SYDNEY, Australia (JTA) — An Australian who served in an elite unit of the Israel Defense Forces broke a Guinness World Record for strength.
Jarryd Rubinstein, 26, from Sydney, last week registered 25 muscle-ups – a combination of a chin-up and a dip in which the body is raised above the bar with the arms straightened. The previous record was 15.
Rubinstein, a 143-pound muscleman who trains at Bondi Beach, told JTA he spent his three years in the elite Sayeret Golani counter-terror unit “preventing hundreds of casualties” in operations against Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip and Nablus.
The Moriah College graduate says he learned the rigors of fitness in the IDF and kept training when he returned to Australia in 2008. He regularly managed more than 20 muscle-ups.
“My friends said let’s put it on YouTube and see if anyone can beat it,” he told JTA. “It’s received 65,000 hits, which is huge. The most I’ve seen is a guy in New York who did 20.”
Rubinstein, who works in wealth management, then contacted Guinness to formalize the record.
Following his Jan. 4 documented feat of 25 muscle-ups, the paperwork is now on its way to Guinness headquarters.
“I’m waiting to be officially endorsed but see no reason why it wouldn’t be," Rubinstein said, adding later that "I intend on responding if someone beats my record.”
