{"id":925143,"date":"2026-10-08T09:50:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T09:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/925143\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T09:50:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T09:50:15","slug":"a-61-year-old-grandma-just-held-a-plank-for-5-hours-try-these-2-exercises-from-her-strength-routine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/925143\/","title":{"rendered":"A 61-year-old grandma just held a plank for 5 hours \u2013 try these 2 exercises from her strength routine"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s a lot you can do in five hours. Fly from London to Cairo. Run a marathon. Assemble several pieces of IKEA furniture.<\/p>\n

But could you imagine planking<\/a> for that long?<\/p>\n

That’s exactly what 61-year-old mother of five and grandmother of 12 DonnaJean Wilde<\/a> has just done.<\/p>\n

The former teacher has broken her own 2024 world record of four hours, 30 minutes and 11 seconds, setting a remarkable new mark of five hours, according to the World Senior Games<\/a>.<\/p>\n

DonnaJean, from Welling in Canada, is proof that it’s never too late to build strength. She didn’t discover the plank \u2013 or realise she had a talent for it \u2013 until 2013, when the exercise went viral and her children challenged one another to see who could hold it the longest.<\/p>\n

At the time, she’d recently broken her arm and was unable to run while wearing a bulky cast.<\/p>\n

‘I couldn’t run. I could hardly walk down the road with a sling, but I could plank. It was such a pivotal moment for me that day. It just changed my life,’ she previously told Impact Magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Her enthusiasm for the exercise only grew from there.<\/p>\n

During the pandemic, DonnaJean told Impact, her children became curious to see just how long she could hold the position.<\/p>\n

The answer? Two hours.<\/p>\n

That’s when she began taking the challenge more seriously, setting her sights on a world record and beginning structured training in 2023.<\/p>\n

According to Impact, her programme included push-ups<\/a>, weight lifting<\/a>, running and, unsurprisingly, plenty of planking.<\/p>\n

The 2 exercises she uses to build upper-body strength<\/p>\n

In a separate Instagram post<\/a> about the importance of upper-body strength for healthy ageing, DonnaJean revealed she planks, performs hundreds of push-ups every day and has recently added dead hangs to her routine.<\/p>\n

‘For someone like me, who has chronic pain and numbness in my hands, my grip strength has improved drastically.’ <\/p>\n

How to do a push-up<\/a>:
Place your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and step your feet back into a high plank. Brace your core, then bend your elbows to lower your chest towards the floor, keeping your body in a straight line. Press back up. To make it more manageable, place your hands on a sturdy bench or worktop.<\/p>\n

How to do a dead hang<\/a>:
Grip a secure overhead bar with your palms facing forwards, hands around shoulder-width apart. Gradually take your weight through your hands and let your feet lift from the floor, keeping your body still. Start with a brief, comfortable hold; keep your feet supported on a stable platform if needed. Stop if you feel pain, numbness or tingling.<\/p>\n

Remarkably, planking isn’t her only world-record achievement.<\/p>\n

In 2024, DonnaJean also broke the world record for the most push-ups completed in 60 minutes, performing an astonishing 1,575 reps to beat the previous record of 1,207.<\/p>\n

That record has since been surpassed, but given DonnaJean’s current form, we wouldn’t be surprised if reclaiming it is already on her to-do list.<\/p>\n

\"liz<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Hannah Bradfield is a Senior Health and Fitness Writer for Women\u2019s Health UK. An NCTJ-accredited journalist, Hannah graduated from Loughborough University with a BA in English and Sport Science and an MA in Media and Cultural Analysis. \u00a0She has been covering sports, health and fitness for the last five years and has created content for outlets including BBC Sport, BBC Sounds, Runner\u2019s World and Stylist. She especially enjoys interviewing those working within the community to improve access to sport, exercise and wellness. Hannah is a 2024 John Schofield Trust Fellow and was also named a 2022 Rising Star in Journalism by The Printing Charity. \u00a0A keen runner, Hannah was firmly a sprinter growing up (also dabbling in long jump) but has since transitioned to longer-distance running. While 10K is her favoured race distance, she loves running or volunteering at parkrun every Saturday, followed, of course, by pastries. She\u2019s always looking for fun new runs and races to do and brunch spots to try.<\/p>\n