iStockphoto / OlegUsmanov
Rock climber Emil Abrahamsson just competed in his second grip strength competition against professional weight lifters and he set a world record for his weight in one of the disciplines. This came at the Immortals 2025 – Winter Grip Wars III in Molkom, Sweden recently.
For a competition like this, there are 7 challenges and each individual challenge goes up drastically in difficulty from start to finish. The athletes all compete against each other but they are also competing within their weigh categories as well.
Rock Climber Sets Grip Strength World Record In Competition
The competition’s overall winner was 34-year-old Cim Johansson who weighs a beefy 168.00kg, or 370.38 pounds. Johansson accrued a total of 646.93 points across the 7 challenges. Second place finisher Ross Boyle earned a total of 642.44 points and weighed in at 149.40kg, or 329.37 pounds.
Rock climber Emil Abrahamsson was the lightest individual to finish inside the top 35. He competed at 77.60kg (170.08lbs), or less than half the body weight of the top finisher, but still gained 537.72 total points in the competition and finished 12th overall despite weighing considerably less than the weight lifters.
TikToker Charlie Caruso (@charliecaruso8) compiled a short clip from Emil’s longer video (below). It showcases how this professional rock climber fared against guys who lift weights full-time for a living. And how he was able to snatch a grip strength record for his weight class.
@charliecaruso8 Climbers forearms are too strong #workout #climbing #worldrecord #lifting #fyp
It was during the ‘Blob Medley’ where Emil set the grip strength record for his weight category. He was able to successfully pick up a 50lb blob weight. If that doesn’t sound impressive to you then you didn’t watch the video.
Complete results from the competition can be seen here.
Here is Emil’s full video up on his YouTube channel. Make sure to like and subscribe to his videos to see more of them in the future:
Is the weight lifting community sleeping on the gains they could make from rock climbing? I went to a rock climbing gym in Portland, Oregon back in March and watched people warm up by doing single finger hangs and pull-ups. It was incredibly impressive, way more than seeing a huge guy bench 225lbs. What do you think? Let us know in the Facebook comments!