Meet Ashrita Furman: a 62-year-old health food store manager from Queens who's broken more than 600 world records.
His records run the gamut from the awe-inspiring to the just plain weird. He has pogo-sticked up a mountain, run a marathon while juggling, and pushed an orange with his nose for one mile.
A few more notable records he currently holds: Most beer bottles opened by chainsaw in one minute (24), most jelly eaten with chopsticks in one minute (1 pound, 7.95 ounces), farthest distance to blow a coin (16 feet, 2.76 inches), and fastest mile on pogo stick while juggling (23 minutes, 28 seconds).
Source: Ashrita Furman
And he's got a taste for daring stunts, too. For example: Extinguishing blowtorches with nothing but his tongue.
Furman was deeply inspired by the teachings of a controversial spiritual leader named Sri Chinmoy.
The Indian-born Chinmoy came to New York City in 1964 and opened up a meditation center, advocating world peace and harmony. Soon, his flock of devotees spread across the world. Chinmoy rubbed elbows with respected world leaders like Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu — but many former disciples have alleged that he was abusive.
Source: New York Times; Forbes; Pix11
Chinmoy encouraged followers to heighten their spirituality via extreme physical challenges ... like, say, juggling underwater amongst sharks.
Source: New York Times; Ashrita Furman
But Furman is also spurred on by a lifelong love of the Guinness Book of World Records. "I remember reading it under the covers at night," he recalled.
In fact, the Guinness Book of World Records was conceived the same year that Furman was born — 1954. The idea was the brainchild of a Guinness Brewery executive who wished there was a reference book for settling friendly pub arguments.
"My life is kind of tied up with the Guinness book," Furman said.
Source: Guinness World Records
He broke his first record in 1979 by performing 27,000 continuous jumping jacks in a Manhattan gym. He's been traveling the world breaking records ever since.
In 1987, he earned the world record for holding the most world records — a title he's never relinquished.
Most often, he looks in the Guinness book for a fun category, then starts training to break it. He also fights to regain his old records that others have toppled.
He's even invented a few world record categories, including the fastest mile running with an egg in a spoon.
And he never lets failure get him down. "I’m not after success," he told INSIDER. "I'm after progress."
That fierce determination helped him set a record for fastest marathon while juggling — even though he had a bug in his eye for the last eight miles of the race.
"I did [it in] three hours and 23 minutes and I was really, really happy," Furman told INSIDER. "And I was very, very nervous because [...] there's this pressure of failing. But in the end it's really not about that. 'Cause even if I had failed I would have just tried again."
He's put his body through a lot — including 12 miles of continuous somersaulting during which he stopped frequently to vomit.
He had decided to break the record for consecutive somersaults by rolling along 12 miles of roads in Massachusetts.
"I had been training on a track and [the real course] wasn't flat. It was hilly and it completely threw off my equilibrium," Furman said. " I'll tell you — it was a rough battle."
But Furman broke the record that day, completing 8,341 forward rolls one after the other.
Source: Guinness World Records
Luckily, his injuries — including a spear wound sustained while catching spears underwater —have been few.
"[A] spear did actually go through my hand," he told INSIDER. "Not through, but almost all the way through."
His fame doesn't get him any special treatment from the folks at Guinness.
Just like all other applicants, Furman has to make sure all his attempts are recorded on video and done in the presence of official witnesses. And he still has to wait about 6 months for Guinness to review each record-breaking attempt.
Furman spends his days meditating, working at his health food store, and training for his next big attempt.
Some feats — like his record for most apples cut in the air by sword in one minute — take months of training. Others he simply launches into.
Most recently, he went to Greece and broke a record for balancing stacked traffic cones on his chin. "I brought the cones with me," he said. "I had an interesting time getting through immigration."
Sure, some of his stunts seem downright frightening — perhaps even foolish.
Exhibit A: Furman's record for most melons chopped on the stomach on a bed of nails in one minute. (24, in case you were wondering.)
LIVE: Ashrita and Bipin's Bed of Nails Watermelon Chop ChallengeWe're LIVE from Queens, New York with our most prolific record-breaker Ashrita Furman, as he and Bipin Larkin attempt to break their own record for Most melons chopped on the stomach on a bed of nails in one minute. Your questions for Ashrita and Bipin are very welcome.
Posted by Guinness World Records on Tuesday, September 6, 2016
"As human beings," he said, "we’re programmed to want to transcend ourselves."
See all the records that Furman currently holds at the Guinness World Records website.