Larratt Reveals He Left Canadian Special Forces Over Arm Wrestling Fame Conflict
"They offered me a year off, no pay. I took it. I was gathering apples and eating sardines and sending my kids to school with dried apples. If I don't win, I'm gonna have to sell the house. It was a gamble. It worked out."
About this episode
Joe Rogan sits down with Devon Larratt, the 51-year-old professional arm wrestler ranked number two in the world, for a wide-ranging conversation that moves from sports science to paranormal military encounters. Larratt, a former member of Canada's elite JTF2 special operations unit for 16 years, explains how he was forced to leave the military due to operational security conflicts with his rising arm wrestling fame on ESPN, taking an unpaid year off at age 39 to gamble on winning a $20,000 tournament to support his family. The conversation explores Larratt's unconventional training methods, including 10-hour daily wrist curl sessions using ultra-high repetitions with light weight for blood flow rather than traditional strength training, and his controversial 'pumpkin training' approach of training only his right arm to maximize energy allocation, which has created a visible size disparity but maintains his elite status. Rogan and Larratt dive deep into arm wrestling technique, the sport's evolution from ESPN coverage through COVID to the current East vs. West league where top athletes make six figures, and the freakish genetics of competitors including world champion Levan Sagnishvili at 420 pounds, climber Yves Gravel who won a tournament after six weeks training, and strongman Brian Shaw, whose geneticist-confirmed unique growth hormone mutation makes him one in 500 million. The episode takes a darker turn when Larratt recounts witnessing an 8-foot warlord in Afghanistan during a mobility exercise and details a fellow JTF2 operator's demonic possession in Erbil, Iraq, where the soldier spoke in unknown languages, revealed hidden sins of others, underwent an exorcism, and now checks in weekly with the church. Larratt reflects on the psychological toll of seven combat tours, his deliberate creation of a separate persona to cope with fear and violence, and his transition to finding meaning in sport rather than the moral ambiguity of modern warfare.
Key takeaways
- Larratt claims a former JTF2 soldier was possessed by a demon in Iraq, spoke unknown languages, and is now monitored weekly by the church after exorcism.
- Larratt observed an 8-foot-tall warlord during a military operation in Afghanistan and claims to know Cree people in Canada whose father is 8 foot 11.
- Geneticist Ryan Rossner found strongman Brian Shaw has a unique molecular mutation in his growth hormone, making him genetically one in 500 million.
- Larratt left Canadian Special Forces after 16 years when his ESPN arm wrestling fame conflicted with operational security, risking bankruptcy at age 39.
- Larratt trains his right arm almost exclusively using 10 hours daily of ultra-high-rep wrist work for blood flow, ignoring his left to maximize energy allocation.
- Rock climber Yves Gravel won his first arm wrestling tournament after only six weeks in the sport due to freakish grip strength from 2mm edge training.
- Current world champion Levan Sagnishvili weighs 420 pounds, has a 351-pound grip strength, and has been undefeated since 2017 across all weight classes.