LUKE

      World Record Holder

From insecure teen to Guinness world-record breaker!

If you meet Luke today, you’ll see a confident student athlete. In addition to holding the world record for most burpees in one minute, he is the student-body president of his international school, and has proved to be very effective at raising money for causes he cares about– schools in China which support disadvantaged children and children with disabilities like Down Syndrome and Autism. 

You’d be forgiven for thinking he was born this way. 

But Luke is open about his journey from insecurity and self-doubt to where he is today.

 “When I first started classes at the international school, everyone else could already speak English. I figured I would never be good enough to even understand a textbook, let alone to do well in my classes.”

“In the Ivy League Challenge, one lesson that really changed my life was when Steve talked about how ‘the little things are the big things.’ I began to focus on my daily habits around my studies instead of focusing on the results of my studies. It took a lot of time and effort, but my English improved, my grades improved, and I began to feel more confident.”

“When we learned about the impact project, I decided to start a fitness and wellness club in my school. In addition to teaching fitness strategies that I already knew, I also took some of the things I learned inside the Ivy League Challenge and retaught them to students and teachers in my school. That club became the most popular and well-attended one in my school.”
“Over time I also became much more confident with my fitness. I decided to challenge myself and see if I could come close to the world record for burpees in a minute. When I knew I could break the record, we turned the event into a fundraiser to support a school in rural China that serves children from a very poor mountainous region in China. Later, when I worked with a team of five athletes to do 10,000 burpees in 10 hours, we donated the funds we raised from that event to another school that supports children with Down Syndrome, Autism, and other disorders. It really is amazing how much can change over time when you focus on the little things each day.”

Watch how he broke the world-record for chest to ground burpees!