Jo Lindner

Johannes (Jo) Lindner (14 January 1993 – 30 June 2023), better known as Joesthetics on social media, was a bodybuilder born in Cham in Bavaria, Germany. He was also a model, and became one of the most famous German fitness influencers as well as co-owner of the food supplement brand Huge Supplements. He reached over nine million followers on Instagram alone over the course of several years. He also had a brand partnership with the fitness clothing brand YoungLA and with Father Sons Clothing.

Lindner is best known for his striped pectoral muscles – dubbed "alien gains" by himself – which he could move in a wave-like manner or similar to a keyboard. On 30 June 2023, Lindner died of an aneurysm at his home in Bangkok at the age of 30.

He had seen other bodybuilders at that time, when a new era of "shredded aesthetics" – defined muscles with a low body fat percentage – had begun. One of the videos with his "alien gains" then went viral, which was attributed to a muscle disease called rippling muscle disease (RMD). He first had such a muscle cramp on the toilet and then slowly discovered how he could artificially induce the effect. He succeeded early-on by winning the German National Championship in 2014 and the European Championship only one year later (both in the category "Men's physique"). At the age of 24, he was already able to achieve an eighth place in the "Men's Physique" category at the 2017 Bavarian Championships. After an extended absence from competition, he returned in 2022 and narrowly missed the "IFBB Pro Card" as the class winner and overall runner-up in the "Thailand Pro Qualifier".

In February 2021, he introduced his own workout regime in the form of a mobile app called "Alien Gains". However its most recent version dates back to April 20 of the same year. It received mixed reviews on Android and iOS, averaging at 3.3 stars with only 145 ratings on iOS. Subsequently, it was removed from the Apple AppStore in August 2022.

In one of his last interviews, on the YouTube channel Bradley Martyn's Raw Talk, he talked about his success in social media and how he got into bodybuilding: he used to have a small channel ("I was always kinda small") and worked full-time as a technical draftsman and, after further training, in a microchip factory before he was able to earn money with fitness ("before doing it for money I do it for living"). Previously, he had wanted to make a career in the bicycle sport "dirt jump", but had to give this up due to injury. Little is known about his parents and his other private life: he lived for a time in Dubai before returning to Thailand to live with his girlfriend Nicha.

Lindner suffered from Rippling muscle disease (RMD), a rare autosomal dominant disorder. There is no official treatment, especially for people with a mild and asymptomatic course.

Shortly after his partner's publication, fellow bodybuilder Noel Deyzel confirmed his death on Instagram in an emotional post, after which Jo's Thai girlfriend Nicha also posted a series of pictures on Instagram, citing his true cause of death – an aneurysm. His aunt had also died from an aneurysm. According to his girlfriend's statements, he felt a pain in his neck for several days, but they did not realize it could be something life-threatening.

In the interview, Lindner explained: "I did a blood cleanse twice .... I did plasmapheresis, which removes heavy metals and all that stuff." He had decided to undergo this blood cleanse after receiving the results of his blood test back from his doctor, during which "particles" were discovered in his blood. His doctor recommended plasmapheresis as a way to improve his blood counts. The presence of microclots detected by a D-dimer test after he had received four vaccinations had sparked a conspiracy theory among his fans as to whether vaccination against COVID-19 was partly to blame for his death.

After his death was announced, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Jason Derulo also offered condolences. He was cremated in Thailand and some of the ashes were buried in the family grave in his native Cham.

Fans likened him to Zyzz and as a constant source for inspiration on their own gym journey among an outpour of solidarity on his Instagram. Lindner is known for addressing his followers as "brazza/brazzer" (onomatopoeic writing of "brother") and posting views about life in general.