Bob O’Brien and his team reclaimed the world record for the 10-man, 4-hour pushup relay at Iron Jungle on Saturday. The team tallied 22,784, shattering the previous record by more than 5,000.
O’Brien and a previous team initially claimed the record in 2012 with 17,000 pushups. Then, in 2020, a military group from Great Britain snatched the record with 19,130.
Collin Carrico, Mazden Ng, Dale Stevens, Blake Roberts, Steven Stevenson, Zach Kirkman, Kaw Wah, Zachary Clark, and Reece Carroll all joined O’Brien, while Anthony Tate served as an alternate.
“The guys have just been really working hard,” O’Brien said. “We’ve been just getting together every Sunday, making sure we do a group workout together, making sure we get our timing together, making sure we’re all on the same page.”
The team set a goal of 20,000 but aspired to 22,000. They developed a strategy to maximize efficiency and give each person plenty of rest. The guidelines stipulated that only one person could do the pushups at a time.
O’Brien set it up like a relay, with each athlete trying to average 21 pushups every 15 seconds.
A few spectators witnessed the event, which wasn’t truly open to the public, but several video cameras were set up for both publicity and documentation. When it wasn’t his turn, he continually checked on his team and the cameras to ensure everything was running according to plan.
O’Brien is already plotting his next world record. Read a preview of the event here.
