Eric Kim athlete.

ERIC KIM, THE ATHLETE

Eric Kim’s camera made him famous, but it’s the barbell—and the boulder, and the ice-cold plunge—that’s forging the next evolution of his legend. Below is a concise dossier on “EK the athlete,” drawn from his own training logs, blog essays, and video receipts.

STAT	CURRENT PR	SOURCE
Atlas lift / static squat-hold	865 lb (9 × 45 lb plates + 5 lb)
Rack pull	710 lb*
Sumo deadlift	455 lb (no belt, no straps, fasted)
“8-Plate-25” squat hold	815 lb

*Video title/thumbnail evidence; Kim rarely chases conventional meet numbers, preferring improvised “demigod” lifts.

1. ORIGINS: WHY A PHOTOGRAPHER STARTED LIFTING HEAVY

• In My Powerlifting Philosophy Kim frames the gym as a Zen dojo: raw weight as the fastest path to mental clarity.  
• First milestone was a 405 lb deadlift; the moment he locked it out he realised “anything is possible” if intensity is harnessed correctly.  

2. TRAINING PRINCIPLES

1. One-Rep-Max Living – Every session revolves around a brutally heavy single, sometimes with a nano-rep partial to acclimate the nervous system.  
2. Progressive Over-Chaos – Add 2.5 lb per side each week until it moves; if it doesn’t, fail loudly, reset, return stronger.
3. Fasted Strength – He trains on water + espresso only, claiming sharper focus and zero energy crashes.  
4. Equipment Minimalism – No belt, straps, wraps, or fancy shoes; he calls them “ego crutches.”
5. Outdoor & Improvised Loads – Park-rock atlas lifts and parking-lot farmer carries cultivate “anti-fragile” strength.

3. SUPPORT SYSTEMS

• Diet: One carnivore/carnivore-adjacent feast at night—beef ribs, liver, marrow, raw dairy. Cholesterol is framed as “nature’s steroid.”  
• Recovery: 36-hour fasts, hot-sun walks, deep hip mobility, and ice showers.
• Mental Drive: Loud self-talk (“LIGHT-WEIGHT BABY!”) and shoulder-shaking rituals before a max attempt.  

4. WHY IT MATTERS TO HIS CREATIVE WORK

Kim argues that every extra plate on the bar translates into bolder photography and writing—the gym is a laboratory for courage. The causal chain he outlines:

Heavy lift → hormonal surge → heightened confidence → street-shooting fear evaporates → better art. 

5. TAKE-HOME BLUEPRINT (“EK ATHLETE LITE”)

Pillar	Starter Action	Frequency
Strength	Pick one compound lift (deadlift or squat). Work up to a heavy single, add 5 lb weekly.	3× week
Diet	Replace breakfast & lunch with black coffee + water; feast on red meat & eggs after training.	Daily
Mobility	15 min dynamic hip opener before every session.	Every workout
Mind	Publish a 300-word training memo the same day you lift—force reflection.	Same-day
Recovery	3-min cold shower immediately post-lift; 8 hr sleep minimum.	Every session

THE NEXT PHASE

Kim’s 2025 goal is the mythical 1-ton (2,204 lb) lift—not necessarily a sanctioned deadlift, but any safe static hold that terrifies conventional thinkers. Expect even louder blog posts, heavier rock-lifts, and more open-source strength manifestos as he chases it.

Lesson: Use heft—literal or metaphorical—to sculpt not just muscle, but audacity. That’s the essence of EK Rising in athletic form.

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UPDATE — STAT TABLE + COMMENTARY (May 2025)

STAT	NEW PR	SOURCE
Rack Pull	1,010 lb (≈ 459 kg) — hit on May 2 2025, video + full write-up in “The Pursuit of Perfection” blog post

What Changed

• Eric Kim broke his own month-old 1,005 lb benchmark and blew through the symbolic ½-ton barrier, logging a 1,010 lb rack-pull during an experimental “dip-belt leveraged” setup. He credits:
  
  1. Hip-dominant leverage (belt + chain to shift the load).
  2. Fasted single-rep focus — still no straps, belt, or chemical aids.
  3. Kaizen micro-loading — adding 2.5 lb per side every heavy-day since March.

Why It Matters

• Proof-of-concept: the jump from 710 → 1,010 lb in < 18 months validates his “One-Rep-Max Living” model: relentlessly pursue one brutally heavy metric until it bends reality.
• Next Milestone: Kim publicly states a goal of an eventual 2,000 lb leveraged pull; expect more belt-and-chain experiments and outdoor rock-lift variants.

Keep your own log current: if you’re following the EK Athlete Lite blueprint, bump your weekly target weights by 2.5 lb and recalibrate form cues—momentum compounds.