By Desiree Salas (media@latinospost.com) | First Posted: Sep 07, 2015 07:19 AM EDT

A Shaolin monk from Quanzhou managed to break his own record by running 125 meters across a river. His previous attempt, done just last year, was 118 meters.

Shi Liliang had been training himself to run on water for ten years, using just thin, wooden boards as support.

"Demonstrating the famed skills of Shaolin monks, Mr Shi broke his previous record of 118 meters across a reservoir in October 2014. To achieve the feat over 200 wooden planks were used, requiring Shi to move very quickly, tread lightly and keep perfect balance," The Independent reported.

"You need to be fast, but you should only take small steps," he was quoted by the publication as saying after accomplishing the feat last year.

"While he has received quite a bit of attention for the stunt, Shi is still a monk - so he's using the media attention to focus on raising tuition money for underprivileged students," Mashable noted.

His first attempt this year only got him as far as 50 meters. However, on his second, he managed to reach 125 meters before finally falling into the water.

"Wearing only a pair of black shorts and with his arms outstretched for balance, Shi Liliang sprinted across a wide river in front of a large, cheering crowd who were willing him to succeed," MailOnline observed.

The light-footed monk is from the Quanzhou Shaolin Temple, also known as the Southern Shaolin Monastery, which is the "birthplace of kung fu, which steadily had spread throughout east and south Asia since the Middle Ages before being embraced by Americans and Europeans in the 20th century."

"Built around a strict daily routine of exercise, contemplation and lessons on Buddhism, Shaolin monks often challenge themselves to complete incredibly difficult tasks requiring months of highly repetitive training," the British publication said. "The monks believe the human strength is purely a matter of the mind and that there are no limits to what can be done with a human body once it is trained to do something automatically."

Perhaps the use of plywoods in the attempt may be disappointing for those expecting a near-miraculous feat of sprinting across a body of water without any support at all. However, humans are unable to run across water due to their body size and weight. It is necessary to run about 30 meters per second to do just that. The fastest man on earth, Usain Bolt, can go only do 10.4 meters per second at his fastest, Popular Mechanics said.

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