“If I can sum up my experience in a few words: 12 hours of pain!!”
This was a direct quote pulled from Samuel Finn’s Instagram post highlighting that he had broken the Guinness world record for the highest number of burpees in 12 hours.
Two days ago, Montreal-based entrepreneur and model Samuel Finn took on the grueling challenge of performing as many burpees as possible in the span of 12 hours. Finn had two goals heading into the 12 hours of burpees:
- Top the current Guinness World Record of 5,010 burpees that was set in late October by Michigan-based martial artist Mike Berean, and
- Raise money for the CEDAR Foundation, a Canadian based organization dedicated to helping students pursue quality educations.
After a long, pain-filled 12 hours, Finn was able to accomplish both of these goals with flying colors. He not only beat the Guinness World Record with a miraculous 5,234 burpees, but he also raised $54,515 in donations.
In his Instagram post’s description he writes, “After only 5 hours, I couldn’t feel my feet and hands since all my blood was redirected to my organs and muscles. At some point, I was thinking I might lose my toes (…) and I still had 7 hours of burpees left! On the other hand, I made a promise: I wasn’t going to stop, no matter how much my body would ask me to.”
In the lead up to his crazy performance, Finn shared that he had been prepping for this feat for quite some time, and notes that he had performed roughly 48,500 burpees in training.
The Burpee World Record Through 2019
At BarBend, we love numbers and we wanted to look at some of the stats from the progression of the 12-hour burpee Guinness World Record through 2019.
Back in June, Bryan Abell set the Guinness Burpee World Record with a very strong performance of 4,689 burpees. His hourly average came out to about 390 reps.
Bryan Abell from Michigan breaks the Guinness World Record for the most burpees in one day with 4,689 burpees in 12 hours pic.twitter.com/U88o50l0hc
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 11, 2019
Then in late October, Berean completed 5,010 burpees. His 12-hour average came out to around 417 burpees an hour.
For Finn, at the 10-hour mark he shared on his Instagram that he had completed around 4,400 burpees, which means in the last two hours he matched Berean’s 417 burpee pace to top his current world record. Finn’s pace throughout the 12-hour span comes out to about 436 burpees an hour.
Hats off to Finn on his new Guinness World Record and the money that he raised for the CEDAR Foundation!
Burpee FAQs
What's the current burpee world record?
The current Guinness World Record for the most burpees in 12-hours is 5,234 and is held by Canadian entrepreneur and model Samuel Finn.
The previous record was held by Mike Berean when he completed 5,010 burpees in late October 2019.
Who created the burpee?
Mr. Royal H. Burpee created the burpee in 1939 while a student at Columbia Teacher’s College, as part of his PhD thesis in Applied Physiology. Burpee’s burpee, though, hardly resembles the burpee and burpee variations we see in the average CrossFit class.
Burpee’s original movement standards, though, were what we now consider a “scaled” version of the burpee. Burpee’s invention included the same squat to prone position, but did not require a push up or a jump to target. Instead, you hopped into the prone position, hopped right back to the squat, stood straight up, and repeated the process.
Feature image from @sam_finn_ Instagram page.
