Indian Man Breaks World Record With 55-Hour Punching Marathon

Sidhu Kshetri, a software engineer from India, has broken the “longest marathon punching a punch bag” after he successfully did a 55-hour and 15-minute punching marathon. He managed to break the former record by a margin of five minutes. The 42-year-old credits his endurance to his background in martial arts and his consistent practice. He previously represented India in numerous Taekwondo championships and once again wanted to put his country’s martial arts prowess on the map. He told the Guinness World Records, “I have been practicing martial arts for the last 25 years. I am interested in contributing to my country, so I decided to attempt this world record.”

To break the grueling record Sidhu prepared for six months. Every day he trained for close to eight hours, from 4 am to 8 am and later in the evening. However, the most challenging aspect of his training was not physical. He told Guinness World Records, “The most challenging aspect was the mental preparation. I had to be mentally and physically strong for this attempt.”

As per the Guinness World Records, the guidelines for this record required the challenger “to throw a punch at least once every two seconds for the entire duration of the attempt, and after each strike of the bag, the arm must return to its original position.” For the duration of the record attempt, the challenger was allowed to take a five-minute break every hour. These five minutes could be accumulated and taken later. This meant that Sidhu could only eat, sleep, and use the washroom during this break.

While talking about his more than two-day-long record attempt, Sidhu said, “The pain started around the 20-hour mark. At that point, I reminded myself that it was a test of my limits. I believed that if I stayed emotionally strong, I could endure the pain. The toughest phase was the second night, approximately 30 hours in, as it was a continuous period without sleep. Enduring that was tough, but the encouragement and support from my friends and family kept me going, allowing me to push my limits. Although I hadn’t thought of stopping, I kept telling myself: Just one more hour.”

In 2013, Sidhy earned the world record for “most martial arts kicks in three minutes using one leg (620)”. In 2011, he also got the world record for “most martial arts kicks in one minute using a single leg (168).”