Global Courant 2023-04-15 16:40:30
An accountant in Australia has shown that a father need not come up with the required “dad bod” as he broke the world record for the most number of push-ups in an hour.
Mr Lucas Helmke – a 33-year-old man from Brisbane – did 3,206 push-ups in an hour to break the previous record of 3,182 set by another Australian, Mr Daniel Scali, in April 2022.
He did about 53 pushups per minute, or almost one per second, and did it 60 times in a row. By comparison, men his age will need to put in 56 reps for one minute to get the maximum 25 points for this particular station in the Individual Physical Proficiency Test for Singaporean NSmen.
Mr. Helmke said he did it for his one-year-old son. He said he wanted to “provide inspiration” and show the boy “nothing is impossible”.
In November, he endured the push-ups at Brisbane’s Iron Underground gym.
Each push-up had to be flawless to meet the standards required for an official world record.
Mr. Helmke had to keep his body straight on the way up, without bending his knees and waist, while reaching an angle of at least 90 degrees at the elbow as he lowered.
He was docked 34 pushups due to improper form.
When he posted his Guinness World Records certificate to his Facebook in March, he wrote, “This one finally came through.”
Mr. Helmke said it took him two to three years to build up the physical strength to accomplish this extraordinary feat.
He said he split the pushups into 30-second sets, aiming for at least 26 reps in each set. He averaged 26.7 per 30 seconds.
It is not clear how long his record will stand. Local media in Florida reported that American Rob Stirling, 60, did 3,264 pushups at the end of March, but that claim had yet to be acknowledged by Guinness.
Mr Helmke said he has already set his sights on other plates.
“This will be the first record I want to set out of a number of other push-up records,” he said. “Then to other physical records.”
The record for most push-ups in an hour has been broken many times over the past decade.
Before Mr Helmke and Mr Scali, the record was held by Mr Jarrad Young, also an Australian, who broke it three times with his last in 2021 with 3,054 push-ups.
Before him, in 2017, the record was held by Mr. Carlton Williams, a Briton, who did 2,682 push-ups in an hour.
