SINGAPORE - While most teenage boys were dribbling on the football pitch, Mr Yeo Kim Yeong was obsessed with pull-ups at the age of 15.
His obsession has paid off - he broke the world record for the most number of pull-ups done in one minute. He managed 43 pull-ups, two more than the previous record of 42 set by American David Bourdon, reported the Guinness World Records on its website.
When contacted, Mr Yeo, 25, told The Straits Times that he was both satisfied and relieved with his accomplishment. "It's something I've been training for," said the National University of Singapore undergraduate.
In an interview published on the Guinness World Records website, he said he set his mind on setting a world record because "I have always believed that nothing is impossible, and that one's dreams are achievable".
Under professional guidance for over a year, he trained four times a week, each session lasting between one and three hours.
But he has been training on his own for years. He said: "It is an activity that I have always enjoyed, and thus something I practise every time I visit the gym."
He also practised self-meditation in the evenings where he envisioned himself achieving the record while reviewing the techniques of pull-ups repeatedly in his head.
Being a record holder is everything to him.
He said: "That you can achieve your dreams when you put your mind to it. That nothing is impossible. That the struggle, the sacrifice, and the failures were not only worth it, but necessary."
The original version of this story stated that Mr Yeo Kim Yeong broke the record by doing 44 pull-ups. This information came from Guinness World Records (GWR). It has since clarified that 44 was a typo. The correct number of pull-ups achieved by Mr Yeo - and which GWR considered valid - was 43, which is still a new world record.
