Jaw pull | Rantanen’s retired couple beats almost every 20-year-old Finn in a chin-up – Here’s a wild secret

Jyväskylä

71 years old Pekka Rantanen At the end of November, a smile on his face will take the stage at the Finnish Championships in Jyväskylä. After the judge’s “hang!” Command, Rantanen takes a firm grip on the chin-up bar.

When the judge commands “pull!”, Rantanen pulls 38 jaws without shaking his expression. The result is a new Finnish record in the 70-kilo series for 70-year-old men.

A moment after Rantanen’s race performance, his wife, who is two years younger, takes the stage Maj-Lis Rantanen and pulls 16 jaws. It is the Finnish record for the 60-kilo series of 60-year-old women.

“You ran out of oxygen,” says Maj-Lis Rantanen, smiling after her race.

Although Rantaset set Finnish records in Jyväskylä, they did not break their own records. In the Finnish Championships a couple of years ago, Pekka Rantanen scored 44 jaws and Maj-Lis Rantanen 17 jaws.

When there are jaws in peak fitness races, what part of the body is the one that first wins?

“Yes, it’s between the ears,” says Maj-Lis Rantanen.

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“At the age of sixty, I felt like I was about to do something.”

Few even a young man in top condition can do it for Rantanen’s couple. Even more marvelous is that ten years ago neither of them got a chin pulled.

Rantas does not have any sports background before the jaw pulling.

“In my sixties, it felt like I was probably going to do something,” they say.

The couple from Kaarina dared to go to the gym for the first time only after their son Jani Rantanen took it all the way. At first they were involved in group exercise, but jaw pulling was also tried.

“He started squealing when he didn’t get any. We then started researching different jaw pulling series and developed our own, ”says Pekka Rantanen.

The chin pull took with it. Rantaset started going to the gym six times a week. A jaw pull rod was purchased for the home.

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“There hasn’t been a flu in years.”

Even old still has time to develop muscle condition, reminds strength coach and six-time Finnish chin-pulling champion Tuomas Rytkönen.

“Maximum strength and endurance can be developed even at an older age. Studies show that even 80-year-olds have been able to exercise up to twice the size of their frontal muscles. ”

According to Rytkönen, Rantaste’s results tell that they have very strong and durable muscles in the upper muscle pulling muscle groups.

In jaw pulling, the most important muscles are the broad back muscles, the large muscles of the sphincter, the sphincter, the parallelogram muscles, and the shoulder muscles, and, depending on the grip, either biceps or shoulder muscles.

According to Rytkönen, there are three factors involved in repetition: maximum strength, endurance and economy.

“The maximum force reserve is about the cross-sectional area of ​​the muscles, the ability of the motor nervous system to command the muscles, and how the support and connective tissue is able to transmit the force produced by the muscles to move the joints,” he says.

“Endurance is about the ability of the nervous system to resist fatigue. The economy of the movement is about learning the skill of how the right muscles are relaxed and at work at the right time. ”

Today The wrists train daily. The day begins with a half-hour jog. The gym lasts for more than two hours, and sometimes even more exercises are done at home in the evening. A good night’s sleep is enough to recover.

When Rantasilta is asked how they have managed to get into some good condition at an old age, the answer is “hard training”. And the couple’s workout numbers are staggering.

Maj-Lis Rantanen says he practiced for a few weeks at his hardest, where he pulled 240 jaws every day of the week. Thus, 1,680 jaws were pulled in a week. Pekka Rantanen has remained more moderate: his training day may include about 150 repetitions of jaw pulling.

Rantaset says he had previously started an exercise program that included 6 to 8 chin-pulls a week for six weeks.

“It would have stretched so far that we thought we were already in the grave then. We then did three sets a day. ”

Rantaset have been tenacious in their practice. It took a year of preparation to pull the first successful jaw.

Gradually, the record began to rise, but at twenty, development came to a halt. It started barking again as others got more pulled.

“I started practicing tipping technique. Anaerobic training was also increased, and it started to rise again, ”says Pekka Rantanen.

Jaw pull has given Rantas, who has been married for 50 years, a good condition and a healthy life. Neither has been injured while training.

“The only injuries are in the hands,” says Pekka Rantanen, showing his palms.

“There hasn’t been a flu in years. Now you can do a lot more than you used to. ”