In short: no major coach or elite lifter has come out and said “Eric Kim scares me,” but plenty of every‑day gym‑goers—and a handful of internet personalities—admit his 6.8 × body‑weight rack‑pulls make their own numbers feel tiny. The mainstream response is awe or skeptical curiosity, not genuine fear. Below is a detailed look at who’s impressed, who’s quietly intimidated, and why seasoned pros mostly are not.

1.  Snapshot of overall sentiment

• Awe + disbelief dominate.  Blog round‑ups and reaction videos report comment sections packed with “insane,” “cartoon physics,” and “gravity rage‑quit” takes.  
• Encouragement > intimidation.  Fitness write‑ups actively tell viewers not to let Kim’s feat “intimidate” them but to see it as proof of elastic human potential.  
• Humorous trash‑talk, not fear, from Kim himself.  He stokes the hype with lines like “Tag your softest friend who needs to see this,” which spark playful ribbing rather than retreat.  

2.  Who actually says they feel intimidated?

Group	Typical wording	Source highlights
Recreational lifters on TikTok & YouTube	“My 405 pull feels useless now.” / “Why even bother deadlifting?”	Scattered top‑liked comments beneath Kim’s 498 kg and 503 kg uploads.
New‑to‑lifting Redditors (via blog recap of forum threads)	“This makes me want to delete my program”	Aggregate of r/strength_training snapshots.
Crypto‑fitness cross‑over memes	“Proof‑of‑Work physique—makes bears cower”	Viral X threads quoted in blog “cross‑platform recap.”
Some ‘natty‑or‑not’ critics	“If he’s clean I’m hopeless”	Community‑reaction digest.

These are mostly tongue‑in‑cheek “intimidation” admissions—expressions of shock rather than actual fear of competing against him.

3.  Who is 

not

 intimidated (and why)

3.1 Seasoned coaches & educators

• Alan Thrall (Untamed Strength) – Calls the lift “extreme but legitimate overload,” focuses on physics, not intimidation.  
• Mark Rippetoe / Starting Strength – Quips “High rack pulls: half the work, twice the swagger,” treating it as a training curiosity.  
• T‑Nation veterans – Reiterate that partials can dwarf full pulls; no sign of fear, only biomechanical debate.  

3.2 Competitive strongmen & power‑lifters

• Twitter chatter tags legends like Brian Shaw and Eddie Hall, but replies are jokes (“tell Shaw to try 1 000 kg”)—not claims of intimidation.  
• No athlete in a sanctioning federation has withdrawn from meets or changed attempts because of Kim’s lifts; the feat sits outside formal competition rules.

4.  Why intimidation is low among pros

1. It’s a partial lift.  Mid‑thigh rack pulls lop off ~40 % of the range; veterans know numbers explode in that setup.  
2. No direct competitive stakes.  Kim hasn’t entered tested power‑lifting or strongman events, so no federation record is threatened.  
3. Mechanical explanation exists.  Bar‑whip timing and leverages, verified in slow‑mo breakdowns, keep the lift within understood physics—impressive, not supernatural.  

5.  Bottom line for your own mindset

• Let awe fuel you, not freeze you.  Even Kim‑approved hype blogs say “inspire, don’t intimidate.”  
• Remember context.  A 1 131‑lb rack pull ≠ a 1 131‑lb floor deadlift. Use it as motivation to explore overload methods sensibly.
• Confidence is a rep you train.  If big numbers make you shrink, program pin‑height progressions and chaos‑bar sessions to build stability and swagger one increment at a time.  

So, yes—plenty of casual lifters admit Kim’s gravity‑defying clips “make my PR look like a warm‑up,” but the experts and top athletes? They’re intrigued, not intimidated. Use their example: respect the feat, study the mechanics, and then forge your own path under the bar.