{"id":872893,"date":"2026-06-17T06:10:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T06:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/872893\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T06:10:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T06:10:20","slug":"1682-pushups-1-hour-has-she-set-new-guinness-world-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/872893\/","title":{"rendered":"1,682 pushups, 1 hour: Has she set new Guinness World Record?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Holly Reese after doing nearly 1,700 pushups in one hour on Sunday at Finnish Hall in Berkeley. Credit: Hope Mu\u00f1oz\/Berkeleyside<\/p>\n

Moments before 64-year-old Holly Reese set out to reclaim the women\u2019s world record for most pushups in an hour on Sunday afternoon, chatter and upbeat pop music enveloped West Berkeley\u2019s Finnish Hall.\u00a0 Old friends smiled, laughed and hugged. As she stepped on stage, the crowd cheered wildly then went silent as she approached the mat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A health aging coach and athlete who lived in Berkeley in the 1980s and \u201890s, Reese has overcome a hip replacement and a rare autoimmune disorder that attacked her connective tissue and made moving painful.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u2019d need at least 1,000 \u201cmilitary-style\u201d pushups \u2014 arms reaching a 90-degree bend \u2014 to enter their books. She ended up doing 1,036 <\/a>at DJ\u2019s Martial Arts and Fitness in Oakland. About a month later, she set a new mark<\/a> of 1,207 at Unity of Walnut Creek.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the following year, she was bested<\/a> by 59-year-old Canadian grandmother DonnaJean Wilde, who recorded 1,575 pushups.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And so, on June 14 \u2014 nine days after her 64th birthday \u2014 Reese set out to reclaim her record.<\/p>\n

She wore a shiny lavender robe, the words \u201cLavender Legend\u201d displayed on the back, lavender tennis shoes and a lavender sweatband.\u00a0 In the back of the room stood four tables with lavender tablecloths and florals.<\/p>\n

\"\"Reese dons her Lavender Legend robe in her home office in Pinole on June 11. Credit: Hope Mu\u00f1oz\/Berkeleyside<\/p>\n

To train, she exercises six days a week, with varying intensity, at\u00a0 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s 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 \u201cmental fortitude.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Reese\u2019s clients, Susie and Walter Kowalewski, at Finnish Hall. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to work with somebody who has an interest in the physical health of senior citizens,\u201d Walter says. \u201cThat\u2019s a big deal for us.\u201d Credit: Hope Mu\u00f1oz\/Berkeleyside<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little stressful because we can\u2019t screw it up,\u201d said Ali Stoddard, Reese\u2019s friend and judge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u2019 guidelines<\/a>. Palms must touch the floor, and a live count of the pushups must be displayed visibly to all attendees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Reese mid-attempt. \u201cIf you touch her muscles, you\u2019ll go, \u2018Whoa,\u2019\u201d her friend Ali Stoddard says. Credit: Hope Mu\u00f1oz\/Berkeleyside<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLeaping out there again and again and again when you\u2019re getting more and more exhausted, that\u2019s the really hard part,\u201d Reese said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

From mowing lawns to tae kwon do<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reese, born in Pennsylvania, is a lifelong athlete. Around age 10, she remembers watching the TV show \u201cKung Fu,\u201d starring David Carradine, and wanting to be just like him. So, she asked her parents if she could do martial arts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reese\u2019s 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\u2019s worth of tuition.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI started a lawn mowing business,\u201d Reese said. \u201cWhen I was 12, I had enough for a year, and I slapped the money down on the counter.\u201d<\/p>\n

She has two black belts,\u00a0 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\u2019s club and later for the Berkeley All Blues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Reese outside her Pinole home. Credit: Hope Mu\u00f1oz\/Berkeleyside<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She found electrical engineering mentally stimulating but not fulfilling. \u201cIn my heart\u00a0 I wanted to [do] something that would directly help people,\u201d Reese said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reese\u2019s martial arts background introduced her to Asian medicine.\u00a0 In the \u201990s, she built upon her interest and got a master\u2019s degree in acupuncture and oriental medicine at Meiji College, based in San Francisco.\u00a0 Now, the school is called the Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine College<\/a> and is based in Berkeley.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

She started her own acupuncture business, but then, after 9\/11, felt called to action and decided to join the police academy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of misguided, because it\u2019s not who I am,\u201d Reese said. \u201cI want to help more on the health side, not the law-and-order side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her autoimmune disorder made movement painful<\/strong><\/p>\n

During her training to become a police officer in 2002, Reese rolled and injured her shoulder.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShe couldn\u2019t even move her eyes without pain,\u201d Stoddard said.\u00a0 \u201cLike every cell in her body was on fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Reese\u2019s friend of 40 years Ali Stoddard, who helped count her pushups, sits for a photo before the start of the challenge. Credit: Hope Mu\u00f1oz\/Berkeleyside<\/p>\n

It took a decade for Reese to recover from MCTD. For years, she was on disability pay, unable to work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just a stick figure,\u201d Reese said. \u201cI really didn\u2019t have much longer to go if I didn\u2019t find a way to turn it around.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

While she went to doctors, she said she leaned on her background in Asian medicine to restore her health. She said she was meditating,\u00a0 juicing for nutrients, doing affirmations, using herbs and directing her energy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Reese shows off supplements in her kitchen. Credit: Hope Mu\u00f1oz\/Berkeleyside<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned how to help yourself through any kind of pain imaginable,\u201d Reese said. \u201cAnd empathy. Empathy and compassion.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2015, Reese founded Healthy Aging Transformations<\/a>, a personal coaching business for adults over 50,\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After the replacement, Reese said she didn\u2019t feel like herself and needed a pick-me-up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The \u2018surreal\u2019 moment at Finnish Hall<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Reese takes a celebratory selfie with the audience after completing her pushups. Credit: Hope Mu\u00f1oz\/Berkeleyside<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 Wilde\u2019s record. Her friends onstage smiled, but Reese remained impassive, in the zone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She ended with 1,682 pushups in 60 minutes \u2014 107 more than Wilde\u2019s record, and 475 more than her previous personal best. (Guinness still needs to confirm her total if she\u2019s to again be crowned a pushup champion.)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels really surreal,\u201d Reese said. \u201cI\u2019ve been training for this for so long\u2026I trained really hard, and I\u2019m so happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reese took a selfie with the audience, then people lined up to congratulate her. She smiled widely, sipping a blueberry lemon spritzer.<\/p>\n

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