BUREWALA: Hafiz Muhammad Arshad, a Vehari-based worker, who recently broke the world record of most thumb push ups in a minute replacing his Russian predecessor in the Guinness Book of World Records last month, is now training hard in his small village home and agriculture fields with more records in sight.
Hafiz performed 68 push ups on thumbs to break the previous record of 61 push ups held by a Russian and had sent evidences to the management of Guinness Book of the World Records in Dec 2021 and won Guinness certificate.
“Recently I have been issued a certificate from the Guinness Book after I sent evidences to them time and again,” he said adding “It is Pakistan’s record and I dedicate it to the whole nation.”
Hailing from a lower middle class family, 41-year old runs a small mobile phone shop to make a living for his six kids and elderly parents. He said, he achieved the feat despite limited resources.
“Hafiz has always been inspired to attempt a Guinness World Record title. He started off only being able to achieve one standard push up and worked his way up over time to be able to do thumb push ups. He was warned by other people that if he kept doing thumb push ups, his thumbs would break. At the beginning of his training, his thumbs would get injured due to his intense training regime but with practice, he learnt how to be able to do it in a safer”, according to a message posted on the Guinness web site.
Muhammad Arshad said, he has started practice to break four more records listed on the Guinness Book but need support adding that no training facility was available in Vehari. He said, he has now four records in sight that he wanted to break but need government patronage and facilitation.
The records he wanted to break included one hand release push ups currently held by an American, thumb hand release push ups record of an athlete from Egypt New Valley, four finger push ups record held by an Indian and hand release push ups.