Holly Reese after doing nearly 1,700 pushups in one hour on Sunday at Finnish Hall in Berkeley. Credit: Hope Muñoz/Berkeleyside
Moments before 64-year-old Holly Reese set out to reclaim the women’s world record for most pushups in an hour on Sunday afternoon, chatter and upbeat pop music enveloped West Berkeley’s Finnish Hall. Old friends smiled, laughed and hugged. As she stepped on stage, the crowd cheered wildly then went silent as she approached the mat.
A health aging coach and athlete who lived in Berkeley in the 1980s and ‘90s, Reese has overcome a hip replacement and a rare autoimmune disorder that attacked her connective tissue and made moving painful.
On Aug. 19, 2023, at age 61, Reese became the first woman awarded a Guinness World Record for pushups in an hour. Guinness told her she’d need at least 1,000 “military-style” pushups — arms reaching a 90-degree bend — to enter their books. She ended up doing 1,036 at DJ’s Martial Arts and Fitness in Oakland. About a month later, she set a new mark of 1,207 at Unity of Walnut Creek.
But the following year, she was bested by 59-year-old Canadian grandmother DonnaJean Wilde, who recorded 1,575 pushups.
And so, on June 14 — nine days after her 64th birthday — Reese set out to reclaim her record.
She wore a shiny lavender robe, the words “Lavender Legend” displayed on the back, lavender tennis shoes and a lavender sweatband. In the back of the room stood four tables with lavender tablecloths and florals.
Reese dons her Lavender Legend robe in her home office in Pinole on June 11. Credit: Hope Muñoz/Berkeleyside
To train, she exercises six days a week, with varying intensity, at her home in Pinole, which doubles as a gym for her clients. She is her own coach. She consumes a lot of oatmeal, shakes and Vietnamese Pho. Her kitchen is filled with supplements, including nitric oxide for blood circulation and glutathione, an antioxidant. She also uses Chinese herbs to rub on her joints for tendon and ligament recovery.
It’s much harder to complete the challenge when you are older, Reese said. Older adults need to build up strength slowly and be more careful not to injure their joints. While she is unsure why no younger individuals have attempted the record, she said being older gives her an advantage of “mental fortitude.”
Reese’s clients, Susie and Walter Kowalewski, at Finnish Hall. “It’s nice to work with somebody who has an interest in the physical health of senior citizens,” Walter says. “That’s a big deal for us.” Credit: Hope Muñoz/Berkeleyside
At the Finnish Hall Reese began with sets of 13 pushups, then transitioned to sets of 14. Her face was blank and inexpressive. Her closest friends and volunteers surrounded her, some counting her reps.
“It’s a little stressful because we can’t screw it up,” said Ali Stoddard, Reese’s friend and judge.
Log books must be completed by an independent and specialist witness with expertise in physical fitness, and at least two camera angles must be recorded, according to Guinness’ guidelines. Palms must touch the floor, and a live count of the pushups must be displayed visibly to all attendees.
Reese mid-attempt. “If you touch her muscles, you’ll go, ‘Whoa,’” her friend Ali Stoddard says. Credit: Hope Muñoz/Berkeleyside
It could take months for Guinness to review the footage and count her pushups before verifying the record and awarding an official certificate. Reese is considering paying to expedite the process.
Between sets on Sunday, Reese fell back on her knees, stretched her muscles, put her arms up and out, and bent them inward. Occasionally, she pulled a tissue from her pocket and wiped her nose.
“Leaping out there again and again and again when you’re getting more and more exhausted, that’s the really hard part,” Reese said.
From mowing lawns to tae kwon do
Reese, born in Pennsylvania, is a lifelong athlete. Around age 10, she remembers watching the TV show “Kung Fu,” starring David Carradine, and wanting to be just like him. So, she asked her parents if she could do martial arts.
Reese’s parents thought martial arts classes were too dangerous, but they told her she could do it if she raised enough money to pay for a year’s worth of tuition.
“I started a lawn mowing business,” Reese said. “When I was 12, I had enough for a year, and I slapped the money down on the counter.”
She has two black belts, one in tae kwon do and the other in choy lay fut kung fu, and said she knows an array of martial arts styles. In college, she played rugby for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s club and later for the Berkeley All Blues.
Reese outside her Pinole home. Credit: Hope Muñoz/Berkeleyside
After graduating from M.I.T with a degree in electrical engineering, Reese moved to the Bay Area and got a job in computer programming. Around 1987, Reese bought a house in Berkeley and lived there for around seven years, she said.
She found electrical engineering mentally stimulating but not fulfilling. “In my heart I wanted to [do] something that would directly help people,” Reese said.
Reese’s martial arts background introduced her to Asian medicine. In the ’90s, she built upon her interest and got a master’s degree in acupuncture and oriental medicine at Meiji College, based in San Francisco. Now, the school is called the Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine College and is based in Berkeley.
She started her own acupuncture business, but then, after 9/11, felt called to action and decided to join the police academy.
“It was kind of misguided, because it’s not who I am,” Reese said. “I want to help more on the health side, not the law-and-order side.”
Her autoimmune disorder made movement painful
During her training to become a police officer in 2002, Reese rolled and injured her shoulder.
While she was out for her injury, a deeper issue revealed itself. Almost overnight, she said, her face went numb and her muscles were on fire. Soon, she could hardly walk or open her eyes and was unable to digest solid food.
Reese had a disorder called mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD), in which the immune system attacks connective tissue fibers that provide support for the body.
“She couldn’t even move her eyes without pain,” Stoddard said. “Like every cell in her body was on fire.”
Reese’s friend of 40 years Ali Stoddard, who helped count her pushups, sits for a photo before the start of the challenge. Credit: Hope Muñoz/Berkeleyside
It took a decade for Reese to recover from MCTD. For years, she was on disability pay, unable to work.
“I was just a stick figure,” Reese said. “I really didn’t have much longer to go if I didn’t find a way to turn it around.”
While she went to doctors, she said she leaned on her background in Asian medicine to restore her health. She said she was meditating, juicing for nutrients, doing affirmations, using herbs and directing her energy.
Reese shows off supplements in her kitchen. Credit: Hope Muñoz/Berkeleyside
“I learned how to help yourself through any kind of pain imaginable,” Reese said. “And empathy. Empathy and compassion.”
After her illness, Reese related to people experiencing age-related decline, she said. She went on to get certified in personal training with a specialization in corrective exercise and senior fitness.
In 2015, Reese founded Healthy Aging Transformations, a personal coaching business for adults over 50, that offers nutrition advice, fitness planning, coaching sessions and more. The goal is to help people build strength, prevent falls and maintain a high quality of life.
In 2022, Reese needed a hip replacement, an injury she attributes to years of tae kwon do, which uses swinging motions. Her hip had torn cartilage, bone spurs and arthritis, she said.
After the replacement, Reese said she didn’t feel like herself and needed a pick-me-up.
She remembered her childhood dream of breaking a Guinness World Record. She soon discovered there was no female record for most pushups in an hour, only a male record and a female record for knuckle pushups.
The ‘surreal’ moment at Finnish Hall
Reese takes a celebratory selfie with the audience after completing her pushups. Credit: Hope Muñoz/Berkeleyside
Around the 30-minute mark on Sunday, Reese had completed 834 pushups. Around 43 minutes in, she broke her previous record of 1,207 pushups. At 56 minutes, Reese passed 1,575 — Wilde’s record. Her friends onstage smiled, but Reese remained impassive, in the zone.
When the clock hit one hour, the room roared. Yells, whistles and applause. The peppy pop music returned. After collapsing to the ground, Reese got up to do a victory pose.
She ended with 1,682 pushups in 60 minutes — 107 more than Wilde’s record, and 475 more than her previous personal best. (Guinness still needs to confirm her total if she’s to again be crowned a pushup champion.)
“It feels really surreal,” Reese said. “I’ve been training for this for so long…I trained really hard, and I’m so happy.”
Reese took a selfie with the audience, then people lined up to congratulate her. She smiled widely, sipping a blueberry lemon spritzer.
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