The Marine Corps has a well-known reputation of being the “first to fight”. But one Marine had another lesser-known feat. She was the first woman to do 27 burpees from her chest to the floor in one minute.
Sergeant Nahra Beard, air traffic control supervisor at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, broke a Guinness World Record for a burpee on Aug. 14, 2021, the service announced last month.
Due to coronavirus restrictions, Guinness judges were unable to attend to review the Marine Corps burpees in person. Base Command is on the lookout, and has brought along friends and family, Beard said in her DVIDS article.
Bystanders were not disappointed. Beard set a record for his two burpees, completing an average of one burpee every 2.2 seconds. And she did it multiple times.
“I wasn’t sure if I did it, so I ended up trying five times in the same day,” Beard said in a release.
After suffering a back injury during his second year in the military, the Marine took an interest in physical fitness and spent nine months recovering.
“When I felt 100 percent recovered, I started seriously working on my fitness to avoid getting hurt again,” Baird said.
According to DVIDS, Beard’s dedication to fitness coincided with his focus on mobility and stretching. She also volunteered to monitor physical fitness testing and eventually she became qualified to conduct PFT and Combat Fitness Tests.
“I have had high intensity tactical training for a very long time and have attended HITT competitions held at the base,” Beard said in the DVIDS article. “It was really fun. I had the stamina and was able to do a lot of burpees, so out of curiosity I looked up the world records.”
Beard underwent three months of burpee training specifically for Guinness World Records. A burpee is a hard exercise in which he squats with his hands on the ground, goes into a plank position, bounces and he hops once.
Developed in the 1930s by American physiologist Royal Huddleston Burpee, this exercise is considered a staple of high-intensity training because it effectively fatigues the entire body.
As if regular burpees aren’t enough, chest-to-floor burpees add yet another step. Lower your chest to the floor while in a plank, like a pushup. This is his variety of burpees that Beard did to achieve a Guinness World Record.
According to DVIDS, Guinness World Records’ exacting standards also required Beard to spread his arms out to the sides with his chest on the ground.
However, completing a burpee was not enough for Beard to achieve the record. She had to prove it too.
“[Guinness] They kept emailing me asking for evidence to help validate it further,” she said in a DVIDS story. “When they sent me the last email, the words ‘Congratulations’ made my heart drop a little bit.”
Guinness World Records did not respond by the time of publication to a Marine Corps Times question about when Beard’s record was officially recognized. The previous record for 25 burpees in one minute was set by Louise Robertson of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia on June 1, 2019.
Beard hasn’t denied he’s aiming for more Guinness World Records, but said in a DVIDS article that he’s more focused on powerlifting for now. She is also working towards a Bachelor’s Degree in Nutrition.
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Irene Loewenson is a staff reporter for the Marine Corps Times. She joined The Military Times in August 2022 as her Editorial Fellow. She graduated from her college at Williams and served as editor-in-chief of the student newspaper.
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