A FITNESS studio owner is celebrating success after beating the the men's world record on the battle ropes, whipping a 44ft, 10kg rope from hip to shoulder height for exactly one hour.

Rhian Cowburn – who is originally from Bishop Middleham – conquered the difficult feat after taking to training on the battle ropes to cope with the stress of her fitness studio being closed during the coronavirus lockdown.

The men's record stands at 59mins and 28 seconds and is held by Ambrish Parmar.

After doing unbroken sets that were creeping up in time she became intrigued by what the world record is on the ropes.

The business owner applied to the Guinness World Records to find out what the longest officially recorded time was.

She discovered that there was no women's record, so to set that she needed to do a minimum of 22 minutes, and that the men's record stood at just under one hour.

She said: "It was clear to me early on that setting the women's record was going to be relatively easy. A 22 minute unbroken set on the battle ropes had become the norm for me, I did it in nearly every training session. So for me the goal was always to break the men's record".

Despite having separate men's and women's record, Guinness World Records stipulated that exactly the same length and width rope must be used by both men and women.

At first this came as a shock, Ms Cowburn said: "It's an annoying fact that men typically start from a place of having 40 to 50 per cent more upper body strength than women, and of course there's normally a height difference too, so initially I thought it would be fairer if the rules stipulated a slightly shorter rope could be used for women."

However this was not the case, so she stepped up to the challenge.

She said: "I've proven that when it comes to battle ropes men aren't stronger, they just have a head start – with enough determination that can be overcome"

The fitness enthusiast is now encouraging others to give the ropes a go.

She co-owns a fitness study with her identical twin sister called Strong + Bendy in Hackney Wick, London and runs battle ropes classes three times per week.

For more information click here of find the team @strong_bendy on Instagram.

Alternatively, search strongandbendy.co.uk