By Nicky Park of RNZ
This year Josh Harding has done over 50,000 pull-ups in his garage. On Saturday, he smashed out 4035 in 15 hours and 30 minutes.
The Wellington father of two decided at the start of the year he wanted to take on
Wellington dad smashed 4035 pull-ups. Afterwards things got ‘spicy’
Nicky Park
RNZ·
4 mins to read
Subscribe to listen
Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?
Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
Josh Harding with his7-year-old son, who was his inspiration for the pull-up challenge. Photo / RNZ
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
“My first 2000 I was doing five every 50 seconds. Once I got past 2000 I set the timer to a minute,” he said.
“I set little targets I just wanted to achieve – 1000, which would take me about four hours to achieve … then I set my sights on 1500 I did that a few months later and then 2000.
“A month and a half ago I did 3000 and I knew then that I was ready to have a go at it. But I had never been past 3000 ... 3000 took me 13 hours and 8 minutes.”
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
Harding, who works as a team manager for the Wellington City Council, would get up at 4am to smash out three hours of pull-ups before work. Or, at the other end of the day he would get going at 7pm and sweat through till 11pm, training his body to work when it was tired from the day.
“Before Saturday I’d done 51,200 pull-ups since January and in the last five weeks leading up to the event I did 1000 every third day,” he said.
On Saturday, at F45 Porirua, Harding, who has just turned 41, began his mission at 5am – he wanted to finish in time for his 7-year-old son to see him complete the goal. At 8.50pm he did that.
“Knowing that my boy carries my name and my girl too … I wanted to prove to them they could go through some tough times too and they will come out of it.
“I did ask him if he thought I could actually do it. He said, ‘You’re gonna do it dad’ and he didn’t hesitate.”
Harding had a detailed game plan – taking a break every 50 or so minutes to get some carbohydrates and sugar into his body, in small bites so he could throw his calloused hands back around the bar swiftly but with nothing in his mouth so he could keep taking big, deep breaths. He kept repeating the mantra: “Stay in the game”.
“I knew I would get it (the goal) if I didn’t quit, but I also didn’t want to repeat ‘don’t quit’ because you’re using the words you don’t want to do.”
While his back and hands aren’t feeling any delayed soreness two days later, “that night things got a bit spicy”.
“Once everyone left we packed up the gum and I told my girlfriend I nearly fainted… I just felt really lightheaded … things are happening in my body that I don’t know why.
“When I got home and got on to the couch I lost feeling in my feet and legs, lost all feeling in my fingers. It was like hypersensitivity pins and needles … times a thousand.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
“I’ve got very vague memories of it, almost like being really drunk.
“That lasted about two hours … the body was shutting down, it just wanted to preserve its vital organs.
“Breathing was very hard to control.”
His partner monitored his vital signs and by midnight, he said, he was finally able to hit the hay.
“I had no idea that was coming … I was just confused,” later learning more about the state his body had gone into after such a mammoth physical effort.
Harding collected over $2000 for Movember for his challenge. The world record stands at 11,707 pull-ups set by a South Korean military officer, done within 24 hours.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
“I think I will do something else, I’m not sure what yet,” said Harding, but “pull-ups will always be in my life”.
- RNZ