Jo Lindner's shock death proves it 'could happen to any of us', friend warns

A friend of Jo Lindner has spoken out about the bodybuilder’s untimely death at the age of 30, highlighting it as a painful warning that none of us should be complacent about our health.

The popular fitness influencer died in his girlfriend’s arms last week after suffering what she claimed was an aneurysm, having suffered from neck pains for a number of days.

His friends reportedly grew concerned on Friday when he failed to show up for one of his regular two-hour weight-training sessions at his local gym, despite living just a five-minute walk away.

Speaking to The Sun following the tragic news, a friend of Lindner, named only as Chris, said his death had served as a sobering wake-up call.

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“Jo was the fittest out of everyone at the gym,” Chris said. "Nobody can understand how someone so fit and young can drop dead.

“It's shaken us all here, the thought it could happen to any of us.”

Meanwhile, a receptionist at the Muscle Factory gym in Bangkok said staff initially thought the rumours of his death were a joke because he was “so healthy and strong”.

"He stood out because he was so big and loud," the woman, called Bo, told the paper. “He was friendly and talked to everyone. He cheered everyone up just by being here.

"When we found out he had died we were shocked. We couldn't believe it was real."

Tributes have been paid to the popular Instagrammer by many of his 9.3 million followers@joesthetics/Instagram

Bo went on: "He was so healthy and strong, so we thought maybe it was a prank or something. It has been really sad in the gym ever since. People are still talking about it.”

She added: “Without him, it feels empty. It's like there is someone missing.”

The precise cause of Lindner’s death has yet to be officially confirmed, however, the bodybuilder himself had expressed concerns about his health.

Just last month, the 30-year-old admitted to YouTuber Bradley Martyn that he feared overtraining might give him a heart attack.

He said this was because he suffered from a rare muscular condition called rippling muscle disease which, according to the Genetics and Rare Diseases Information Center, is characterised by signs of increased muscle irritability, bunching up of the muscle, and/or visible rippling of the muscles.

“The heart is also a muscle, that’s my biggest concern [...] what if I get such a bad cramp that my heart gets a cramp,” Lindner told Martyn.

“That makes me scared. That’s why I’m staying away from bodybuilding competitions too much.”

Jo expressed concerns about his heart just weeks before his death@joesthetics/Instagram

Then, in his final Instagram post, shared just hours before his death, Lindner opened up about physical issues related to his career.

The gym guru explained that he’d been taking Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT) and, despite trying to stop, had resumed treatment.

“When I lost my gains because I went off everything for 1 year but then could not recover my own [testosterone] levels so went back on trt,” he wrote.

“Trust me I tried to stop but be aware it might have long-term effects for your life. Trt is a big commitment keep that in mind.”

TRT is used to treat low testosterone levels, which can occur naturally through ageing or certain health conditions, however, it’s also become increasingly popular for non-medical uses, including increasing muscle mass.

In his post, Lindner also revealed that he’d had to undergo hernia surgery.

Hernias occur when an internal part of the body (for example, the bowel or part of the stomach) pushes through a weakness in the muscle or surrounding tissue wall, according to the NHS.

Whilst there’s no suggestion that either his TRT use or hernia contributed to his death, Lindner’s girlfriend acknowledged that the 30-year-old had been experiencing neck pains before suffering a fatal aneurysm.

In her own Instagram post, published on Saturday, she wrote that the pair had lain down “to cuddle” and he was “in [her] arms” when he suddenly died.

She said it all happened “too fast” but acknowledged that three days ago he’d complained of “pains in his neck” – but they hadn’t realised how serious it was “until it was too late”.

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