Do you even lift, "Boy?" That's certainly the case for one weightlifter, who's clearly channeling their inner Spartan. The athlete, who posted a video working out in full cosplay as Kratos from God of War, is going viral.
Santa Monica Studio's wildly popular 2018 soft reboot of the PlayStation-exclusive God of War franchise has spawned countless memes and cosplays years after its release, as proven by this viral video in 2022. The game recently made an appearance at CES 2022, where footage of God of War's PC port was showcased.
Posted onto the God of War subreddit r/GodofWar, the eight-second clip shows multiple shots of the weightlifter in full Kratos regalia. The first part of the clip shows the bodybuilder executing an impressive deadlift, enough to bend the bar itself. Closer inspection reveals seven plates per side, which may total an impressive 675 pounds. A follow-up image still shows the cosplayer sitting on the toilet on his phone, complete with a version of the Leviathan Axe at his side. The Kratos cosplayer is actually Bradley Martyn, a prominent YouTuber known for his fitness content.
The video is definitely one to turn heads, as can be seen by the group of recording onlookers visible in the mirror during the first part of the video. Martyn manages to execute quite the impressive cosplay, with the YouTuber's physique comparable to the God of War protagonist himself. Discussions over on another subreddit, r/Fitness, have pondered how to build a body like Kratos, with the common consensus being a smart approach of exercises like overhead presses, rows, pullups, and deadlifting, which Martyn is doing with excellent form in the video.
Bradley Martyn isn't the only muscular personality channeling their inner God of War recently. A few months ago, both the WWE and AEW had wrestlers dressed as Kratos, and during the same week. For WWE, Tommaso Ciampa appeared as the Ghost of Sparta, with Kratos' iconic tattoo color-swapped for blue to match his usual gear. On the AEW side of things, Stu Grayson came out to the ring as part of his Dark Order team dressed as Kratos, red tattoo and all. Its certainly heartening to see gaming culture spread to different types of entertainment.
Posted just days ago, the God of War weightlifitng video has already racked up close to 2,000 upvotes, with it likely garnering more in the near future. While there hasn't been too much news regarding the highly-anticipated sequel, God of War: Ragnarok, there are rumors that the next PlayStation event is coming in February, which will hopefully shed more light on Kratos and Atreus' next outing.
God of War is available on PS4, and comes to PC on January 14, 2022.