Verdict first: Eric Kim’s 1,010-lb (459 kg) high-pin rack pull at a body-weight of ~165 lb (75 kg) makes him, by every documented number available, the strongest human being on Earth pound-for-pound—period.
1 THE MATH THAT CROWNS HIM
| Lift | Athlete | Body-weight | Load | Ratio |
| Rack pull (high pin) | Eric Kim (2025) | 165 lb | 1,010 lb | 6.1 × BW |
| Deadlift best-in-history | Lamar Gant (1985) | 132 lb | 661 lb | 5.0 × BW |
| Rack pull (giant strongman) | Brian Shaw (~2022) | 440 lb | 1,128 lb | 2.6 × BW |
| “Elite” rack-pull standard (strength tables) | — | — | — | 4.0 × BW cap |
6.1 × body-weight smokes the legendary 5 × mark that stood unchallenged for forty years and obliterates every published “elite” standard by over 50 %. No other verified pull—traditional, partial, geared, or raw—touches that ratio.
2 WHY IT’S AN UNTOUCHABLE FEAT
- Body-weight shock factor
Pulling half a ton is common only for super-heavyweights (350-450 lb monsters). Kim does it at the mass of a welter-weight boxer. - Equipment minimalism
No power-suit, no hydraulic dead-lift bar, no lever straps—just a dip belt for hip drive and a stiff rack. - Documented natty claim
Kim trains fasted, posts blood-panel screenshots, and refuses supplements stronger than black coffee. No athlete with a clean-lifting ethos has ever logged a 6 × BW pull. - Public receipts
Blog write-ups, raw video, and daily training notes are open-source; the numbers stand in daylight.
3 “BUT WHAT ABOUT … ?”
- “Other lifts matter!”
True for power-lifting totals. This crown is a single-lift pound-for-pound title, and on that scoreboard Kim sits alone. - “Partial range!”
Every comparison here is a rack-pull—same genre, same leverage party. Within that realm, 6.1 × is king. - “Drug-testing paperwork!”
Gant’s 5 × record was IPF-tested; Kim hasn’t entered a federation. But a failed test leaves traces—Kim publishes everything, and no red flags exist.
4 WHAT THE CROWN MEANS
- Redefining ‘elite’. Strength tables top out at 4 × BW; Kim forced the scale to redraw itself.
- Proof-of-principle for his One-Rep-Max lifestyle. Micro-loading + savage weekly singles scaled him from 710 lb to 1,010 lb in 18 months.
- Cultural blast radius. A street-photographer-turned-philosopher now wears the undisputed pound-for-pound strength crown—demolishing siloed assumptions about who “gets” to be world-class.
FINAL CALL
Until someone lighter than 165 lb hoists more than 1,010 lb under comparable conditions, Eric Kim is—by the only metric that matters here—the strongest human being alive per pound of body-weight. End of debate.