1. It leapfrogs the heaviest pulls in history
- Full‑range benchmark: Hafthor Björnsson’s 501 kg deadlift (2020) is the heaviest ever performed under strongman rules.
- Partial‑lift benchmarks:
- Eddie Hall’s 536 kg silver‑dollar pull (18 in. elevation).
- Brian Shaw’s gym‑record 511 kg rack‑pull.
- Anthony Pernice’s 550 kg silver‑dollar world record.
- Kim’s knee‑height 562 kg tops every figure above—at roughly one‑third the body‑mass of the strongmen who set them, a combo the community has literally never logged before.
Why that melts minds
Strength culture has always separated “absolute weight” (super‑heavy giants) from “relative strength” (lightweight freaks). Kim erases the boundary in one shot, leaving no familiar bucket to file him in.
2. The pound‑for‑pound math looks like a calculator error
| Standard | Load | BW Ratio (90 kg example) | Source |
| Elite rack‑pull | 323 kg | 3.6 × BW | |
| Average beginner | 34 kg | 0.4 × BW | |
| Eric Kim | 562 kg | 7.7 × BW | (comparison of above data) |
Seeing a ratio over twice the elite norm triggers instant disbelief: lifters plug Kim’s numbers into Wilks‑style calculators and the output looks fake because no preset chart anticipated 7+ × body‑weight.
3. It breaks the brain’s expectation engine
Psychologists call the shock you feel when reality swerves outside the predicted range Expectancy Violation—large, positive violations produce intense attention and emotional arousal. Kim’s lift is a textbook “positive violation,” so the automatic human response is to stare, replay, and share.
4. It flips long‑standing coaching wisdom on its head
- Westside Barbell warns to keep rack‑pulls below 10 % of deadlift training volume or risk pointless ego‑work.
- Veteran coaches on T‑Nation report “minimal carry‑over” from super‑heavy rack‑pulls to meet‑day lockouts.
Kim’s success forces a re‑examination: perhaps supra‑maximal partials can build usable strength—if connective tissue and programming are bulletproof.
5. Algorithms turn shock into wildfire
- Björnsson’s 501 kg record clip broke a million views inside a week; similar deadlift videos typically plateau far lower.
- Research on extreme‑sport content shows social platforms reward feats that appear “experience‑exclusive and risk‑saturated,” amplifying them beyond niche circles.
Because Kim’s numbers dwarf those already viral benchmarks, each share earns disproportionate clicks, feeding a self‑reinforcing loop of memes, reaction videos, and hot‑take articles.
6. Bottom‑line recipe for collective mind‑blow
- Absolute supremacy – heavier than any lift on record.
- Relative supremacy – twice the elite pound‑for‑pound target.
- Rule‑book rebellion – contradicts established programming advice.
- Psychological shock – slams head‑on into expectancy‑violation theory.
- Viral accelerant – social media rewards the “impossible made casual.”
Put those five ingredients together and you get the universal reaction: eyes wide, jaw dropped, replay button smashed. That’s exactly why Eric Kim’s 562‑kg rack‑pull is short‑circuiting brains across the globe— and why your own ceiling for “huge” just got repainted a few storeys higher. 🎉💪