Grandma Shows Amazing Physical Strength With New Guinness World Record

Holding a plank can sometimes be one of the most difficult part of a person’s workout routine. For DonnaJean Wilde of Magrath, Canada, however, the plank is a challenge worth committing to. In fact, the 58-year-old grandmother just set a new Guinness World record for the longest plank ever held by a woman. 

Wilde held a sustained plank pose for 4 hours, 30 minutes and 11 seconds, a whole 10 minutes longer than the previous record set by another Canadian woman in 2019. She completed the feat at Magrath High School, where she used to work, on March 21. The men’s plank world record currently sits at 9 hours, 38 minutes and 47 seconds. 

It was a display of strength that even caught Wilde herself by surprise. “I actually still can’t believe it,” she confessed to Guinness World Records after she was done. “It feels like a dream.”

Of course, the dream didn’t come without hard work leading up to it. Wilde, who has been an active person for decades, first fell in love with the exercise while recovering from a wrist injury and she found she could easily do it at home. Getting to the world record, then, was quite the journey. “My elbows hurt pretty bad,” she said after the feat. “I was so worried about losing my form, and I think that’s why my quads hurt because I was just really tense.”

She noted that the first two hours felt like they went by pretty quickly, but the final two hours were a pain, to say the least. “The last hour was the most challenging, just to stay focused and keep my form,” she admitted. 

If you’re interested in pursuing something like this yourself, Wilde assured aspiring plankers that anything is possible if you stay dedicated to it. “Keep trying and keep practicing,” she advised hopefuls. “When you have to read or work on your computer, just get on the floor and do it on the floor.”

That’s certainly one way to pass the time while at home.