The Cuban athlete and coach Lilian M. Zamora Alonso, known as "Lilita" and based in Miami, set a Guinness record by lifting 289.90 kg (639 pounds) in the Max Weight Hip Thrust (female category).
The official attempt took place on March 27, 2026, at a gym in Miami, but Lilian announced the achievement on Instagram on August 11, after keeping the secret for three months while Guinness World Records processed and approved her record.
"Three months ago, I stood in front of that bar with a dream that I had been unknowingly building for years. That day, I lifted 639 lbs, and a three-month wait began during which I practically had to keep one of the biggest secrets of my life," he wrote in his post.
The hip thrust with weight is a strength exercise focused on the glutes. The athlete pushes a barbell loaded with weights upward through hip extension, with their back supported on a bench.
Guinness World Records maintains an official category for this discipline in both the female and male divisions. The previous record was 274.42 kg (605 pounds), set by Kaitlyn Callo in San Francisco in August 2024.
To reach 639 pounds, Lilian had to completely redesign her nutrition and training methods. She explained in a video that at the beginning of her preparation, her max was 635 pounds for one repetition. She had to abandon the 8 to 12 repetition sets focused on hypertrophy to specifically work on strength, gradually approaching her maximum repetition.
It was accompanied by a high-protein and carbohydrate diet to recover quickly and perform with increasingly heavier loads.
Lilian has been in the training world for nearly a decade and has established herself as a fitness trainer and digital content creator in Miami. She views this achievement as a starting point: "I feel that it's the beginning of something much bigger."
In 2025, another Cuban athlete, Jhoen Lefont, set a new world record that allowed him to maintain his record in ball domination in water. In total, he has more than a dozen world records, 10 of which are recognized by Guinness World Records.
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