Greetings –

Is your workout routine getting stale? Pep it up with one of these incredible fitness stories in the new book from Ripley’s Believe It or Not! called Enter If You Dare! The book is an annual collection of unusual, unbelievable and amazing stories from around the world. 

Some of the book’s unusual fitness stories:

• Human Weights – pg. 235: In January 2009, a fitness gym in London, England, set up weight-lifting machines using people as weights. The five differently sized human weights – ranging from a 66-lb man to one weighing 340 lb –not only helped gym goers visualize the weight they were lifting, but also shouted words of encouragement.
• Keeping Active – pg. 232: Xie Long from Chongqing, China, kept fit for 30 years using two old mortars as dumbbells – until a friend noticed the weapons were still live. Police defused the mortars, which could have exploded at any time.
• Mountain Bike – pg. 140: Extreme yoga artist Khiv Raj Gurjar from Jodhpur in Rajasthan, India, balances in extraordinary positions on his bicycle just inches from the edge of rocky outcrops 300 ft high. Khiv, who has been practicing and studying yoga since the age of 13, decided to combine both his loves – cycling and yoga – to create this striking discipline in 2006.
• Canada Ride – pg. 141: Riding about 185 miles a day, Corneliu Dobrin of Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada, cycled 4,475 miles across Canada in just 24 days in July 2009.
• Stiletto Sprint – pg. 83: At a race in Nanning, Guangxi Province, China, all the runners wear high heels – both men and women! Male runners must wear shoes with heels at least 3-in high, while women have to run in 4-in (10-cm) stilettos because they are more used to wearing high heels.
• Iron Man – pg. 159: Japanese athlete Keizo Yamada, known as the “Iron Man,” ran three marathons in 2009 – at 81 years of age. He completed the Tokyo marathon in 5 hours 34 minutes 50 seconds and kept fit by jogging 12 miles every day.
• Arctic Marathon – pg. 159: Wearing only shorts and a pair of sandals, Dutchman Wim Hof completed a 2009 marathon in sub-zero temperatures 200 mi north of the Arctic Circle. His body was exposed to temperatures of 13°F as he finished the 26-mi trek in 5 hours 25 minutes.
• Around Britain – pg. 159: Starting and finishing in London, English comedian Eddie Izzard ran 1,105 miles around Britain from July 26 to September 15, 2009 –  the equivalent of running 43 marathons in 51 days.
• Michigan Swim – pg. 159: By completing a 26-hour, 34-mile swim across Lake Michigan in 2009, Paula Stephanson of Belleville, Ontario, Canada, became only the second person to swim across all five Great Lakes. Her first Great lake swim was across Lake Ontario in 1996 at age 17.
• Knuckle Buster – pg. 161: Mick Gooch must have the strongest finger in the world. The martial arts expert from Kent, England, is capable of 17 one-armed, single-fingered push-ups on the head of a nail.
• Plane Crazy – pg. 161: In perhaps the greatest feat of strength ever, Rev. Kevin Fast from Cobourg, Ontario, Canada, successfully pulled a giant Globemaster airplane weighing 416,000 lb – the weight of more than 50 African elephants – for 29 ft across the runway at an airbase in Trenton, Canada, in 2009.

Please let me know if you would like to pursue any stories in the book or a story on the book itself.  Images are available, as well as interviews with people from Ripley’s or people featured in the book.

The book cover, as well as several pages and individual images, can be downloaded at http://www.ripleybooks.com/newsroom.

Regards,

Frank Wolff

Wellons Communications

407-339-0879 office

407-637-6000 cell

Frank@wellonscommunications.com

Posted by Wellons Communications, an Orlando public relations firm