Canadian breaks record doing something for five hours most of us could never
Think you can hold a plank for 50 seconds? Try five hours.
A 61-year-old Canadian grandmother broke her own world record for the longest female abdominal plank after holding the position for five hours at the Huntsman World Senior Games on Oct. 5.
DonnaJean Wilde is a retired teacher and vice principal from Magrath, Alta., with five children and 12 grandkids. Since breaking this record, sheās gotten a lot of media attention for her incredible, albeit baffling, achievement.
And just to put five hours into perspective: thatās about enough time to fly from Toronto to Vancouver or get through the entire first season of The Office.
Canadian athlete DonnaJean Wilde, 61, has broken her own world record by planking for more than five hours, giving her the title of longest female abdominal plank holder in the world, according to the World Senior Games. https://t.co/qhaGw7bZeS https://t.co/Hz1dMJP99N
ā ABC News (@ABC) October 8, 2026
“I’m 28, and my lower back hurts reading this. Absolute legend,” writes one user on X in response to ABC News’ viral video.
“She held a plank longer than my last relationship lasted,” another user joked.
Others chimed in with comments including, “You go! I can barely get through five minutes!” and “Canadian chicks F’N rock!”
Wilde has always loved fitness but, according to Impact Magazine, planking wasn’t a part of her routine until 2013 when she suffered a wrist injury. She couldnāt walk, let alone run, while wearing a sling, but discovered she could still plank.
So she got really into it.
This wasn’t a case of doing it for a few weeks, getting bored and quietly abandoning the exercise like the rest of us would probably do.
In 2024, Wilde broke two Guinness World Records in less than six months. First, she set the record for the longest abdominal plank by a woman, holding the position for four hours, 30 minutes, and 11 seconds.
Then she apparently decided that wasnāt enough suffering and set another record for the most push-ups in one hour by a woman, completing a whopping 1,575.
At this point, planking has basically become Wildeās brand.
In 2025, she even published From Minutes to Hours: I Wrote This Book While Planking, which you can find on Amazon and other retailers. Meanwhile, the rest of us are out here writing from a chair like chumps.
If history repeats itself, Wilde could come back in two years to break her own record again. She’ll be 63 and without a doubt still stronger than most of us.