There are some fun Guinness World Records out there that seem ripe for a challenge. Like: most marshmallows eaten in one minute (25), or fastest time to assemble Mr. Potato Head while blindfolded (16 seconds). And then are some absolutely daunting records, which no one in their right mind would deign to topple. That category most definitely includes the current record for most burpees done in a 12-hour span: 5,670.
Only a British fitness trainer named Matt Sallis currently has his eyes on that number. And he’s developed an extensive regimen to not only eclipse it later this year, but destroy it. Sallis is aiming for 7,500 reps, in an effort to make sure the record is never broken again.
To be clear, Sallis isn’t the average PT you’d find at your corner Crunch Fitness. He’s a former champion of Channel 4’s SAS: Who Dares Wins, a reality show where competitors have to brave a two-week course based on the notorious United Kingdom Special Forces training. He’s also a fixture at CrossFit competitions, Tough Mudders and strongman contests throughout the UK.
In order to take burpees where they’ve never gone before, though, he essentially has to be in the best shape (physically and mentally) of his life. As Sallis told Men’s Health UK, that means training himself to perform burpees for up to four hours at a time: “I’ve got a clock up, and I’m doing a set number of reps per minute.”
Sallis’s workout routine aside from banging out burpees includes a variety of strength and high-intensity training. On the weights, he’s doing barbell push presses, Pendlay rows, front rack lunges, dumbbell chest presses, incline bench pulls and one-leg dumbell deadlifts. For conditioning, he’s doing “calorie sprints” on the Air Bike … then heading to the floor for more burpees.
Calories, in fact, seem to be the only thing stressing Sallis out as he heads into his world-record attempt. He expects to burn up to an astonishing 10,000 calories by the end of 12 hours. To avoid bonking, he plans to refuel for the final six minutes of every half hour along the way. Assuming he can keep up his energy, the one other worry would be potential tissue tear — the most burpees Sallis has ever done in a session, after all, is “just” 2,250.
Stay tuned for results from Sallis on November 14. The entire event is for a great cause, too; Sallis is raising money for British Heart Foundation, in the hopes of donating a life-saving defibrillator to every county in England.
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