Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson – the actor who portrayed Ser Gregor "The Mountain" Clegane in the HBO series Game of Thrones – has shown superhuman strength on and off screen.
In 2020, the professional strongman made history when he deadlifted 501 kilograms (1,104.5 lb) – beating the record of 500 kilograms set by previous champion Eddie Hall in 2016.
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This July, Björnsson, who sometimes goes by "Thor" or his screen name "the Mountain", crushed his own world record by another 4 kilograms.
Then, in September, he outdid himself once again.
At the World Deadlift Championships, the Icelandic professional deadlifted 510 kg (1,124 lb). That's roughly akin to lifting a grand concert piano, or seven full kegs of beer.
Scientists are still trying to figure out how the human body can achieve such incredible feats of strength. In 2024, a study examined the physique of deadlift champion Eddie Hall and found a surprising result.
Muscles that connect Hall's knees to his pelvis – the sartorius, gracilis, and semitendinosus – were up to three times larger than in men who do not strength train.
Meanwhile, his quadriceps and hamstrings were double the size of an untrained man's.
Surprisingly, scientific studies on extreme human strength are quite limited, but the researchers who examined Hall suspect that his physique is at the upper limit of natural variation.
Björnsson, however, is pushing those barriers.
"This is the third time I've broken the record. It's been happening so fast. It's almost surreal," said Björnsson on his YouTube channel the morning of his deadlift.
"Often after a big lift like this your nervous system can be a little bit wrecked… "
Shortly after completing the world record, Björnsson told the camera, "It was like a piece of f—ing cake, baby. I'm just getting warmed up."