What started as an online endurance challenge ended with a new Guinness World Record.
Xavier Dillard, a 22-year-old African American streamer from Virginia, completed 12,412 pull-ups in 24 hours, beating the previous mark during a nonstop livestream that drew nationwide attention.
Dillard, who goes by TaterMaster online, began the attempt at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 2. He finished 24 hours later at a CrossFit gym in Harrisonburg, Virginia, while streaming the effort on YouTube as witnesses and local media monitored the challenge in real time.
As the attempt wore on, Dillard said the physical toll became intense, but he kept going.
“I thought I was dying, but for some reason I said I wanted this record so bad, I just had to keep going,” he said, according to HypeFresh.
The challenge grew out of a rivalry from years earlier. Dillard said he had competed with a friend in a basement gym, where pull-ups became the one exercise he could not win. He said he beat his friend in other movements, but pull-ups stayed with him as a frustration.
That pushed him into structured training. He built up from smaller sets of 12 reps and later added high-volume sessions with hundreds of pull-ups in timed intervals after regular workouts, eventually reaching about 2,400 reps on peak training days.
Before that progress, Dillard said he was far from a natural athlete. In high school cross-country, he often finished among the slowest runners. He said his improvement came through repetition, discipline and consistent effort rather than natural talent.
The attempt picked up momentum online as it unfolded. Local news stations covered the event on site, and clips spread on X, including posts from @KollegeKidd.
By the end of the livestream, Dillard had passed 12,400 pull-ups. The final total was 12,412.
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