Being a strongman competitor involves countless scrapes, bruises, and years or wear and tear as each individual pushes their body to the limits of human capability. But in a recent video uploaded to YouTube, the 2023 World’s Strongest Man, Mitchell Hooper shared a gym floor accident that not only dented his pride, but his tooth too.
The epic accident occurred during the filming of Hooper’s latest challenge, in which the big man attempted to recreate old-school strongman feats from the circus such as lifting cars, tearing a pack of cards, and blowing up a hot water bottle. In the main event, Hooper tried to bend a rebar (a reinforced steel bar) before our very eyes, but that’s when things got crooked. “I guess I was due for a gym fail,” joked Hooper after sharing a wince-making clip with his 300,000-plus Instagram followers.
Watch Mitchell Hooper’s Gym Fail
After warming up with a lighter rod, Hooper appeared confident as he placed a towel on his head to comfort his “leverage point,” and quickly got to grips with the actual rebar. The steel begins to bend as the strongman utilizes his incredible force. “The goal is to have hands down at the bottom, touching each other,” explained Hooper of how to complete the rebar bend. “Fold it straight in half.”
With perhaps just a little too much confidence, the 2025 Arnold Strongman Classic winner had the bar bending pretty easily during the first half of the task at hand, but as he struggled to clasp each end together, the man mountain lent forward just as the rebar sprung back open, sending the bar towards his mouth and smacking him clean in the face, harder than a Mike Tyson K.O. In obvious pain, Hooper recoiled almost as quick as the rebar and had to re-catch his breath after the shock.
In the aftermath of the bar’s barbaric bash, Hooper revealed that he’d chipped a tooth and wasn’t sure if he’d swallowed it. Others thought it had bounced towards the floor. “Was that a tooth?” asked one shocked viewer on Instagram. “Yes,” replied Hooper, adding a sad face emoji. “Ouch!!” wrote another fan, speaking for all of us. Obviously, this is where we conclude by saying ‘Don’t try this yourself!’
To watch the full video and see if Hooper fared better in his other old-school challenges, see below.
