Gunning for autism

Weightlifters put their muscles on the line all the time, but Nick Delgado doesn’t see his attempt next week to set a world lifting record as just about his own body. For 52-year-old Delgado, it’s a vindication of his whole line of work — as president of Ultimate Medical Research, he offers consultations and supplements that promise to turn the clock on aging bodies just as he says he’s done for himself. But the event gets personal as well; his every lift will raise money for research for autism, which affects one of his four sons.

On Tuesday at No Limits Gym in Irvine, Delgado will lift a pair of dumbbells with a hammer curl, then press them over his head — more than 1,000 times in a row.

As he tries for the most cumulative weight lifted in a single hour, spectators will have a chance to sponsor his lifting to raise money for autism research. With luck, they might watch him end up in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Delgado credits his own research with giving him his strength and endurance.

The complex protocol he follows covers everything from diet — he advocates drinking 60-ounce raw vegetable shakes every day — to hormone and nitrogen supplements, to breathing air in varying atmospheric pressures, to taking injections of adult stem cells. All, he says, help the body reach its full potential in some way.

“It’s not that I was gifted or had some genetic ability,” he said. “I wanted to take my 52-year-old body and function competitively against guys 24 to 28 years old. I’m not somehow inhuman or unbeatable; it’s a series of supplements and dietary factor.”

Some of his least conventional techniques didn’t start as exercise research, Delgado said. They came to mind as he was looking into treatments for his son’s autism.

Delgado said he started experimenting with hyperbaric oxygen chambers after reading some reports that claimed they helped fight autism. Similarly, he was reading up on stem cells as a possible treatment for cerebral palsy and came across hints they might help with autism as well. But learning more, he started to believe they might be a real boost for his aging joints.

“It was not done just as an experiment,” he said. “But I must say I always like to do a treatment before I’d subject my son to it.”

In Delgado’s eyes, the proof is out there for some therapies that mainstream medicine won’t yet touch, and he trusts his research and the team of doctors with whom he works.

“This works,” he said. “We could wait five years for all the research to come in, on all the rats in all the studies. Or we can use our own bone marrow. We can extract over 2 billion stem cells from one single needle at the shin bone.”

There is not yet a Guinness record for that particular lift, something Delgado and his team are hoping to change.

But the most weight lifted in an hour by bench press is 305,300 pounds, set by the Irish lifter Eamonn Keane in 2003, according to the Guinness World Records; because this lift covers many more inches, records are expected to be more in the 40,000 pound range.

While Guinness judges will likely not announce a decision on whether to accept a record for months, Delgado says he is excited to push the limits of what a human being can do.

“I’m going to let up to 10 guys compete against me to pace me while I go for the world record,” he said. “They will probably push me to my all-time best.”

The anti-aging and fitness researcher, lecturer and endurance weightlifter consults with clients in Newport Beach as well as Huntington Beach.

Delgado sells books and supplements, suggests treatments and coaches clients on the diet and activities that he says keep the ravages of age at bay.

Gearing up for the attempt, Delgado trains every other day, lifting so intensely that he says his heart reaches aerobic rates.

Sometimes, instead of working out in the gym, he will strap on a water tank, set up cooling fans, stand on a portable trampoline for shock absorption and train with weights at Inspiration Point in Corona Del Mar or next to the Huntington Beach Pier.

“During an hour of lifting you generate so much heat, so much water,” he said of his unorthodox style. “I’m showing up with my own little package to deal with that. It’s kind of fun to watch.”

Still, even Delgado doesn’t know the effect a world record attempt will have on his performance.

“We don’t know what my all-time best is,” he said. “That’s the nature of records.”

Delgado will make his attempt from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at No Limits Gym, 1962 Barranca Parkway, Irvine. Those who wish to sponsor his lift for autism research should go to www.ultimatemedresearch.com.

NICK DELGADO’S TOP FIVE ANTI-AGING TIPS

1. Take the wellness survey at www.ultimatemedresearch.com to see if you have any imbalances. Then ask your doctor about them.

2. Drink a blended shake with 10 to 20 servings of raw fruits and vegetables instead of breakfast each morning.

3. Exercise, preferably with dumbbells. Don’t just do presses, but rows and squats as well. Use a heart monitor to stay at a target heart rate.

4. Take supplements that boost your nitrogen supply.

5. Consider stem-cell therapies to rejuvenate yourself, specifically those using your own adult stem cells that can be done in the U.S.

MICHAEL ALEXANDER may be reached at (714) 966-4618 or at michael.alexander@latimes.com.