East grad Jeremy Ware breaks second Guinness World Record

“I started thinking of other things I can do that are tough for most people,” Ware said.

Ware eventually came up with something he once thought was extremely difficult that has since become a regular part of his gym routine — doing squats while balancing on an exercise ball.

Ware submitted applications for both longest backward basketball shot and most squats on an exercise ball in one minute together. He was approved for both, and set the backward basketball shot mark when he heaved the ball through the hoop from 85 feet, 6 inches on Jan. 29 at the AT&T Center in San Antonio.

Ware took some time to enjoy being a world record holder before turning his attention to his next attempt.

He used his lunch break to knock out 37 squats in front of three video cameras and employees from his gym Nov. 10, which shattered the previous Guinness record of 30.

“I did it on my first try, but I was a little bit upset because I had done 40 the day before,” Ware said. “I felt like I left three more out there.

“I thought about trying it again, but I needed to get back to work and didn’t want to hold anyone longer than I needed to. So, I packed my stuff up and went right back to work.”

The squats record was far easier for Ware to arrange and certify than his backward shot mark.

He could have attempted his shot anywhere, but would have had to verify the measurements among other parameters, which is why he was adamant about doing it in an arena. Ware’s squats record just needed three cameras rolling continuously — one of which needed to be zoomed out far enough to ensure Ware wasn’t switching to a smaller ball that’s easier to balance on — and five witnesses.

Ware also had to attempt his record on a 75-centimeter ball that wouldn’t lose more than 20% of its height with a 100-pound dumbbell placed on it. The raw video Ware submitted included a close up of his measurements.

“This record was a lot easier to get verified,” Ware said. “It took maybe 15 minutes. You can pay to have one of their people come out and adjudicate the record, but that’s really expensive because they’re based in London and you have to pay to fly them out.

“It’s more cost-effective to have five witnesses and three rolling cameras the entire time.”

Ware’s path to the squats record started in 2004 when he was fooling around with friends who also were enrolled in the Tri-Athlete Sports Conditioning class at the former United Medical Center Health & Fitness gym on Pershing Boulevard. Back then, Ware was an undersized Carey Junior High seventh-grader trying to get a leg up on his competition.

“We were messing around after a class by trying to do random things when we started talking about doing stability work on an exercise ball,” Ware said. “It started with seeing if you could stand on it and balance. Then it was like, ‘OK, we’ve mastered that, what can we do while balancing on it?’

“I never thought I’d be able to do one squat on it, but my trainer, Tanner Balcaen, pushed me to keep trying it. Eventually, that became pretty easy and we progressed to things like jumping on it and balancing.”

Even though that was the early stage of cell phone cameras, the Motorola Razr that Ware owned at the time didn’t have a camera and he couldn’t convince his classmates of his feats.

“They didn’t believe me, because there was no video of it,” he said with a laugh. “I don’t know if any of those people have seen the video I did for my record, but they didn’t think it was possible back then.”

Ware has his sights set on two more Guinness records, but isn’t ready to publicly say which ones. All he will divulge is that one of the marks he has in mind doesn’t exist.

“I attempted it and it’s really tough, so I don’t know if I’m going to be able to set a record in that,” he said. “I haven’t tried the other one I’m looking at. Right now, I’m trying to enjoy the first two, because they were really challenging and hard to break.

“If I don’t break any more world records, I’m OK with it.”