LOCAL: DC Man Unofficially Sets New World Record for Pullups

pullup

Alex Beall
WMAL.com

WASHINGTON (WMAL) — A D.C. man may have broke the world record for pullups over the weekend.

After two years of intense training, John Bocek completed 5,801 pullups during a 24 hour period at Ballston Crossfit in Arlington. Guinness World Records must still approve the record before it’s official, which should take about a week.

“It may not require a lot of skill to do a pullup, but it does require something that is kind of lost in our day in age, which is the idea of endurance and just keep pushing, keep pushing,” Bocek said. “So I really wanted to see what I was capable of.”

Bocek began the feat at 6 p.m. on Saturday and finished at 6 p.m. on Sunday, documenting the event via a live-stream, which was viewed by thousands of people worldwide.

His strategy for completing so many pullups was to begin quick, but then settle into a steady pace for as long as possible. A big challenge for him was fighting the need to sleep.

“Going through the night, probably about 4/4:30, it’s just total exhaustion as far as the body clock and just wanting to go to sleep,” Bocek said. “But it was nice because about 5/5:30 when the birds started chirping — you could hear them because the doors were open — the body clock started waking back up and you get that second, third, fourth wind.”

He originally set his goal at 5,000 pullups, but in the beginning of May, a new record was set at 5,101. He then increased his goal to 6,000.

Three hours before he finished the attempt, Bocek’s brother and fiance informed him that a new, unofficial record had been set at more than 5,700.

Bocek said he managed to break this number because of the support from his friends and family.

His two years of training involved doing pullups for three to four hours after he got home from work on the weekdays, then spending seven hours a day at the gym on the weekends.

Tucker Jones, owner of Ballston Crossfit and Bocek’s friend, recalled that Bocek would be working out at the gym from 3 a.m. to 9 a.m. some days to prepare.

“It just took an incredible amount of dedication and hard work and perseverence,” Jones said.

Bocek said the training was more laborious than the actual challenge.

“That was more the adventure and that was more the struggle than the actual 24 hours because the 24 hours are just a culmination of the two years of work,” Bocek said.

Bocek’s attempt to break the record also helped raise money for non-profits that help build Christian churches around the world.

Copyright 2015 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (Photo via YouTube)

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