A 61-year-old grandmother planks for 5 hours and breaks her own world record: “I feel really good about it”

A 61-year-old grandmother from Canada has broken her own Guinness World Record for the longest plank, holding the position for five hours. DonnaJean Wilde of Welling, Alberta, held an abdominal plank for five straight hours at the Huntsman World Senior Games in Utah.

Wilde shattered her previous 2024 world record of four hours, 30 minutes, and 11 seconds. Guinness notes that, to achieve the record successfully, the challenger’s forearms and toes must touch the ground throughout.

She began training six months ago by planking between four and five hours every day. Wilde, a grandmother of 12, told TODAY.com, “I feel really good about it” and “Now that it’s done, I’m really happy.” Wilde added that the crowd gave her the confidence to accomplish this extraordinary feat. “The crowd was cheering through the last few minutes, and they carried me through,” she says. “And now I look back, and I think, ‘Wow, wow, we did it. We did it together.’”

A woman of extraordinary fitness

Wilde, a retired schoolteacher, says she started planking about 15 years ago after breaking her wrist in a gym accident and looking for a way to stay fit. “I had a cast on and I couldn’t run. I couldn’t work out. I couldn’t do everything I wanted to do, and then I discovered planking,” she said.

At first, Wilde could hold the position only for a minute or two. She figured she’d only do planking after her cast came off and then return to her regular exercises. Instead, she “fell in love” with planking.“I just kept doing it and doing it … so I planned my school lessons and marked my students’ work while I was planking,” says Wilde.

According to experts, planking is a core exercise that helps tone all of the muscle groups, including abs, arms, back, shoulders, glutes, and legs. “Planking makes me feel so good and helps me stand up straight,” says Wilde.

Aside from planking, Wilde also holds a second Guinness World Record for most push-ups in one hour by a female. She did 1,575 in just under 60 minutes in 2024. When asked if she would ever attempt to break her world record for planking again in the future, she answered: “I’m not sure I’m going to try and break my planking record. Maybe my push-up record.”