https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zkm9uoJXvMw

Welcome back to Lifting Vault, where we give you the latest news in strength sports. So in a couple of weeks Hoftal is attempting to break the world record in strongman deadlift and there has been quite a bit of controversy surrounding this attempt. So first let's go over how this attempt came to fruition. In 2016 Eddie Hall achieved a 500 kilogram deadlift, beating the previous record by 37 kilograms. Unfortunately the attempt was so taxing on his body that he was immediately rushed to the hospital where he was diagnosed with severe dehydration, a problem he is still battling to this day. Very very very dehydrated. This new medical problem did not keep him from achieving his dreams because in 2017 he managed to pull off a world's strongest man win, beating Hoftal by just one point. Fast forward a few years and a few failed world record attempts later and Hoftal announced that he was going to attempt a 501 kilo deadlift at the world ultimate strongman event in Dubai on April 11th. Unfortunately around that same time a guy in Wuhan decided to eat a bet, so that got cancelled. But Toi had a solution for everything. He decided to set up his own event in its own gym on May 2nd with a well-known judge Magnus von Magnusson. Eddie did not like this and he called out the Icelandics for being frauds. Toi responded and he called Eddie's 2017 world's strongest man win fake news. And that's about where we are now. It looks like the event is still on and it looks like the deadlift is still going to be counted as an official world record. There has been a lot of arguing about formalities but the most important question is can Toi actually pull 501 kilograms? Let's analyze this. This is not Toi's first shot at 501. He attempted it last year in March at the Arnold. This attempt was on an elephant bar which is a longer bar and they also use thicker plates which in theory should make the attempt easier. He got the weight to his knees and it looks like his foot slipped so no go on that day. But you should keep in mind that this was after a series of other strongman events at the Arnold so Hafthor was already fatigued for this attempt. To prove where he was at with his current training cycle he pulled a raw PR in the gym. 480 kilograms on calibrated plates and no suit. And it looked smooth. After this he switched to equipped training. So he put on a suit and he started off with some rep work. First 400 kilograms but he quickly ramped this up to 440 kilograms for three reps. So training is looking very promising. The other factor is that Toi will be attempting this in his own gym with his own equipment so he doesn't need to get used to anything and there's no travel ahead of it plus his sleep schedule won't be disturbed which are major factors in the competition. In my humble opinion his 480 kilogram raw attempt was even more impressive than a 501 kilogram equipped attempt because it's only an increase of barely 5% which a suit should add without a problem. So to me the answer to the question is perfectly clear. Toi is capable of pulling 501 kilograms on a deadlift bar with calibrated plates.