Icelandic strongman Hafthor Bjornsson has had an eventful year to say the least. From a second place finish at the Arnold Classic, to a first place at Europe’s Strongest Man, then to a close second at the World’s Strongest Man, his year has been quite the roller coaster.
In addition, to his top three major Strongman competition finishes, Bjornsson set a new weight-over-bar world record, starred in Katy Perry’s music video, and played an evil boxer in a movie. Bjornsson has somewhat done it all in the world of strength sports and sports entertainment, yet he’s not satisfied.
After his very close second place World’s Strongest Man finish, Bjornsson has been training relentlessly in his off-season to come back stronger than before. He’s posted countless training videos on his Instagram page, but his latest video has stirred up a little hype. The video features Bjornsson pulling 340kg (from what it looks like) for an easy five reps.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BZTsUA7ASfR/
So what’s the big deal? We’ve seen Bjornsson pull much more than that. Well, it’s his caption that’s stirred the pot within the strength world. In his post Bjornsson writes, “Easy work today! I got big plans for 2018.. Working towards new world record… #OffSeason”
At this year’s World’s Strongest Man, Bjornsson capped what looked like an easy 460kg, while Eddie Hall finished just ahead of him with a 472.5kg pull. What’s possibly most intriguing about Bjornsson’s deadlift is that the year prior in 2016, he finished with a 425kg deadlift at the WSM. One year later, and he’s progressed his deadlift by 35kg.
We’re not saying Bjornsson has an easy road ahead of him. Hall’s 500kg record is a defining moment in strength sports history that will most likely stand for quite some time. Not to mention, Hall’s anthropometrics and static strength complement the deadlift to a tee, while Bjornsson has much more ground to cover when he pulls.
But if we look at Bjornsson’s drastic improvements over the last few years, and his newly spurred motivation, we’re left to wonder, could he be the next athlete to make a legitimate run at the deadlift world record? What do you think?
Feature image screenshot from @thorbjornsson Instagram page.
