They’ve put a man on the moon, but no human being alive has ever deadlifted half a ton.
That was until British strongman Eddie Hall stepped up to the plate.
The 28-stone leviathan pulled a superhuman 500kg in front of a 10,000 strong crowd in Leeds at the Giants Live World Deadlift Championships.
The Stoke-on-Trent brute didn’t just beat his own record, he absolutely smashed it by 35kg when he ripped that weight off the deck.
Just three years ago strongmen were chasing 400kg and nobody thought the half ton was even humanly possible – but Hall proved them all wrong.
However this incredible world record lift sounds like it took a horrible toll on his body.
You can see Hall collapse to the ground on the lifting platform as he momentarily lost consciousness. He slumped across the bar, visibly twitching with blood pouring from his nose.
He looked in a bad way as medics and event staff rushed over and helped strip his top off, fan him and give him air.
Luckily the 28-year-old came round and spoke about the historic lift and the frightening aftermath to the Yorkshire Post.
“That nearly killed me. The pressure on my body was surreal. I passed out after. I had nose bleeds. It’s not healthy doing something like that.
“But I’ve done it. I’m sure it will be in the history books for a very long time.
“I don’t want to do it again but if it comes to the point where somebody breaks it, hell…I may just do.
“It’s that great feeling, like the first man on the moon, the first man to run a mile in under four minutes. And now I’m the first to deadlift half a ton. It’s history and I’m very proud to be a part of it.”
His wife and two children were shaken seeing him stricken on stage at the Leeds Arena, but luckily he came round and appeared to have recovered.
Strongman is a sport that pushes human performance to the very limit and fears over Hall’s safety performing such huge lifts have been expressed before.
Icelandic strongman and four-time World’s Strongest Man Jon Pall Sigmarsson died while deadlifting, after suffering what was thought to be a traumatic aortic rupture.
Earlier this year Hall told BBC Inside Out: “The human body isn’t designed to be this size. But the same as any sport – you’ve got to push the boundaries to be the best.
“I just want to win it once (World’s Strongest Man) and then come back down to safe levels you know because, to put it blankly, if I stayed at 28 stone for 10 years I’d die.”
But after his heroics in Leeds with the 500kg deadlift and the state he was in after his blackout, the Staffordshire giant admitted he wasn’t going to be repeating the feat again any time soon.
