Witnessed IronMind World Record Attempt by Chad Gustin

[Ben Edwards]

I have held off posting this for a while. But some of you might find this very interesting.

On October 26th, I went to Millersville, Missouri and competed in an international “remote grip contest.” Sort of like a postal contest. It was torrential down pouring most of the 5 hours I was there. So only one other guys besides the promoter showed up to compete. The other dozen guys called it off because they were in the area and knew how bad conditions were going to be.

I was not aware it was going to be held outside (LOL), but at least it was on a small concrete pad with a roof (no walls though) over the top. We had to use squeegees to push the accumulating pools of water away every once in a while. Did I mention it was also about 40 degrees? Then factor in wind chill. I only brought a hoodie, because I thought we’d be inside. But the venue for inside fell through and I was happy to have the concrete pad backup since I had driven with the family over 5 hours to get to our hotel room the night before.

Anyway, I’m saying the conditions were not prime for ANY type of PR attempt. Especially not for anything grip-related.

But that didn’t stop Chad Gustin from giving the total weight Rolling Thunder Pullup a run for its money. Chad is awesome. A bunch on the USAWA forum will recognize him. Former Highland Games elite athlete. He is actually an ER doctor in my town, Lawrence, KS. He arrived at the contest about 30 minutes after I did. And my jaw dropped when I realized that it was him. And that we had both driven over 5 hours to get to a tiny rain-drenched place in Missouri. Chad was very kind to me at my first Highland Games, in Kirksville in 2010. And I have never forgotten how nice he was giving me advice when I was a total newbie.

Anyway, Chad and I BS a while and get a laugh out of the fact that both of us are at this guy’s contest. The promoter was John McCarter. Super strong grip guy. This guy has pulled over 100lbs on the IronMind Hub in training. And way into the 80s in competition. He’s also an elite steel bender, and a pretty big pincher. Chad had been in contact with John because he was going to do an official attempt at the most total weight done while hanging from two Rolling Thunder handles. One in each hand. Randall Strossen (IronMind) had approved it and set them up to meet. So we held off on doing our grip contest for about 90 minutes to let Chad warm up and get ready for the official attempt.

The official record is 355lbs (161.5kg), held by Alexey Tyukalov. Also the man who holds the Rolling Thunder deadlift record.

Anyway, Chad goes .8lb over the world record on his first attempt. Trouble is, he thought it was 1.1lbs over. Somewhere the digital scale (high end digital scale with a detachable screen) was a bit wonky and we weighed everything on video after he did it, including his bodyweight and it was only .8lb over.

He never even blinked an eye. He said, let’s load a bit more on it then. So we put different weight plates on there and add everything up. Spoiler alert, I think the rain smashing down all around us screwed up our joint weighing and addition skills. Because he sailed right through another over the world record weight pullup and we weighed it all. Only 1.2lbs over. Which he then thought that maybe the record demanded a 1 KILO increase. So 2.2lbs.

So we get everything set up for a THIRD attempt at over the world record weight. He sets up, pulls his chin high enough to count as a legitimate pullup on the RT handles and we get the weighing on video. This time it was something a bit over 2.2lbs over the world record.

We were all pretty excited about it. It was very, very impressive watching him break that world record 3 times!

You’ve probably already guessed that something went wrong. Well, it was turned down by Strossen because he didn’t start with arms completely locked out. And from what I understand, Strossen went in and updated the rules to say this. His arms were BARELY bent, which is how 99% of guys I know do pullups when they start, so I felt for him.

I hope he will do it again. It’s a pretty cool record. He had something like 90+lbs tied around his waist and is not what I would consider exactly built for pullups, lol. He didn’t even touch a speck of chalk for the Rolling Thunders. He said the moisture in the air was fine if he just rubbed his hands together a bit before grabbing the handles.

"Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." -Mike Tyson

[Thom Van Vleck]

Great to hear from you Ben. Chad Gustin is a great guy. He was a top notch athlete as well as being strong. More than that he is a SUPER nice guy.

Thom Van Vleck
Jackson Weightlifting Club
Highland Games athlete and sometimes All-Rounder

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