Retired Hollister man sets world record
Ron Haugen would probably not describe himself as a competitor,
but he most certainly trains like one.
Growing up milking cows on Minnesota’s farm land, Haugen had a
pull-up bar set up in the barn, where he would try to do as many
pull-ups as he could in between jobs.
Retired Hollister man sets world record
Ron Haugen would probably not describe himself as a competitor, but he most certainly trains like one.
Growing up milking cows on Minnesota’s farm land, Haugen had a pull-up bar set up in the barn, where he would try to do as many pull-ups as he could in between jobs.
“My body got accustomed to doing them as I was growing up,” he said. “I can still do my pull-ups like I could 50 years ago.”
Funny how things never change.
Now at age 71, the retired Hollister resident is not necessarily attracted to the bench press or the dead lift – two of the more popular benchmarks of strength in any gymnasium – but the pull-up instead.
He’s done them for as long as he can remember, he said. But never, not once, did competing ever cross his mind.
Of course, when you can pull your 165-pound body off the ground, as well as 80 additional pounds strapped to your waist, well, maybe it’s perhaps time to show it all off, even for those who consider themselves non-competitors.
“I’ve been doing pull-ups all my life and I wanted to get something out of it, see how I compared to other people,” Haugen said. “Actually, the weighted pull-up is kind of new to me.”
Nevertheless, Haugen, in his very first competition at 71, lifted roughly 48 percent of his body weight during a weighted pull-up event at The C.T. Fletcher Power Competition in Whittier on Jan. 17, setting a world record in the process for his age group (70-74), according to the World Legion of Power.
Haugen upped the ante on his second try as well, strapping 100 pounds – roughly 61 percent of his body weight – to a dipping belt around his waist. He came within centimeters of completing the pull-up before coming back down.
“It’s not really a popular thing to do because they’re so hard to do,” Haugen said. “But it’s one of my favorite exercises.”
The event was held at the World Legion of Power in Whittier, and included a bench press and strict curl competition. The power pull-up event in particular, though, included a special cash challenge: Any drug-free man over 65 years old who can match weight against Arnold Nerenberg, 67, in a weighted pull-up contest will walk away with $500.
Although Nerenberg, the world-record holder for his age, lifted 100 pounds – besting Haugen by 20 pounds – he was impressed, nonetheless.
“Ron is something else,” Nerenberg said. “He set a world record for his age group. But you can walk into any gym, and I don’t care what age they are – 21 or 31 – they can’t do 80 pounds.
“He had me worried.”
The challenge was put out by the World Legion of Power on a flyer, and displayed at every gymnasium in Southern California. Approximately 25,000 people read it, Nerenberg said, with probably 8,000 of them over 50 years of age.
“And Ron was the only one to take the challenge,” Nerenberg added.
“I’m usually too shy to enter any of these contests, so I never did,” Haugen said. “But when I saw this only-65-year-olds competition, I knew I was kind of unique, so I figured I had a pretty good chance.”
Although it was his first competition in weighted pull-up, Haugen had, more or less, been training his entire life. From a barn in Minnesota to the U.S. Army for nine years, where he bested each man in his battalion during the pull-up portion of physical training – he even set his high school’s record for chin-ups – Haugen is in love with an exercise that usually doesn’t get any love at the gym.
Training six days a week at Gold’s Gym in Hollister, Haugen does pull-ups every third day, trying to do as many as he can, which is usually around 50.
“Everyone here said, ‘Ron, you can do it,'” Haugen said. “When I came back and told them I did what I did, they were all happy about it.
“But because pull-ups are so strenuous (on the shoulders), I rest 72 hours before I work out again.”
Haugen makes it a point to stay active and healthy, though, especially after he lost three siblings to heart attacks.
“It makes me all the more dedicated,” Haugen said. “I’ve always liked working out. I look forward to it. I’m lucky.”
And with any luck, he’ll top his world record like the competitor that he is.
