World's Fittest Man to bring health and fitness awareness to East Africa.
Joe Decker, "World's Fittest Man", will be visiting Eastern Africa for three weeks starting July 14th. His objective is to bring health and fitness awareness to an international audience. He is a renowned fitness trainer, syndicated columnist and author of "The World's Fittest You."
(PRWEB) June 25, 2004
The "World's Fittest Man", Joe Decker, of Cabin John, Maryland, USA, will, starting July 14, 2004 visit Kampala, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.
He will be in the three capitals to showcase his renowned fitness programmes to orient people towards health consciousness. Mr. Decker is also looking forward to visiting some of the tourist sites in the region during the three weeks he will spend in the region.
Mr. Decker is considered the “World's Fittest Man.” He broke an existing record of the Guinness Book of World Records 24-hour physical fitness challenge. He is an ultra-endurance power athlete, renowned fitness trainer, author
And syndicated columnist who has helped thousands of women, men, kids and seniors get into shape and lose weight.
Despite his celebrity status on the international scene, many East Africans don't know him and this will be his first visit to this part of Africa.
To become what he is today, Mr. Decker performed a feat: He cycled 100 miles, ran 10 miles, hiked 10 miles, power-walked five miles, kayaked six miles, skied on a Nordic track 10 miles, rowed 10 miles, swam two miles, did 3,000 abdominal crunches, 1,100 jumping jacks, 1,000 leg lifts, 1,100 push-ups and he weight-lifted, cumulatively, 278,540 pounds, all in 24 hours.
For his efforts (and pains), Mr. Decker, 34, earned a place in the 2000 Guinness Book of World Records: the fittest man alive. He makes his living as a fitness trainer and motivational speaker. His mind-boggling feats have been chronicled in world leading newspapers, magazines and have made television documentaries with Discovery Channel as well as television interviews with some of America's big networks.
According to a report in one of America's popular publications, The Philadelphia Inquirer, on a typical Saturday, Mr. Decker will rise at 4.30am and run 40 to 50 miles (This is like running from Kampala to Jinja in Uganda), or bike 50 to 100 miles, or kayak 20 to 30 miles and is back home early in the afternoon. The report said most of what he does routinely would kill most people because for him a marathon is a training run.
“I don't mean to sound crazy, but once you get to a certain point, it's just nothing. I run a marathon a month,” he is quoted in one of the interviews he has done during his career. According to another report in the Washington Post (2001), Mr. Decker jogged 25,000 cumulative miles in training and races - the equivalent of one lap around the globe.
A Guinness World Records certificate, which Procurement News (PN) has seen says the man, achieved the following measurements in a 24 hour/13 activity fitness programme from 1-2 December 2000: 160.93 km (100 miles) cycling, 16.09 km (10 miles) running and 16.09 km (10 miles) hiking.
Others are 8.04 km (5 miles) power walking, 9.65 km (6 miles) kayaking, 16.09 km (10 miles) Nordic track, 16.09 km (10 miles) rowing, 3.21 km (2 miles) swimming, 3,000 ab crunches, 1,100 jumping jacks, 1000 leg lifts, 1,100 push-ups and weight-lifted 126,343.61 kg (278,540lb).
The Observer Newspaper in the United Kingdom quoted Mr. Chris Sheedy of the Guinness World Records saying: “His achievement is momentous, unbelievable, and superhuman.
When his letter arrived I thought, “to do all this in such a short time isn't physically possible.” But he sent us videos, eyewitness statements, doctor's reports - more evidence than we needed to validate his claim.
Mr. Decker's miracle year was 2000. According to the report, he received a handsome trophy, topped by a statuette of a bald eagle, for completing the Grand Slam of Ultra-running - four 100 milers.
The fun began in May 2000 with the mother of all endurance contests, the Raid Gauloises, which was a 520-mile adventure race from Tibet to northern India via Nepal and the Himalayas.
He finished in eight days. This adventure race is considered by many to be the most grueling endurance race on earth.
Mr. Decker calls himself “a country boy at heart.” He grew up on a farm in central Illinois, near the town of Cuba, about 50 miles southwest of Peoria. His father is a farmer who also worked for Caterpillar. His mother, Diane, was a custodian at the local elementary school.
He was the oldest of four boys who made their own entertainment. “I was never inside. I was not a TV kid,” he says. I was always outside, swimming, climbing, running, playing in the woods. With no money for college, he joined the army, which he credits for toughening him, mentally and physically.
One could already be asking, why does he do it? According to the Observer report, his could be a childhood of extreme poverty or maybe it's his physique, more that of a weightlifter than an athlete, or the memory of being called a 'fat boy'.
“I am an average person,” he insists. “What I've done is something just about anybody could do if they put their mind to it. Don't just want to do something; if you want to attain something, get off your butt and make it happen. The Observer said that as a teenager, Mr. Decker devoured beer and pizza without exercise and saw his body balloon.
When he joined the US army, his inability to run two miles in 16 minutes meant he had to endure the humiliation of extra training in the 'fat boy programme'.
