Kenta Adachi of Japan has broken the record for the most pull ups in 24 hours (male) by performing an astonishing 8,940 of them.
That's over 300 more than the previous record set by Gary Lloyd (Australia).
Kenta is not new to breaking pull-up records as he also set the record for the most consecutive pull ups (651) back in 2022. You would imagine that he's been doing pull ups all his life. But in reality, he hasn't even been into sports for most of his life.
In 2007, Kenta started working at the Japan Coast Guard. He had to take a sports test, which left some bitter memories.
"I was not good at pull ups, and I got 12 out of 21 for the test. I still remember clearly how frustrated I was," he said.
Since then, Kenta worked on his pull-up skills. His progress - especially in 2021 - is amazing, as you can see in the notes he kept to track how many he could manage in one go:
- June 2015: 80
- March 2016: 100
- February 2021: 102
- April 2021: 110
- June 2021: 221
- September 2021: 430
When he finally hit 651 consecutive pull ups to break the most consecutive pull ups (male) record, Kenta was full of confidence.
That's when he set his eyes on the 24-hour record.
He said: "While there are many pull-up records, I felt that the 24-hour record is at the top of the pyramid, king of all pull-up records."
At the time, the record stood at 7,715 (set by Brandon Tucker in 2019). While Kenta did apply for the record, he was unable to organize a venue and witnesses and had to cancel his application.
Kenta then made efforts to find people to help organize his attempt. Although he was able to do that, he was shocked to learn that the record had been broken multiple times and now stood at 8,600, set by an Australian Gary Lloyd.
Two years prior to the record attempt, Kenta was already clocking 100-200 pull ups every two days. He began working specifically on the 24-hour attempt in December 2023, slowly extending the duration, starting from 30 minutes.
Two weeks prior to the record attempt, Kenta did a practice effort, doing 5,000 pull-ups in 9 hours and 32 minutes. While that boosted his confidence, he sprained his right forearm.
"I had to look after my body for the last two weeks of the attempt. I only practised between one or two hours."
Then came the official attempt. It was a struggle from an early stage for Kenta, as he felt some pains in his right shoulder only an hour into the attempt. Not only that, he had to endure sleepiness and stomach discomfort as time went by.
After hitting the 5,000 mark, nausea was so bad that Kenta wanted to vomit all the time. His hands were blistered all over, and his arms were screaming in pain. Kenta feared he may not make it.
The body was in pain and heavy, and nausea was unbearable. [After every rest] I didn't want to get up on the bars again. But I wasn't going to give up. My wife, witnesses, and colleagues from work were all there supporting me.
Despite suffering an excruciating 24 hours, Kenta managed to pull himself up 8,940 times.
"At the end of it all, I felt that this was impossible for me to achieve by myself. I was able to keep on going for 24 hours because there were so many people who supported me. I'm proud of the fact that so many people offered their hands to someone so insignificant like myself."
That goes especially to my wife. She supported me for the entire 24 hours without any sleep. While I feel bad for putting her through my selfish endeavors, she is the best partner in the whole world.
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