Only two strongmen have ever deadlifted the milestone of 500 kilograms (1,102 pounds). The 2017 World’s Strongest Man (WSM) champion Eddie Hall was the first person to ever do it at the 2016 World Deadlift Championships (WDC) in Leeds, England. Then, the 2018 WSM champion Hafthor Bjornsson upped the ante in May of 2020 by a single kilo during an episode of the World’s Ultimate Strongman (WUS) “Feats of Strength” series that was broadcast on ESPN. Both men have since retired from the sport of strongman to face off in a Las Vegas boxing match in September 2021.
However, there are still strongmen looking to claim the all-time deadlift world record for themselves. One of them is 33-year-old Peiman Maheripourehir of Iran. Maheripourehir took to his Instagram page to show how far his training has come in just a year. Back in November 2019, he was deadlifting 422.5 kilograms (931 pounds) raw. Nowadays, albeit with straps and a lifting suit, he is hitting 435-kilogram (959-pound) doubles.
Check out this absolutely monstrous double by Maheripourehir on his Instagram page:
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The first rep appeared to be absolutely routine. The second rep had a slight hitch towards the top, but the lockout was still solid. Hitching in strongman is legal, and although that lift would not count in a sanctioned powerlifting competition, it would have been considered a successful lift in a strongman competition.
Peiman Maheripourehir
The 6’2,” 331-pound Iranian strongman also has a background in powerlifting and was recently at the top of the sport. He won the 2019 World Raw Powerlifting Federation (WRPF) World Championship in the 140kg+ weight class in Moscow, Russia. He set an Asian deadlift record of 405 kilograms (891 pounds) along the way.
According to Open Powerlifting, Maheripourehir has competed in four sanctioned powerlifting events in the super heavyweight class since 2015 and finished atop the podium in all of them — including the 2017 and 2018 World Powerlifting Coalition (WPC) World Cup, and the 2015 WPC Eurasian Cup.
As a strongman, Maheripourehir was the 2018 Iranian Strongest Man and has qualified for the WSM contest twice (2017 and 2018). He failed to make the Finals in 2017 after making it to the final matchup in the Last Man Standing Atlas Stone event. You can see Maheripourehir in action below via The World’s Strongest Man’s YouTube channel. He defeated Terry Hollands in the semi-finals before failing to best four-time WSM champion Zydrunas Savickas.
If Maheripourehir continues to smoke super heavy deadlifts as he has been in training, he might be the name on peoples’ lips as the man to topple Bjornsson’s deadlift world record.
Featured image: @peiman.maheri.wsm on Instagram