'Ant and Dec of Edinburgh fitness' to host world record breaking event in Leith this weekend

An Edinburgh gym which houses the Capital’s only Ninja Warrior facility, inspired by the competitive TV obstacle course show, is celebrating their two year anniversary with a world record breaking event this weekend, hosted by the self-proclaimed ‘Ant and Dec of Edinburgh fitness.’

Primal Gym in Leith will open its doors this weekend to welcome out of the ordinary record breakers, fun runners, power lifters, prolific YouTubers, and anyone who wants to come along to watch as they hope to inject the ‘fun’ into ‘fundamental fitness.’

Jason Auld, an extreme unicycler and Dan Scott, owner of Clan Fit who are both trainers at Primal Gym will host the event on Sunday 24 November welcoming ambitious record breakers of all abilities.

The duo are attempting to put a fun spin back into fitness

Jason said: “You only have to look through the Guinness Book of Records to see that people can have records for anything.

“This can be an opportunity for people who are maybe not elite level athletes, but can get a record for crazy little things, out of the box things, and it’s a bit of an achievement.

“I think that’s what we want to get from Primal Gym, it’s getting people through the door who are maybe a little bit sick and tired of your high street gym which are very isolated.”

The gym has a Ninja Warrior physical obstacle assault course set up, complete with a ‘warped wall’, which challenges people to run up an almost vertical wall, and ‘devil steps’ which is a set of ascending and descending staircases which are climbed up and down like monkey bars.

They themselves will be attempting records on the day

The gym also has ropes and a springy floor as well as the classic gym gear and to add an element to fitness reminiscent of fun PE lessons from primary school.

'We are trying to provide a community'

Jason added: “At a high street gym you put your headphones in, no one wants to be there. Everybody’s absolutely miserable.

“We really are trying to provide a community. We get people in here who love to come in and try new things.

“They get to push themselves a little bit harder, but also they see the same people and they get to work with those people and become friends.”

Jason himself will be attempting to break the record for the highest platform drop on a unicycle which currently stands at 8.9 feet, while the duo will also attempt the most leap frogs completed by a team of two in 30 seconds.

Dan said: “Everyone can attend to try out something, we have a girl who can hula hoop and she’s going to attempt the fastest 100 metre hula hooping sprint.

“There’s so many skills that can be learned to show, it’s going to be totally different and will bring in a different range of people looking to get fit.”

Event takes place this weekend

Also in attendance will be Andy Smith, director of Edinburgh’s Lift Gym as well as Mike Boyd, a YouTuber from Dundee who challenges himself to learn new skills quickly, many of which are fitness based.

The event will take place at Primal Gym which is located on West Bowling Green Street on Sunday between 12pm and 3pm.