1, 2, 3… go!
A grandmother just broke the Guinness World Record for the longest time in an abdominal plank position for a female.
DonnaJean Wilde is a 58-year-old mom of 5 and grandmother of 12 from Alberta, Canada, who can now add a world record to her resume.
The Canadian held the plank for just over 4 hours and half-hour, in response to Guinness World Records, at the highschool where she was once the vice principal prior to retiring.
To acquire the world record, Wilde had to maintain her forearms and toes on the bottom throughout while keeping the rest of her body straight and lifted off the bottom.
Wilde told Guinness World Records that she typically planks for up to 3 hours day-after-day — but that she actually upped her regimen ahead of the record-breaking day to 6 hours, split into two three-hour blocks.
The fitness guru began planking 12 years ago when she broke her wrist and was unable to run or lift weights while wearing the solid, she said — noting in a press release that she turned to planking as a substitute.
“I spotted that I could read and do things once I was planking and fell in love with it,” she said.
The grandmother said she would even study while in a plank during preparation for her master’s degree, per Guinness World Records.
As for the way she survived the four-and-a-half-hour plank hold, Wilde said her elbows were in rough shape, and she or he was concerned about losing her form.
“I used to be so fearful about losing my form and I feel that’s why my quads hurt, because I used to be just really tense,” she added.
“It seems like a dream.”
Wilde noted that the primary two hours went by fairly quickly, however the second half was much tougher.
“The last hour was essentially the most difficult, just to remain focused and keep my form,” she said in a press release.
Wilde’s husband, Randy Wilde, shared that his wife of 40 years also suffers from chronic pain in her hands and arms — but that didn’t stop her from taking home the prize.
“That chronic pain and numbness that she deals with day-after-day her helped her to have the opportunity to plank through the pain,” he said to Guinness World Records.
“She has a capability that is exclusive on the planet,” he added.
Wilde’s son, Ray Wilde, is a teacher at the college where the record attempt took place and told Guinness World Records that his mom has at all times been athletic.
“Growing up, once we woke up, my mom had already run 4 miles and that has just progressed through the years, and she or he’s at all times been very energetic and fit,” he said.
Ray Wilde and other teachers periodically brought their students to see DonnaJean Wilde attempt the world record in the course of the school day last month.
The plank holder added that she tried to breathe and stay calm in the course of the last half-hour, which allowed her to beat the previous record of 4 hours and 19 minutes achieved in 2019.
“I actually still can’t consider it,” Wilde expressed. “It seems like a dream.”
The present men’s plank world record is just over 9 hours and 38 minutes and was achieved in 2023 by a person from the Czech Republic.