{"id":537440,"date":"2026-03-15T06:15:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T06:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/537440\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T06:15:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T06:15:16","slug":"how-and-why-an-ottawa-woman-did-1984-lunges-in-an-hour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/537440\/","title":{"rendered":"How (and why) an Ottawa woman did 1,984 lunges in an hour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just over 45 people gathered in a small Kanata group fitness studio on a Saturday afternoon, all to witness Morgan McKay set a Guinness World Record.<\/p>\n

The challenge was to do as many in-spot lunges as possible in an hour, and McKay blew past the requirement for the Guinness women\u2019s record of 1,800 by ringing up 1,984.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe makes it look so easy,\u201d said Sonia Sorrini, who came out to support McKay, an in-house coach at bodiesbyphil who she had known for more than a decade.<\/p>\n

McKay smiled as she knelt for the 1,475th time, 14 minutes shy of the hour.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you everybody for being here,\u201d she said. \u201cIt makes it easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201dHow is this even possible?\u201d a voice on the other side said. \u201cShe\u2019s still smiling. That\u2019s good,\u201d another said.<\/p>\n

Around the 45-minute mark, McKay said, she felt nauseous, but having friends cheering helped keep her going.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Form was key to qualify each lunge for inclusion in the record total by Morgan McKay.<\/p>\n

To qualify for the record, every lunge had to meet Guinness requirements, according to McKay, which meant both feet had to face forward at the beginning before one leg came down forward at 90 degrees and the trailing leg touched the ground.<\/p>\n

The legs would then have to be returned to a straight, locked-out position.<\/p>\n

McKay said listened to Viking war music during the lunge challenge.\u201d I thought of playing it for everybody, but it\u2019s really intense because it\u2019s just Vikings, like, yelling and hitting drums and stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor some reason it just gets me so fired up,\u201d she said. \u201cTowards the end, it switches to the soundtrack from the movie Tron, and near the end it was like Eye of the Tiger.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKay said she made the playlist specifically to help her train for the lunges. \u201cIt helped a lot. I felt that I might get distracted by whatever was going on around me, especially because I\u2019m seeing my close friends and I wanna talk to them, but I can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Supporters show off their enthusiasm for the record-setting effort by Morgan McKay in Ottawa on Saturdary.<\/p>\n

Why do this?<\/p>\n

\u201cI just like to do hard challenges,\u201d McKay said. \u201cIf somebody is like \u2018Oh that\u2019s crazy,\u2019 or \u2018That\u2019s insane,\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018Actually it\u2019s not,’\u201d she said. \u201cIf you break it down into small steps and you work towards it consistently over time, it seems crazy when you look at it as a whole, but the sum of the parts is actually not that crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKay said she wasn\u2019t thinking of the record attempt as an hour long, but as smaller components of between 30 and 35 lunges each minute.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s how her brain works,\u201d said Phil Green, the owner of bodiesbyphil. \u201cI guarantee in a couple weeks she\u2019s gonna say, \u2018I need to beat that.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Morgan McKay exchanges a hug with gym owner Phil Green after she completed the challenge on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

This was not the first time McKay had set a world record. In 2019, McKay said, she set one for the fastest 10K race while carrying 100 pounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI set that record here in Ottawa at the Tamarack 10k,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

When McKay found out someone else had bettered that record, she decided 2026 would be her redemption year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to go get that record back,\u201d McKay said. \u201cI wanted to set this record today and I\u2019m gonna have a few others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her determination was somewhat all-consuming, spilling from the bounds of the gym and into day-to-day life. She trained for three months and dedicated two workouts a week to preparing for Saturday\u2019s test.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven on vacation, we were doing lunges on the beach,\u201d she said with a laugh. \u201cOne day we did 45 minutes straight of just lunges up and down the beach.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Jackson Kirkland, right, was among the friends and acquaintances on hand to support Morgan McKay\u2019s record-setting effort.<\/p>\n

It was something \u201cfun\u201d for her and her boyfriend to do together, McKay told the Ottawa Citizen. \u201cWe hit the grocery story and get groceries and then we would do our lunges in the grocery story.<\/p>\n

\u201cWednesday nights, my boyfriend and I, we just go to the gym and do weights, so we would do split squats, Romanian deadlifts, step-ups and then lunges, and then Sunday was our high-volume day. We would go to Carleton University \u2014 they have a track there \u2014 and do walking lunges around the track and we would just get as many as we could in an hour or two.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since 2020, McKay has coached Sorrini into completing a marathon.<\/p>\n

\u201cHappy I had her by my side, and now I\u2019m here to be by her side,\u201d Sorrini said. \u201cBoy, she\u2019s a force to be reckoned with.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a ball of energy, a fantastic coach in terms of training you and she\u2019s always in your corner.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Two-year-old Hazel Newton mimicks Morgan McKay\u2019s lunging movements on Saturday.<\/p>\n

For McKay to set the record, she had to get a minimum of 1,800 on Saturday, Green said. \u201cThat\u2019s why everyone was kind of counting down to 1,800, and everyone freaked out when she hit 1,800 because then it\u2019s officially a record.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guinness still must confirm the results in what would be a 12-week process, but Green, who counted McKay\u2019s lunges, said she \u201cblew past that bar.\u201d<\/p>\n

The current men\u2019s world record for lunges in an hour is 2,700.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Morgan McKay\u2019s accept congratulations from supporters after her record-setting exploit on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

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