June 21, 2025 • 6 mins
There's a high-intensity fitness event set to take place this coming November, and it's designed to beat a Guinness world fitness record.
Cantabrian Jared Rogers aims to break the world record for the largest high-intensity interval training - or HIIT - class in a single venue.
Organisers are calling for participants now - and Rogers says he's hoping to attract at least 10,000 participants.
"Through bringing a collective of people, this many people together, I think there's something that we could do that's going to be pretty magical - and we can really dial into that whole mental wellbeing, community wellbeing space through something like this."
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News talksb Right.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
We are getting in on a Guinness World record attempt here.
It has just been announced this morning that a big
fitness event will be held in christ to To this November.
The aim is to break the world record of the
largest high intensity interval training or HIT class in a
single venue. You might remember a few years ago we
had UK fitness coach Joe Wix on this show where
(00:34):
he's cut the current record holder with three eight hundred
and four participants that was set back in twenty seventeen.
This event, Hit for Hope, is aiming for ten thousand.
Take that, Joe. And while they are really keen to
break that record, it's also raising awareness about the positive
impact exercise can have on well being. Organizers are calling
(00:56):
for participants now. Founder Jared Rodgers is worth me.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Good morning, Jared, Good morning. How are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I'm really good? Ten thousand it's quite a lot of people.
How confident are you? Christ chitch can rustle that up?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Oh? I don't even think it's just a crass chitch.
I think it's New Zealand as a whole as you
can probably get my accent, there's a little bit of
South African inside there, and growing up as a kid
seeing New Zealand perform at the highest level although the
small little nation on the corner of the globe, just
comes to show that when there is a challenge out
there like this, we will band together and we will
(01:31):
accomplish something quite significant together.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
How has this come about? Why have you chosen this
record to attempt to break.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Well through personally? Excuse me, through personal experience in life? Really,
I've found that being in the health and wellness industry,
really I've seen the positive impacts that I've had with
my clients and how exercise has gone and changed their lives,
and I just thought that there was something that needed
to be done, especially post COVID and through bringing a
(02:03):
collective of people this many people together, I think there's
something that we could do that's going to be pretty
magical and we can really dial into that whole mental
wellbeing community wellbeing space through something like this.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
And I know that this is inspired by your own
mental health journey and that of your family. Would you
mind do you mind sharing a little bit about that?
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Yeah? Sure, So growing up there was. I grew up
in a household where there was alcoholism ran rampant. Dad
traveled a lot for work, so it just kind of
left myself and my younger brother to to kind of
sort for ourselves. But I soon found that I too
carried this gene of of indulging, and yeah, through you know,
(02:44):
by the end of after getting kicked out of university
and everything, I'd soon found myself behind a few bars
which I'd come to now found that, you know, I
was locked up through a variety of things. So, yeah,
all of that had taken place, all of that had happened,
and through those experiences, I've you know, rarely recognized that
I think the world is hurting. People need something a
(03:09):
little bit different, and exercise is a tool that's out
there that is not only accessible, but it is free.
And I just think through what exercise does not just
for us physically. You know, we all talk about toning
or losing weight, Seeing clients come off of antidepressant, seeing
clients come off of high blood pressure medicine, That's where
the magic rarely starts to happen.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
So what is the Guinness World Record's criteria here? Is
there a level of exercise you need to meet, you know,
it's for it to be classified as a hit class.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Yeah, so it's all The criteria basically is anybody from
the age of sixteen and up will qualify for the record,
although we are wanting to still bring anybody and everybody
out because this is a day for the family and
I think age is just a number. Exercise should be
done by anybody and everybody, So sixteen and up is
(04:04):
going to qualify us. But it all just comes down
to the effort of the individual and that's where my
role on the day in putting the workout out is
going to be critical in just making sure that anybody
of a certain age is going to be able to participate,
so there will be options for anybody and everybody regardless
of your fitness level. We rarely encourage you to come
out and try. You know, there's nothing to lose. I
(04:25):
can promise you that there will be no burpies. I
can promise you that there's going to be nothing outrageous
that we're going to get you to do. At the
end of the day, my role is to make sure
that we create a positive association with exercise whilst bringing
a large number of people together to experience something quite
extraordinary really, and I just think through this we can
(04:49):
then look at, you know, hopefully seeing people engaging with
exercise in whatever form that may be on a long
term basis.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
I think that's hilarious that you thought, Okay, what could
be the one thing that could stop people coming and
participating through We've got rid of the burpies. I love
the thing that you're also hoping to raise an ambitious
half a milion for charity as well. Is that right?
Speaker 3 (05:12):
That is correct? So the event, I'm a director and
on the board of a charitable trust called the Diamond
Charitable Trust, and we are very much all about community wellbeing.
We are, as this trust hosting Hit for Hope and
we're essentially going to be raising funds for the likes
of Voices of Hope, but also looking at, you know,
(05:33):
other grassroots organizations that are out to that we can
really tap into and assist because looking at the mental
health space, community wellbeing space, I think, you know, systematically,
it's a very complex issue that we're looking at. It
is extremely broad and I think, you know, if we're
just going to funnel our attention down certain avenues, we're
(05:53):
going to find ourselves coming short. So we're just looking
to really engage a community in as wide a way
or broad as aspect as possible and then just seeing
how big a difference we can make with.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
This day, Jared, people can sign up now, they.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Go one hundred percent. The website is now live and
ready to go. So if you go to hit for
Hope dot com so h double it as in high
intensity interval training for Hope dot com. You can go
in there. There's a little link on that front page
that's going to say become a record breaker. And the
good news is first five hundred tickets are free, so
(06:29):
people can head out there get your free tickets, and
then yeah, we really just look forward to again bringing
a lot of people together and making something magical happen
so that we can do this all again next year.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Really wonderful, Jared, thank you so much for your time
this morning.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudken, listen
live to News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News talksb Right.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
We are getting in on a Guinness World record attempt here.
It has just been announced this morning that a big
fitness event will be held in christ to To this November.
The aim is to break the world record of the
largest high intensity interval training or HIT class in a
single venue. You might remember a few years ago we
had UK fitness coach Joe Wix on this show where
(00:34):
he's cut the current record holder with three eight hundred
and four participants that was set back in twenty seventeen.
This event, Hit for Hope, is aiming for ten thousand.
Take that, Joe. And while they are really keen to
break that record, it's also raising awareness about the positive
impact exercise can have on well being. Organizers are calling
(00:56):
for participants now. Founder Jared Rodgers is worth me.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Good morning, Jared, Good morning. How are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I'm really good? Ten thousand it's quite a lot of people.
How confident are you? Christ chitch can rustle that up?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Oh? I don't even think it's just a crass chitch.
I think it's New Zealand as a whole as you
can probably get my accent, there's a little bit of
South African inside there, and growing up as a kid
seeing New Zealand perform at the highest level although the
small little nation on the corner of the globe, just
comes to show that when there is a challenge out
there like this, we will band together and we will
(01:31):
accomplish something quite significant together.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
How has this come about? Why have you chosen this
record to attempt to break.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Well through personally? Excuse me, through personal experience in life? Really,
I've found that being in the health and wellness industry,
really I've seen the positive impacts that I've had with
my clients and how exercise has gone and changed their lives,
and I just thought that there was something that needed
to be done, especially post COVID and through bringing a
(02:03):
collective of people this many people together, I think there's
something that we could do that's going to be pretty
magical and we can really dial into that whole mental
wellbeing community wellbeing space through something like this.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
And I know that this is inspired by your own
mental health journey and that of your family. Would you
mind do you mind sharing a little bit about that?
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Yeah? Sure, So growing up there was. I grew up
in a household where there was alcoholism ran rampant. Dad
traveled a lot for work, so it just kind of
left myself and my younger brother to to kind of
sort for ourselves. But I soon found that I too
carried this gene of of indulging, and yeah, through you know,
(02:44):
by the end of after getting kicked out of university
and everything, I'd soon found myself behind a few bars
which I'd come to now found that, you know, I
was locked up through a variety of things. So, yeah,
all of that had taken place, all of that had happened,
and through those experiences, I've you know, rarely recognized that
I think the world is hurting. People need something a
(03:09):
little bit different, and exercise is a tool that's out
there that is not only accessible, but it is free.
And I just think through what exercise does not just
for us physically. You know, we all talk about toning
or losing weight, Seeing clients come off of antidepressant, seeing
clients come off of high blood pressure medicine, That's where
the magic rarely starts to happen.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
So what is the Guinness World Record's criteria here? Is
there a level of exercise you need to meet, you know,
it's for it to be classified as a hit class.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Yeah, so it's all The criteria basically is anybody from
the age of sixteen and up will qualify for the record,
although we are wanting to still bring anybody and everybody
out because this is a day for the family and
I think age is just a number. Exercise should be
done by anybody and everybody, So sixteen and up is
(04:04):
going to qualify us. But it all just comes down
to the effort of the individual and that's where my
role on the day in putting the workout out is
going to be critical in just making sure that anybody
of a certain age is going to be able to participate,
so there will be options for anybody and everybody regardless
of your fitness level. We rarely encourage you to come
out and try. You know, there's nothing to lose. I
(04:25):
can promise you that there will be no burpies. I
can promise you that there's going to be nothing outrageous
that we're going to get you to do. At the
end of the day, my role is to make sure
that we create a positive association with exercise whilst bringing
a large number of people together to experience something quite
extraordinary really, and I just think through this we can
(04:49):
then look at, you know, hopefully seeing people engaging with
exercise in whatever form that may be on a long
term basis.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
I think that's hilarious that you thought, Okay, what could
be the one thing that could stop people coming and
participating through We've got rid of the burpies. I love
the thing that you're also hoping to raise an ambitious
half a milion for charity as well. Is that right?
Speaker 3 (05:12):
That is correct? So the event, I'm a director and
on the board of a charitable trust called the Diamond
Charitable Trust, and we are very much all about community wellbeing.
We are, as this trust hosting Hit for Hope and
we're essentially going to be raising funds for the likes
of Voices of Hope, but also looking at, you know,
(05:33):
other grassroots organizations that are out to that we can
really tap into and assist because looking at the mental
health space, community wellbeing space, I think, you know, systematically,
it's a very complex issue that we're looking at. It
is extremely broad and I think, you know, if we're
just going to funnel our attention down certain avenues, we're
(05:53):
going to find ourselves coming short. So we're just looking
to really engage a community in as wide a way
or broad as aspect as possible and then just seeing
how big a difference we can make with.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
This day, Jared, people can sign up now, they.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Go one hundred percent. The website is now live and
ready to go. So if you go to hit for
Hope dot com so h double it as in high
intensity interval training for Hope dot com. You can go
in there. There's a little link on that front page
that's going to say become a record breaker. And the
good news is first five hundred tickets are free, so
(06:29):
people can head out there get your free tickets, and
then yeah, we really just look forward to again bringing
a lot of people together and making something magical happen
so that we can do this all again next year.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Really wonderful, Jared, thank you so much for your time
this morning.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudken, listen
live to News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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