AI Summary
Dr. Mike from RP Strength analyzes the viral fitness influencer Anatoly, investigating whether his seemingly superhuman lifts with fake-looking weights are real. The video breaks down multiple clips, examining bar bend, plate composition, and Anatoly's actual competition history to determine the truth behind his prank videos.
Chapters
Dr. Mike introduces the video as a deep dive into Anatoly's content, prompted by numerous viewer requests. He acknowledges the possibility that the weights are fake but notes the videos are entertaining regardless.
Dr. Mike points out that Anatoly consistently uses the same dark gray bumper plates, which appear in almost every video. He suggests these might be lighter than standard 45-pound plates, possibly weighing only 5-10 pounds.
The lack of significant bar bend with six plates per side is highlighted as a key indicator of fake weights. A real barbell would bend noticeably under such load, but Anatoly's bar remains straight.
Dr. Mike contrasts Anatoly with Quinn Stott, a genuine strongman who uses real weights. Stott's Instagram shows impressive lifts with proper bar bend, unlike Anatoly's videos.
In one clip, Anatoly is asked directly why he uses fake weights, and he responds with a joke, effectively confirming the suspicion. Dr. Mike notes this as a clever PR strategy to control the narrative.
Bumper plates are chosen because they look heavier to the untrained eye and allow Anatoly to slip in fake weights without detection. The theatrical nature appeals to a broad audience.
Dr. Mike identifies that some clips feature real weights, such as a 400-pound deadlift where Anatoly shows effort and bar bend. This suggests he is genuinely strong but not superhuman.
A squat with 415 pounds shows massive bar bend and Anatoly struggling appropriately, indicating this is real. Dr. Mike notes this is impressive but not elite for his weight class.
Anatoly is revealed as Vladimir, a 24-year-old Ukrainian powerlifter weighing 172 pounds. His competition records include a 330 bench, 460 squat, and 640 deadlift, which are good but not world-class.
Dr. Mike compares Anatoly's competition lifts to his prank videos, concluding that the pranks use fake weights. The real lifts are respectable but far from the superhuman feats shown in the videos.
Anatoly's prank videos are entertaining but rely on fake weights to create the illusion of superhuman strength. His real lifting ability is solid but not elite, and viewers should appreciate the content for what it is—a well-executed performance.
Mentioned in this Video
💡 Key Takeaways
Bar Bend as a Tell
This is a key technical indicator that the weights are fake, as a real bar would bend under heavy load.
02:30Anatoly's Admission
Anatoly's direct response to the fake weight question confirms the suspicion, making it a pivotal moment in the analysis.
05:17Real Identity Revealed
Learning Anatoly's real name and stats provides context for his actual strength level, contrasting with the prank videos.
15:43Competition History vs. Pranks
This comparison shows that his real lifts are respectable but not superhuman, debunking the illusion.
17:26Full Transcript
[00:00] Scott, do you remember when he literally did multiple reps to depth with one hand and a cell phone and the other with almost no bracing? And then he's struggling, appropriately and valiantly, with 415 pounds.
[00:14] That doesn't add up. Four plates when I'm deadlift with almost no or no barbells. Scott, I'm almost going to get us in trouble. I rate Anatoly as fake out of 10.
[00:30] Hey folks, Dr. Mike here with R.P. Strengths. I've been a long time professor of exercise and sports science. Today we are going to talk about Anatoly.
[00:43] We've had a gazillion of you asking us to do this review. We didn't want to do this review for a long time because, well, gee whiz, we're not sure if the weights are real.
[00:55] Are they? Let's find out. Let's look at a bunch of clips and see if we can put together all due massive mega respect to Mr. Anatoly. If the weights are real, unbelievable. If the weights are fake, the videos are still hilarious and awesome.
[01:07] But let's do a deep dive and see what's going on. And you just didn't get it. I don't put it back. No worries. No worries. Okay. Russian accent is good.
[01:19] Real good. It's either a good fake or it's a real Russian accent. Exaggerated Russian or a real Russian accent. Excellent. So Scott, it's a good accent. And look, like, he's like a janitor or whatever. He weighs like 180 or something.
[01:32] And he's just like casually like moving 500 pounds like it's nothing. 500 pounds. But I want you guys to notice something. I'm going to do this for every single video. A lot of bumper plates. Some of the bumper plates are colored and sized differently than the others.
[01:47] Three bumper plates that make an appearance in every or almost every Anatoly video that we've ever seen. And the question is, is that just randomly what that nice man was lifting?
[02:01] And all the people are lifting this? Or are those maybe not real weights and actually weigh like 5 or 10 pounds instead of 45 pounds each? I'll leave it to you guys to figure that out.
[02:18] So again, notice his bumper plates. Okay. Okay, so he's doing some stuff there. it's pretty good
[02:30] I'm sorry guys one thing you'll notice too is so he's got a conventional grip with six per side with a regular bar and that is a regular bar it's not some kind of a squat bar or something you would see substantially more bend
[02:43] at six plates so this is Quinn Stott we're going to throw up his Instagram for you guys Quinn Stott is the real deal of Anatoly Anatoly's entertaining and the weights are probably fake Quinn Stott's weights are not fake notice he's using
[02:55] like regular Jim Blues. He does stuff on his Instagram that makes no sense at all. He's just gifted and unbelievable at what he does. I would give him a follow if you want to see the shit Anatoly does in real life.
[03:10] Notice how much bar bend there is with just five plates. With six plates, you would expect more bar bend, but that is absolutely not what you see remotely. This is probably more like somewhere in the 300s,
[03:24] which is still pretty impressive that Anatoly can do this, but not nearly impressive as it would be had those been real weights. Yeah. Okay. Oh, all good, all good guys. Because I'm professional cleaner, I'm sorry.
[03:43] Okay, I'm good. Yeah, I mean pretty impressive if those are real weights it's possible to do this, but you'll notice those dark gray bumper plates in there. Very interesting. Very interesting. Remember those plates.
[04:04] Scott, those are the same plates, huh? Perhaps. That's him looking at home one-handed. Okay. Interesting. Same dark gray bumper plates. It looks great. It's good technique. Can I see? Can I see?
[04:18] I'm sorry, maybe just one minute please. Same dark grey bumper plate. Come on bro, what are you doing?
[04:30] I take good rates. Oh, of course. Look. Yep I sorry guys I mean look if he might be be able to casually row 315 just like that it exceedingly unlikely
[04:51] Gray bumper plate. Scott, how many plates is that per side? Four-plate one-arm deadlift. Four-plate one-arm deadlift with almost no or no barbend. It's one arm.
[05:04] Unlikely. incrementally more unlikely. Okay, what do we see? Strange gray bumper plates.
[05:17] I'm sorry. I just want to ask you, why do you use the fake weights? How do you mean fake weights? Okay. Scott, how do you rate the acting out of 10 on this? That's somewhere around 10.
[05:30] Yeah. I mean, these guys are in on it, right? Like, it's a plastic. Look at you. This is fake. White cloth. Yes, it's fake.
[05:43] Yeah, notice. Almost no bar band with five plates would in fact be fake. Which is really like a very curious PR strategy, because it's point out your own fake weights, make the joke, and move on. Smart. Don't let someone do it for you.
[05:58] It feels like fake. That's all they say. Look, what is the guy's... So notice something. So far, we haven't seen anything other than bumper plates. Bumper plates have some advantages. One is probably many of those are fake.
[06:11] The other thing is that with bumper plates, it looks like more weight to the untrained eye, because Anatoly is appealing to people who don't have a ton of gym experience, most of whom would assume this was fake. It's a very big sell.
[06:24] So it's cool. It's very theatrical, but it lets him slip in the fake weight situation. So here, this is what, Scott? Five plates, four. Four plates per side. Just thank you.
[06:37] Oh, I'm sorry. My boss told me. Okay. So, by the way, if you have the balance, this actually isn't as difficult as it seems because your arms aren't really holding the weight. It looks really cool for Instagram, but your back is holding almost all the weight,
[06:51] so a lot of people can do this sort of trick, even with very heavy weight. This is not very heavy weight, so making this trick, you know, fun, but not as impressive. Yes, boss. Thank you. I need this. Yes.
[07:03] Why you call me? Why you call me right now? I'm doing squat. Yes, I already cleaned the toilet. When you're a janitor, your boss probably doesn't keep touch with you via cell phone. I know I'm ruining the fun,
[07:16] but I don't know if any janitor has ever received a cell phone call from his boss asking him to clean the toilet. You need to touch your... And we have...
[07:28] The gray bumper plates again. You need to fight your chef, you know? I take the chip. Chef, stop. Chef, you notice all the guys have roughly the same reaction of like...
[07:42] Whoa. Oh. Oh. And also, you can make this one with four Fs. I'm sorry, it's my highway. Chip, like this. I don't like that he apologizes a lot.
[07:56] Scott, why does that sound like that? I don't know. Like, I'm sorry. Like, what are you sorry about? just don't ridicule us leave us weak people alone and you don't have to be sorry about anything this is getting repetitive
[08:13] and like the bumper plates it's going to be better you know possible yes the Ukrainians are a very strong people
[08:27] is that really what's going on highly highly unlike like this one I put in yeah well the roll was crazy this one I put in because he picked the bar up and it kind of hits where it
[08:39] should stop and then it has like some momentum on top of it which to me is a dead giveaway for three or four plates like you don't pick it up and then there's extra momentum if you know what I'm saying let's find out very interesting okay
[08:51] oh I don't know yeah Yeah. Yeah. No band in the bar.
[09:05] Very, very suspicious. Folks, there is still more video to come, but we have a member section that gives you longer and juicier versions of this video, a bunch of other videos, and a bunch of other hot hot hot members content Sounds like a different kind of membership right And maybe it is But for a small amount of money it a huge value check it out click around get the members section and back to video so let be frank yeah and then like so interestingly enough he had quite a bit more
[09:38] trouble with that and it was a much slower lift scott than that last lift he looked at and where it was a little more barbend it was a little more barbend than this one whereas a comparable amount of weight in the last lift that we saw, he like rode it up to his stomach by accident. Weird.
[09:54] Much more barbend. So you have the three fakes on the inside and a bunch of not fake weights on the outside, so now this is maybe like 400 pounds, which is cool that he can like have recreation and pick it up. There are people in that weight class that are substantially stronger, so this is
[10:10] nice, but different worlds. I just want to like give some guys motivation, like it doesn't matter how you look and from where you are, doesn't matter who are you, like what is your convenience like, you can be like anyone you want.
[10:29] It's a great message, but if you find out that the person giving you the motivation for being strong no matter how you look like is using fake weights, it slightly changes the dynamic.
[10:41] Scott, these weights are more fake than my PhD, am I right? This might actually be real. So that's five plates plus a little bit of chain. Anatoly's a strong guy.
[10:54] And notice, this is a comparable amount of weight to what he was very leisurely one-armed deadlifting and squatting with a cell phone in his hand. But now he looks like he's working.
[11:07] So I don't know if those are real or fake, but this is kind of discordantly less impressive than all of his stunt videos. He does have a GMC van in the back, which I like.
[11:19] All right. Squat time. Again, more bumper plates. I don't know if those are the mystery plates again, but let's see. So we have probably those smaller plates are 25,
[11:32] and the bigger plates, let's assume those are 45. So this is the equivalent of something like in the low 400s, which in a low bar position for a gentleman that weighs in the 170s and 180s with a belt, with a very good stance and good technique,
[11:46] is very good. Very good, but absolutely not even close to elite performance. Not by a mile. And, notice, there are five plates on there. And sadly to most untrained people, that's just like,
[12:00] oh, those are 545s, right? Yeah. But if you look, the inner plate and the plate that's second out from the outside are distinctly thinner and are almost certainly 25-pound plates, if not even lighter.
[12:13] Because some companies make thick 10-pound plates that look like that. Oh, yeah. I think this is completely real weight.
[12:26] Notice the bar bend. Massive. This is just over 400 pounds, right? So if we say these are 45, that's going to be 315. Bar is 45, right?
[12:38] Plus 50 on each side is 415 pounds, if my mental math is right. 415. Scott, do you remember when he literally did multiple reps to depth with one hand and a cell phone and the other with almost no bracing?
[12:53] And then he's struggling appropriately and valiantly with excellent technique and a great lift with 415 pounds. That doesn't add up.
[13:05] Hey, Mike, what do you think about the belt he's wearing here to squat with? Okay, Scott, so for powerlifting, I think it's an excellent belt. But if he wanted a belt that could accommodate rep work for powerlifting, sense of five,
[13:20] and rep work for hypertrophy training, sense of 10, sense of 15, a belt that was more breathable, a belt that was more adjustable, a belt that was actually higher, so it could generate intra-abdominal pressure around the whole abdomen,
[13:32] a belt that you could easily loosen and retighten, and a belt that conforms to your body, that he would probably be better off wearing the Hyperbelt from the same fine folks that made Versagrips, from the same fine folks that took the Versagrips and Hyperbelt technology
[13:45] from the Roswell alien crash of 1947. Link in description. Welcome to AnatoliySeed.com. This is a training system which helps you to be strong and jacked. And of course, because of this program,
[13:57] I can easily make those pranks in the gym. Huh Huh I suppose it true that with fake weight and because of Anatoly program
[14:10] he can easily make those pranks in the gym. That is not the same thing as saying the pranks in the gym are with real weight. At all. There are people that do gym pranks with real weight.
[14:24] And they're very, very impressive. This is probably not one of those situations. So if you download Anatoly's app program situation, will you get good results?
[14:36] Probably. His lifting looks great. He's in excellent shape. He's very strong. But is it the same, the unisequoia that you would get to being elite-level hyperpsychotic strength that you see in his prank videos?
[14:48] No, because those aren't real. How strong is Anatoly? Anatoly's real name is Vladimir. Grr! Hey, it's me! Maybe? That's 32 million views, by the way.
[15:00] It does? Yeah, I just looked on YouTube. So if you guys look at my mouth, you can clearly see this is like second generation A.I. Sloth video. I never said any of this.
[15:14] But Scott, let me try to replicate that exact facial expression actually. Pretty good. Hey! I didn't know his real name was Vladimir. Also, I probably wouldn't say Vladimir. I'd say Vladimir because I'm actually Russian.
[15:28] My lord of the dead. All right. He's just 24 years old, weighing 78 kilograms, or 172 pounds. Scott, it's weird to learn facts about Anatoly from myself. This is unremarkable, but let's take a look at a much better version of you.
[15:43] Anatoly is a Ukrainian powerlifter and fitness influencer with millions of followers online. They're some Uncanny Valley type shit, fellas. I can't unsee that. Scott, there's a certain plasticness to my face that I find disconcerting.
[15:57] I don't know. That guy looks pretty hot. I think maybe you should like take that motor viewers version and be like Make me look like this There's something about my eyes that's also dead
[16:09] Strange times He'll walk in looking like an average skinny guy Then casually bench 405, squat 600 or deadlift 700 like it's nothing But here's the debate of the mouth God I can't get over the mouth
[16:21] I can't even get over your mouth either you know what I'm saying Is he truly that strong or are the videos staged? Some people swear the weights are fake or the bars are rigged, while others say no way.
[16:33] What's a rigged bar? All right. His form control. I almost never use the term form. I use the term technique. Christian Carter, my colleague at ETSU, Olympic weightlifting coach.
[16:47] Sorry, weightlifting coach. You get really upset when you say it's Olympic weightlifting. corrected me once that it's not performance technique. I've never changed my opinion since. All right? And competition history proved he's legit.
[17:00] In fact, he started powerlifting back in 2017, and by 19, he had already placed third at the GPA World Championship. What the f*** is the GPA? Grade point average?
[17:12] Scott, can we get a little search on his actual lifting history? So I have it pulled up here. In competition, his best recorded bench is 330, best deadlift 640, and best squat 460.
[17:26] It seems like he did these quite young, but yeah. Yeah, makes sense, right? Like, that's a very good deadlift, which means that he can casually pick up 405, which is roughly what this heaviest deadlift sway, adjusting for the fake weights.
[17:41] The 330 bench makes sense. That's not super impressive for his weight. It's very good. and the 460 squat is good, not amazing, and makes perfect sense with the fact that he was, like,
[17:54] struggling with the low bar 415. And I want to be respectful. They don't need struggling a bad way. They're, like, struggling like they're supposed to with heavy weights. So, you know, if you had somebody to actually do these lifts that he's doing in the prank videos with not fake weights,
[18:07] they would have to be a 600 or 700-pound squatter, 800-pound-plus deadlifter, and God knows how 500, 550 plus bench presser. You know, like Colton Engelbrecht type of stuff.
[18:22] Not what the college actually was. Is Anatoly an entertaining guy? Absolutely. Do we wish him the best? 100,000%. Scott, someone's going to get us in trouble.
[18:37] I rate Anatoly as fake out of 10. I would know. See you next time.
