Managing to hold a plank for 4.5 minutes is impressive. Doing it for 4.5 hours is extraordinary—and record-setting. CBS News reports DonnaJean Wilde has been certified by Guinness World Records as the new women's world record holder for the longest time spent in an abdominal plank position: 4 hours, 30 minutes and 11 seconds. That's 10 minutes longer than the record set in 2019. Wilde, a 58-year-old Canadian with five kids and 12 grandkids, managed the feat in March.
Her son tells Guinness that his mom has long been active: "Growing up, whenever we woke up, my mom had already ran four miles." She began planking 12 years ago after breaking her wrist and being unable to do her normal weight-lifting exercises while in a cast. Her preparation was intense: Up to three hours of planking a day—time she spent reading, watching movies, and studying for her master's degree. In the run-up to her record-setting attempt, she did two three-hour sessions daily.
CBS News tacks on a detail that makes her accomplishment all the more impressive: Wilde suffers from transverse myelitis and the inflammation she experiences in a section of her spinal cord as a result causes pain in her arms and hands. Or, you know, "those areas she relies on to hold a plank." (More Guinness World Records stories.)
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