by Tejvan Pettinger | Jan 4, 2016 | Challenging Impossibility
Watch the full recording of Challenging Impossibility, a film about the weightlifting of Sri Chinmoy. In this video, some famous names in the world of weightlifting and body building put Sri Chinmoy’s weightlifting exploits into the unique context of its...
by Tejvan Pettinger | Oct 21, 2015 | video
Bishwas Polissar, a disciple of Sri Chinmoy from New York, talks about his involvement in making an apparatus for Sri Chinmoy’s unique lifting of his own smart car in 2004. The video includes footage of Sri Chinmoy’s lift, and Bishwas’ perspective on...
by Tejvan Pettinger | Oct 7, 2015 | video
In 1986, just 13 months after beginning his weightlifting journey, Sri Chinmoy lifted an elephant in Conneticut. Interviewed by a TV presenter, Sri Chinmoy was asked what he hoped to show from this kind of lift. Sri Chinmoy replied that he hoped to show that we can...
by Tejvan Pettinger | Oct 5, 2015 | video
In this video, Sri Chinmoy is interviewed with TV presenter Joel Martin. Sri Chinmoy talks about the inner motivation for his weightlifting activities. Also, in this video there is footage of Sri Chinmoy lifting up an elephant weighing 3,000lb. and a small plane....
by Nirbhasa Magee | Jun 24, 2011 | Lifting styles used by Sri Chinmoy
Sri Chinmoy’s first call for custom-made ‘toys’ went out in August 1983 when he requested his students to make machines to help him increase his sprinting speed. In 1985, Sri Chinmoy sent out the call once more, this time for machines that were: “cute, small, strong...
by Nirbhasa Magee | Jun 24, 2011 | Lifting styles used by Sri Chinmoy
This lift made its first appearance in 2000 as part of Sri Chinmoy’s lead-up to his 69th birthday celebrations. He began practising on June 4th with two 120-pound dumbbells suspended in metal slings above his padded weightlifting bench. Because the dumbbells are not...
by Nirbhasa Magee | Jun 24, 2011 | Uncategorized
The standard standing calf raise was the second major lift that Sri Chinmoy introduced into his weightlifting repertoire. On June 1st, 1986 he did repetitions with 400 pounds using a modified Dan Lurie model. At each practice session, Sri Chinmoy would work up to his...
by Nirbhasa Magee | Jun 24, 2011 | Lifting styles used by Sri Chinmoy
The third major lift that Sri Chinmoy introduced was the seated calf raise. In May 1986, he began his journey with 300 pounds. By October the same year, he had progressed to 700 pounds. As the years passed, he added more and more weight to his overworked knees. On...
by Nirbhasa Magee | Jun 24, 2011 | Lifting styles used by Sri Chinmoy
Sri Chinmoy began his weightlifting career on June 26th, 1985, at the age of 53, by lifting a 40-pound dumbbell overhead from the ground with his right arm. By September that year, Sri Chinmoy was able to clean and press 85 pounds, but his bad back and injured knee...
by Nirbhasa Magee | Jun 24, 2011 | Lifting styles used by Sri Chinmoy, Notable lifts
When Sri Chinmoy lifted his Smart Car at York College on November 13th, 2004 it was the culmination of the entire programme that evening. Sri Chinmoy ascended to the top of the platform, eight feet above the stage. The car had been driven onto a ground platform that...
by Nirbhasa Magee | Jun 24, 2011 | Lifting styles used by Sri Chinmoy
This unusual lift was initially done on the standing calf raise machine. A narrow plank was simply placed across the top and Sri Chinmoy would ask various men to stand on it. There was no handrail to prevent them toppling over when the plank tilted backwards under the...
by Nirbhasa Magee | Jun 24, 2011 | Lifting styles used by Sri Chinmoy
Early in 2001, Sri Chinmoy called for ideas from his weightlifting crew about how he could continue with his lifting, putting all of the weight on his exceptionally strong arms and shoulders. One of his students came up with a seated machine from which Sri Chinmoy...
by Nirbhasa Magee | Jun 24, 2011 | Uncategorized
Throughout his weightlifting career, Sri Chinmoy had always tried to improve the strength of his wrists and forearms by doing wrist curls and wrist flexes. He liked to do these at home, seated in a chair with the dumbbell resting on his knee. It was a staple of his...
by Nirbhasa Magee | Jun 24, 2011 | Lifting styles used by Sri Chinmoy
This was one of Sri Chinmoy’s favourite lifts. Unlike the overhead lifts, where he was somewhat removed from the person or object, here he could see them at all times – they were literally sitting or standing in his lap! Lifter and lifted were just inches from each...
by Nirbhasa Magee | Apr 26, 2011 | Challenging Impossibility, Media
The screening of the documentary ‘Challenging Impossibility’ at the Tribeca Film Festival and the pop-up gallery of Sri Chinmoy’s weightlifting feats currently in Manhattan is getting quite a lot of media attention. A Monument to Strength as a Path...
by Nirbhasa Magee | Apr 26, 2011 | Stories & Memories
In the later part of Sri Chinmoy’s weightlifting career, Bishwas Polissar served as one of his main assistants, constructing and setting up the weightlifting apparatus that Sri Chinmoy would use to life. On 26 June 2008, the 23rd anniversary of Sri...
by Nirbhasa Magee | Apr 26, 2011 | Notable lifts
May-August 1986 This particular mark stands out as a milestone in Sri Chinmoy’s early weightlifting career in a different sense. In so many ways Sri Chinmoy’s lifts were also powerful lessons about life to those who saw and heard about them, and in this...
