Gymrat’s Weblog

That is, swimming a long distance while handcuffed:

Canadian, Matt Frame, finds it quite ridiculous that he is less than 9 days from his attempted Guinness World Record Swim wearing handcuffs. Official Guinness rep on site or not, the attempt is a confirmed World Record, beating the previous holder, American Brian Friedman, who completed his handcuffed swim of 2.4km from Alcatraz to Fisherman’s Wharf, just over a year ago.

Jack LaLanne has still to be the undisputed champion of swimming while handcuffed though. From the Wikipedia list over Jacks feats:

• 1955 Age 41: Swam handcuffed from Alcatraz to Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, CA.
• 1974 Age 60: Swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman’s Wharf, for a second time handcuffed, shackled and towing a 1,000-pound boat.
• 1975 Age 61: Swam the length of the Golden Gate Bridge, underwater, for a second time handcuffed, shackled and towing a 1,000-pound boat.
• 1979 Age 65: Towed 65 boats filled with 6,500-pounds of Lousiana Pacific wood pulp while handcuffed and shackled in Lake Ashinoko, near Tokyo, Japan.
• 1984 Age 70: Handcuffed, shackled and fighting strong winds and currents, towed 70 boats with 70 people from the Queen’s Way Bridge in the Long Beach Harbor to the Queen Mary for 1 ½ miles.

From Reuters - Thu Jul 27,11:04 PM ET. Yikes! The tyke must be on the same diet as Wang Junxia; turtle blood and caterpillar fungus, as prescribed by the coach Ma Junren.

“Lu Di, 6, flexes his muscles as other students watch at a kungfu school in Songshan, central China’s Henan Province July 26, 2006. According to the school’s president Shi Yongdi, Lu did 10,000 push-ups in three hours and twenty minutes on July 22, 2006. Shi said the school was waiving his tuition for ten years due to his outstanding performance, China Daily reported.”

The International World Record Breakers’ Club, lists the following (and many more types!) as World Records for Push-Ups:

• non-stop: 10,507; Minoru Yoshida (JAP), Oct 1980
• in one year: 1,500,230; Paddy Doyle (GBR), Oct 1988 - Oct 1989
• in 24 hours: 46,001; Charles Servizio (USA), 24/25 April 1993 at Hesperia

B&K Sports Magazine had a competition in their booth at 2000 Scandinavian Fitness Expo; push-ups with a fitness female on the back. Those who managed to do 17 reps with Pernilla Stjernfeldt (’Troja’ in the Swedish version of the game-show American Gladiators, called ‘Gladiatorerna’) on their back, got free entrance to the first (and so far only) Professional Fitness competition in Sweden, Swedish Pro Fitness. Five competitors managed more than 17 reps. Here’s when the main speaker at the expo, Karl Dyall [Fitness Magazine has a profile in Swedish], made the competition interesting by stripping off his tail suit and entering the competition:

Results 2000 Swedish Pro Fitness
October 29, 2000, Stockholm International Fairs, Scandinavian Fitness Expo

1. Susie Curry, USA
2. Timea Majorova, Slovakia
3. Jenny Worth, Canada
4. Stacy Simons, USA
5. Eva Lundquist, Sweden
6. Angelica Östlund, Sweden
7. Karin Munge, Sweden

For those of you who are into functional fitness, bodyweight exercises and/or don’t go a to a gym, regular push-ups can only get you so far. When you do a push-up, you lift 65% of your body weight. But add some resistance and you can do some serious strength training! The best item I’ve come across is Power Push Up - 2 from Lifeline USA. Here’s what Matt Furey (he with the politically incorrect fitness instructions) has to say about the product:

“When doing pushups and presses with the Power Pushup 2, all the stabilizing muscles of the shoulder shake like leaves blowing in the wind. What you are doing, in addition to strengthening the stabilizers, is adding strength and endurance … not to mention FUNCTIONAL STRENGTH, to all athletic movements.”

Matt Furey made the Hindu push-up (and the Hindu squat) popular in the United States. Here demonstrated as Tiger Stretch Push-up by John Peterson of Bronse Bow Publishing. Looking good there, John…

On Sunday June 25 the experienced (read old) strongman competitor Odd Haugen became the first man to lift the Millenium Dumbbell. IronMind.com writes:

“First there was the Thomas Inch dumbbell - deadlift it for grip world bragging rights - and then came the Millenium Dumbbell (2-3/8 inch handle and 228 pounds), which until yesterday, nobody had ever succeeded in deadlifting.”