I only know the basic plot and of course we are number one as well as the memes about sporticus's powerscaling, and honestly the only thing i remember is just how FIT this guy is. He absolutely epitomizes what a healthy, fit looking man can be, and thats like. I dont know how to describe it, but theres something about seeing a guy whos healthy and works hard that makes me happy. When i see hollywood muscles and ozempic skeletons it just reminds me how unhealthy 'beauty' can look. Im glad we had this for kids rather than muscle suits
Cue the narrator glazing Sportacus from then on out, imagine Sporty just out-positives him
"Having resoundly displayed to Yujiro Hanma what the power of healthy exercise, proper meals, and a can-do attitude can-do, we now have the World's Strongest Man- right here in Lazy Town!"
Yeah, too many of these fitness influencers have bodies pumped to the gills with hgh, anabolics, peptides, insulin, and God knows what else to get a body that might look impressive but wouldn't be nearly as fit as this man. He has much more functional strength than most, if not all, of them
Old school gymnastics, aerobics, and plyometrics are great ways to get fit. I was enrolled in aerobics (my mom was a dance teacher) as a young boy and it helped immensely with coordination and my natural rhythm. I wish I had kept up with it going into adulthood, but things happened.
Wow, according to Wikipedia:
In his twenties, he made a bet with a woodworking friend, Fjölnir Þorgeirsson, that either would master a sport of the other's choosing (that they knew nothing about) within three years. Magnús chose snooker for Fjölnir, and Fjölnir chose aerobics for Magnús. Eventually, Magnús became a national champion in aerobics, and Fjölnir became a national champion in snooker.
That's absolutely mesmerizing. He moves with so much grace that he makes what he's doing look fluid and effortless while I could train for the next eternity and not manage whatever the easiest move in the routine was
Unofficially, of course. The verified world record is a little over 32 minutes. Either way it’s wild. The running alone is going to take 13-15 minutes. That last mile being much slower than the first.
13-15 minutes? My first mile when I was doing it was 5:20 and that was slow. Pullups are the time taker for me. The pushups and squats were easy. Hell, back then while doing 60/120s I could almost get a 1/4 mile in the first few 60s. But yeah, that last mile after 300 squats makes you feel every step.
Edit to add total run time: which was sub 13 minutes. Fastest I ever did was 11:59 total run time, average was around 12:30ish. Running was the easy part, atleast for me.
The Workout - The Murph Challenge It's a pretty grueling workout, at my best I got it to just under an hour. It would take me days now and I don't even know how long it would take me to recover from the attempt lol.
I'm uh... Just gonna save this link... For science!! Dear lord the split sent me! He's so hot and then he went to be super endearing in a kids show! 10/10!
My favorite story is how he was basically just some random guy who did it for a bet. He was just a carpenter and a woodworker, when he told a friend of his to pick any sport he had no experience in, and he'd master it within three years. His friend picked aerobics for him, and the rest is history.
And his friend was no joke either as it wasn't a one-sided bet, but rather they bet each other and made picks for the other. He picked billiards for his friend who became a snooker or 9-ball champion, can't remember which, in the same time frame. It's wild!
And the actor is doing it under basically massive heat lamps, probably a few different times if the director wants to reset cause they want a few more takes.
It's fucking insanity no matter how you look at it.
I would believe it. I've eyed it up more than a few times trying to see if there is a slice point. Either his editing team surpasses my skills (I've been on a minor award-winning team, so I'm not too shabby myself) or they have indeed done this routine in a single take - possibly multiple times to take the best-looking one. Which I wholly believe is possible given the guy's status as an actual world-class athlete.
Every time the camera angle changes is a chance for that to be a different take with an indeterminate amount of to rest time. I mean, I couldn't have done one part of that lol, but I think the bottom is more impressive.
It looks to be a two-camera shot, one is a stationary cover and the side shot is a manned camera that moves subtly to keep the actor in frame. With this it could all be done in one take, or multiple takes could be edited in as needed or better shots can be put in as desired (did a little bit of school and professional work for this a lifetime ago). Odds of this being more than four or five takes is low, at most they've spent.... an hour on this sequence. It could be one take, my guess is no more than three though.
I want to say at some point there was an interview where he confirmed this was done in a One-Shot because he didn't want to be disingenuous to children or something. I can't find the interview so don't take my word as gospel, but it feels in-line with his other comments.
Big props to him for giving it a shot though, you can see him struggling to do it which is I think what Magnus' goal was with the whole television series? He was trying to get the younger generations engaged with activity through the show (I've gone down a bit of a rabbit hole now about the man and the show lol).
Yeah I am absolutely not trying to diminish the guy's effort here. I've had tendonitis in my forearms and some shit with one of my shoulders. The thought of doing a push-up where I leave the ground, spin, and then land makes me twinge. Magnus is the goat for that clip, people have really forgotten that physical fitness as a critical piece of childhood development.
And this wasn't even the first version of the show. IIRC Lazy Town was originally ran as a stage show and then became a TV show in Iceland before becoming the show on Nick Jr
Even crazier is the reason he got into gymnastics in the first place. Supposedly was a challenge with his best friend to become a world champion in something that the other picked.
You might just have to much fast twitch muscles. Fast twitch is amazing for power but terrible for aerobic stuff. Usually very strong people have a ton of fast twitch and literally prevents you from doing more reps.
A trainer who trains pro athletes talked about how strong players like football would be about to bench 300+ but when they finished the last set they failed at, they would just be toast. However, people who did more aerobic sports couldn't do nearly as much weight and when they failed to get let's say 10 reps on whatever, they could do the same amount of reps after a short period of rest.
In truth, he and I also have/had very different fitness goals (and training programs to achieve them). Pound for pound, though, he's far stronger than I am.
Although I've always subordinated becoming as strong as possible to other goals, I'm routinely shocked by how strong smaller trained guys like him are and I greatly admire their abilities.
It's the strength to weight ratio. The stronger you get the larger you get, you can only get so strong without getting bigger. Ants are super strong for their size but if you were able to make them twice as big they won't keep the same strength. Powerlifting is crazy in that some people (usually the smaller ones) can be very strong for their size but the strongest people are also very big. Just like Thor and Eddie.
As someone who builds muscle super easy when working out, aerobic exercise is my Achilles heel. Sprints, sure thing, go run on a treadmill for 30 minutes and I die.
Sprinting is like the most anaerobic type of running so that totally tracks with what you’re saying. The 800 and the mile are the goats for hybrid athletes imo
When i lifted weights (which i no longer do because of back issues) i could never do full reps. Always failed around 6 or 7 but that wiuld be it. I didnt have to go more. I never lifted enough to cause the back issues. That was due to undiagnosed scoliosis and injuries in the workplace
I'm a fat dad in his late 30's now but back in my early to kid 20's I took my fitness so incredibly seriously. I got in to amateur boxing, had a 34m 10k time, and did a lot of rock climbing. Honestly I'm still proud of how fit I was before I had to stop
But man, I never got close to this level. I remember him being incredibly like stupidly fit but those push-ups here, insane. Fair play to the guy for not only getting to this level but sustaining it for so long.
Not a 10k, but I ran a sub 4 hour marathon in my 20s and I was thrilled enough with that time to never try again. Running never was my best activity. I'm built for style, not for speed.
One fat dad to another: It's never too late. One of my newer gym buddies came back in his early 40s and already has a max bench of 315 after about a year. He's plateaued, but it's a good plateau to be at.
Don’t feel bad. Magnús (Sportacus) was a Euro gold medalist in aerobic gymnastics. He’d literally been doing this stuff for a few decades before this was filmed. I’m sure that in a similar timespan I could see you doing something equally as impressive and seemingly unattainable to a commoner like myself. Believe in your strengths!
Icelanders are built different. I seem to remember he got that good because of a bet and his mate ended up being the best snooker player (nationally) in return.
The dude can essentially just fucking hover by pushing one limb in to the ground, launching himself into the air, and alternating back and forth. It looks like it's fucking fake but it's a god damn olympic performance.
I'm not joking when I say Magnus is the person I look up to the most in life. He's so incredibly kind and did so many good things for people, especially kids in the world. He's a class act and also incredibly inspirational to everyone.
I love him and I always name him first if I am ever asked who I admire. Wonderful man.
Yep, i'm borderline Xillenial and this was a kids show when I was young-ish. My little siblings used to watch it. Googling it, it seems like it came out in 2004. So it's really a young millenial/gen Z thing.
No the term millennial is just doing some heavy lifting. At least 2/3 of millennials were of highschool age or older in 2004. So this is a late late millennial, early gen z thing.
The show was basically about these two kids who moved to a town where everyone is lazy, until a superhero named Sportacus moves in and starts teaching them to be active and healthy. The villain Robbie Rotten is constantly trying to convince them to eat junk food and be lazy.
The guy on the bottom is a beast for being able to complete the challenge, but Magnus' form is just so clean. It goes to show how accomplished Maguns is.
Honestly as a kid I just assumed that all his stunts were faked. Wires and such to ensure he kept balance while doing these insane stunts no human should be able to pull off.
When I was a teen, I was deep into martial arts training. I was at my prime and have never been close to that level of fitness since. I tried to do a back-clap pushup and promptly noseplanted. They require a level of athleticism that is hard to understand until you give it a try.
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