You can accomplish a lot in 5 hours. You can fly from Toronto to Vancouver, play an entire 18-hole round of golf, smoke a stack of ribs, or run a full marathon at an average pace. Now imagine holding an abdominal plank — one of the most notoriously challenging core exercises — for that amount of time. That’s exactly what 61-year-old fitness enthusiast DonnaJean Wilde did at the Huntsman World Senior Games in Utah. The games celebrate athletic achievements of people over the age of 50. Wilde broke her own record of 4 hours 30 minutes and 11 seconds set in 2024. A grandmother of 12 and retired school teacher, Wilde she was “feeling good” and waiting for Guinness to make the record official. An abdominal plank is an isometric core exercise where you hold your body straight like a plank of wood. Most adults can hold a plank for 20 to 60 seconds. Guinness World Records notes that to successfully achieve the record, the challenger’s forearms and toes must touch the ground at all times. The remainder of the body must be lifted off the ground and kept straight throughout. Wilde says she started planking about 15 years ago when she broke her arm and was looking for a way to stay fit. When she first started, she says she could hold a plank for about 60-90 seconds, but kept practicing. In 2024, she broke a second record, completing 1,575 pushups in one hour. Now, she does about 500 pushups a day.
