A 61-year-old grandmother from Canada has wowed the internet by breaking her own Guinness World Record for longest time planking after holding the position for five hours.
DonnaJean Wilde of Welling, Alberta, helped kick off the Oct. 6 opening ceremonies at the Huntsman World Senior Games in St. George, Utah, when she planked in front of a crowd to beat her 2024 world record, for females, of 4 hours, 30 minutes and 11 seconds.
Viral videos from the games, which celebrate athletes ages 50 and over, show Wilde planking on a platform with a smile on her face. One video has racked up more than 9 million views with commenters expressing their awe over Wilde’s feat.
“I feel really good about it,” Wilde tells TODAY.com about her new world record. “Now that it’s done, I’m really happy.”
The retired schoolteacher said she’d wondered for a long time if she could plank for five hours straight. She began training six months ago by planking between four and five hours every day.
On Tuesday, she began her record-breaking plank with confidence, but shortly after she surpassed her record 2024 time, she began losing steam.
“That last half hour was harder than I ever thought it would be, I think I just kind of hit a wall,” Wilde says.
It was the crowd chanting her name that helped her get the job done.
“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 Lifelong Love of Sports and Fitness
The mom of five, who also holds a second Guinness World Record for most pushups in one hour by a female — she did 1575 of them in just under 60 minutes in 2024 — tells TODAY.com she fell in love with sports and fitness as a child.
A lifelong runner, Wilde ran track in junior high and high school. She began planking 15 years ago after breaking her wrist in a gym accident.
“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,” Wilde recalls.
At first, Wilde could hold the position only for a minute or two. She figured she’d keep at it until 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.
For years now, Wilde has planked for about two hours every day, incorporating the low-impact exercise into other tasks.
“I go on the floor and plank when I have something I need to do, like texting, emailing, reading or messaging somebody,” Wilde says, adding she also planks while doing an assignment or calling one of her kids.
If Wilde’s husband Randy, 63, also a fitness enthusiast, turns on a movie, Wilde will watch it with him while on the floor planking.
The physical benefits of planking can’t be beat.
Planking helps tone all of the muscle groups, including abs, arms, back, shoulders, glutes and legs, experts say. Planking can also help improve balance, ease back pain and reduce belly fat.
“Planking makes me feel so good and helps me stand up straight,” says Wilde.
Asked how strong her core muscles are, Wilde simply laughs.
The Kids and Grandkids Stay Fit, Too
Wilde and her husband stay healthy by walking or running together every day. They also work out in their home gym.
The couple’s kids and 12 grandkids have inherited their love of sports and fitness.
“Ten out of 12 grandchildren at this moment are on at least one or two sports teams, like volleyball, basketball, baseball, football. The two who aren’t on sports teams are into dancing and gymnastics,” Wilde says.
As for Wilde’s diet, she shares that she and Randy try to stick to fresh whole foods.
“Lots of eggs, lots of real protein, lots of real fruits and vegetables, oatmeal, just real food,” Wilde says.
“If we go somewhere, of course, then we will eat whatever anybody serves us. We don’t worry about it,” she adds.
Does Wilde foresee herself attempting to break her world record for planking again in the future?
“I’m not sure I’m going to try and break my planking record. Maybe my push-up record,” Wilde says, laughing.