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If you’re looking to get (or stay) in shape, there are plenty of different options you can turn to while trying to achieve your desired physique.
Hitting the gym is obviously one of the easier (and more popular) approaches out there, but you don’t need to shell out for a membership—or even use any equipment—in order to put on some muscle.
It’s pretty easy to make some solid strides on that particular front using nothing but your own body weight, and there are a few classic exercises you can take advantage of if you’re willing to deal with potential flashbacks to middle school gym class. ‘
That includes push-ups, which are a great way to target your chest and triceps.
If you’ve neglected those muscle groups for an extended period of time, you’re probably going to be in for a very rude awakening when you attempt to get back on that particular horse.
As a result, most fitness experts would suggest easing into a routine like the “100 Push-Up Challenge,” which allows you to start with a somewhat modest goal while building up your strength and getting increasingly ambitious.
I’d argue “ambitious” is quite the understatement when it comes to describing what Lucas Helmke set out to do when he decided he was going to try to break the world record for the most push-ups done over the course of an hour.
That mark had sat at 2,919 for around 30 years before multiple people one-upped each other until Australia’s Daniel Scali set the bar at 3,182 in April of 2022.
However, there’s now a new number to beat courtesy of his fellow Aussie, as the Guinness Book of World Records confirmed Helmke banged out a grand total of 3,206 push-ups in an hour (the equivalent of 53 every minute) at a gym in Queensland in November of 2022.
My pecs hurt just thinking about what he did.