While most high school students are taking finals and closing out the academic year, 17-year-old Andrew Shapiro was busy last weekend setting three new world records.
The teen from Virginia knocked out 7,306 pull ups in 24 hours during a Relay for Life event to raise money for cancer research.
Shapiro was motivated by his father’s five-year battle with colon cancer as he embarked on the feat of strength.
He did 3,515 pull-ups within the first six hours and 5,742 pull-ups by 12 hours, which set two new world records. By the time he finished with over 7,000 pull-ups, he had reeled in his third and final world record. In the process, he raised over $4,000 for the American Cancer Society.
In order to conquer his goal, he kept his attention occupied, body fueled, and even sacrificed his baseball season to train.
Shapiro’s training to set the world records was extensive. To test his endurance, he performed 10 pull ups a minute for six hours straight and watched the Star Wars movies, as well as Indiana Jones and the X-Men flicks, to help pass the time. For snacks, he ate boxes of sushi and half pound cartons of pineapple. Setting the record became an obsession.
Along the way he blistered his hands. His shoulders ached. He gave up baseball this year, skipping the season in order to train full time for pull-ups.
“It was blood, sweat and hours and hours and hours of hard work,” Shapiro said. (Washington Post)
Shapiro hopes to one day compete on his favorite show, American Ninja Warrior. With an accomplishment like this, how can the show reject him (once he turns 21)?
Here’s a look at Shapiro at work:
