Xavier Dillard decided to train for the record after a friend beat him in pull-ups three years ago
Credit: 29News – WVIR Charlottesville, VA/YouTube
NEED TO KNOW
- Xavier Dillard may have broken the world record for the most pull-ups in 24 hours, with 12,412 in total
- The current record holder is Enrique Zapata, who did 12,345 in January — 67 fewer than Dillard
- Guinness World Records will need to review the footage before making the 22-year-old the official record holder
A 22-year-old Virginia native claims to have broken the world record for the most pull-ups in 24 hours after two years of training.
Xavier Dillard, from Harrisonburg, completed an impressive 12,412 pull-ups between 10:00 a.m. local time on Saturday, May 2 and 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, May 3. He streamed the event on YouTube from a CrossFit gym in the city.
Guinness World Records will need to review the footage to consider Dillard the official record holder. Currently, Enrique Zapata of Mexico holds the accolade, after he managed to do 12,345 pull-ups — 67 fewer than Dillard's total — during a 24-hour span in January.
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Dillard told ABC affiliate WHSV that the idea to take on the record himself began three years ago when he was training in a friend's basement.
"I'm better than him in every other exercise except pull-ups. Like, I hate pull-ups," he explained. "I couldn't stand it. I'm very competitive. So after we tried, I spent every day training pull-ups."
Dillard spent the past two years training, starting with four sets of 12 and gradually increasing his numbers, with a target of 14,000 for the 24-hour challenge.
"I just did pull-ups every single day," he told WHSV. "My biggest training week would probably be 2,400 pull-ups and four hours every day of the week, which ends up being 14,000 or 16,000."
Dillard said the most difficult part of the record was persisting through the pain and not giving up. He recalled having blurry vision and tearing up, even thinking he "was dying" during the challenge.
"But for some reason, I wanted this record so bad. I just had to keep going," he said.
After he completed his pull-ups, he shared photos of himself on Instagram with the caption simply reading, "#pullup #worldrecord."
Dillard told WHSV he was "very skinny" when he was younger and was one of the slowest athletes on his cross-country team, but "put in the effort" to achieve something he really wanted.
Offering a tip to people who might be thinking about breaking records of their own, he finished, "Keep your head low and just work on what you're passionate [about]."
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