David Rush nears 250 Guinness World Records with fist-bumping feat

March 21 (UPI) -- Serial Guinness World Record-breaker David Rush is on track to claim another title after fist-bumping 152 people in 1 minute, a feat he described as more of a "logistical challenge than a physical one."

Rush, 36, of Boise, Idaho, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview that he organized the world record attempt for most fist bumps with different people in 1 minute last week at a Nashville , partner conference for Cradlepoint, the company where he works as an engineer.

The number to beat was 123.

"We basically got the whole conference involved. I had 157 people lined up and I made it through all 157 of them in 58 seconds," he said. "We reviewed the video in slow motion -- I think we're going to have to disallow 5 of them because they didn't make solid contact head-on -- so 152 should count.

"It's been submitted to Guinness for review," Rush added.

Easy vs. impossible

Rush, who expects to break his 250th record later this year, said the first-bumping title "was more of a logistical challenge than a physical one."

"It was a large conference room, but how do you get everybody lined up so everybody gets hit once and I can run down the line and make sure the aisles are wide enough? And then how do I get it videoed from two different angles and get everybody numbered so they can sign on the roster sheet," he said.

Rush rated the record "easy" on his scale of "easy, medium, hard and impossible."

"Easy is when there's probably someone else in this room right now that could break the record, and most fist bumps in a minute would be an example of this," he said.

An example of an "impossible" record would be fastest 100-meter dash while juggling blindfolded, which Rush achieved last year.

"It's got to be one of the very hardest, because I literally had to run thousands of miles while juggling to prepare for it," he said. "One of the trickiest parts of that record is you have to stay in your lane while you're blindfolded and juggling.

"And so it took me hundreds and hundreds of practices, plus dozens of official attempts to actually complete the 100-meter dash in 16.33 seconds."

Another "impossible" record is most juggling catches in a minute, a title he has claimed three times and holds at 586.

Competition

The competition between record-breakers is often most fierce when it comes to "the most fun, silly" records, Rush said.

"One that's surprisingly competitive is the most ping pong balls caught in shaving foam on the head in 30 seconds," he said.

The record, for two people, involves one person tossing ping pong balls while another, with their head covered in shaving foam, attempts to catch them without using their hands.

"I don't know if I've done it two or three times, but we've made many other attempts on it and gone through a dozen cans of shaving foam," he said.

A "silly" record with a surprising level of difficulty is most peas eaten with a toothpick in 30 seconds, he said.

"It's just fast motor skills, stab a single pea and stick it in the mouth, stab, eat, stab, eat. To practice for that one, I'd bring peas to work at lunch, and I'd just microwave them, have them on a plate, have a toothpick and I'm just eating peas for lunch as fast as I can at my desk. Somebody would walk by and I'm like, 'Nothing going on here, you're not seeing anything,'" Rush laughed.

52 records in 52 weeks

Rush's record-breaking has been making headlines for years, leading to appearances on America's Got Talent, NBC's Today show and, just last week, the Tamron Hall show. Rush earned particular recognition in January, when he revealed that he achieved his goal of breaking 52 records in 52 weeks in 2021.

"When I posted that I broke the 52 in 52 weeks, the official Guinness response on their social media channel was 'We expect 53 this year,'" Rush recalled. "So I've got that in the back of my mind. I've got a little bit of a slow start already, it's the middle of March and I haven't done 10 yet, but I think I'm going to go for it, I'm going to go for 53 this year."

Rush said his record-breaking "obsession" had its roots in his efforts to promote STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education. He said many students end up in a "fixed mindset," thinking they can only develop skills that align with their natural talents, whereas a "growth mindset" allows a person to develop skills they might have once seen as impossible.

"I approach all these records with a growth mindset. So I became the world's fastest juggler, even though there are thousands of jugglers in the world that are better at juggling than I am. I decided this is something I'm going to focus on, and I got good enough to have 586 catches in a minute, almost 10 catches per second," he said.

Rush said he plans to continue breaking Guinness World Records for "as long as I'm having fun."

"I'm getting a sense of accomplishment, I'm giving back to the community, and as long as that holds true, I'm going to continue pursuing this," he said.

Rush's book, Breaking Records: 21 Lessons from 21 World Record Attempts, is available at Amazon.