Strongman Robert Oberst Shares His Worst Injuries | Joe Rogan

I can't wait till like I'm done with the sport and I can actually do stuff that will make me feel good. Like you know instead of like waking up broken every day I'll be like oh I can do a little bit of yoga. I like to hike that kind of stuff. Yeah you're looking forward to a normal life. Yes exactly. What injuries have you had? I the first amateur show I was doing actually I competed Brian Shaw who was on the TV show with us. I was a four time world's strongest man when I was out of Colorado. He was hosting an amateur show in Colorado and I was in Santa Cruz training ocean sea level went up to outside of Denver to compete at the show and fucking had a heart attack. It was so so hard but it was the deadlift. It was like maybe two months after I started deadlifting maybe three months. So I'd never really deadlifted and we were deadlifting a car. The back end of a car and they made it heavy so it was probably for amateurs heavy is about like eight hundred eight hundred and forty pounds something like that. So I'm winning the show and I'm doing it in front of four time world's longest man winner who already I had my sights on him like I was coming for him. You know like I that's like when I first started I was like okay this guy's the best this guy's the best I'm coming for that guy. So I wanted I wanted to show out you know. So I go out and I pull the car up I do the first rep and I was like just basically it took ninety percent of everything I had for that first rep but like a meathead I was like oh I'll pull the second one you know. It's four reps. So I go pull the second one about halfway up my lower back pops and I just let go both my legs went stiff and then they went numb completely. I fall forward into Brian's arms actually as he's judging me and my legs were numb like maybe two months straight and then off and on for like two years. They were just so bad for that first two months I actually ended up in I finished that show ended up in second place qualified for Nationals which was my goal so I could get my pro card I went home started training for Nationals with numb legs and had to sleep in my pickup truck because I wouldn't I couldn't lay down. We had we had a studio at the time no chairs we just had a bed and so I would sleep in my pickup truck get up drive to the gym go train and looking back like yeah that was stupid it was really stupid but that's once I failed at football in my eyes I failed once once I kind of painted myself in this corner I was like I'm just I'm just not gonna lose. And you never got an MRI? No. I didn't have insurance. Fuck but even now you don't want to get a look see? Kind of do I mean it feels good now I mean I should take a peek. I might I need it I'm gonna go get my Achilles checked out because that this current this last World Strongest Man I had a decent pop in my Achilles and so I'm gonna get that checked out but I've been been really careful about how I rehab stuff like that but you're right yes I should check out my bag. It's crazy though that your legs were numb for two years. Yeah off and on they were straight numb for about two months. Straight numb like someone could stab you in the leg. Like like a sleep. Oh okay. Like that yeah and it was sciatic. I pinched my sciatica basically what I was told. And so you know I figured that then after that I was in Africa and I ripped my bicep off the tendon and I'd been getting beaten up a lot at that point and like my first year World Strongest Man it was so easy for me to get to the finals I kind of just was like you know fucking you know it's whatever I don't have to work for this I am the strongest man without having to work for it. And got into Africa after being beaten up a lot and kind of getting my head pushed down in the sand for two years in a row and ripped that off and I was just like I'm done. Like in my head like I just I thought I was done. I remember walking out by the river and sitting there and just feeling like broken just like I didn't know what I was gonna do with myself or anything like that. And I walked back to the tent and the referees were telling me like you know get your stuff they don't they don't want you that once you get hurt you have to fly you home right away. They don't let you stay and watch the finish or anything like that shit they make you leave. Yeah I think it's a liability thing I don't know basically they just gotta get rid of you. But the judge for the show was like hey we're doing what's called the Hercules hold and you're up are you gonna do it? And the Hercules hold means you reach out with both arms here like this and you have like a handle like basically like in the gym you know the row handles like that attached to a tower that's falling and you hold it as long as you possibly can. And in my mind I was like this is the last time I've ever gonna be here so I might as well leave some fucking blood on the bar. So I walked out and did it. And uh. Could have torn bicep off the bone. Yeah the tendon. So I went over there and I was just like fuck it like let's at least leave a mark you know like I had to do something. Did you tape it up or anything? What are you gonna tape up? Like it's not I mean like it's like fully extended your arm. It's basically just taking weight pulling you. And so it's not direct like curling hurting but it's yanking a tendon further up into your bicep and I felt it creeping up into my shoulder as I was doing it. And I did great actually. It was the best event I'd had that year. You know I'd trust it. And I remember just closing my eyes and being gone. And just if when I let go it was almost like being baptized man. Like I felt like all the pain and all the stress. Everything I'd felt like build up once I'd gotten hurt. I just dumped it all. And then it took me it took me I think it was two more years. I finally fought back. I thought I was done. And then last year I made it back into the finals. I'm now again top 10 strongest man in the world. So was it because of surgery and rehab? Surgery. Everything else was so beat up once I finally stepped back I was like there's no reason I should have to take an hour to be able to walk in the morning. Yeah. You know like there's no reason why my back should hurt from walking from the front door to the car. You know like I was so wrecked and so I just started working on different things trying to take care of myself. And I got back to Worlds that next year actually. I got back and I just didn't do well because I hadn't been able to do anything. And then came back the following year which was just this last year. And you know basically I've been written off. I was told it was my last time I was getting invited because at this point like you're done you know like it's time for you to find something else. And came out and I've had the show in my life. I've been working so hard but you never know how strong you are until you line up. You never know like what kind of athlete you are until you get tested. So I got lined up and I got done. I just crushed when I finished I loaded the stone and I knew I was in the finals. Like dude I get emotional just thinking about it right now. Like it just felt like somebody had just washed all that away. Wow. I remember ripping my shirt off. I am a fucking showman I'll tell you that. I had my strong and pretty shirt underneath and I ripped my World Strongest Man shirt and showed my strong and pretty shirt and I was just roaring. We were in Malaysia and like everybody just kind of like stepped back a little bit. It was awesome. So what kind of stuff did you do to try to rehab your body to try to get your body back into condition? Tons of cold work, tons of stretching and like basically just digging out scar tissue is huge. It's huge. Like a lot of people use like a Theragun and stuff like that. I went the cheap route. I took a black and Decker skill saw and I got the stuff attachments put it all together. It cost me like 65 bucks.