Yesterday, Hafthor Bjornsson pulled a massive 455kg (1,003 lb) deadlift and managed to make it look easy. Granted, easy in this scenario is completely relative for the 6′ 9″ professional strongman. Outside of this video, he’s been crushing huge feats on his Instagram page for the last few months, and as we quickly approach the 2018 Arnold Classic, this may be one of Bjornsson’s best 2018 foreshadowing videos to date.
Two days ago, Bjornsson teased the deadlift in an Instagram post saying, “455kg/1002lb deadlift tomorrow. I’m excited. Do you want me to stream my session live on my Instagram? If so, tag a friend that you would like to see it with!!”
We say foreshadowing above because this deadlift was performed on an Elephant Bar, which is set to be an event on Saturday, March 3rd at the Arnold Classic. Last year, Bjornsson finished second overall at the 2017 Arnold Classic, and ended with a 438kg (961 lb) deadlift in the Elephant Bar event that earned him third.
With this 455kg (1,003 lb) pull, could we be seeing Bjornsson tackle a 1k+ deadlift come Arnold Classic time? After all, he’s already stated that he wants to attempt the deadlift world record for 2018, so why not take down the Elephant Bar world record, too?
Also, let’s not forget that Bjornsson pulled a 425kg (937 lb) double less than a month ago and wrote “425KG / 937LBS DEADLIFT X 2 REPS. I’M NOT STOPPING UNTIL THIS IS MINE. I HOPE YOU’RE PAYING ATTENTION. PB BABY, AND MORE IN THE TANK” in his Instagram description.
[Want to see where the Elephant Bar event falls in the competition lineup? Check out this article highlighting the 2018 Arnold Classic roster and schedule!]
Last year, Jerry Pritchett took a fourth attempt on the Elephant Bar event to set a new world record of 467kg (1,031 lbs). And let’s not forget about Brian Shaw, aka the winner of last year’s Arnold Classic, who’s pulled 467kg (1,031 lbs) on the Elephant Bar as well.
There’s less than three weeks until the 2018 Arnold Classic kicks off, and we’re anxiously waiting to see what the strongman competitors are able to do come competition day.
Feature image screenshot from @thorbjornsson Instagram page.
