Grandma planks for four hours to set new Guinness World Record

A 58-year-old grandmother has set the new Guinness World Record for the longest abdominal plank by a woman.

DonnaJean Wilde, from Magrath, Alberta, Canada managed to hold the plank position for an impressive 4 hours 30 minutes 11 seconds, beating the previous record set by 10 minutes.

A plank is where you test your core strength by holding a position that is similar to a push-up, where your toes and forearms are the only parts of your body touching the ground at all times and your body must remain straight.

The retired former teacher and grandmother of 12 has had plenty of planking practice in the past 12 years and started this exercise when she couldn't run or lift weights while wearing a cast due to a broken wrist.

She increased her plank time in the following weeks, and it is now part of her daily fitness routine which she can do for up to three hours - she later increased this to six hours (two blocks of three hours) ahead of her record attempt.

All of Wilde's family members - including all her grandchildren - as well as school students came to support her in her world record attempt.

“My elbows hurt pretty bad,” she said after smashing the record.

“I was so worried about losing my form, and I think that’s why my quads hurt because I was just really tense."

She added that the first two hours went quickly and the last hour "last hour was the most challenging" but she managed to "stay focussed and keep my form," and ultimately in the last 30 minutes she maintained her position by "breathing, staying calm and not shaking,"

Wilde suffers from chronic pain in her hands and arms, which makes her perseverance to achieve this record an even more impressive feat.

“That chronic pain and numbness that she deals with every day has helped her to be able to plank through the pain," Wilde's husband Randy explained.

Wilde described how she feels "overwhelmed" at the fact she's set a Guinness World Record.

"I actually still can’t believe it,” she said. “It feels like a dream."

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