When a U.S. Marine picks up a kettlebell, you expect grit. But when Sgt. Maj. Steven Burkett picked one up, he made history.
On March 5, 2022, inside a gym in Carlsbad, California, the Marine veteran turned fitness legend swung a 53-pound kettlebell for a full hour — nonstop. By the end, he had moved 95,819 pounds (43,463 kilograms) of total weight.
That’s roughly 1,800 swings in one brutal session — enough to earn him the Guinness World Record for heaviest weight lifted by kettlebell swing in one hour (male).
Guinness didn’t count reps — they counted total weight moved. And no one, anywhere, has lifted more.
Halfway through, Burkett’s grip ripped open. But he didn’t stop. He refused to.
“They call him Sergeant Major Kettlebell,” one fan wrote online — and now the name fits.
Burkett’s record-breaking hour wasn’t just a single day of extraordinary effort — it was the result of years of trial, failure, and comeback.
Back in 2017, he was already chasing the same record. A CrossFit gym near his base at Camp Pendleton turned his attempt into a local event: cameras, judges, spectators, and pressure. Burkett, then 5’11” and 192 pounds, aimed for 950 swings in 60 minutes — enough to destroy the previous record of 892.
But around the 50-minute mark, disaster struck. The skin on his hands ripped open, slowing his pace. He missed the record by around 50 swings. Check out that effort below:
“I fell into feeling sorry for myself,” he admitted later to Marine Corps Times. “Like, ‘Oh, it just wasn’t for me. I could have set the world record, though.’ Like the dudes who are like, ‘I almost joined the Marine Corps.’”
For months, he didn’t touch another kettlebell.
But when Burkett transferred to a new unit, his younger Marines — who had seen the video of his failed attempt — started asking him why he’d given up.
“These younger Marines were almost calling me on my bullcrap,” he said. “They were like, ‘Really? You came that close and you did all that training, and you’re just not going to do it?’”
That challenge was all it took.
By November 10, 2018 — the Marine Corps’ birthday — Burkett made good on his promise. He set a new world record for the most weight lifted by kettlebell swings in one hour, despite his hands ripping open again.
Even after earning the title, he didn’t stop training. When he was later sent to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, he started the Guantánamo Kettlebell Club, which grew to more than 100 participants. He taught Marines and fellow troops to “jack bells,” as he calls it — turning a simple piece of iron into a community movement.
There, he discovered new challenges: world records for the one-minute and three-minute kettlebell swing totals. He shifted from endurance to power training and smashed both.
But the hour-long title didn’t stay his for long. Another athlete edged past him by a small margin.
Burkett wasn’t having it.
“I need to put up a number so big that nobody ever tries to even attempt the one-hour record again,” he said.
So he did.
In March 2022, he came back to Carlsbad and shattered the previous record by more than 6,000 kilograms. He lifted 43,463 kilograms in total — a number that may stand for a long time.
Guinness confirmed it. The world officially recognized it. And Burkett earned a new title: the strongest kettlebell swinger alive.
He’s since been named 2022 Male Athlete of the Year at Camp Pendleton and was a finalist for the Marine Corps-wide title. He’s now writing a book — Jacking Bells — with an exercise physiologist, detailing his journey, mindset, and training philosophy.
Burkett wasn’t born an athlete. In high school, he was an “average football and track guy,” the kind who only started varsity senior year. He enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1994 on an open contract and ended up in supply administration.
Over the years, he deployed to Iraq and Mongolia and served as a Marine Security Guard in Paris and Ankara.
He always stayed in shape — “Marine Corps healthy,” as he puts it — but frequent back injuries made him feel less than strong. That changed in 2013 when he joined a CrossFit gym while stationed in Washington state. He learned the fundamentals of lifting, and everything clicked.
Ahead of a 2016 Iraq deployment, he knew gym access would be limited, so he packed one item: a 53-pound kettlebell. His goal was simple — 300 swings a day.
At first, he could only manage 15–20 reps at a time. Within months, he was hitting all 300 in a single workout. Then one day, he cranked out 500 swings in under half an hour, per CrossFit.
A friend asked him if there was a world record for kettlebell swings.
“That was the first moment it even entered my mind that there was a world record,” Burkett said.
Burkett’s philosophy is simple: build power through volume, not flash.
He trains with large sets, focusing on consistency and mental control. His advice? Don’t just swing. Use kettlebells for squats, lunges, and presses. Keep one in your car. Form matters — “imagine there’s a laser beam coming out of your chest,” he says. “That beam shouldn’t touch the ground.”
When the pain hits, focus on your next small milestone, not the entire workout.
“If you look at your entire four-year enlistment or an entire deployment or a whole field op, that’s hard,” he said. “But can you think about this next thing you’re doing or the next little mini accomplishment you can give yourself?”
He believes in mentorship but also in independence.
“It’s important when you’re setting out in life that you need to have mentors and people who can guide you,” he said. “But if you just follow someone else’s advice or playbook, you can only do either what they’ve done or what they have intended for you. You’ve got to set out your own path in life.”
And that’s exactly what he did — one kettlebell swing at a time.
Now, with world records, thousands of followers, and Marines across the world training with his methods, Sgt. Maj. Steven Burkett has redefined what endurance looks like — and what it means to never let go, even when your hands do.
Featured image credit: YouTube/CrossFit (screenshots)
