Featured Image Credit: Guinness World Records
Topics: Guinness World Record, Australia
Ali Condon
An Aussie dad has just broken the world record for the most push ups in one hour, and all in the hopes of inspiring his one-year-old son.
Lucas Helmke, 33, did an exhausting 3,206 push ups in just one hour - averaging at about 53 push ups per minute, or just under one per second.
That's no easy feat, especially when every single push up has to be perfect to meet the standards of Guinness World Records.
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That means no bending the knees or hinging at the waist, hitting at least a 90 degree angle at the elbow when lowered, and keeping arms completely straight when raised.
Just 34 of Lucas's push ups were discounted due to incorrect form.
That's just one percent of his total push up count, which is seriously impressive when you consider just how fast he had to go to beat that record.
After training to break the record for the last two to three years, the new dad took on the challenge at his local gym Iron Underground in Brisbane.
Lucas's strategy was to break down the push ups into 30-second sets. In each set, he attempted to fit in 26 push ups.
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But, according to Guinness World Records, he actually beat that target, averaging at about 26.7 push ups every 30 seconds.
His record beats the previous record of 3,182, which was set by Daniel Scali, another Australian man, back in April 2022.
Lucas hitting over 3,200 push ups marks the fourth time a new record has been set in the last three years.
After beating a Guinness World Record - especially such a physically demanding one - you'd think you'd be ready to call it a day, but Lucas is no where near finished.
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In fact, he plans to break one record every year from now on.
"This will be the first record I wish to set of a number of other push up records," the dad, who's an accountant by trade, told Guinness World Records.
"Then onto other physical records."
After welcoming his first child, Lucas explained that he wanted to set this challenge for himself to 'provide inspiration' to his one-year-old son and show him that 'nothing is impossible'.