iStockphoto / FlamingoImages
The Guinness World Record for ‘Longest Plank’ ever held was just smashed by a 61-year-old former DEA special agent named George Hood who says he’s in the best shape of his life. Normally when someone says they’re in the best shape of their life I assume that they’re in decent shape for the first time in their life but when he says it after holding a plank for over 8 hours I can’t help but think this guy truly is peaking right now.
I’ve been feeling pretty good about myself over the past few weeks. Instead of complaining that I never have time to work out, I’ve started setting my alarm for 5am Monday through Friday to get up and do cardio for 45 minutes before the rest of my world gets moving.
Sure, I’m tired as hell because now I only sleep 6 to 8 hours a night but I get the satisfaction of knowing that I’ve already gotten my daily workout out of the way before I’d normally even get out of bed. And then I see a story like this about a guy who literally planked for longer than I sleep and suddenly I realize I need to readjust my expectations and start pushing harder.
SIXTY ONE YEARS OLD and he held a plan for a Guinness World Record length of 8 hours, 15 minutes, and 15 seconds. That’s legitimately longer than I’ve slept at night anytime in 2020.
According to CNN, he was training for an average of 7 hours each day to set this new Guinness World Record, one that he’s attempted in the past but was bested by Mao Weidong from China who in 2016 held a plank for 8 hours, 1 minute, and 1 second. So going into this record-setting feat he trained his ass off:
Hood, of Naperville, Illinois, said he was determined to reclaim his title. He trained every day for an average of 7 hours for the 18 months leading up to the big day.
“It’s 4-5 hours a day in the plank pose,” Hood told CNN. “Then I do 700 pushups a day, 2,000 situps a day in sets of a hundred, 500 leg squats a day. For upper body and the arms, I do approximately 300 arm curls a day.”In total, Hood did around 2,100 hours of planking to prepare for the event, according to Guinness World Records.
When Hood finally got up on the platform to break the world record, he said he thought of his three sons. His rock music — including Van Halen and “Du Hast” by Rammstein — also kept him going.
“When it gets tough, you know what I do? I turn that music up so loud, you’d think you’re at a rock concert. I always had a fantasy of being a rock star back in the ’80s,” Hood said. “And at least for those 8 hours, 15 minutes and 15 seconds, I was a rock star.” (via)
I honestly could not tell you the longest I’d be able to hold a plank for especially considering that when he first held the world record for ‘longest plank’ it was at a time of 1 hour and 20 minutes (back in 2011.
He told CNN that the pain he experiences when holding a plank for hours is not dissimilar from the pain that runners feel during a marathon. I can’t even sit in an airplane seat on an 8-hour flight without losing my damn mind so i can’t imagine working out for that long.
Hood said the phases of prolonged planking are similar to the walls one encounters while running a marathon.
“The burning will set in those elbows. The skin will break and they will bleed,” Hood said. “When that happens, (my coach) talks me through it and I take lots of water and eventually they go numb. When the numbness sets in, I’m generally pretty good. It’s just a matter of being tired and wanting to stop.” (via)
He told reporters that he’s done attempting to break the Guinness World Record for ‘longest plank’ now that he’s set this one but his days of attempting world records are far from over. He will now set his sights on breaking the ‘most pushups in an hour’ Guinness World Record which currently sits at 2,806 pushups.
To read the full story of his record-breaking feat, you can click here to head on over to CNN.