they had a sports day the other day
and she won a few things,
but then she said, "Well, its funny you say that dad
"'cause we had an arm wrestling competition after."
And I was like, "Right, and did you get stuck in?"
She's like, "Yeah."
I says, "Did you beat the girls?"
She's like, "Yeah."
I was like, "What about the boys?"
She said, "Yeah."
I was like, "What, you beat all the boys in your year?"
She was like, "Yeah, thrashed them, no problem."
So I've got my 10-year-old daughter
who's twice as strong as the boys in her year, you know,
she's a big, big girl.
- Is Strong Woman a thing, or will it be?
- It is a thing, yeah, so I'm pretty certain
that she's got the gene and I can see it in my lad as well.
He's just started doing some sports
but he's got that bulk around his ribs
and he's got his shoulders starting to sprout out,
and he's only six years old, you know, so.
I think it's a hereditary thing.
- The Nordics are typically successful in Strong Man, right?
- Yeah, yeah, the Icelandic's, the Swedish, yeah,
they've won a lot of titles between them, Norway.
I'd say they've got more titles
than any other part of the world.
- That gene may be your variance of that gene.
- I think it is, I think it's a Viking gene, yeah.
It's like the MSTN gene could possibly come
from the Viking sort of place in the global map.
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