Think You’re Good at Holding a Plank? Trust Me, You’re Not.

Fitness, health related issues, lessons learned, rankings, sports 1 Minute

A few years ago I decided to test myself to see how long I could hold a plank.

I remember getting to about four and a half minutes (yes, minutes) before I finally collapsed to the ground. I also remember being kind of proud of myself, since I didn’t know anyone who could hold a plank that long (maybe I need to expand my circle of friends and colleagues.)

Well any sense of pride I had about my planking ability went out the window a couple of weeks ago after watching the film, The Game Changers. The movie tells the story of James Wilks — an elite Special Forces trainer and The Ultimate Fighter winner — traveling the world on a quest to uncover the optimal diet for human performance. Wilks comes to the conclusion that the vegan diet can be a powerful aid in maximizing human performance.

The Game Changers featured many high-profile vegan athletes as well as some lesser-known vegan athletes who were at their game.

One such athlete was Dana Glowacka, a fitness and yoga enthusiast from Canada.

In 2019, Glowacka set the women’s world record for planking at four hours and twenty minutes. That’s four hours, not minutes…

Makes my four and a half minutes seem kind of insignificant. Well not “kind of”, it is insignificant.

Here’s a time-lapse video of her world record:

And if you think you can do that, more power to you.

But if you’re a guy, you need to be aware that the men’s world record for planking is held by George Hood, a 60-year old former Marine. George held his plank for an astonishing 10 hours and 10 minutes.

Here is a video clip of his record-setting performance:

So like I said, you may think you are good at planking, but odds are you can do a whole lot better.

*image from Men’s Health

Published by Jim Borden

A 60-something guy trying to figure out the world, and his place in it. Happily married for 40-plus years, three wonderful sons. Accounting teacher, fitness enthusiast, blogger, reader.

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22 thoughts on “Think You’re Good at Holding a Plank? Trust Me, You’re Not.”

  1. I have never tried planking. Nor do I now feel inclined to find out exactly how bad I may be at it. I am happier to be measured by association. I will happily accept George’s record as the assumed baseline for all former Marines. Jim, you will also appreciate he was an IUP alumni. Semper Fi, George!

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    1. I wasn’t surprised it was a Marine that set such a record. And thanks for letting me know about the IUP connection – I have since connected with George via LinkedIn! I think you need to start planking…

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  3. I’ve recently added planks to my workouts, but I’ve never thought about timing them before. Four and a half minutes sounds impressive to me. I’m curious what one does mentally to plank four hours or ten hours. I would imagine you would have to get into some type of Zen meditation mode. It’s hard to tell for sure because of the speed of the video, but it looks like the woman is texting at some point. That strikes me as funny for some reason, but it might be a good way to kill some time.

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    1. I would imagine the mental aspect is just as challenging as the physical aspect. They must get in the zone somehow, with occasional breaks for things like texting. If I were going for such a record, I’d probably keep checking my blog stats as a way to waste time… By the way, did you get my response to your email from a couple of weeks ago?

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