July 9, 2016. Leeds Arena is packed. The air is thick with the smell of smelling salts and nervous sweat. Eddie Hall, a man who essentially looked like a human boulder at the time, is standing over a barbell loaded with 500kg. That is 1,102 pounds. Half a tonne.
Nobody had ever done it. People literally thought it was impossible. Like, physically impossible for the human frame to handle that much compression without the spine turning into dust.
Then Eddie pulls it.
The Day the World Saw the Eddie Hall Max Deadlift
Strongman has always been about moving heavy stuff, but this was different. Usually, world records in the deadlift are broken by a single kilo. It’s a slow, grueling game of inches. But Eddie? He was bored of the "chipping" game. He decided to jump the record by 35 kilograms in one go. It was a suicide mission for the sake of legacy.
When you look at the footage of the Eddie Hall max deadlift, the first thing you notice isn’t even the weight. It's his face. It turns a shade of purple that shouldn't exist in nature. His eyes are bulging. His nose starts leaking blood.
✨ Don't miss: When Was the MLS Founded? The Chaotic Truth About American Soccer's Rebirth
He held it just long enough for the "down" signal. Then he collapsed.
What actually happens to your body under 500kg?
Honestly, the aftermath was terrifying. We aren't just talking about a sore back or a pulled hamstring. Eddie has been very open about the fact that he nearly died that night.
- The Brain Bleed: The internal pressure was so high that he suffered a burst blood vessel in his brain.
- Vision Loss: He went blind for a while. Not just "seeing stars"—full-on loss of central vision because the blood vessels in his eyes couldn't take the strain.
- Memory Loss: For weeks after the lift, he couldn't remember his wife’s name or his kids' birthdays. He was basically living in a concussive fog.
Why would anyone do this? Eddie's whole thing was about "hysterical strength." You know those stories about a mother lifting a car off her child? That’s what he tried to tap into. He worked with psychotherapists to learn how to trick his brain into thinking he was in a life-or-death situation. He wasn't lifting a barbell in his mind; he was lifting a car off his children.
The Controversy: Hall vs. Thor
You can't talk about the Eddie Hall max deadlift without mentioning the drama with Hafthor Bjornsson (The Mountain from Game of Thrones). In 2020, during the height of the pandemic, Thor pulled 501kg in his home gym in Iceland.
🔗 Read more: Navy Notre Dame Football: Why This Rivalry Still Hits Different
Eddie was fuming.
His argument was basically: "I did it in a sanctioned competition, with judges, under the pressure of a live crowd. You did it in your house." It sparked a massive feud that eventually led to a boxing match between the two giants in 2022.
But if we're being real, Thor’s 501kg looked... easy? Eddie’s 500kg looked like it was his absolute limit. Thor looked like he could have done 510kg that same day. In fact, just recently in 2025, the record-breaking has continued, with Thor pushing the boundaries even further to 510kg in official competition.
Does the record still matter?
Even though the number has been surpassed, the 2016 lift is the one that changed the sport. Before Eddie, 500kg was a mythical barrier. Now, it's the gold standard for the elite.
💡 You might also like: LeBron James Without Beard: Why the King Rarely Goes Clean Shaven Anymore
Here is the gear Eddie used to survive that lift:
- Figure-8 Straps: These are crucial. They essentially lock your wrists to the bar so even if your grip fails, the weight isn't going anywhere.
- A Deadlift Suit: These are incredibly stiff, tight-fitting suits that provide a massive amount of "pop" off the floor.
- Hitch: In Strongman, unlike Powerlifting, you can "hitch"—resting the bar on your thighs to wiggle it up. Eddie didn't really need to hitch 500kg; it was a relatively clean pull, which makes it even more impressive.
Hard Lessons from the Beast
If you're a lifter, there is a lot to take away from this, even if you're never going to pull half a tonne. Eddie’s success wasn't just about being big. He was 196kg at his heaviest. He was eating 12,000 calories a day. But the real "secret" was the mental prep.
The takeaway for us mortals:
Most of us have a governor in our brain that stops us from using 100% of our muscle fibers. It’s a safety mechanism to prevent us from literally tearing our muscles off the bone. Eddie learned how to turn that governor off.
It’s a cool trick, but as he found out, those safety mechanisms are there for a reason.
If you want to improve your own deadlift, don't try to tap into "dark places" and risk a brain bleed. Focus on your bracing. Learn how to use your lats to pull the slack out of the bar before you even start the lift. And maybe, just maybe, don't try to increase your personal best by 35kg in a single afternoon.
The Eddie Hall max deadlift remains a landmark in human history. It was the moment we realized that with enough training—and a scary amount of willpower—the human body can handle weights that should, by all rights, crush it.