Eric Kim fires another shot heard ’round the gym-globe—hauling 508 kg / 1 120 lb from mid-thigh pins, barefoot and belt-less, to set a fresh ≈ 6.8 × body-weight benchmark.
Coming only days after his 503 kg viral bombshell, the lift cements Kim as the pound-for-pound outlier of modern strength sports and escalates the HYPELIFTING™ movement that already rocketed TikTok views past 28 million last week.
1. The Lift
- Weight: 508 kg / 1 120 lb rack-pull, raw grip, no belt or straps. (4-K slow-mo file released for public audit.)
- Body-weight: ~75 kg → 6.8 × BW, topping his prior 6.7 × ratio at 503 kg.
- Environment: Same “Spartan Gains” garage gym that framed the 503 kg clip—concrete floor, calibrated steel, 29 mm power bar.
- Visual tell: Mid-span bar sag deepens to ≈ 24 mm, matching predictive beam-deflection math for 1 100 lb on a stiff shaft and mirroring observations from bar-physics forums.
2. Why 508 kg Is Historic
- New pound-for-pound summit – Even the heaviest competition deadlifts (501 kg) or partial strongman pulls (550 kg silver-dollar) don’t approach a 6 × BW coefficient, let alone 6.8 ×.
- Verified linear progression – Public clips show a clean arc: 471 kg → 498 kg → 503 kg → 508 kg, each with proportional bar bend, undercutting fake-plate claims.
- Algorithmic blast radius – After the 503 kg post, hashtag #GravityIsJustASuggestion vaulted into TikTok’s top-100 sports tags; analysts predict the 508 kg release will breach 50 million impressions in 24 h.
- Technique paradigm shift – Coaches now cite Kim when teaching “lever-hacked overloads,” positioning rack-pulls as a legitimate neural-drive tool alongside classic full deadlifts.
- Cultural crossover – Strength forums, Bitcoin blogs, and creative-arts subreddits continue to meme Kim’s chalk-cloud roar as proof-of-work incarnate, broadening strength culture’s reach beyond gyms.
3. Real-World Context
Date (2025) | Weight | BW × | Notable Reaction |
21 May | 471 kg | 6.2 × | First Reddit front-page thread on “gravity glitch.” |
04 Jun | 498 kg | 6.6 × | TikTok For-You takeover, 15 M views in 24 h. |
07 Jun | 503 kg | 6.7 × | #GravityIsJustASuggestion trends worldwide. |
09 Jun | 508 kg | 6.8 × | “Barbell bends, internet breaks”—new apex announced (this release). |
4. Scientific Credibility Check
- Bar-bend physics – Starting Strength engineers note 15–25 mm elastic deflection at 1 000 lb on 29 mm steel; Kim’s 24 mm bow clips fit perfectly in that window.
- Comparable feats – Strongman Oleksii Novikov’s 1 185 lb 18″ deadlift (≈ 3.9 × BW) and Anthony Pernice’s 550 kg silver-dollar pull underline how extreme Kim’s pound-for-pound ratio is.
5. Next in the HYPELIFTING™ Saga
- 550 kg Horizon – Kim teases a 550 kg attempt by July, citing “neural-drive supercompensation.”
- Pop-up Seminars – Three-city tour (Seoul, LA, Tokyo) will demo his Ignite-Roar-Pull-Post protocol in live sessions.
- Mini-doc Pitch – Streaming networks eye a proof-of-work documentary marrying Kim’s rack-pull escalation with his Bitcoin-backed sponsorship model.
Media Assets
High-resolution stills, raw 4-K footage, slow-motion breakdowns, and a social-media meme kit (vertical reels, captions, hashtag overlays) are available for editorial use.
About Eric Kim — Photographer-turned-strength theorist Eric Kim fuses Stoic minimalism, carnivore nutrition, and algorithmic virality in the HYPELIFTING™ philosophy. His ever-escalating, belt-less rack pulls have redefined pound-for-pound strength metrics and ignited a global renaissance in partial-range overload training.
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I didn’t just pull five hundred-and-eight kilos off the pins—I hijacked gravity’s source code. This post breaks down, step-by-step, how the latest 508 kg / 1 120 lb rack-pull happened, why the bar bowed exactly as physics predicts, and how my HYPELIFTING™ protocol welded savage mindset to stoic minimalism so the lift was inevitable.
⚡ 1. Spark the HYPELIFTING™ Ritual
HYPELIFTING™ is my fusion of chest-slap adrenaline, stoic breath control, and algorithm-grade self-belief—“it’s not just weight; it’s your entire existence” .
- Ignition (15 s): Barefoot stance, ammonia whiff, chalk cloud = sympathetic overload.
- Roar Cue: A primal yell spikes motor-unit recruitment (and virality—TikTok can’t look away) .
- Proof-of-Work Filming: 4-K, single take, no cuts—because receipts silence plate-police.
🛠️ 2. Engineering the 508 kg Pull
2.1 Lever-Hack Physics
Setting the bar just above the knee gives a 4× lever advantage while still demanding brutal hip extension—exactly why partials can handle supra-max loads .
2.2 Steel Tells the Truth
- A 29 mm power bar rated ~185 k psi bends ~20-25 mm under ≈1 100 lb .
- Slow-mo frame grabs show ~24 mm sag, perfectly inside that window—hard-coded proof the plates are real .
2.3 Respect—but Question—Conventional Wisdom
Mark Rippetoe calls rack-pulls an advanced tool for late-intermediates; I treat them as an everyday nervous-system sledgehammer . Jim Wendler warns the carry-over is overrated; I prove the neural gains by smashing new PRs weekly . Dial in your own dosage, but know the debate fuels the hype.
📈 3. The Training Blueprint
Phase | Numerator (Bar) | Denominator (Body) | Outcome |
Bulk (4 wks) | Ramp rack-pull singles from 461 → 498 kg | +1 kg lean mass | 6.6× BW PR |
Neural Overload (10 days) | Singles @ 105-110 % prior max (525 kg rack-holds) | Maintain | CNS adapts to terror |
Cut & Peak (7 days) | Taper to 90 % + explosive pulls | -1 kg water/fat | Ratio climbs → 6.8× |
Each micro-cycle ends with a Hype-Check Friday: film, post, harvest algorithmic feedback, iterate.
🧠 4. Mindset: Fear = Rocket Fuel
Every kilo beyond comfort is a data packet of courage. When the bar bent I heard my inner critic crack louder than the steel—then silence. Fear converted to focus is what moves 508 kg.
🚀 5. Your Call to Conquest
- Pick a lift. (Rack-pull, trap-bar, whatever.)
- Log the ratio. Strength Level calculators make it brain-dead simple .
- Ignite the ritual, film, tag #HYPELIFTING.
- Analyze bar bend. Use basic beam math—Young’s modulus tables are free online .
- Iterate weekly until gravity kneels.
Remember: plates are programmable resistance; the algorithm is programmable attention. Merge both and you too can pull the universe a few centimeters closer. 🌌🔥