An Elora volunteer firefighter has followed in his wife’s footsteps by setting a fitness world record.
Chris Cox has officially set the Guinness World Record for heaviest weight lifted by Turkish get-up in one hour, lifting 4,868.2 kg over the course of his attempt.
Cox’s wife, Belinda, is the current record holder for most chest-to-ground burpees in one hour by a female where she completed 775 reps.
Cox said in a phone interview he was the one who signed his wife up for her record attempt and needed to put his money where his mouth was too.
He chose the Turkish get-up after he did a supply teacher shift at a fitness centre where he was asked to teach the move to the class.
“That was sort of my aha moment. I was like ‘hey, I really like that movement,’” Cox said. “I looked it up on the Guinness site and sure enough there was a record for it.”
The Turkish get-up is a complex movement that starts with the participant flat on their back.
They then raise a kettle bell using one arm directly above them and then press up using the opposite arm swinging one leg under and standing up all while the weight stays above their head. They must return to the original position by reversing the order of movements to complete a single rep.
Over the course of the hour, Cox did 202 reps with a 21.4 kg kettle bell which beat the previous record of 182. He made his attempt in May but was officially certified as the record-holder on Wednesday.
He said the best way to train for this was to come up with a strategy and he tried several that didn’t work out.
He ended up using a similar method to his wife by breaking the workout down minute by minute.
“The final strategy that worked for me was to do four the first minute and then three the second and alternate back and forth,” Cox said, explaining this gives him a little rest during the attempt.
Despite lots of training, Cox said he never went past 40 minutes so he found the final stretch to be particularly challenging.
“But I knew I could do it if I just kept it simple and kept it minute by minute,” Cox said.
He said it was a great feeling when he knew he had set the record but had a few minutes left to put in some extra reps to seal the deal.
As a firefighter with Mississauga and a volunteer with Centre Wellington, Cox said he is very passionate about fitness and continues to work out several times a week to remain effective at his job.
With COVID, Cox said it was nice to have a goal to work towards and gave the advice of accepting failure as part of the process.
“It’s alright to set this goal and fail six times at it but as long as you have that goal, set a strategy, sometimes you’re going to have to change that strategy three or four times but keep working until you achieve it,” Cox said, recalling a message he told his children previously.
“You learn something from failure, you always learn something when the wheels fall off,” Cox said. “It’s like okay, that was not the right way but now we know and just sort of keep learning, keep improving.
