A superfit weight-lifting mum-to-be was still pushing iron on the day she went into labour. Meghan Umphres Leatherman, 33, from Phoenix, Arizona, even broke records in the final days of her pregnancy.
She continued her gruelling CrossFit fitness regime, which combines weightlifting, gymnastics and cardio activities, while she was expecting.
And three days before her due date, she set new a new personal record, lifting 215lb deadlifts.
Mrs Leatherman insists that she and her baby are both healthier for the exercise which she reckons made her pregnancy easier.
Now she is settling in to life as a mum after giving birth to 6lb 11oz daughter, Florence Germaine.
She added: “I’ve talked to my doctor and she says I can go back to the gym within three weeks.
“I would never give up CrossFit – being fit helped me to conceive in the first place and it kept me healthy throughout my pregnancy.”
Mrs Leatherman first started lifting weights two years ago and was instantly hooked. She trains at a gymn in Phoenix with husband, Chad, 34.
Student calls off online virginity auction
A US medical school student who was auctioning off her virginity to pay her college fees has called off the stunt.
Hanna Kern, 28, a student at the University of Washington, initially put her virginity up for sale under the name Elizabeth Raine but later revealed her true identity.
She said she had learned from the experience of being the subject of the latest online virginity auction to end in fiasco.
“Having given it a sincere try, I now completely understand why they never do work out,” she told the Huffington Post.
“It is this very messy mix of auction and publicity that is near impossible to balance.”
Miss Kern, who had hoped to net at least $400,000 from the auction, says she ended up with a final bid of $801,000, but decided not to go through with the deal.
In her blog, Musings Of A Virgin Whore, she explained: “I have decided to put a stop to this kerfuffle (to describe it nicely) and return my focus to my medical training.”
However, the Daily Mail quoted a source close to the auction as saying that she hardly received any genuine offers for her virginity.
The source told the paper that the person offering the $801,000 bid refused to go through any vetting process.
“This auction didn’t work, plain and simple,” the source said. “Hanna had to face the fact that maybe her virginity wasn’t worth as much as she thought it was.”
Diving pigs fad takes hold in China
A farmer’s crazy idea to give his pigs something to do to alleviate boredom by teaching them to dive has now become one of the latest fads in China.
Pig farmer Huang Demin, 32, of Ningxiang county, Hunan province, discovered that giving the pigs a fun reason to exercise made them happier – and tastier.
And now his idea for improving the lives of his pigs has been turned into visitor attractions at several places around China, such as this recreational park in Donglu near Wenchang City.
The larger pigs dive from heights of up to five metres, while the smaller animals jump from a one or three metre board. And visitors cannot seem to get enough of the daily spectacle on the purpose-built pig diving boards.
Hui Lin, 38, said: “It’s just too funny for words, I never heard of such a thing as pig diving, so we decide we had to come to have a look for ourselves.”
Although few of the pigs seem to enjoy diving at the start, the trainers say that after a few attempts they soon get used to it and eventually can’t get enough of the sport.
As for the pig Farmer Huang, he says that he can sell the meat from his diving happy pigs for three times the price of a normal pig.
Naked table tennis comes to London
A London table tennis venue has hosted what it believes to be Britain’s first ever naked ping-pong tournament.
Bounce, which is built on the site where the game was invented in 1901, staged the event in its ‘anything goes’ private room.
The £2.5m venue, which bills itself as the home of social ping-pong, invited a group of seven friends, who are all models, to take part in the event.
One player, Stefan Johnson, said: “We try to do something a bit different every time we get together but this probably tops our list.
“There were four guys and three girls and I think I speak for the men in particular when I say I’m just glad it was warm in there.”
Bounce founder and CEO Adam Breeden said: “We are inundated with, shall we say ‘unique requests’ for our private room on a weekly basis.
“When the naked ping-pong tournament was suggested there was no question that we had to make it happen.”
Post published in: World News