While most adults struggle to keep their bulging bellies under check, 10-year-old Kyleigh Bass, from Kansas City is putting grown men to shame with her rock solid abs – she recently broke the national record by completing a whopping 2,110 consecutive sit-ups in a mere 90 minutes.

Kyleigh had initially set herself a goal of 2,002 ab-crunches – one over the previous Project Fit America record of 2,001. It was no easy feat, and for a moment it even looked as though she was going to throw up, but she somehow worked through the nausea and surpassed her goal, breaking the record by no less than 109 sit-ups.

“I wanted to break this record because I am a very competitive person and I like to be at the top,” said Kyleigh, who was trained by her PE teacher Bill Lentz at Foxhill Elementary. She had worked hard all through the winter, focusing on strengthening her core muscles. But during the challenge on 7 May, she suffered severe stomach pain and nearly threw up. Her parents, who were taking turns to hold her feet the whole time, encouraged her to keep going.

Photo: Kyleigh Bass

Kyleigh later revealed that she was inspired not to give up by her mother, Michelle Leer-Bass, who recently completed her first half-marathon. “Since she just ran her first half, she was hurting at mile 10 but she pushed through it and she finished,” the little girl said. “So that inspired me. It’s a mind thing. If you think about it, you can do it and you’ll make it.”

“My mom was cheering me on. I thought, if she can push through the race, then I can push through this. If she can push through running in the cold, I can do this.”

Michelle said that she was equally proud of her daughter’s achievement, while PE teacher Bill described Kyleigh as his hero  “I like to think I’m an active person, but I’m inspired,” he said. “She’s my hero and hopefully I can work out half as hard as she does.” Previously, Kyleigh had completed 800 sit-ups to earn a place on her school’s leaderboard last November.

via TODAY.com