There's a saying that goes like this: 'You'll never know how long a minute is until you do a plank'.

If you've ever done a plank before, you'll know what we mean.

Despite it looking simple, holding a plank is actually harder than it looks. If you manage to hold it more than two minutes, congratulations; you're a freak.

But for one man, his plank lasted hours!

Insane preparation

According to a report by Malay Mail, former US marine George Hood broke the world record for the longest plank: he held the plank position for a jaw-dropping eight hours, 15 minutes and 15 seconds!

Oh, and did we tell you that Hood is 62 years old? We are not kidding!

On top of that, Hood reportedly broke his own Guinness World Record for the longest time spent holding a plank on 15 February, besting it by an additional 14 minutes this time around.

Hood finished the event in style by doing 75 push-ups before announcing his retirement from plank record attempts.


As it is no easy feat, the Guinness World Records website said Hood had to train for seven hours every day for 18 months prior to his record-breaking attempt.

During that time, he is estimated to have done 674,000 sit-ups, 270,000 push-ups and one practice plank that lasted 10 hours and 10 minutes.

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REFLECTION Re LP #6: On Saturday, Jan 18, 2020, I executed Long Plank (LP) #6 at 515 Fitness Incorporated, @515fitnessinc a Mental Health Counseling Facility in Plainfield, IL. I finished with a time of 8:05:15 which was the 6th time I've surpassed the current GWR of 8:01:00 since it was set in June 2016. This was the last "long plank" of 6 in a training cycle that has now prepared me for my last official attempt to reclaim the GWR for "the "longest male plank", on February 15, 2020 at the 515 facility. In addition to once again surpassing the current GWR, the effort showed an AHR/MHR of 101 and 120bpm respectively with 2,896 calories, of which 31% were "Fat Cals", expended. For the first time LP#6 revealed a slightly sustained higher heart rate for approximately 2 hours, 57 minutes over the course of the effort, which reflects a slightly more "aerobic" effort. LP#6 was clearly some of the best work put forth by the crew at 515Fitness and their leader, Niki Perry to sustain me for the duration of the effort under conditions that previoulsly were arduous and difficult for me. But the switch was finally flipped w/me and the resulting transformation got all of us to the coveted mark of 8:05:15! The much talked about GWR event on Feb 15h is a joint collaborative effort to raise funds and awareness for the mental health community on behalf of the Braidwood Area Healthy Community Coalition, (BAHCC), https://www.braidwoodcoalition.org/events/gwr-event . This event will not only Break the Plank" but also "Break the Stigma" associated with mental health issues that are so prevalent in many of our neighborhoods and communities. With this training cycle behind me, I begin a very generous taper period to heal physically and emotionally from nearly 10 weeks with 6 long planks of 5:15:00, 6:20:00, 7:31:00, 7:15:00, 5:20:20 and 8:05:15 Thank you to all, near and far, who continue to support my crew and I as we prepare for the Feb 15th event. Training continues. #longestmaleplank #TeamHood #MindsetMatters #plank #georgehood #mentalhealrh

A post shared by George E. Hood (@hood4663) on Jan 20, 2020 at 4:14pm PST

Hood said in total, he completed around 2,100 hours of planking in preparation for the record-setting day.

We don't know about you, but we already feel tired reading that.

Congratulations, Mr Hood! You deserve that record.