"No way!"

In New Zealand and Australia I visited two gyms. In Australia I lifted up my bodyweight on television for the very first time. It happened in Melbourne. My bodyweight was 155 pounds and the actual weight of the dumbbell was 161 pounds. They put it in kilos—the dumbbell was 73.5 kilos and my bodyweight was 70.5 kilos. They weighed me on their own machine. In the studio, I did ten pushups before I lifted. Then I forgot to put on my belt. After I lifted, I was looking for my belt, but it was somewhere else.

The television people were very nice. They were supposed to show it the same day, but something went wrong. Fortunately, they showed it the following day. I was then in Sydney. I had gone there to play the organ at the Sydney Opera House.

When I returned to Melbourne, I visited Gold’s gym to look at their equipment. As soon as I entered the building, I saw Mahasamrat’s pictures all over the gym. Then I found out that the owner was a great admirer of Mahasamrat. One of the workers at this gym is very strong. He has 19-inch arms and mine are not even 14 inches. He is about 30 years old. He said to me, “I want to take a picture with you.” Then he took off his jacket to show me his arms. I said, “I do not want to show my 14-inch arms!”

This young man and the owner of the gym had both watched me lift 161 pounds on television. When they saw the lift, the young man said, “No way!” He was so surprised that I could lift such a heavy weight. The young man told me that he would not be able to lift 155 pounds with one arm.

I took some exercise on the equipment at the gym and the young man was watching me with utmost respect, but he did not try himself.

In New Zealand and Australia, the people believed my 7,000-pound lift. Now we have over 100 magazines who believed it and have printed favourable articles and then perhaps three or four who did not believe it. What can you do?

4 December 1987