The Hercules Pillar Hold is one of strongman sport’s most brutal and theatrical challenges — a test that strips strength back to its rawest form.
There is no movement, no momentum and no escape. Just two colossal pillars, crushing outward, and an athlete standing between them, daring their grip and mind not to fail.
In November 2024, Vispy Kharadi didn’t just endure that suffering — he redefined it.
On 11 November in Surat, India, Kharadi officially set a new Guinness World Record for the longest duration holding Hercules pillars (male), stopping the clock at an astonishing 2 minutes 10.75 seconds.
The pillars weighed 166.7 kg and 168.9 kg, stood 123 inches tall with a 20.5-inch diameter, and were connected by chains positioned 68.5 inches from the base at a 35–45 degree angle. Kharadi himself stands 5ft 10 inches tall — far from the towering frame typically associated with elite strongman competitors.
The achievement obliterated the previous Guinness World Record held by Dutch athlete Kelvin de Ruiter — not by a few seconds, but by 90 seconds. The performance was so eye-catching that it even caught the attention of Elon Musk, who shared the feat on X.
The event itself is rooted in myth. Inspired by the Graeco-Roman legend of Hercules tearing apart a mountain to create the pillars at the edge of the world, the modern Hercules Hold places an athlete between two massive structures, each weighing well over 150 kilos.
It is an event designed to tear your biceps from your body. Victory is simple in theory and merciless in practice: hold on until your body gives up.
What makes Kharadi’s record even more remarkable is how unlike a traditional strongman he appears. At 5 feet 10 inches and 87 kg, he is competing against athletes who are, in the words of Strongman India president Sanjit Paul, “literal giants”.
“Vispy has set a completely new benchmark. The people he competes with are literal giants – almost all of them are way over 6 feet and weigh about 150 kg,” Paul said, per The Hindustan Times.
Kharadi has since backed up his dominance. Last year, at the Attari-Wagah border, he performed the Hercules hold using 261-kg pillars for one minute and seven seconds, surpassing British strength legend Mark Felix’s earlier 200-kg attempt.
For 42-year-old Kharadi, records are nothing new. In 2022, he set a Guinness World Record for the most concrete blocks broken with the elbow in one minute, smashing an incredible 64 blocks.
His preparation was meticulous. In 2023, he commissioned a steel manufacturing company in Surat to construct 11-foot-tall, 150-kg pillars and began training roughly two months before his record attempt. His sessions were held inside the company’s vast warehouse, where the pillars were stored.
“I would train every alternate day at the company’s massive warehouse, where the pillars were stored,” he says.
“My DMs are full of people wanting to know more about the event,” says Kharadi. “I simply tell them: just try hanging with one hand on a pull-up bar for a minute. If you can do that, you’ll have a sense of the effort this stunt demands.”
Yet even that level of physical preparation wasn’t enough on its own. According to Kharadi, the real battle begins when the clock stretches on and the pain becomes overwhelming. The final 30 seconds of his record-breaking hold felt like “the longest half a minute of his life”.
To survive it, he turned to a mental image that is as powerful as it is unsettling.
“I imagine I’m holding on to my two sons, Zidaan and Yazdan, for their dear life, like that scene in Sylvester Stallone’s Cliffhanger. In my mind, I just can’t let go,” he revealed.
If you don’t know the scene in question, check it out:
It is a mental state that other strength athletes have employed, including the 2027 World’s Strongest Man, Eddie Hall.
Speaking to close friend and fellow strongman Brian Shaw, Hall also revealed a unique technique for getting himself in the headspace when attempting to become the first person in history to deadlift 500kg.
Admitting that he was only ever to lift around 457kg at the gym, Hall knew he had to get himself in the right frame of mind to lift 500kg.
“I created a pinch point on my hand, that I did just before I came out to the crowd. And I pinched the back of my hand, and that set me off,” Hall said. “I’m not in the arena, I’m lifting a car off my kids.”
But these disturbing visualisations — mixing fear, love and sheer desperation — is what carried Hall and Kharadi into the history books.
Featured image credit: X/GuinnessWorldRecords (Screenshots)
