Man claims record for squat thrusts, made on elephant-back

New Yorker Ashrita Furman looked around for a record he could break, and settled on doing the most squat thrusts in one minute. Then he decided on a place — the back of an elephant in northern Thailand.



He achieved both goals Thursday as he climbed onto a platform on the back of an obliging pachyderm in blazing heat and powered through 40 of the vigorous kicks in a minute. The previous squat thrust record — achieved on level ground in Britain without an elephant in sight — was 30.

According to his website, Ashrita has set 137 official Guinness Records and is the holder of the most current standing records at 54.

Earlier this month he set a world record for skipping 5 km in 35 minutes and 19 seconds at Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi province, some 150 km west of Bangkok.



A 6-year-old male tiger named Hurn Fha accompanied him for most of the journey but balked at the last 100 metres.

"I saw he didn't want to go any further and I don't want to force him, because skipping's supposed to be fun and so the tiger didn't want to be fun so it's okay we skipped enough," he said.