SALEM – Not content with earning one Guinness World Record in 2021, Chris Cox has earned another.
The Salem man lifted the most weight by Atlas stone in one hour. He lifted a 69.2 kg (152.78-pound) Atlas stone 252 times in an hour for a cumulative weight of 17,463kg or 38,500 pounds.
He completed the attempt on Nov. 20 and learned on March 24 he had beat the previous record, set in 2011.
The old record was 13,805kg or 30,435 pounds.
Cox set his first world record on May 16, completing 202 Turkish get-ups in one hour using a 24.1kg kettlebell, for a total cumulative weight of 4,868kg or 10,710 pounds.
“I didn’t have it in mind to do this when I won the last record,” he said in a phone interview. “But I had the stones and wondered if there was something for that. And there was.”
An Atlas stone is a round cement stone that is used for Strongman events.
For this record Cox had to lift the stone from the ground to a platform four feet high, let go of it, then return it to the ground.
Training for this was similar to his previous world record attempt, “only the Turkish get-up requires more finesse and balance,” he said.
“With this one, if you don’t have the proper position, you can really hurt yourself. Plus it’s a lot more weight.”
It was challenging, to say the least.
“I was pretty much maxed out by the end of the hour,” he said. “I thought maybe I could get a couple more in but I did what I did. And it was enough.”
Cox’s wife Belinda also won a Guinness World Record last year.
On March 14, she completed 775 chest-to-floor burpees in one hour – the most by any woman in the world at that date.
The duo is very athletic and has converted their home garage into a gym, where they regularly work out. The world record challenge was a pandemic project they conceived when their sports teams couldn’t play anymore and they were both burnt out from the stress and uncertainty of the times.
He is a firefighter and she a high school teacher and they both found it helpful to be working toward a personal goal.
Cox said he may have won a third world record. He completed a challenge in January and sent the video to Guinness World Record authorities and is awaiting word on that.
He’s keeping mum on the event he completed until he receives final confirmation, he said.
“I think this is the last one though,” he added, dismissing the idea of going for a world record of world records.
“It’s time to get back to regular life.”
