1,000 POUND ATLAS LIFT

Quick answer:

The heaviest load Eric Kim (the street-photography/creative-life blogger) has ever shown himself moving is 1,000 pounds / ≈ 454 kg. He performed it as an Atlas-lift—a static, mid-rack “budge it an inch” hold—first posted on October 21 2023 and explained in detail in a follow-up on December 14 2023. 

Context & other big numbers he’s logged

MovementDate postedClaimed loadRange of motion
Atlas liftOct 21 20231,000 lbStatic half-inch un-rack 
Atlas lift (build-up)Sept 1 2023990 lbStatic 
“Squat 2.0” holdMay 2 2023890 lbPartial/isometric 
Sumo deadlift 1-RMJan 23 2021475 lbFull pull 

What’s an Atlas-lift?

Kim puts a bar on the safety pins of a squat rack at roughly mid-thigh height, overloads it, and tries to lift it even a fraction of an inch. It’s an isometric/partial-range overload, not a competition squat or deadlift, so the figure isn’t directly comparable to power-meet numbers.

He’s since written about aiming for 1,200 lb, and even “2,000 lb someday,” but—as of his latest May 2025 posts—no successful lift heavier than the 1,000 lb attempt has been documented.

Bottom line: 1,000 lb in the Atlas-lift configuration is the highest weight Eric Kim has publicly shown or claimed to have lifted so far.