Photo Of 'The Mountain' Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson As Teen Highlights Body Transformation

A photo of Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson - aka The Mountain - as a teenager has highlighted just how much he's transformed his body.

The Game of Thrones star was playing basketball for K.R. Basket Reykjavík in his native Iceland back in 2006, when he was 17-years-old.

Clearly, he was a big boy back then, but you wouldn't have known that he would go on to become the world's strongest man.

K.R. BASKET REYKJAVÍK

Transforming himself into the man mountain that he is today has taken countless hours of gym work and training; although in 2019, he admitted that he has used steroids too.

Björnsson made the confession whilst talking to ESPN for the show E:60. When asked if he'd ever used steroids, he said: "Yes, I have."

He continued: "When you want to be the best, you do whatever it takes."

During the rest of the interview, he elaborated on how he went from scrawny teen to actor and strongman.

Warner Bros. Pictures/HBO

He said: "My dream was always to become a professional basketball player but that dream didn't go too far.

"I broke my ankle twice. I had to have bad surgeries that ended my career.

"In 2013 the Game of Thrones crew were filming in Iceland and they heard about this massive, muscular, handsome, big young guy.

"At first I got an email. I didn't have any acting experience and getting an email like that out of nowhere from Game of Thrones was like, 'Nah, that's not true, it's got to be bulls**t.'

"So I didn't answer the email. A few days later I got a phone call and it was a man who asked if I wanted to audition for Game of Thrones. I obviously said, 'Yes. I don't know what I'm doing but yeah, let's try it'."

He continued: "They asked me to pick one guy up, to see if I was strong enough. I picked the man up over my head easily. They were very surprised: 'Woah, OK you're strong'."

If you wanna transform yourself like Björnsson, this is what the daily schedule looks like for the 6ft 9in 30 stone behemoth:

6:50 am - morning workout (cardio & core) glutamine and a handful of almonds

7:30am - eight eggs, avocado, 200g oats with blueberries and strawberries

9:30am - 400g beef, 400g sweet potato, handful of spinach and greens

11:50am - BCAA and Glutamine

12:00pm - 400g chicken, 400g potatoes, greens and fruit

2:00pm - blender of 150g oats, two bananas, 150g cereal, frozen berries, handful of almonds, peanut butters and glutamine

2:30pm - strongman training - BCAA, glutamine and vitargo

5:30pm - 60g protein, two bananas

6:00pm - 500g beef, potatoes and greens

8:30pm - 500g salmon, 550g sweet potatoes

10:30pm - six eggs, avocado, 30g almonds, 50g peanut butter

Speaking from experience though, I wouldn't recommend it. You can read about and watch video from my predictably ill-fated attempt to live a day in his massive shoes here.

Topics: Celebrity, Interesting

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey