"Out of this world": A 45-year-old Ukrainian shares how they set an extraordinary strength record.

— How did I prepare for setting the record for push-ups on parallel bars? — asks 45-year-old Yuri Balyasny from the village of Petrovka-Romensky in the Mirgorod district. — Since I was about thirteen. I had a dream – to have a good body. That's why I always had a pull-up bar and dumbbells at home; I ran, squatted, and did push-ups… I just didn’t know it was called workout (smiling). I never trained in a gym or on a sports field. Now I have gym equipment in my yard and a pull-up bar at home. For a long time now, every morning and evening — rain or frost — I work out for an hour and a half in just shorts and a cap, with special gloves (though I can manage without them).

12 hours — 51,537 push-ups

Yuri Balyasny — a master of the measurement and automation control section at the oil and gas extraction management "Poltavaneftgas" — was the oldest in a team of eight athletes who set a new record for Ukraine in Dnipro on November 23. For twelve hours, they took turns continuously doing push-ups on parallel bars. During this time, the athletes collectively performed 51,537 push-ups! More accurately, they completed the planned 50,000 push-ups in 11 hours and 37 minutes, and in the remaining 23 minutes, they added another 1,537.

No such record had ever been set in Ukraine before. The organizers came up with it themselves and established it.

— This is the most extreme challenge for both the body and the moral state of the participants, — said the vice-president of the Street Workout Federation Gauranitai Shulika. — If a professional athlete comes to the field and does 300—400 push-ups, that’s very good. 500 is already the ceiling! But during the record attempt, each athlete averaged 520 sets and 6,250 push-ups! So the numbers are astronomical.

To meet the initially set goal of 50,000 push-ups, the team reduced the time allocated for rest. They took their first five-minute break after working for 4 hours, having refused to rest every hour. In total, to stay on schedule, they only took three five-minute breaks. Each also had 20—30 seconds to catch their breath while waiting for their turn.

In the fifth hour, three participants dropped out of the competition due to various injuries, making the task even harder for those who remained. But the bars didn’t rest!

The idea of setting this unique record belongs to Senior Lieutenant of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, multiple winner of the most prestigious workout tournaments, 25-year-old Dmitry Kosatyi from Zhytomyr, who is currently serving in the Operational Command "East" and is responsible for the physical training of military personnel. In August 2022, in the Kharkiv region, the son of his comrades — Junior Sergeant Igor Vysotsky from the 60th Brigade of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, was mortally wounded. He was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine. Dmitry promised his parents that in memory of Igor, he would definitely set a record for Ukraine.

In addition to Dmitry Kosatyi, the team included three more soldiers: 24-year-old Captain Alexander Reva from Kyiv, 40-year-old serviceman of the 4th "Ranger" SSO regiment Alexander Titnenko from Kropyvnytskyi, and his 38-year-old compatriot Alexander Stasenko. Also part of the team were civilians Yuri Balyasny, 40-year-old workout coach Igor Babkov (Kryvyi Rih), 19-year-old Kharkiv resident Arman Margaryan, and the youngest participant, 18-year-old Kyiv resident Mikhail Burlaka.

– This is a grand strength record for our brave guys. There should have been more of them, but some went to the front line to protect us from the raging beast, — noted the head of the National Register of Records of Ukraine Lana Vetrovaya, thanking the Federation of Workout Ukraine, Operational Command "East," and Special Operations Forces for their partnership and organization of the record-setting event. — The new team record was dedicated to Igor Vysotsky and all the defenders who gave their lives for Ukraine's independence.

During the event, funds were raised for the purchase of an electronic warfare station for defenders carrying out combat tasks in one of the hottest areas.

Just two hours in, everyone's palms were covered in bloody blisters

Yuri Balyasny recalls that Igor Babkov called him two weeks before the record-setting date.

— "How many times can you do push-ups on the bars in an hour?" – he asked me. – I didn’t know the answer. So the next day, I started timing my push-ups. I managed 1,260 push-ups. "Can you do 2,000 push-ups in two hours?" — Igor asked after hearing about my personal achievement. I tried — I could. Only then did he tell me that according to the conditions for setting the record, the push-ups would last… twelve consecutive hours.

— Did that not scare you?

— I am an Aries by horoscope, and I have been very stubborn since childhood. My life motto is: "Die, but do it." I can do the same exercise for a month, two, or three until I achieve the desired result, and then I calm down. Although maybe that’s not always right. Because by adhering to this motto, I once strained the ligaments in my left arm, and now I have to bandage it all the time when I put it under load.

Yuri says that if it weren’t for his son Vladislav, his personal achievements in athletics would still be just personal. Because he always engaged in sports not for publicity or show-off, but to maintain his physical condition. But when his son grew up, he started taking photos and videos of his dad’s workouts and showing them to friends. They were all amazed and said it was really cool. Eventually, Vladik approached his dad and suggested registering on TikTok to post short videos.

— I resisted for a while, but then I agreed to set up a Facebook page too, — Yuri smiles. — That’s how I became an "Internet star." Now I have 148 thousand followers on TikTok. The tournament organizers found me through social media. Now I have a plaque that says I am a record holder, and a local newspaper wrote about me.

Overall, the man says, the tournament was a great opportunity to test himself for physical endurance and strength of spirit. And it was a big responsibility: he couldn’t let his younger teammates down.

— At first, we took a pretty fast pace, — Yuri Balyasny recalls November 23 again. — For the first two hours, each of us did fifteen push-ups per set, and then we reduced it to ten to make it easier. Just two hours in, everyone’s palms were covered in bloody blisters — the special gloves didn’t protect against them. Muscles and ligaments ached… However, thoughts of quitting the marathon never crossed our minds. We were encouraged by patriotic songs. And we wanted to support our defenders so that they felt they were not alone. With this record, we wanted to show that even in such difficult times, Ukrainians are the strongest, and Ukraine is unbreakable.

— You were going alongside partners who are half your age. How did you feel?

— When we were traveling to Dnipro, my wife told my son to keep a close eye on me and call an ambulance if necessary because she knows I am very patient and never give up easily, — Yuri smiles. – But, thank God, my health is fine. Of course, when three young athletes dropped out after five hours, the load increased. In the last hour of the tournament, two of them, despite the pain, helped to finish it, for which I am very grateful.

— How did you recover during the short breaks?

— The guys drank energy drinks and offered some to me, but I was scared because I had never consumed such things. So I only drank well water, ate honey and bananas, and had a couple of pieces of homemade "Napoleon" cake that Igor Vysotsky's relatives treated us to.

Yuri continues:

— We jokingly call ourselves "pocket tigers" because we are all slim and short — from 165 to 170 centimeters, except for Alexander Stasenko, who shot up to 185. In general, the lighter the body weight, the better it works. For instance, I maintain a weight of 70 kilograms at a height of 170 centimeters.

By the way, during the conversation, the eight strong decided to continue collaborating in the same composition. Under the name "Titans