Damien Rooney spent an hour on 1 June working through weighted chin-ups in two-minute bursts, taking 30 seconds of rest between each block. By the end, the former professional mixed martial artist from Burren, outside Newry, had completed 499 repetitions while wearing a 20lb weight. That took him past the previous record of 495.
Rooney, who fought under the moniker ‘The Rage’ during his fighting career and now runs his own gym, has set a Guinness World Record for the most chin-ups in an hour with that weight.
The discipline mattered. Rooney used an underhand grip, with his palms facing towards him, a style that puts more load through the biceps than the back muscles.
His interest in record-breaking began while he was still fighting. In 2018, he first tried for the 24-hour chin-up record. Those attempts ended with torn muscles and heat exhaustion.
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The one-hour weighted attempt offered a shorter target, though it still demanded a pace that carried Rooney to 499 reps. For comparison, the one-hour unweighted chin-up record is something like 1,010.
Guinness told Rooney in September that the record had been confirmed. The process can take up to 20 weeks, as Guinness reviews the tapes from different angles.
Rooney is now turning back to the 24-hour chin-up record. He hopes to make his next attempt in April 2027, when the challenge could require as many as 10,000 reps.
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