58-year-old grandma smashes the world record for plank

58-year-old breaks plank world record

During the spring of 2020, as businesses shut-down and everyone adjusted to working from home – I decided to throw down the gauntlet on myself:

Do a five-minute plank.

Ever since high school, I toyed with the idea but never committed myself to see it through. But forever whatever reason, during 2020 I decided it was time to do it.

The experience was enlightening and I discovered many lessons training up to the 5-minute mark including – fast bpm music does not help (slower Japanese music was the best)… look at the clock as little as possible… and how feelings of giving up were fleeting (and you can become more at peace with them).

While this accomplishment was deeply satisfying and a challenging mountain for me personally to climb, it does not hold a candle to what people have accomplished with this exercise.

For instance, 58-year-old Donna Jean Wilde recently broke the women’s world record for the plank.

On March 21st, she went back to the Magrath High School gymnasium, where she was a vice principal, and set-up on a platform for her marathon plank.

When the Guinness world record crew gave her the word, the clock started and the packed gymnasium cheered as kids held signs and did their own planks alongside her. And Wilde proceeded to hold her plank for 4 hours 30 minutes and 11 seconds.

(Apparently breaking the previous record by 10 minutes)

How’d she do it?

Apparently, Wilde had been an active exerciser for decades (often running 4 miles in the morning) but didn’t get serious about the plank until she broke her wrist. She found she couldn’t do the same workouts and sports while wearing a cast. But she found she could hold a plank comfortably so she started giving herself little plank challenges.

“That was one thing I could do for the next six or eight weeks with a cast on. I realized I could read and do things when I was planking and I fell in love with it.” 

After that she worked up to longer and longer bouts until she could plank for over an hour at a time. The month before breaking the record, she was totaling 5-6 hours of planks per day in 2-3 hours blocks.

Now some people will think,

Why? Why does anyone need to plank for that long?  

And that’s the thing.

It’s not about 'need to'.

It’s not about ‘have to’.

It’s about something more. It’s about going beyond your limits… seeing where you can go… how far you can take something…. and knowing it’s not just about you. That what you’re doing just might create a ripple-effect for countless others on their journey of excellence:

“Whatever it is that you like if it’s sports or academics or music [or] arts - whatever it is the more you practice the better you get and the easier it becomes and then you can help others around you.” - Donna Jean Wilde

Kelan Ern

P.S. If this type of record-breaking athleticism inspires you, check out my latest review of one of the greatest books on the mindset of a champion. This was the one book legendary wrestler Dan Gable returned to again and again over the course of his career.

Heart of a Champion