According to People magazine, Pirbazari's death was confirmed in an Instagram video posted by his friend Said Ibraham, a German-language true crime YouTuber with whom the bodybuilder had worked in the past.
In the video, Ibraham lamented in German the death of his "bruderherz" or "dear brother" and said, per People's translation, that he was thrown "completely off track" upon learning that Pirbazari had passed away.
Though no official cause of death has been reported, Ibraham suggested that the 44-year-old strongman had a heart attack when he was in the gym. A similar fate befell 20-year-old Jodi Vance, a weightlifting coach who died of dehydration-induced cardiac arrest in March after allegedly taking an unspecified supplement.
Pirbazari's untimely demise came just a few months after suffering a torn chest muscle that resulted in a surgical reattachment. During his recovery, the weightlifting actor was unable to exercise — and just days before his death, he made another post about his slow return to the gym.
"I'm happy to be back in the gym at all and am focusing entirely on leg training and cardio," Pirbazari wrote, per IG's auto-translation. "I'm trying intervals on the treadmill right now, but since my legs aren't 100 percent healed yet, I'm taking it slowly."
Given that he had been out of the gym for three months, it's quite possible that the German muscle man's heart was no longer able to handle his workouts — especially if he pushed himself too hard.
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As with other young bodybuilder deaths, there's also a non-zero chance that any supplements Pirbazari was taking could have contributed to his passing.
One thing's for sure: there are toxic forces at work in the world of bodybuilding — and unfortunately, it's claimed another life.
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