Exercise science major, Cosimo Carrieri, performs jumping jacks in front of his class.
Photo Credit: Rebecca Tash
On Thursday, Feb. 16 in a personalized fitness class taught by Professor Robert Gilbert, senior Cosimo Carrieri, an exercise science major, set a world record by doing 109 jumping jacks in one minute, breaking the Guiness World Record of 106 in a minute.
Carrieri is not Gilbert’s student; he is his volunteer assistant. He was helping Gilbert prove a point to the class on how everybody has the ability to do whatever they want to do; all they need is strategy.
The class is a course in personalized fitness covering theories and techniques of the physiological and psychological components of fitness.
“It’s basically a class saying you can do things rather than saying ‘I can’t do it,’” said Joseph Stefanelli, a junior information technology major.
Last Thursday was not the first time Carrieri attempted to achieve as many jumping jacks as he could in one minute.
Two days earlier, on Tuesday, he made it up to 102 jumping jacks in a suit and tie. However, there was no training involved, only preparing mentally and having a history of lifting weights 4 to 5 times a week. The last time he had done a jumping jack was over the summer.
Before Carrieri embarked on his journey to beat a record—this time in sweats—Gilbert began class by having the field hockey student assistant coach Katelyn Cannarozzi recite the famous speech of Herb Brooks, coach of the 1980 Men’s U.S. Olympic hockey team. The opening line states, “Great moments are born from great opportunities.”
As Gilbert brought Carrieri to the front of the class to begin, the class became silent in anticipation of an inspirational message from Gilbert. Instead he said, “Cosimo is on a full four-year scholarship of jumping jacks.”
With that, the timer was set and so was the determination in his eyes and concentrated breathing. There was complete and utter silence as no one wanted to break Carrieri’s concentration.
The unbelievable speed made it seem as if Carrieri stopped time to get 21 jumping jacks in the first ten seconds. As he started to slow down 40 seconds in, Gilbert and the rest of the class clapped and encouraged him to keep going, which made him pick up the speed. With ten seconds left in time, he added 16 more jumping jacks to bring the final count to 109.
The class filled with cheer as the timer rang and Gilbert said to Carrieri, “That was good form by the way. Your preschool teacher would be proud.”
