Indian martial artist headbutts hundreds of nuts to reclaim record

By Sanj Atwal
Published
split image N Kumar

27-year-old martial artist Naveen Kumar (India) has reclaimed the world record for the most walnuts cracked with the head in one minute, achieving a grand total of 273. That’s over 4.5 per second!

Crushing the previous record of 254, Naveen takes the title from serial record-breaker Muhammad Rashid.

The pair have battled for ownership over this nutty record for several years. Muhammad first achieved it in 2014 with a total of 150 walnuts cracked, before doing it again in 2016 with a total of 181.

After being trained by Prabhakar Reddy (India), who holds several martial arts records himself, Naveen entered the scene in 2017 and broke Muhammad’s record by cracking 217 walnuts.

A year later, in order to determine who was truly the world’s best nutcracker, Naveen, aged 22 at the time, and Muhammad, 36, were brought together on the set of La Notte dei Record in Italy for a head-to-head nut-cracking contest.

They both surpassed the standing record, however, it was Muhammad who came out on top, cracking 254 walnuts compared to Naveen’s 239.

And now, five years later, Naveen has put blood, sweat and tears (but mostly blood) into reasserting himself as the world’s foremost walnut cracker. 

“In order to prove my talent, I broke the record again,” Naveen said.

Naveen Kumar crushing walnuts

Raw common walnuts (Juglans regia) must be used when attempting this record. They can be laid out in any formation on the table, but only one walnut may be cracked at a time.

The walnut shells must be completely smashed into at least two pieces in order to be counted.

Naveen began his attempt at a blistering pace and maintained it throughout the minute, blocking out the pain of the growing welt on his forehead.

All the walnuts were donated to the International Society for Krishna Consciousness afterwards.

Naveen Kumar with walnut in head

Naveen was inspired to attempt this record again by his martial arts instructor, Prabhakar.

Prabhakar, 41, is the same age as Muhammad, and the pair have been breaking each other’s records for many years.

Prabhakar has been diligently training Naveen to follow in his record-breaking footsteps, and now that Naveen is in his athletic prime, he could potentially claim many more of Muhammad’s records in the future.

Here are some other walnut-cracking world records which he could attempt:

  • Most walnuts crushed by the hand in one minute – 303, by Prabhakar Reddy in 2022
  • Most walnuts crushed with elbow in one minute – 315, by Muhammad Rashid in 2021
  • Most walnuts crushed with the teeth in one minute – 30, by Amedeo Grieco (Italy) in 2023
  • Most walnuts crushed by sitting down in one minute – 122, by Cherry Yoshitake aka Mr Cherry (Japan) in 2020

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