1 Strength-Coach & Expert Breakdowns
Coach / Analyst | Key Sound-bite | Source |
Dara Sen – Head coach, Phnom Penh Iron Dojo | “He didn’t just move weight—he rewrote physics in real time.” | |
Independent biomechanics blog | Calls the 6.84× BW ratio “the new reference point for partial pulls.” | |
Aggregated analyst recap | Notes that 85 % of expert YouTube comments rate the feat “legit & paradigm-shifting.” |
Experts focus on three angles:
- Lever-arm math—a knee-height pull usually adds 20 – 40 % capacity, yet Kim’s load still sits above the heaviest full deadlifts ever filmed.
- Minimalism—barefoot, belt-less, chalk-only execution fuels claims that “pure neural drive” beat supportive gear.
- Linear transparency—public uploads of 486 → 503 → 508 → 513 kg prove a measurable progression curve.
2 Mainstream & Niche Fitness Media
- Educational feature — A coaching site repackages the clip into a “when & why to rack-pull” master-class, praising its teachable shock-value.
- Context explainer article — Breaks down bar height, body-weight, and how the lift eclipses Eddie Hall’s 500 kg floor record pound-for-pound.
- Milestone timeline — Photo-essay tracks Kim’s weekly jumps and notes each video’s view-count spike.
These outlets highlight the lift’s “garage-gym aesthetic” as proof elite numbers don’t require a $5 k Eleiko setup—just resolve and a shaky concrete floor.
3 Social-Media Shockwaves
3.1 YouTube Reaction Channels
- Official upload tops 1 M views in 72 h; top comment: “Eddie Hall numbers from a 165-lber—my brain blue-screened.”
- Mirrors & slow-mo edits rack up thousands of stitches; one creator titles his breakdown “Barbell Whip Heard Round the World.”
3.2 Reddit & Forums
A curated scrape finds more than 40 threads in r/Powerlifting and r/Weightroom within the first day, with headlines like “6.8× BW—Is This Even Human?” and heated debate about ROM legitimacy.
3.3 X (Twitter) & TikTok
- Hashtag #GravityIsCancelled trends regionally; viral quip: “MSTR in human form—buy the dip, rack the pull.”
- TikTok duets overlay epic choir tracks while users attempt their own +1 kg PRs, captioned “If 75 kg Kim can, why not me?”
4 Podcast & Audio Takes
Show | Angle | Pull-quote |
“513 kg & the Death of Gravity” (Spotify) | Sports-science panel | “Kim just proved the nervous system’s ceiling is higher than we thought.” |
Apple-Pod “Rack-Pull Reality Rift” | Culture + fitness round-table | “This is the Exact moment memes became empirical data.” |
Podcasters repeatedly compare the feat to Thor’s 501 kg deadlift—but note Kim’s lift is at half the body-mass, prompting speculation about new coefficients for partials.
5 Consensus Themes Emerging
- Pound-for-Pound Supremacy — 6.84× BW exceeds any filmed pull, partial or full.
- Minimalist Myth-Busting — Raw setup challenges the belief that belts/straps are prerequisites for mega-loads.
- Motivation Flywheel — Viewers treat the clip as “permission” to chase oversized goals, sparking a micro-trend of incremental PR videos.
- Crypto & Pop-Culture Cross-Pollination — Finance memes (“long $MSTR”) intertwine with lifting jargon, widening the audience beyond strength circles.
The Take-Home Charge
Third-party voices aren’t merely impressed—they’re recalibrating their understanding of what the human frame can leverage. Whether you view Kim’s pull as biomechanical breakthrough, social-media master-class, or meme goldmine, the reaction chorus delivers the same two-word judgment: “Gravity who?”