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YouTuber Stan Browney is no stranger to fitness challenges. He’s run a mile a day for a whole month, worked out for 24 hours straight, and taken on some of the most difficult fitness fads on TikTok. In his latest video, Browney attempts a seemingly simple workout: performing 50 pullups and 100 pushups in 5 minutes or less. The best time he can find on YouTube is by a guy called The Proof, who has managed it in 4:37.
“This challenge is based on two simple exercises, the pushup and the pullup, but almost no one can complete it,” he says. “This might be the hardest bodyweight challenge in the world, and I want to be able to do it.”
Browney assumes that due to his extensive prior calisthenics training and general level of fitness, this challenge will be relatively easy—but he fails on the first attempt. It’s still a good effort; he completes the 50 pullups and 100 pushups in 5:20. But, not content with his time, Browney resolves to get in all 150 reps under the 5 minute mark.
He achieves this goal pretty quickly, after just 2 days of training, and so then his target changes, and he sets himself the considerably more difficult challenge of beating the all-time record of 4:37.
This proves far easier said than done. Not only is the workout itself difficult due to the non-stop activity with no rest, but by doing the same exercises every day without allowing for recovery, Browney begins to see his progress falter. “I’m getting more and more sore every day… I’m getting slower again,” he says. “The only positive thing so far about this challenge is the chest pump every single day.”
On the ninth day, Browney breaks the 5-minute barrier, completing the workout in 4:48. His momentum continues from there, and on day 11, he sets a new record of 4:32—but he realizes that he has been sacrificing proper form for the sake of improving his time, and so he continues training with a renewed focus on good technique.
After 34 days (including a break due to illness), Browney finally beats The Proof with a time of 4:32.
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Philip Ellis is a freelance writer and journalist from the United Kingdom covering pop culture, relationships and LGBTQ+ issues. His work has appeared in GQ, Teen Vogue, Man Repeller and MTV.
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