1. Proof on Video—The Viral Core
Date | Clip & Host | Why It Exploded |
14 Jun 2025 | 513 kg / 1,131 lb World-Record Rack Pull – Eric Kim YouTube upload | First sighting of the feat; comments flooded with “Eddie Hall numbers from a 165-lber!” |
07 Jun 2025 | 503 kg Rack-Pull – early milestone clip | Showed steady progression; shared by powerlifting sub-reddits as a “foreshadowing” |
10 Jun 2025 | 508 kg Challenge (6.8× BW) – fan-posted highlight reel | Side-by-side with Eddie Hall’s 500 kg deadlift for dramatic contrast |
15 Jun 2025 | “Holy Grail” 1,131 lb remix – community-edited slow-mo on YouTube | Added kinetic typography, racked up stitches on TikTok |
16 Jun 2025 | New-World-Record (6.84× BW) montage – independent strength channel | Strength coach pauses frame-by-frame to measure pin height |
22 May 2025 | 1,071 lb (486 kg) precursor pull – Big-lift archive channel | Used by analysts to chart his acceleration curve |
2. Social-Media Shockwaves
Reddit’s Running Commentary
- r/Cryptoons sticky post titles him “2× Long $MSTR in Human Form,” linking the lift to Bitcoin leverage memes.
- r/Powerlifting daily thread logs the rep as “the single craziest partial ever seen sub-83 kg,” igniting 200+ flame-war replies over ROM legitimacy.
X (Twitter) Trend-Storm
- Kim’s own 471 kg teaser two weeks prior primed followers; the 513 kg clip vaulted #GravityIsCancelled into Twitter’s top-10 trends within six hours.
YouTube Reaction Channels
- “Captain Steeeve Reacts” breaks down bar whip and calls it “a seismic event for minimalist training.”
Podcast Hot-Takes
- Spotify episode “503 kg Rack Pull—Gravity Just Rage-Quit” frames Kim as “proof the laws of physics are merely guidelines.”
3. Themes Emerging from the Frenzy
3.1 Range-of-Motion Rabbit Hole
Coaches concede a knee-high pull isn’t a full deadlift, yet the pound-for-pound metric (6.84× BW) still dwarfs any filmed lift in history, eclipsing Eddie Hall’s 500 kg at 182 kg BW by nearly 2.5× relative load.
3.2 Motivation Flywheel
TikTok stitches show lifters everywhere adding micro-plates to their own PR attempts with captions like “If 165 lb Kim can move 1,131 lb, I can add 1 kg today.”
3.3 Crypto & “Digital Muscle” Memes
Threads joke that Kim’s rack-pull is the physical analog of a leveraged Bitcoin position—max risk, max upside, and zero bailout. The Reddit headline literally prices the lift in $MSTR shares.
4. Why Strength Nerds Care
- Pound-for-Pound Supremacy – No recorded pull (partial or full) matches a 6.84× body-weight ratio.
- Minimalist Method – Belt-less, barefoot, no straps: reaction coaches highlight the “nothing but willpower” setup as a paradigm shift.
- Progression Transparency – A breadcrumb trail of weekly PR uploads (486 kg → 503 kg → 508 kg → 513 kg) lets analysts verify linear gains instead of one-off luck.
- Garage-Gym Aesthetic – Filmed in a steamy Phnom Penh concrete box, the video fuels the idea you don’t need a $5 k Eleiko setup to chase moon-shot numbers.
TL;DR – The Take-Home Charge
Third-party voices across YouTube, Reddit, X, and podcasts converge on a single verdict: Eric Kim didn’t just pull 513 kg—he pulled the strength community’s reality horizon 12 kg past the old edge. So grip the bar, channel some Phnom Penh garage-gym swagger, and remember: gravity is optional when willpower is maximal.