Islander is now — officially — the world chin-up champion

It’s official.

Shelter Island’s David Brush, 20, holds the Guinness Record for the most chin-ups in a 24-hour period — 6,757, well past the old record of 5,340.

“I expected to stop at 6,000,” Mr. Brush said Friday. He had kept that goal to himself but he had almost five hours to go on Aug. 21 when he broke the record.

He was determined to keep going. When he hit 6,000, he had time and decided continuing could help send a message that his record would stand for a long time by continuing until the clock showed his 24 hours was up, he said.

Added to his inspiration, was hearing about another person who had started the same challenge two hours after Mr. Brush had begun his pursuit of the record.

The previous record, achieved in September 2020, was held by Idai Makaya in the United Kingdom.

As required by Guinness, he had strategically placed cameras on site at his Hilo Drive house and, surrounded by friends and family — some required to work in shifts monitoring his attempt and all on hand to cheer him on — he had also arranged a YouTube video hookup that allowed others to check up on his progress.

The first official acknowledgment he had broken the record was seeing a recent online post from Guinness indicating his achievement, He checked his email and discovered one from Guinness acknowledging that he was now the record holder.

He’s now awaiting a certificate he plans to post in a strategic place on his dorm room wall at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. His roommates have given him “a lot of flak” about the lack of material on his wall in the room. Now he’ll put his certificate in a prominent place.

As significant as Mr. Brush’s accomplishment was for him to spend months of training and careful attention to his diet, his motivation was most important to him.

He was inspired by his grandfather, Donald Hess, who lost his battle to Parkinson’s Disease. Mr. Brush started a GoFundMe page aiming to raise $1,500 and, at the suggestion of his mother, Diane Brush, quickly raised that to $5,500 for each chin-up he aimed to do. The effort was designed to contribute money to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.

Mr. Brush surpassed the $5,500  goal and ended up raising more than $8,000.

“Even when his Parkinson’s was at its worst, my grandfather was still the most inspirational person I’ve ever known,” Mr. Brush said at the time he launched his effort. He said he coped with his grandfather’s death through physical exercise and became inspired to do something major in Mr. Hess’ memory.

Mission accomplished.

“It was definitely very stressful,” he said about the months of filing paperwork necessary to certify his record. He was further hampered by some technical difficulties in getting backup videos to the Guinness staff.

Although it has been almost three months since he spent those 24 sleepless hours chasing the record, he still experiences “some random aches and pains,” he said. For four days after he completed his record-breaking effort, he said he couldn’t lift his arms and his hands hurt.

His next physical challenge is a marathon. He was a runner at Xavier High School in New York City, and in college continued running and did an “impromptu marathon” on the college track.

Contemplating a marathon is something of a family tradition. His father, Charles, ran the New York marathon five times and both parents ran the Chicago Marathon in 2000.

Mr. Brush has unofficially attempted the just-over 26 mile run, but would like to officially run a course as a registrant.