FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS, Ill. (KTVI) – While many people struggle to do even one full pull-up, a teenager in Illinois has just completed thousands within 24 hours.
Nineteen year-old Brandon Garrett grew up playing several sports and was a serious runner. At one point, he ran 10 miles every morning. A few months after becoming a personal trainer at Club Fitness in O’Fallon, Illinois, Garrett set a new goal.
Garrett wanted to break the world record for the most pull-ups in 24 hours: 8,600. To break it down, Garrett would do 10 pull-ups a minute to get to 5,000 before switching his rep pace.
“Once I’m committed to something, I’m going to get it,” Garrett said.
Nexstar’s KTVI reports he spent eight months training while juggling clients at the gym. During that time he committed 25 hours per week doing pull-ups, completing 70,000 every seven days.
Last Friday, it was time for Garrett to test his limits.
At 4 p.m. at Club Fitness, Garrett began his quest for a new world record. Going straight for 24 hours meant going through the darkness.
“I kept looking outside, looking for the sun to rise,” Garrett said. “That midnight to 6 a.m., I felt like, a perpetual darkness.”
Describing the pain he endured, Garrett explained the forearms were the first thing to “go.”
“It literally felt like rubber bands snapping through my forearms.”
When Garrett hit 9,000 pull-ups — well past the world record — he didn’t stop.
In the next couple of hours, Garrett began to feel and push his limits.
“I told everybody I was going to go to 23 hours, 59 minutes, and 59 seconds. So that’s what I did,” he said. “A man of my word.”
In the end, Garrett said he completed 9,229 pull-ups — 629 more than the previous record. He’s sent the video of his pull-ups to the Guinness Book of World Records for confirmation, which could come at the perfect time this holiday season.
“That would be really nice to get that gift going into the new year,” Garrett said. “[I’d be a] world record holder, so I’d be excited.”
