DonnaJean Wilde dropped into a forearm plank at 3:03 p.m. and did not move for five straight hours.
Quick Take
- DonnaJean Wilde, 61, held a plank for five hours at the Huntsman World Senior Games in Utah on October 6, 2026.
- The attempt beat her own prior record of 4 hours, 30 minutes, 11 seconds, set in March 2024.
- Judges rotated hourly to watch for form, and a cheering crowd stayed with her the whole time.
- Guinness World Records was still reviewing the submitted evidence at the time of reporting.
Five Hours, One Position, Zero Breaks
Wilde locked into the plank position at roughly 3:03 p.m. Mountain Time and held it until about 8:03 p.m., according to ABC News. That is five full hours with her forearms and toes on the ground and her body held straight, the exact posture Guinness requires for the record. CBC reported the attempt unfolded in front of a cheering crowd at the Huntsman World Senior Games in St. George, Utah.
Officials did not just take her word for it. Judges rotated out approximately every hour during the attempt, a detail confirmed both by the World Senior Games and in a Good Morning America transcript describing fresh officials stepping in to verify compliance. That rotation matters. A single judge watching for five hours could miss a slip in form, but swapping observers hourly creates a running chain of witnesses backing up the final number.
This Was Not Her First Record
Wilde already held the previous women’s plank record of 4 hours, 30 minutes, and 11 seconds, set back in March 2024. She also holds a separate Guinness title for most push-ups by a woman in one hour, with 1,575 repetitions logged. Her October attempt did not come out of nowhere. It came from a woman who had already proven, on paper and on video, that her body could absorb extreme isometric stress longer than almost anyone else’s.
Asked how she gets through hours of a position most people cannot hold past a minute, Wilde kept her answer simple. She described bracing against the pain and letting her body settle into what she called a numb state, crediting daily repetition and small gains built up over time rather than any shortcut or supplement. That kind of unglamorous, repeated effort lines up with how most endurance athletes actually train, even if it makes for a less flashy headline than a miracle trick.
Why The Record Is Not Official Yet
Here is the one wrinkle worth knowing. As of the reporting window, Guinness World Records had not formally certified the five-hour performance. ABC News, NPR, CBC, and USA TODAY all noted that Guinness had received the application and was still reviewing the evidence. That is standard procedure, not a red flag. Guinness says most records are confirmed after a team reviews uploaded evidence, rather than through an adjudicator standing on site.
Guinness’s own published process explains why verification takes time after the fact. The Records Management Team runs what the organization calls comprehensive checks on submitted evidence before confirming any title change. For an attempt built on five unbroken hours of continuous posture, that means reviewing footage, witness confirmations, and timing records before anything becomes official. It is a paperwork step, not a doubt about what the crowd in Utah watched happen live.
A Feat That Speaks For Itself
Video of the moment Wilde finished her plank spread fast online, pulling in millions of views within days. A grandmother of 12 outlasting an entire workday’s worth of hours in a position that burns out most adults in under a minute is the kind of story that does not need exaggeration to land. It is physical proof that discipline built slowly, year after year, can outperform almost anything flashier.
🚨🚨 Guinness World Record
DonnaJean Wilde, a 61-year-old grandmother from Canada, broke the women's world record for the longest plank. pic.twitter.com/jGYRyd9zfv
— U M A R (@Maaalik9) October 16, 2026
Whatever the final paperwork from Guinness says, the scene in St. George already told its own story. A 61-year-old woman stayed locked in position for five hours while judges rotated, a crowd cheered, and cameras rolled the entire time. That is the record most people will remember, long before any certificate gets mailed out.
Sources:
mindbodygreen.com, abcnews.com, cbc.ca
