Several hundred Anytime Fitness franchisees recently joined forces with hundreds of gym managers and personal trainers, corporate staffers and Waxing The City franchisees to set two world records — and narrowly missed establishing a third — at the Self Esteem Brands annual conference in Lake Placid, New York.
The group nearly doubled the previous world record for most people in one location doing squats for one minute. The old record was 665 people. Led by personal trainer Josh Cox, 1,224 Anytime Fitness franchisees and employees, and their Self Esteem Brand colleagues, squatted together for a full minute.
Moments later, 1,214 members of the same group broke the previous record (900) for most people in one location doing jumping jacks for one minute. Both record-breaking events took place outdoors at the speed skating oval at the Lake Placid Olympic Training Center. Written and video documentation of the new records will be submitted to Guinness World Records for official verification in the coming days.
Prior to the pair of record-breaking performances, 1,213 Self Esteem Brand conference attendees gave their abdominal muscles a great workout by planking for a full minute. That’s no easy task, but their efforts fell short of the world record for group planking: 1,323 plankers.
Anytime Fitness franchisees from 28 different countries attended the conference. Total attendance was 2,080. Highlights included bobsledding, “extreme tubing” down a large section of the Olympic Training Center’s ski jump hill and an appearance by Mike Eruzione, a member of the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” U.S. Olympic hockey team.
For the third time in six years, Andy Gundlach was honored as the Anytime Fitness “Club Operator of the Year.” Gundlach owns and operates 29 gyms in the Madison, Wisconsin area. His 30th gym is scheduled to open in Evansville, WI next month.
This press release was submitted by Anytime Fitness.
