In 2006, Sri Chinmoy held a weightlifting demonstration for new friend Hugo Girard, 2002’s World’s Strongest Man.
Watch this clip for highlights including a plane lift and pumpkin lift.
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1998 Weightlifting Celebration
Sri Chinmoy held strength demonstrations for friends and experts in 1988, 1989 and then again in 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006.
Sri Chinmoy resumed weightlifting in 1998 after a several-year hiatus. He brought many of his old friends like Frank Zane and Mike Katz out of the woodwork and brought them to New York City for this event.
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s mentor, Alfred Gerstl, former President of Parliament in Austria, flew in from Europe to attend this evening’s festivities.
Bill Pearl served as the Master of Ceremonies. In this clip, watch Sri Chinmoy lift him, IFBB Vice-President Wayne DeMilia, bodybuilding legend Mike Katz, three-time Mr. Olympia Frank Zane and Alfred Gerstl.
Sri Chinmoy ended the evening by lifting his body weight of 145 lbs in each arm.
After a 20 minute break, Sri Chinmoy then gave a 90 minute concert of music for meditation, playing a dozen instruments, to, again, illustrate the link between inner peace and outer strength.
I do not compete with anybody else; I compete only with myself. You saw my capacity a few minutes ago. Now I am competing with myself. When I do weightlifting, my body is my world. If I can improve myself, if I can go beyond my previous achievements, then that is my goal. My own previous record is always what I am competing with. – Sri Chinmoy
1800 lb Calf Raise
Sri Chinmoy lifts 1800 pounds on a standard standing calf raise machine in 1988 in a ceremony MC’d by Bill Pearl.
Sri Chinmoy Lifts His Books
Sri Chinmoy loved poetry and prose and wrote extensively in his spare time – to the tune of more than 1500 books over his 45 years in the West.
Sri Chinmoy’s books were published by Simon and Schuster, Hazelden, Blue Dove and his own press, Agni Press.
In this clip, Sri Chinmoy lifts his then-total of books (1,495) on a modified seated calf raise platform. He follows this lift by lifting one of the designers of that machine, Mr. Bipin Larkin, overhead 100 times – a total of 15,000 pounds.
Sri Chinmoy also lifts bodybuilding legend Bill Pearl and his wife, fitness pioneer, Judy Pearl overhead on this platform. Bill Pearl and Sri Chinmoy had been friends for 20 years at this point. Bill had served from the start of Sri Chinmoy’s weightlifting journey as a mentor and coach. Challenging Impossibility traces the beginnings of their friendship and Bill’s amazement at the rapid progress Sri Chinmoy made.