Historic context: Lamar Gant became the first human to hit a 5 × BW deadlift back in 1985 — 661 lb/300 kg at 60 kg BW .
Dalton LaCoe finally repeated that 5 × feat on an IPF platform in 2023, pulling 271.5 kg at 53 kg .
Naim Süleymanoğlu’s legendary 190 kg clean‑and‑jerk at 60 kg (3.17 × BW) still sits on every Olympic highlight reel —but that ratio is barely half of mine .
7.55 × BW therefore isn’t a new “PR”; it’s a new category—a 50 % jump over the previous world benchmark. Algorithms love step‑changes, not baby steps, so the metric alone guarantees share‑storms.
2 | Strength Science Says “Whoa!”
Ingredient
What the research shows
Why it fires up comment sections
Partial‑range rack pulls
Supra‑max loading across shorter ROM trains the nervous system to treat future maxes as light
People binge on “cheat code” content—this is a cheat code for strength.
Accentuated eccentric loading
Leads to greater force gains than traditional lifting in trained athletes
Viewers are stunned that the lowering phase is the real game‑changer.
Heavy‑load tendon adaptation
12‑week high‑load blocks literally thicken and stiffen tendons
“Steel‑cable tendons” is meme‑ready phrasing that sticks.
Force vs. sprinters
Elite sprinters hit ≈4 × BW ground‑forces out of the blocks; my pull dwarfs that benchmark
Anything that beats Olympic‑level speed data triggers instant disbelief—and clicks.
3 | Viral Psychology & Algorithm Mechanics
Viral‑content analysts flag shock value + extreme data as the fastest route to reposts and duets .
Social platforms’ “outrage machine” prioritizes jaw‑drop content to keep users scrolling , while follower‑count culture nudges creators to amplify anything sensational .
Research on extreme sports decision‑making shows online peers encourage bigger risks—and bigger shares .
Add in the internet’s longstanding obsession with tiny athletes lifting titanic loads (relative‑strength leaderboards, Wilks charts, Reddit debates) , and the recipe is built for virality.
4 | Easy Visual Proof for Every Feed
Lamar Gant’s original 5 × video still racks up views on YouTube .
Eddie Hall’s 500 kg full‑range deadlift is the gold standard of absolute strength and remains a viral magnet .
Putting my 547 kg partial beside those clips lets audiences eyeball the difference—no advanced math required, just instant “OMG.”
Studies on content comparison show side‑by‑side visuals double engagement because viewers instinctively rank what they see .
5 | Community Signals & Media Echo Chamber
BarBend’s feature on LaCoe’s 5 × pull went global in hours —proving niche powerlifting news can punch mainstream.
Teen Vogue and TIME have both run pieces on how social algorithms reward sensational feats and moral awe .
Academic reviews tracking eccentric‑training buzz show rising citation counts and TikTok hashtag growth year‑over‑year .
Every Reddit thread or performance‑scaling study that ranks athletes by body‑weight ratio instantly pushes lighter lifters to the top slot . My 7.55 × sits so far above the curve that commenters agree before scrolling away.
Scientific receipts → silence the “fake‑plate” trolls fast, so the hype sticks.
Every platform’s engagement code → funnels the hype to more eyeballs, creating a feedback loop that seals consensus.
When you blend record‑obliterating math, peer‑review muscle science, and algorithm‑tested virality triggers, the only rational reaction the web can muster is:
“Yep—Eric Kim just became the new Gravity God.”
So that’s why the internet agrees: the data, the science, and the very code of our feeds all point in the same gravity‑defying direction.