Bodybuilder Danilo de Campos dies aged 31 after suffering a heart attack following hospital visit
A GYM fanatic who took part in a recent bodybuilding competition has died after complaining of stomach pains.
Personal trainer Danilo de Campos, 31, suffered a heart attack after going to hospital alone to get himself checked out and being released.
His heartbroken widow Daniela Kuhn insisted today he had no apparent health problems, worked out six times a week and followed a diet put together by a nutritionist.
She posted a video showing him working out in the gym and pledged: “Happy to have lived that day beside you.
“I am going to honour you for the rest of my life, my love.”
In another emotional social media post, showing him relaxing in a swimming pool alongside her six-year-old son, she added: “It was short but it was beautiful..and in my heart it will be eternal.”
Danilo, who came from the southern Brazilian city of Ponta Grossa, took part in a bodybuilding competition in 2022.
He finished fifth out of 15 competitors, showing off his six-pack and rippling biceps on his social media.
He thanked his wife at the time in an emotional post after the event “for putting up with all my stress, tiredness and so many other things.”
He also thanked his nutritionist and coach for helping him with his training, diet and poses and enabling him to “give my best every workout.”
He described the competition as a “day which is always going to stay engrained on his memory.”
Fans reacted to the photos he posted on his Instagram by congratulating him on his honed body and his wife wrote: “I’m so proud of you.”
Daniela insisted overnight: “He led a really healthy lifestyle, he had a routine check-up with his cardiologist six months ago and everything was fine.
“He followed a diet supervised by a nutritionist, he did weights six times a week and incoporated cardio work as well as fasting at the start of the day after he woke up.”
She admitted he used creatine and whey protein as well as other products commonly taken by gym users but made no mention of steroids.
And she added: “He worked as a personal trainer, he wasn’t a bodybuilder.
“He only competed once, in 2022. He wanted to experience first-hand what a competition was like that rewarded sport which he loved so much.
“He came fifth out of 15 athletes, was happy with the result and decided not to compete again because it required sacrifices when it came to his health and family he didn’t want to expose himself to. He put his family first.”
Doctors are understood to have concluded Danilo’s stomach pains were linked to a sudden speeding-up of his heart rate prior to his heart attack.
The results of the autopsy following his December 30 death have not been publicly released.
One gym user, commenting on the dead man’s Instagram alongside a photo of him showing off his impressive back muscles and saying he believed he was on steroids, said: “Sad news. My condolences to the family.
“Even though his family said that he used common gym products, the use of anabolic steroids is evident due to the number of pimples on his back, which is one of the side effects.
“It may be that he never explained to his family what he actually took.”