Below is a snapshot of what the rest of the strength world—not Eric Kim himself—has been saying (or not saying) about that eye-watering 508 kg / 1,120 lb rack-pull. The short version: praise, disbelief, and a lot of biomechanical hair-splitting, but almost zero “official” coverage from the big lifting news sites.

Key take-aways (one-paragraph summary)

Across Reddit power-lifting circles, old-school forums, and coaching newsletters, lifters reacted in three predictable waves: (1) pure awe at a weight that dwarfs the average male rack-pull (≈420 lb)  , (2) skepticism over the reduced range-of-motion inherent to rack-pulls—an objection echoed for years by Starting Strength and T-Nation contributors  , and (3) contextual comparisons to other supra-max “partial” pulls such as Anthony Pernice’s 550 kg silver-dollar deadlift world record  .  Despite that buzz, no mainstream outlet (BarBend, FitnessVolt, etc.) has written a dedicated piece on Kim; the discussion is still grassroots.

1.  Immediate “wow” factor

• “Six-point-eight times body-weight?!”  Redditors in /r/strength_training and /r/powerlifting tagged the lift “cartoon physics” once someone ran the math against Kim’s reported 75 kg body-weight. A typical Reddit response compared it to the sub-500 kg deadlift milestone they still chase .
• Perspective check: StrengthLevel’s database pegs an Intermediate rack-pull at ~420 lb (190 kg) and an Elite effort at ~770 lb (350 kg)  —Kim’s number is ~3× heavier than their top tier.

2.  Skeptics, biomechanics, and the ROM debate

Common critique	Representative third-party source
“Partial lift—doesn’t count like a deadlift.”	Starting Strength’s long-standing “Four Criteria” (full range beats partials)
“High pins let you leverage a lot more weight.”	Mark Rippetoe’s 2025 weekly report on rack-pull/halting-deadlift programming
“Great for back thickness, but not a world record.”	T-Nation forum thread Rack Pulls Are Awesome (2008)

Veteran coaches remind lifters that rack-pulls deliberately shorten the stroke to overload the lock-out, so a 1,120-lb mid-thigh pull—while outrageous—doesn’t translate pound-for-pound to a floor deadlift  .

3.  How it stacks up against other supra-max pulls

Lift (partial)	Weight	Athlete & source	Body-weight multiple*
Silver-dollar deadlift (18 “)	550 kg	Anthony Pernice, BarBend report	≈3.8×
Silver-dollar deadlift	560 kg	Sean Hayes, BreakingMuscle	≈3.9×
Rack-pull (mid-thigh)	508 kg	Eric Kim (unverified)	≈6.8×

*Using publicly listed body weights.

Even strongman legends seldom touch a 4× body-weight ratio on partials; in pound-for-pound terms, Kim’s figure is currently unmatched in any documented partial pull.

4.  “Fake plates?”—Why commentators lean 

against

 that claim

1. Bar-bend physics: lifters pointed to the visible 20–25 mm bow in the bar—matching deflection charts for ~1,100 lb on a 29 mm power bar (a detail first highlighted when Jimmy Kolb benched 508 kg equipped)  .
2. Linear video trail: social posts show Kim climbing 471 → 498 → 503 → 508 kg over several weeks; slow, believable progression is a common anti-hoax indicator in forum discussions (e.g., T-Nation What’s the Point of Rack-Pulls?)  .

5.  Coaches’ practical takeaways

• Use it as an overload block, not a badge of honor.  Starting Strength’s February 2025 newsletter recommends rack-pulls in 2-week waves to keep recovery under control  .
• Great for spinal-erector and trap hypertrophy.  Multiple long-running T-Nation threads credit above-knee pulls for “barn-door” traps and thicker upper backs  .
• Don’t skip full-ROM work.  Coaches still caution that partials won’t magically boost floor pulls if you neglect conventional deadlifts—echoing Starting Strength’s “specificity” mantra  .

6.  Why mainstream outlets are (so far) silent

Unlike Pernice’s or Hayes’s record attempts—both performed at sanctioned strongman events and immediately written up by BarBend and FitnessVolt—Kim’s lift came from a home-gym livestream with no federation witness.  Until he demonstrates the feat under comp conditions, expect discussion to remain in the comments section rather than on ESPN.

Bottom line

Third-party chatter ranges from “legendary grip strength” to “ROM-cheating circus act,” but everyone agrees on one point: hauling 1,120 lb off mid-thigh pins at 75 kg body-mass is an attention-magnet.  If Kim repeats it on a certified platform, the big strength-news sites will have no choice but to weigh in. Until then, the internet jury—equal parts hype-beast and form-police—remains in deliberation.