Aussie police officer breaks long-standing record by doing over 700 pull ups in an hour

An Australian police officer broke a record that had stood for almost a decade when she did the most pull ups in one hour (female).

Jade Henderson completed an unbelievable 733 pull ups – which works out as more than 12 every minute.

She took on the challenge in Gold Coast on 22 August as a way of testing her physical and mental limits.

After beating the record of 725 set by Eva Clarke (Australia) in 2016, she hopes to inspire others to reach their full potential too.

Jade, 32, told us: “I decided to start training for the pull up world record because I liked the idea of doing something that nobody else has ever done. I also wanted to see what my mind and body were physically capable of.”

Fitness is a huge part of Jade’s life. She’s been competing in Crossfit at a high level for the last eight years and says it’s become an outlet for her when work gets stressful.

Jade had originally planned to take on the 24-hour version of this record, a record currently held by Olivia Vinson (Australia) with a total of 7,079.

But things went wrong.

Jade said: “In April, I did what was supposed to be my last training session before attempting the 24-hour record.

“I did 3,500 pull ups in 12 hours and tore my bicep. I had a partial tear of the bicep tendon and muscle. I had to rest my arm for about six weeks before I was able to do pull ups again.”

It was while recovering that she decided to go for the one-hour title instead in the hope of avoiding another injury.

She went ahead with her attempt about three months later and officially claimed her world record.

And just because it was a much shorter time doesn’t mean it was easy.

“I didn’t have a set number that I was aiming for,” Jade confessed. “I knew it was going to be tough to beat the previous record of 725, so I was just aiming to get a couple more reps than that. 

“I was really happy with the result. I gave it everything that I had and in that moment I don’t think I could of done any better. With about 20 minutes left to go in the hour, I felt the skin on my hands rip.

“I thought to myself that my hands were already a mess and I was already in pain, so I need to make it worth it. I am proud of myself for pushing through that pain and not stopping until the end.”

Read about more amazing sports and fitness records on our dedicated news page.

Jade said finding out her record was official was a “surreal” moment that still hasn’t quite sunk in.

While she doesn’t have her sights set on any other records just yet, she joked she’d try to do the most pull ups whilst on fire since she’s training to be a stunt performer.

On the advice she’d give to other record hopefuls, she said: “Decide on your goal, come up with a plan and relentlessly work towards achieving that goal every day.

“I made sure that I executed my plan in the lead up to the attempt, so that going into it, I was thinking ‘there’s no way all my work isn’t going to pay off’.

“I also believe that you need to build your mental resilience and need to be doing it for your own personal reasons, not anyone else’s, otherwise you’ll be too tempted to quit when things get hard.

“In the lead up to the attempt I would remind myself of a quote by Theodore Roosevelt on a daily basis – ‘Believe you can and you’re halfway there’.”