How long would it take for you to do 3,000 push-ups? For one Australian man, the answer was less than 60 minutes.
Lucas Helmke, 33, broke the world record for push-ups in one hour with a staggering total of 3,206. The feat was achieved in November 2022 and made official by Guinness World Records earlier this month.
The previous record of 3,182 was set by fellow Aussie Daniel Scali last April. Helmke, who works as an accountant, topped that mark by 24 at a powerlifting gym in the town of Brisbane, Australia, where he lives.
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Helmke broke down the task into 30-second sets with hopes of tallying 26 push-ups per set, and he actually slightly outperformed that pace with an average of 26.7 each half-minute. Thirty-four push-ups were discounted due to improper form.
After training for two to three years, Helmke told Guinness World Records that he chased the record to "provide inspiration" for his 1-year-old son and "show him nothing is impossible."
There is a chance, however, Helmke could be dethroned in the near future. The Tampa Bay Times reported in March that 60-year-old Tampa man Rob Stirling did 3,264 push-ups in an hour. But Stirling's attempt hasn't yet been made official by Guinness World Records.
Regardless, Helmke has his sights set on more records.
“This will be the first record I wish to set of a number of other push-up records,” he said. "Then onto other physical records.”
