Jonathan Simos has a checklist of challenges he wants to conquer—eight or nine in all, each chosen because it plays to his lifelong strength. At 37, the Sarasota native has already dead-hung with 300 pounds strapped to his body for a Guinness World Record. On Sept. 6, he added another: most weight lifted by dumbbell rows in one minute.
At 12:15 p.m., during Sarasota’s Kôr gym’s one-year anniversary celebration—his preferred gym—Simos leaned over a 90-pound dumbbell and started to row. He did it 58 times 60 seconds for a total of 5,231.6 pounds. The previous record, set in Russia in 2021, stood at 4,814.9 pounds.
“This one is more endurance-based,” Simos says. “I’ve never done so many reps in one set. Maybe 20 max—but this was almost 60.”…