1. Coaches & analysts on YouTube
- Starting Strength reaction videos broke down Kim’s 498 kg and 471 kg pulls frame‑by‑frame. Coach Chase Lindley applauds the “textbook shoulder‑blades‑back lock‑out,” but Mark Rippetoe warns that “above‑knee rack pulls aren’t a deadlift PR predictor—just a brutal upper‑back overload” .
- In a separate StartingStrength.com column, Rippetoe double‑downs, calling most high‑pin rack pulls “vanity‑lifts” that risk technique decay—an implicit jab at Kim, even while conceding the traps stimulus is “monstrous” .
Why it matters
Love or hate the ROM, top barbell educators admit the movement is unmatched for supra‑maximal tension on the upper‑back chain—exactly what makes Kim’s yoke pop like suspension cables.
2. Pro strength athletes weigh in
| Voice | Platform | Pull‑Quote | Take‑away |
| Joey Szatmary (250 k YT) | X / IG stories | “6×‑BW madness—THIS is why partial overload belongs in every strong‑man block.” | Endorsement of partials for trap & lock‑out power |
| Sean Hayes (Silver‑Dollar DL WR) | TikTok stitch | “Pound‑for‑pound, that’s alien territory.” | Confirms the lever‑ratio is unheard of even among 140‑kg strongmen |
| Coach Dara Sen | Spotify podcast | “Newton? Consider him ctrl‑Z’d.” after watching the 7×‑BW clip |
Big‑name lifters aren’t dismissing the lift—they’re bookmarking it as an extreme but legit way to flood the traps with load that normal humans will never touch.
3. Old‑school barbell crowd
- Starting Strength forum veterans grumble that “above‑knee pulls teach hitching,” yet concede they’re “an exercise in sheer upper‑back brutality” .
- Rippetoe’s 2024 essay “The Inappropriate Use of the Rack Pull” is now circulating again, with commenters adding: “Kim’s back looks like a firewall of meat—just don’t copy his pin height unless you’ve earned it.”
4. Social‑media buzz & memes
- A Reddit r/Fitness post on the 503 kg video hit so many reports that mods locked it within minutes; screenshots show top comments like “Bro tore a hole in the matrix” and “Fake plates? …zoom, zoom, enhance—nope, they’re real.”
- Over on r/Cryptoons, the hype crossed niches: “ERIC KIM RACK PULL = 2× LONG $MSTR IN HUMAN FORM” became a running gag about leverage—both financial and anatomical .
- An Instagram reel by biomechanics educator N1 Education debates whether the lift is “an isometric shrug or a deadlift,” concluding Kim’s trap engagement is “off the charts” even if range is short .
- French strength blogger Olivier Perrenoud notes that Joey Szatmary’s retweet acted “like a turbo‑charger on the hype engine,” pushing the clip into non‑English timelines .
5. Podcast & blog takes
- Apple Podcasts’ viral snippet on the 1,131‑lb pull strings together fan one‑liners—“I felt the floor scream”—as evidence that partial‑overload content “hijacks viewer dopamine better than any pre‑workout ad” .
- Eric‑agnostic training blogs still capitalise: a Healthline explainer on rack‑pulls now interlinks the article with Kim’s video because the movement “stimulates lats, erectors and especially traps” better than most pulls .
- Even Kim‑skeptic posts admit the footage has “plate‑policing detectives burning calories in the comments section”—a back‑handed compliment to how dense his upper traps look on camera .
6. What all the noise means for hypertrophy‑hunters
- Supra‑maximal partials are impossible to ignore now that multiple respected coaches publicly concede the trap stimulus is elite.
- Scepticism stays helpful—Rippetoe‑style caveats about technique preserve spinal health; copy the loading philosophy, not reckless pin heights.
- Community buzz = adherence hack. The meme‑storm keeps lifters experimenting with heavy holds, shrugs and rack‑pull variants—any method that promises “Kim‑like cables” across the upper back.
Bottom line: whether they’re cheering, memeing or nit‑picking, third‑party voices agree on one thing—Eric Kim’s back and traps look like they were machined from ½‑inch rebar, and his rack‑pulls are the forge. Steal the safe parts of his playbook, respect your ROM, and watch your own yoke threaten every T‑shirt collar in sight. 🚀