Minnesota man takes on muscle-up world record in honor of late friend
PRIOR LAKE, Minn. — Recently, a grueling world record was potentially set. It began with a drive for self-improvement.
Tyler Shilson took aim at a world record in muscle-ups, along the way raising money for a lost friend.
Shilson and Curtis Lemair both thrived in wrestling in high school. But soon after Lemair arrived to wrestle in college, tragedy struck.
"Curtis died in his sleep of an enlarged heart. In essence, his first symptom was his last," Chad Lemair said.
A pre-existing condition went undetected by athletic physicals. His family is trying to change those protocols and supply AEDs to needed areas.
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Shilson reached out to Curtis Lemair's dad, Chad, with the plan to raise money for each muscle-up.
"Everyone kinda gets to move on in life and you're kinda still stuck where you're at. So having friends like that come back, full circle, it is important. It means more than I can put into words," Chad Lemair said.
The Guinness World Record for muscle-ups in a day was 1,300.
Starting on the morning of March 22, Shilson began his mission. About 12 hours later he had over 900 and had hit a roadblock: His body was shutting down.
"I was walking around, laying on the floor, curled up in the fetal position. It was ugly. It was horrible," he said.
After two brief soreness-inducing naps, Shilson found another wind, unofficially breaking the record with hours to spare. It'll be months before Guinness says yes or no, but the record could be Shilson's at 1,321.
"Seeing that is life-changing because now anytime I'm doing something difficult I can think back like, 'Well you thought you were done before, you thought you couldn't do that and you did.'" Shilson said.
