German bodybuilder Jo Lindner, known online has Joesthetics, has died from an aneurysm in Thailand, aged 30.
The news was confirmed by the fitness influencer’s girlfriend Nicha on Saturday (1 July).
Posting pictures of herself with Lindner on her Instagram feed, Nicha paid tribute to the YouTuber she desribed as sweet, kind, and hardworking.
“And he is the believer in EVERYONE,” she continued. “specially [sic] ME he believes in me that I could be better and be someone in this world.”
Lindner had 8.4 million Instagram followers, and his YouTube videos reportedly earned nearly 500 million views.
Nicha said Lindner suffered an aneurysm after complaining of pain in his neck earlier this week. She also said she was with him when he died.
An aneurysm is an abnormal swelling or bulge in the wall of a blood vessel.
“[The] Last word he said [to me]: ‘Bae we all always can start again and that is the key. always keep start [sic] again,” she later wrote on her Instagram Stories.
Subsequently, Nicha appeared to address speculation around Lindner’s cause of death, writing it’s unfair to her partner that people “guess how he die [sic] or say he overdose”.
She added that if Lindner was “brave enough” to admit he used steroids, there was no reason not to believe him.
In an interview with fellow bodybuilder Bradley Martyn last month, Lindner spoke about being diagnosed with rippling muscle disease, a rare genetic condition that causes muscles to become unsually sensitive to movement or pressure.
According to the Genetic and Rare Diseases Information Center (GARD), the disorder is characterised by “signs of increased muscle irritability” such as repetitive tensing of the muscle, “bunching up” of the muscle, and/or prominent rippling.
“Technically, it’s a cramp,” Lindner told Martyn, during an episode of the latter’s Raw Talk show.
After news of Lindner’s death broke, fellow bodybuilder Noel Deyzel confirmed the reports were true on his Instagram Stories.
“This is not a joke. His mother requested that we inform people about the situation,” he wrote. “Please keep Jo and his loved ones in your prayers.
“I still just can’t f***ing believe it. Rest in peace brother.”
Another one of Lindner’s friends, known as Vigorous Steve, posted a YouTube video shortly after his death, explaining that the cause of death reports were based on preliminary findings.
“We’re still waiting for the autopsy reports,” he added.
