FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS, Ill. — An Illinois man aims for a new Guinness World Record on Friday.
Brandon Garrett, a 19-year-old personal trainer and entrepreneur, plans to do 10,000 pull-ups in less than 24 hours at Club Fitness in Fairview Heights. His family and friends will be there supporting and counting for him as he focuses on getting his chin over the bar.
The 24 hours will begin on Friday evening and go until Saturday evening.
Garrett has been training for seven months all for this day. He said he picked this date because it was the weekend before the holiday season and Garrett did not want to train throughout the season.
" I knew I was ready for this when I hit David Goggins' old record which was 4030. The new record is double that," he said.
Goggins accomplished this in 17 hours and 16 minutes back in 2013. According to the Guinness website, Gary Lloyd, reached 8,600 within 24 hours to become the latest record holder.
While Garrett has only been a personal trainer at Club Fitness for a year, he has been training since he was 13 years old. When he first saw Goggins, he was just 9 years old.
"I played every sport you can think of so fitness has always been a part of my life."
Garret's big brother and one of his clients, Craig Ambegoda, said "this is a culmination of all the hard work he has put in his whole life. He has always been very driven and motivated to push himself."
Garrett said this 24-hour period is just another workout for him.
The training required to break the record consisted of Garrett doing pull-ups daily from sunrise to sunset. His discipline for reaching his goal never stopped. Garrett said that while watching TV with his family he would always do pull-ups in the background.
"I think he will reach his goal. He is incredibly strong and he has really been preparing for this. He has been preparing his hands for the damage," Garrett's former general manager at Club Fitness Matt Haverstick said. " He did a couple of different runs between four and six thousand pull-ups over the course of 12-hour periods. He has been working on his timing and just really putting in the effort."
Garret hopes to inspire other people and he wants them to know that "sometimes a goal can seem so unachievable but you just have to break it down. Somedays you have to break it down week by week, day by day, hour by hour, second by second."
Although Haverstick will not be there on Friday, he said he will stop by on Saturday to see him to the finish line.
" He has been a top ten trainer since he started," Haverstick said. " I bought a bunch of training books and Brandon was the only one to ever grab them and read them. He is very dedicated to his craft, very personable, and just an overall joy to be around."
"He is one of the reasons I stay in shape," Ambegoda said as he laughed. "He pushes me to try and maintain my physical health."
As for Garret's gym community, family and friends, "they are awesome," he said.
"If I don't reach the record I want to know I gave it everything I had. I am going for 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds."
No matter the outcome, Garrett's eyes are on the future, with plans to expand his fitness business and dabble in his love for culinary art.
Garrett is livestreaming his world-record attempt. You can watch it here.
