Quebec man training for burpee world record in honour of late brother

A Quebec man is gunning for a world record in honour of his brother's fight against cancer.

Sam Finn is training to do 1,010 burpees in under an hour. That's 17 burpees a minute -- or one every 3.5 seconds.

He's doing it to raise awareness about soft tissue sarcoma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer that claimed his brother Cedric's life in 2017.

"Burpees [are] incredibly challenging, but I always try to think about my brother Ced and what he went through, and try to honour his strength and his courage," said Finn, who's aiming to raise $80,000 for the Cedars Cancer Foundation in the process.

Sarcoma primarily affects young adults; Cedric was just 27 when he died.

"Once he was diagnosed, he had a nine-month battle. So it was very short and very aggressive," Finn told CTV News.

Sam Finn (right) and his brother Cedric (left). Finn is trying to break the world burpee record in honour of Cedric, who died of a rare cancer in 2017. (Courtesy image)

It's not the first time Finn has taken on such a challenge.

In 2019, he broke the Guinness World Record for the most burpees in 12 hours (5,234), raising $70,000.

"It was very challenging. It was fun at the same time, a lot of people were there -- the energy was amazing," said Finn. "But the one-hour one scares me so much more than the 12-hour record because it's about maintaining a sprint."

When he broke the last record, Finn brought a picture of his brother with him to stay motivated. The same photo will be there on Sept. 23 when he tries to break this next record.

"My body wants to quit after 20 minutes, I'm just so exhausted and I keep repeating to myself 'this is easy, this is easy,' and that mantra really helps put things into perspective because I think back to my brother Ced and what he went through, and that was actually hard."