Fitness
Fitness
How to train for burpee broad jumps, according to the world-record holder
Burpee broad jumps are one of the most feared stations at HYROX – and this athlete just completed a marathon of them faster than anyone ever. Here’s what we can learn from his training.
When most people think of burpees, it’s usually a few reps during a workout: tough, repetitive and exhausting. But one athlete - India's Mann Sharma - took it to an entirely new level: a burpee broad jump marathon. Spanning the full 42.195km of a marathon, this world-first challenge required months of careful preparation, endurance training and mental grit.
What makes it remarkable isn’t just the distance – the previous world record was just 5.1 km – but how he approached training for one of HYROX’s most feared stations. In this story, we break down how to train for burpee broad jumps, with lessons from the athlete who turned this punishing exercise into a world-record marathon.
01
The birth of the idea
Sharma's idea came to him in the shower
© Focus Sports
A casual thought in the shower led Sharma to his biggest challenge yet. It was to be a familiar endeavour in uncharted territory. It involved the humble burpee broad jump: dreaded by some for the tedium and pain it entails, yet a key station in any HYROX race, as well as an integral part of many people’s workout routine for its simplicity and effectiveness.
What he had in mind is daunting to comprehend – he'd target a burpee broad jump marathon; a continual effort over the full distance from start to finish.
I needed to do something big for myself that nobody had done before
When he first envisioned it, he was blissfully unaware of quite what the feat would demand in terms of preparation and exertion. The world record at that point was 5.1km. Sharma was looking to go about eight times the distance.
On October 14, 2025, the 22-year-old crossed the finish line in tears after a staggering 197 hours. His body had taken a battering. His mind tested unlike anything else he’d experienced in the past.
“It’s one thing to arrive at these ideas but quite another to execute them. During the early days, few understood why I wanted to attempt it, nor if I would be able to pull it off. But I needed to do something big for myself that nobody had done before,” Mann says.
02
Building from strong foundations
The burpee broad jump is a key skill for any HYROX competitor
© Focus Sports
A decade of pro football training in Europe had already created a strong foundation for Mann. Fitness became an integral part of his daily routine and once he returned home to New Delhi, he looked at means to explore the limits of his endurance.
He developed his fitness-challenge mindset over the next few years, with projects including 2,021 push-ups to mark the year 2021, 2,022 handstand push-ups for 2022 and 2,023 pull-ups for 2023. The leap year of 2024 was celebrated with a 29-hour burpee relay alongside seven friends on February 29. At times, he stepped outside of his comfort zone to test his body, just like he did to ring in 2025 with a 100km run across the Indian capital city.
It was torture and just thinking about it hurts
These projects laid the foundation for his latest feat, though he only really realised what he was signing up for only once he'd completed a 'test' run (an incredible feat in itself, covering 5km in burpee broad jumps in 11 hours).
“It was torture and just thinking about it hurts because it was my first attempt at doing something of the sort. The idea was to see if I could handle the entire effort mentally,” he recalls.
03
How to train for a burpee broad jump marathon
Sharma focused on strength work towards the end of his training
© Focus Sports
As he prepared for his marathon burpee attempt, Sharma started out with an hour of burpee broad jumps on two days of the week and increased the duration over time.
He distracted himself from the initial monotony by watching movies on loop, until he could sustain the effort for five hours. He put in several hours at the gym to focus on strength training and building core muscles, while he took a day off each week to recover through yoga, rock climbing or swimming.
Sharma also focused on breathing and controlling his heart rate
© Focus Sports
The focus was on building a solid base for the entire effort
“While it was low-mileage training to a certain extent, the focus was on building a solid base for the entire effort. Working on the glutes and hamstring was one thing, but I also gained strength in the tibialis in front of the shins, as well as my toes and fingers so that they landed perfectly. Alongside, I focused on breathing and controlling my heart rate so I could sustain the effort for long durations,” he says.
About 40 days before the start of his attempt, he took on another trial run where he experimented with the nutrition that suited him, the timing and proportion of his meals, and the rest and sleep pattern that helped best with recovery. From here on in, he took time off burpees and worked just on strengthening his body further.
“You can never be prepared for something like this mentally. At one point, you just have to go ahead and get started,” he says.
Inspiration for your fitness journey
04
Relax, refuel, rest, repeat: the marathon strategy
The marathon took eight days and five hours to complete
© Focus Sports
On October 6, 2025, Mann got his attempt underway at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. Though he was looking to finish the burpee broad jump marathon in eight days, there was no daily target in mind. The strategy was to cover a kilometre, which would take about two hours on average, and follow it up with a routine of rest before getting back to the burpees. This would be the routine until the job was done.
“It became a mental game after a point on how quickly I could finish a kilometre and take a break,” he says.
The time off was as critical as the effort on the track. Mann would take a quick shower, followed by a light meal of chicken, rice, pasta or salad, complete a session with the physiotherapist to relax his muscles, and a short nap of 40 minutes. After a light warm-up, he would be back to making gradual progress towards the mammoth number he was chasing.
Over time, spectators trickled in and out of the stadium that was engulfed with Sufi music. It put Mann in the zone to focus on the demands of the effort. Despite the aches and pains, the question of ending the attempt never crossed his mind.
I really believe in the impossible now, and I know that I never have to go through that pain again
“I don’t think I was ready to hear, ‘Oh, you tried your best.’ It really tested my limits and there were times I couldn’t speak because there was nothing left in me. My blood sugar dropped one time and on the sixth day, I had excruciating pain in the liver due to excess water. The idea was to simply not give power to the problems I encountered,” he says.
A hundred metres from the end, Sharma asked those around him to make their way towards the finish line. He saw a sea of heads in the distance, cheering him on. Moments later, it was done, a hearty effort that took him eight days and five hours, a record recognised by the World Book of Records.
“I felt calm and complete at the end of it. I really believe in the impossible now, and I know that I never have to go through that pain again,” he says.
