Grandmother, 61, Shatters Fitness World Record
The athlete, a former teacher with 12 grandchildren, already held two fitness records.
DonnaJean Wilde/Instagram
A 61-year-old grandmother of 12 has added a jaw-dropping fitness record to her repertoire.
DonnaJean Wilde, a former teacher from Canada, held a plank for five hours on Oct. 7 at the Huntsman World Senior Games in St. George, Utah, shattering the world record for the longest-held female abdominal plank.
DonnaJean Wilde set the world record for the longest-held female plank on Oct. 7 with a time of five hours.
DonnaJean Wilde/Instagram
Before her achievement, the longest female plank was four hours, 30 minutes, and 11 seconds, a record Wilde set in 2024.
More than nine million people liked an Instagram video of Wilde’s record, and the post racked up nearly 80,000 comments.
“Five hours! I can’t even do five minutes,” one person said.
“Women can do everything,” added another.
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“Holy abs,” another person commented.
Several people commented on a video of DonnaJean Wilde, a 61-year-old grandmother who broke the world record for the longest-held female plank.
Critics, however, expressed disapproval of Wilde’s form.
“The hard part of a plank is keeping the back straight and using your core to do so. She’s just resting her weight on her elbows,” one person commented.
“It is absolutely not a plank. I do not know why it is encouraged—a biomechanically very incorrect movement,” said another person.
Some critics did not think DonnaJean Wilde had good enough form to win the world record for the longest-held female plank.
Guinness World Records states that to break the record, a person’s forearms and toes must touch the ground at all times, while the rest of their body should be off the ground and straight.
In 2024, Wilde told Impact Magazine that she first tried a plank in 2013, after the challenge went viral on social media.
She had just broken her wrist, and a bulky cast kept her from other fitness activities she enjoyed.
“I couldn’t run. I could hardly walk down the road with a sling, but I could plank,” she said. “It was such a pivotal moment for me that day. It just changed my life.”
DonnaJean Wilde, of Canada, holds two fitness world records at 61.
DonnaJean Wilde/Instagram
Wilde’s enthusiasm about planking grew from that moment, and she began training for the world record in 2023, incorporating push-ups, weight lifting, and running alongside planking.
When she set out to break the record the next year, former students, family, and friends gathered in the gymnasium at Magrath High School, where she had previously taught. t
“Looking up and seeing my grandkids there, and they made posters and were cheering me on, that’s what kept me going,” Wilde said.
DonnaJean Wilde, 61, holds the world records for the longest-held female plank and the most push-ups in one hour for a female.
DonnaJean Wilde/Instagram
In November 2024, Wilde earned her second world record, becoming the woman who performed the most push-ups in one hour with 1,575 push-ups.
“I cannot sing the praises of the health benefits of these exercises enough,” Wilde said in a July 2025 Instagram video. “
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