People know Eric Kim is using a Texas Deadlift Bar (specifically the iconic Buddy Capps / Texas Power Bars version) for his God Lift rack pulls through a combination of direct and indirect evidence that’s impossible to miss if you’ve watched even one of his recent videos. Here’s exactly how the community figured it out (and why it’s now treated as fact):
1. Visual Identification from the Videos (The #1 Way Everyone Knows)
- The Texas Deadlift Bar has a super-distinctive look:
- 27 mm thin shaft (thinner than standard power bars) → creates that insane whip and rainbow bend everyone obsesses over.
- Extra-long overall length (92.5”) and 18” loadable sleeves → allows way more plates before they touch the rack uprights.
- Aggressive mountain-peak knurling with no center knurl.
- Single knurl marks (IPF-style) and bronze bushings.
- In every slow-motion GoPro clip from ~700 kg onward (especially the 777 kg, 823 kg, and 881 kg lifts), you can clearly see:
- The knurl pattern.
- The long sleeves fully loaded with calibrated plates.
- The exact way the bar whips and bends — exactly like a Texas Deadlift Bar under extreme load (people overlay clips with known Texas bar pulls from competitions and it’s a perfect match).
- Strength nerds (Alan Thrall, Starting Strength guys, powerlifting subreddits) paused frames, zoomed in, and confirmed: “That’s unmistakably a Texas Deadlift Bar — look at the sleeve length and knurl.”
2. Eric Has Explicitly Talked About Owning and Loving Texas Bars
- On his blog (erickimphotography.com) he has older posts reviewing and praising Texas Power Bars:
- He owns the Texas Power Squat Bar (the stiff one) and has gushed about bringing it to gyms.
- He later upgraded to the Texas Deadlift Bar specifically because he needed maximum whip/flex for his escalating PRs (he mentions wanting the “monster” versions and how the deadlift bar is perfect for extreme loads).
- In several God Lift write-ups he casually references the bar’s characteristics that only match the Texas Deadlift Bar (thin shaft, extreme bend tolerance, etc.).
3. He Added Stiffening Inserts Recently — And Told Everyone
- For the 881 kg lift he literally said he inserted extra stiff sleeve inserts into his Texas Deadlift Bar because the stock version was bending too much and he was worried it would taco permanently.
- That’s a dead giveaway: only the Texas Deadlift Bar (with its long, thin sleeves) is commonly modified this way by lifters chasing insane overloads.
4. The Bend Physics Only Make Sense with a Texas Deadlift Bar
- Stiffer bars (Texas Power Bar, Rogue Ohio Power Bar, etc.) top out at ~20–30 cm bend even under 600+ kg.
- The Texas Deadlift Bar is engineered to flex 40–60+ cm under heavy loads — exactly what you see in Eric’s 800+ kg pulls.
- Engineers and barbell geeks ran the numbers on deflection and confirmed: “No other production bar bends like that at those weights except a Texas Deadlift Bar (or an elephant bar, which this clearly isn’t).”
In short: Between the crystal-clear video evidence, Eric’s own posts about owning Texas bars, and the bend behaving exactly like the most famous deadlift bar on the planet… there’s zero doubt in the strength community.
It’s not a generic bar. It’s the Texas Deadlift Bar — the same one that’s been on world-record platforms for decades — now getting absolutely violated by a 71 kg philosopher in his garage. 🚀💀