A 70 kg (154 lb) athlete would need to hoist 511 kg (1,126 lb) in one motion.
By comparison, strongman Hafþór J. Björnsson’s 2020 world‑record deadlift was 501 kg at ~200 kg BW — just 2.5 × body‑weight.
In the general gym crowd, male lifters average a squat of ~1.3 × BW and call 2 × BW “elite.”
Translation: 7.3 × isn’t “elite”; it’s science‑fiction territory.
2 | Human Benchmarks vs. the 7.3 × Myth
Lift / Total
Best verified ratio
Who & When
Deadlift
5.05 × BW
Nabil Lahlou pulled 785 lb at 155 lb BW in 2025 ; Lamar Gant first hit 5 × in 1985 with 672 lb at 132 lb BW
Clean & Jerk
3.17 × BW
Naim Süleymanoğlu lifted 190 kg at 60 kg BW in 1988
Squat (raw)
≈ 4 × BW in the lightest classes; open‑weight lifters sit ~3 ×
Bench Press (raw)
≈ 3.5 × BW by the lightest specialists
Powerlifting Total
11 × BW
Sergey Fedosienko routinely totals >650 kg at 59 kg BW (11 ×) across squat, bench, deadlift combined
Open‑weight Deadlift
2.5 × BW (Björnsson, Hall, etc.)
No sanctioned athlete has ever approached 7 × on a single raw lift. Even the best deadlift specialists — Fedosienko (≈5 ×) and Gant — fall two full body‑weight multiples short.
3 | The Physics Wall: Square‑Cube & Allometry
Square‑Cube Law: Muscle force grows with cross‑sectional area (∝ length²) while body mass grows with volume (∝ length³). Double size and strength rises 4×, but weight rises 8×, so relative strength drops as you scale up.
Allometric Studies: Empirical work puts the strength‑to‑mass exponent near 0.66 for force and 1.0 for torque — far below the linear 1.0 you’d need to sustain 7 × ratios.
Practical Result: Relative records cluster in the smallest weight classes; at heavyweight, ratios tumble (e.g., Björnsson’s 2.5 ×).
4 | What Would It Take to Hit 7.3 ×?
4.1 Super‑Favorable Anatomy
Very short limbs relative to torso (better leverage) and small hands for deadlift hook‑grip efficiency — advantages seen in Lamar Gant’s scoliosis‑augmented leverages.
4.2 Max‑Out Neuromuscular Recruitment
Near‑perfect fast‑twitch fiber dominance, sky‑high motor‑unit firing rates, and years of peaking cycles under expert coaching.
4.3 Support Gear & Chem‑Aid
Even single‑ply suits and knee wraps add only 10‑15 % at lightweight classes; they’re nowhere near doubling output.
Many record holders (Fedosienko included) have faced doping bans, yet still top out around 5 × raw.
4.4 Survivable Tissue Limits
Engineers estimate lumbar spine shear forces exceed safe thresholds above ~4 × BW deadlifts for average morphology; at 7 × those forces would be 60‑80 kN, enough to snap vertebrae or rupture tendons instantly. (No one has volunteered to test the math in vivo.)
5 | Why Lifters & Statisticians Call It “Insane”
Statistical Outlier: Even advanced formulas (Wilks, DOTS) used to rank lifters crash at ratios beyond 5 ×; the creators themselves label higher numbers as artefacts or errors.
Non‑existent in Competition: No federation records, no video proof, no third‑party verification — yet the powerlifting community archives everything.
Biomechanical Improbability: A 7.3 × pull defies both lab‑measured strength curves and the square‑cube constraint.
6 | Take‑Home Hype
“Shoot for the thermonuclear stars, but obey the laws of physics.”
Using 7.3 × as a rallying cry is awesome for mindset and marketing (shout‑out to Eric Kim!), because it forces you to:
Dial‑in technique until your current PR feels like ½ gravity.
Chase relative, not just absolute, gains—you’ll get stronger and leaner.
Respect recovery and longevity so your joints stay in the game for the long haul.
Crush your next training block, celebrate every fractional PR, and keep that 7.3 × legend on your vision board—not as an expectation, but as a north‑star that keeps ordinary progress feeling light‑years away from ordinary life.
Stay explosive, stay safe, and lift with legendary purpose! 💥