Today, millions of eyes are trained on the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Over the next few weeks, the summer games will wow crowds with an appreciation of profound physical feats, grit and competition. They will also shine a public relations light on China and political policies for which they are widely criticized.

But half a world a way, in the suburbs of Nairobi, Kenya there’s another little story to be told, a little story about Willis and Kenneth Yoga that illustrates how you don’t have to be an Olympic trained athlete to drive beyond your personal best.

We first heard of these brothers from Bruce Northam, veteran travel writer and explorer extraordinaire. Their claim to fame? They each hold world records in soccer ball juggling. Yes, that skill of keeping a soccer ball off the ground by continuously bouncing it up off of various body parts (excluding your hands).

Willis holds the world record for bouncing the ball with his head only. How many times in a row do you think he did this to claim the title? 500? 5000? Nope. Willis bounced the same ball on his head 55,000 times in a row. And it took him 7.5 hours to do it. That’s 7,333 bounces an hour. One-hundred-twenty-two bounces a minute. Or approximately two bounces a second. And you think your endurance training is tough?

Kenneth holds the record for juggling a ball with one leg while seated – 35,000 bounces in 5 hours. While this might seem like a strange skill to cultivate, it actually made a lot of sense for Kenneth who, at 10 years old, was bitten by a puff adder – one of the most toxic snakes around. Damage from the bite left his leg covered in untreatable open wounds for 18 years until a doctor figured out a way to save his leg.

Now, the point of this story is not really to sing the praises of overcoming adversity. Or that hard work can get you a world record or to the Olympics. It’s more to remind you that you, too can have fun challenging yourself.

So if you’re caught up in the Olympic Spirit, why not hop off the couch for a quick run, a walk around the block, or to see how many pushups you can do? You’ll probably find that even the littlest goals – like trying to bounce a ball just one more time, are worth pursuing.

Technorati Tags: Olympics, Olympic spirit, Kenya, Beijing, world records, goals, personal best, Bruce Northam, travel writer, explorers, soccer, soccer balls, soccer juggling, GlamFit

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