Brazilian bodybuilder 'Hulk' dies on birthday after taking injections to grow enormous biceps

3 August 2022, 12:20

A Brazilian bodybuilder who gained a massive TikTok following has died after years of life-threatening injections he used for muscles that earned him the nickname "Hulk".

Valdir Segato is thought to have had a heart attack after suffering a shortness of breath on July 26, his 55th birthday.

He had previously said he used synthol injections to get his massive physique despite about the dangers of using them.

His neighbour in the Sao Paolo town of Ribeirão Preto, 31-year-old Moisés da Conceição, told local news: "It was around 6am, more or less. He came crawling through the back house and came to the front.

"Then he knocked on my mother's window, knocked, knocked, then she woke up and he said 'help me, help me because I'm dying'."

Moisés's family helped Valdir before when he fell ill with similar symptoms to the day he died – the last time being some four months prior.

He was suffering from shortness of breath and wheezing, and found it difficult to talk.

Moisés said: "He had already felt sick again, I had already helped him. He just didn't die because I ran very fast, I took the car, I went very fast until I got to the hospital.

"Then he thanked me, said that if it wasn't for me, he would have died that day. This time, my mother said that he said he was going to die, that he would not escape."

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Moisés’s brother Jadson said: "You can't help but be shaken. He was a very isolated person, more in his own way, a super good person, he didn't hurt anyone.

"The only harm he did was to himself, using those things on his body, applying that oil, synthol, in the body, which ended up harming."

Believing the drugs would help him bulk up even more, Valdir – who had amassed 1.7m followers on TikTok, wanted to grow his biceps to 68cm in diameter, Brazilian media said.

However, despite previously saying he was taking the injections, reportedly for years, it is not yet known if the drugs were responsible for his death.

His cause of death has not been released.

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In a 2016 interview, he said: "They call me Hulk, Schwarzenegger and He-Man all the time and I like that. I've doubled my biceps but I still want to be bigger."

He went on: "The doctors tell me to stop it, the advice they give me is to stop using.

"But it's my decision to use it because I want to, because I like to."