How Mark Zuckerberg's intense workout landed him in the hospital

While you may know Mark Zuckerberg as the awkward founder of Facebook, this CEO is getting hardcore with his workouts. "His neck swells wider than his jaw. His shoulders are capped with muscle. His forearms bulge. He looks — to use a scientific term — completely shredded," declared the New York Times in June 2023.

While he may have been shredded, he has also just got surgery. Read on to hear about his hardcore training routine and the serious injury it caused in November 2023.

Image: @Zuck / Instagram

While Zuckerberg had been known to shy away from the center of media attention, he's been growing bolder, now wanting the world to know what's hiding under his basic t-shirts. On July 12, he uploaded what some may classify as a "thirsty" picture flaunting his beefy six-pack and toned arms.

Image: @Zuck / Instagram

At 6’1 and weighing 190 pounds is Elon Musk. In the other corner is Zuckerberg, coming in at 5’7 and around 155 lbs, according to TMZ. In June 2023, Musk famously challenged Zuckerberg to an MMA cage fight. Zuckerberg gladly accepted, but in August, it was officially cancelled. "I think we can all agree Elon isn't serious, and it's time to move on," Zuckerberg said.

The social media king has enjoyed running, fencing, and surfing over his adult life. But bored during the pandemic, started training in Brazilian jujitsu, a martial art that forms part of the basis of mixed martial arts (MMA).

Image: @davecamarilllo / Instagram

After years of practicing jujitsu, he went to his first tournament in May 2023. There, he won two medals and handily wiped the floor with an Uber engineer, according to the New York Times. But the referee of one of his matches said Zuck lost consciousness, something the Meta CEO adamantly denies.

Image: @Zuck / Instagram

The organizer of the jujitsu tournament told the New York Times that it didn’t seem like it was Zuckerberg’s first tournament. “He was aggressive using technique. There was no fear. That’s not typical for a white belt competitor at a first tournament,” the organizer said.

Image: @Zuck / Instagram

After the tournament, Zuckerberg went to the Lex Fridman podcast and explained his workout routine. “Right now, I’m mostly focused on fighting —jujitsu and MMA. I can’t do it every day; too many bruises to recover from, so three or four times per week."

Image: @Zuck / Instagram

Ouch! While training for a competitive MMA fight, Zuckerberg tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in November during a sparring match. He needed surgery to replace it, but said he's still looking forward to a competitive MMA fight when he recovers.

Image: @Zuck / Instagram

Speaking to Fridman, Zuck explained that on the non-fighting days, he does a mix of cardio conditioning, strength building, or mobility. He tries to work out every day unless he’s absolutely wiped, he said.

Image: @Zuck / Instagram

In May 2023, the Facebook founder also attracted attention for publishing an image of him doing the brutal 'Murph challenge' on Memorial Day — all while wearing a 20lb weighted pack. He said he did it in under 40 minutes.

Image: @Zuck / Instagram

His five and seven-year-old daughters joined him in the challenge, doing "quarter Murphs" during the same challenge. “I’m glad that I’m teaching them the value of physicality. A good day for my daughter is when she gets to go to the gym with me and cranks out a bunch of pull-ups,” Zuckerberg told Fridman.

Image: @Zuck / Instagram

After a long way running a company, Zuckerberg isn’t the only billionaire to have turned to combat sports as a way to wind down after a long day at the office. Here are some reasons why Zuckerberg, and others, may be gravitating toward grappling.

“I think Zuckerberg has felt like he has gotten a raw deal in the court of public opinion. In his view, he built something giant and important and genuinely useful and has just sort of gotten nothing but he/l from people about it ever since," theorized reporter Casey Newton on the New York Times Hard Fork podcast.

Image: @Zuck / Instagram

On the Lex Fridman podcast, Zuckerberg said he was a competitive guy. Since he’s gotten into martial arts, he’s recruited his friends into a “mini academy” in his garage. Going into his first jujitsu tournament, he said he wasn’t scared because he was confident he’d do well.

While Zuckerberg is a proponent of AI and virtual reality, he told Fridman that the physicality of training is part of being a human. “I don’t think that a being is just a mind. We’re meant to do things physically and have sensations that we feel connected to. That and that’s a lot of what makes you human — having those experiences, coupled with a mind.”

Image: @Zuck / Instagram

The drive that helped Zuckerberg and others become billionaires may also open their minds to taking on new challenges like martial arts. “You only get in a bad situation if you’re not willing to tap… and your ability to keep doing interesting things is your willingness to be embarrassed and look stupid doing things,” Zuckerberg told Fridman.

Image: @Zuck / Instagram

There’s also a lot of cultural cache in alpha sports like MMA fighting and jujitsu. It’s a world perpetuated and beloved by the popular podcaster Joe Rogan, among others. Experts suggest that getting into it can make billionaires feel part of the alpha-male in-group.

On the Joe Rogan podcast in 2022, Zuckerberg proudly talked about how he was training in jujitsu. “The crazy thing is it really is the best sport… There’s something that’s just so primal about it,” he said.

Image: @Zuck / Instagram

Zuckerberg is generally less of a hero in the alpha male space than his potential cage-fight rival Elon Musk. On Fox News, professional fighter Colby Covington said as much. “Mark Zuckerberg, he brings beta soy boy energy. Elon Musk, he brings alpha energy — he’s a man of the people. He’s looking to restore free speech.”

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The Telegraph recently profiled the other billionaires who are not just satisfied with money, but also want to have the power to dominate physically too. For instance, PayPal president Dan Schulman, 65, trains in the Israeli martial art krav maga, while the CEO of data analytics company Palantir Technologies, Alex Karp, is known for jiujitsu and aikido.

Image: @Zuck / Instagram

Jon Ryley of a leading UK martial arts body told the Telegraph that billionaires are joining dojos to prove they can “man up” and “prove they are not wimpy characters but solid guys... Perhaps those he deals with in business will take note,” he hypothesized about Zuckerberg.

Image: @Zuck / Instagram

Some experts warn that this turn to violent sports is a symptom of an increasingly reactionary “alpha male” culture that is a backlash against female empowerment. Successful male influencer and confessed misogynist Andrew Tate comes from the world of martial arts. He’s now facing human trafficking charges.

“They are dangerous behaviors if they become normalized, if we laugh at them and legitimize them, since they perpetuate the idea that leadership and success require aggression and dominance,” Spanish activist Kika Fumero told El País. What do you think?