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How flexible are you? This ancient Indian sport earned 2 kids a record title

By Vassiliki Bakogianni
Published

Are you flexible? 🤸🏽

Swaransh More and Shriram Jadhav, 2 boys from India, set a world record with their incredible skills and jaw-dropping flexibility!

They achieved the fastest time to complete 5 synchronised sequences on a Mallakhamb pole by a team of two (1 minute and 47 seconds) when they performed on the set of our Italian show, Lo Show Dei Record, in 2023.

🔎 But what is Mallakhamb?

It is a traditional Indian sport requiring impressive gymnastic ability. 'Malla' literally means wrestling while 'khamb' means pole. So, together, Mallakhamb means wrestling on a pole.

Sounds pretty cool, right?

Check out the incredible duo in action. 👇🏽

YT

Swaransh and Shriram are members of the Incredible Mallakhamb Group, a passionate team from India that performs all around the world! 🌎

Anup Thakur, the person behind the Incredible Mallakhamb, explained the sport in more detail:

“We basically focus on flexibility and strength. [The boys train] 6 days a week for 3-5 years. [It requires] coordination between our upper body, hands, body, legs, everything.”

To prepare for Mallakhamb, follow these steps: 

  1. Stretch
  2. Exercise your core (the middle part of your body, especially your tummy!)
  3. Meditate (simply close your eyes, relax, take deep breaths and try to stay still for a few minutes 🙏🏽)

So what made Anup choose Mallakhamb as his sport?

“My teachers and everybody taught me that if I can do that, I will be fit and fine. And I can feel that still. I’m now 30 and I’m teaching many different schools in India […] and through Mallakhamb kids become very strong.”

Would you like to be as strong as Swaransh and Shriram? 💪🏽 

Mallakhamb is not just about training the body, but also about training the mind.

“We do meditation, lots of meditation, and yoga poses, everything, and then through that we do the Mallakhamb.”

Anup is super proud of his young students: “They have achieved something very big, it’s a proud moment. [Setting a world record] is one of the proudest moments in my life as well as in my team’s life!” 🥹

Mallakhamb is a truly beautiful sport which started around 800 years ago

Its creator was inspired by seeing a monkey climb on a tree with such ease and smoothness, that he thought, “What if we could do that?”. 🐒

Would you try Mallakhamb?

Anup’s life lesson that he wanted to share with us, is:

“Whatever you’re doing in life, it will always be unique. You are unique. If you [always] think about the world or others, you will never be your own unique person.

“Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it, and definitely one day you will get your reward for that.”

We couldn’t agree more! ❤️

Congratulations to the Incredible Mallakhamb Group, and especially to young Swaransh and Shriram…

You are both Officially Amazing!

Are you into sports and fitness? Check out all our recent videos on fitness records!