Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\tA Marine is Guinness world champ in burpees per minute<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Sgt. Nahla Beard broke the record by two burpees. And she did it more than once.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n
A kettlebell is a ball-shaped weight with a sturdy handle attached to it. To swing a kettlebell, weightlifters bring it between their legs and then hoist it above their heads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The record captures the most weight swung cumulatively over the hour. His goal was to complete 950 swings of a 53-pound kettlebell in an hour, to break by a wide margin a previous record that equated to 892 swings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well into the record attempt, the skin on his hands ripped, slowing him down. He fell short of the record by about 50 reps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Embarrassed and demoralized by his failure, he didn\u2019t touch another kettlebell for months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI fell into feeling sorry for myself,\u201d Burkett said. \u201cLike, \u2018Oh, it just wasn\u2019t for me. I could have set the world record, though.\u2019 Like the dudes who are like, \u2018I almost joined the Marine Corps.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When he moved to a new unit, in embassy security, Marines there who had seen the video of his record attempt asked him if he planned to try again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese younger Marines were, almost, calling me on my bullcrap,\u201d he said. \u201cThey were like, \u2018Really? You came that close and you did all that training, and you\u2019re just not going to do it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Burkett said his Marines\u2019 apparent disappointment in him spurred him to start training again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2018, on the Marine Corps birthday of Nov. 10, he set the record for most weight lifted in an hour \u2014 even though the skin on his hands ripped again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When he got sent to Guantanamo, Cuba, other troops there found out about his passion for \u201cjacking\u201d kettlebells, as he calls it. Burkett formed the Guantanamo Kettlebell Club and hosted training sessions that at times included more than 100 people, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While in Cuba, he found out about two other kettlebell records: most weight swung in one minute and three minutes. He shifted his training away from endurance and toward pure power, and knocked out those two records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, someone else broke his hour record by a few reps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Burkett knew he wanted to reclaim the record. But he didn\u2019t want to eke out a new record by a little bit, only for it to get broken again weeks later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead, his mentality was, \u201cI need to put up a number so big that nobody ever tries to even attempt the one-hour record again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So he did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He has now amassed a healthy Instagram following at @sergeantmajorkettlebell, more than 11,000. When he met then-Commandant Gen. Robert Neller, the general asked him, \u201cAre you the kettlebell guy?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whenever someone asks Burkett that, his response is, \u201cYeah. Do you want to lift some kettlebells?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n