To make the record official, Shaun will repeat his performance next month while being filmed from both front and side angles. To best his own recent performance, he’s now training with seventy-five pounds stuffed into his book bag, so that “a forty pound weight will feel like nothing in comparison.”

It’s an unusual goal for a kid born and raised in South Jamaica, Queens – a rough neighborhood famous for gang violence and producing rap artists like 50 Cent. “If you’re not a successful individual coming out of that neighborhood, it’s not a big deal to anybody,” says Shaun, now twenty four years old. “No one’s expecting much from you. I’ve seen a lot of friends get destroyed by the neighborhood that I live in, and I don’t want to be just another statistic. I’ve lived my entire life going against what everyone said I couldn’t do.”

Like many inner city youths, Shaun was raised poor and fatherless. He was a lanky, skinny kid, and was often beat up by the local gangs and picked on at school for liking punk rock music and skateboarding. As financial conditions deteriorated at home, he took a job at a young age to help his mother pay the bills. Over time he began to feel depressed by his situation and decided he needed to change something in his life. That’s when he began to do push-ups and sit-ups, taking legendary NFL player and bodyweight trainer Hershel Walker as his inspiration.

Then, a dare from one of his friends led him to try to do 1,000 push-ups. He did it in 5 hours. The next time, he did it in 1 hour. After seeing a few videos of world record holder and ‘Iron Man’ Paddy Doyle, he began to take his training seriously. “I want people to remember my name for doing something good in the world,” says Shaun. This August, Shaun will attempt to do over 1,000 push-ups on his fists in less than eighteen minutes. If he succeeds, he will have beaten the world record currently held by Canadian Doug Pruden, who, in 2003 did 1,000 push-ups in 18 minutes and 13 seconds.

It’s a tough goal to achieve alone. Shaun is without a trainer, and has little time to speak of outside of work. Still, this hasn’t deterred him from staying focused and disciplined. “If you had told me 3-4 months ago that I was going to be doing 2,080 push-ups an hour, I would have laughed at you,” he says. “I didn’t believe my body was capable of doing that. But I’m doing it, and I’m doing it out of my job. I’ve taken the past 3 months to sculpt myself, mentally and physically. That means any Joe blow who wants to be in shape, if they just put their mind to it, they can do whatever they want.”

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