'Popeye' the bodybuilder undergoes procedure to shrink his 61cm biceps

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A Russian bodybuilder, who has been dubbed "Popeye", has undergone surgery to shrink his 61cm biceps.

Kirill Tereshin, 23, nearly died as a result of the poisonous petroleum jelly injections in his arms which caused pain, fever and illness.

He is now recovering from surgery where he had 1.4kg of Synthol oil and "dead" muscle tissue removed from his arms.

The social media influencer, with 442,000 followers on Instagram, was warned by doctors that without the surgery he could have died, or required amputation.

A Russian plastic surgery activist, 32-year-old Alana Mamaeva, helped raise the money for Tereshin's surgery, according to East2West news.

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Ну что войны как вам плечи , аххахаха 2 тренировка только

A post shared by Кирилл Терешин - Руки Базуки (@ruki_bazuki_official) on Oct 3, 2018 at 1:26am PDT

Surgeon Dmitry Melnikov of Sechenov Moscow State Medical University, who performed Tereshin's first operation, said he still had about 75 per cent more of the vaseline-like implant to extract, which should take at least three more surgeries.

Petroleum jelly "saturates the muscles", said the surgeon, so the lump taken from Tereshin's arm was actually a mass of "scar tissue with fragments of muscles". Melnikov estimated that Tereshin had injected approximately three litres into each arm.

"It saturated the muscle tissues, blocked blood flow," said Melnikov. "As a result, the tissue dies and gets replaced with a scar which is as tough as a tree.

"But we are warning that it is extremely dangerous."

Tereshin said he had previously planned to use the substance in other areas of his body.

"In the beginning, I wanted to inject synthol oil into other parts of my body, but then the problems started and I stopped using it," said Tereshin.