Attleboro man aims to do 11 hours of pullups on Nov. 11 to benefit vets – The Sun Chronicle

NORTH ATTLEBORO -- When John Brunelli goes to the gym to do some pullups this Veterans Day, hell be raising more than just his chin over the bar.

The Navy Reserve vet and Attleboro resident will be doing pullups at his gym, The Answer is Fitness, for 11 hours, honoring the original designation of Armistice Day of World War I when the guns fell silent on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918.

And speaking of numbers, Brunelli says, Id like to do 2,021 (chin ups). I dont know if Im going to hit that.

Brunelli, 53, is raising money for Taunton-based Homes for Our Troops, which builds and donates specially-adapted custom homes nationwide for severely injured post-9/11 veterans to enable them to rebuild their lives.

Brunelli, who served stateside as a medical corpsman at what was then the Naval Hospital Newport, has also been a dispatcher for the North Attleboro Fire Department and a Mansfield firefighter before going to work as a trainer for the Massachusetts State 911 Department. Ive come full circle, he says.

Hes raised money for the home-building group before, doing Stairs for Our Troops at Gillette Stadium, with a 25-pound vest.

This time, hes been training for about six months, including doing some 800 pullups in the course of four hours. Hes worked up to that gradually, he says. Hes also been running and was planning on a 24-hour race Saturday. By running that, he says, I figure that will be less weight to pull up.

His hands are calloused and Ive been eating a lot of bananas, as potassium is supposed to prevent muscle cramps. Hell be varying his grip during the Nov. 11 event for the same reason, and there will be rest and meal breaks along the way, but the rules say every pullup of his 5-foot-7-inch, 170 lb. frame has to start from a hanging position.

Well have witnesses there, he says.

Hell start, he says, one second past midnight on Nov. 11 and go for 11 hours

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Attleboro man aims to do 11 hours of pullups on Nov. 11 to benefit vets - The Sun Chronicle