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Longest plank EVER – Guinness World Records

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A 62-year-old retired Marine just held a plank longer than most people’s workday.

On February 15, 2020, George Hood dropped into a forearm plank in the Chicago area and didn’t get up for eight hours, fifteen minutes and fifteen seconds. Guinness World Records confirmed the feat on February 20, officially crowning the 62-year-old Naperville, Illinois resident the new world record holder for the longest abdominal plank ever held by a man. Hood, a former U.S. Marine officer and retired DEA Supervisory Special Agent, didn’t just break the record — he obliterated the previous mark by more than fourteen minutes.

• Hood held the plank position for 8 hours, 15 minutes and 15 seconds on February 15, 2020, reclaiming the world record from China’s Mao Weidong, whose 8-hour, 1-minute plank had stood since 2016.
• To get ready, Hood logged roughly 2,100 hours of planking, 674,000 sit-ups and 270,000 push-ups, and had already completed an unofficial 10-hour, 10-minute practice plank back in 2018.
• The attempt was co-sponsored by 515 Fitness, and Hood used the platform to raise awareness for mental health and combat trauma among military veterans.

The Numbers Behind the Record

Eight hours and fifteen minutes doesn’t sound like much until you consider that most gym-goers cap out somewhere around a minute or two before their core gives out. Hood’s total shattered Mao Weidong’s 2016 mark of 8 hours and 1 minute, a record that had stood as the benchmark for four years before Hood arrived in the Chicago area to take it down. The margin — over 14 minutes — wasn’t a photo finish; it was a statement.

What made the number possible wasn’t a one-off burst of willpower. Hood’s preparation reads like a training log for an entirely different sport: roughly 2,100 hours spent in plank position, 674,000 sit-ups, and 270,000 push-ups in the buildup. He’d already proven the concept to himself two years earlier with an unofficial 10-hour, 10-minute plank in 2018 — a session that never counted for Guinness but told him exactly what his body could tolerate under load.

Eight Hours on Forearms and Toes

Guinness rules for a plank record are simple in theory and brutal in practice: forearms and toes on the ground, body straight, no sagging hips, no raised backside, for as long as the competitor can hold it. Hood spent his eight-plus hours doing exactly that, motionless in the position while a room of onlookers watched the clock run. According to Guinness World Records, he interacted with observers throughout the attempt, listened to presentations from guests with autism and learning challenges, and pulled energy directly from the crowd in the room rather than shutting the world out.

That’s a notably different approach than the isolation-and-endure strategy many endurance athletes use. Hood turned an eight-hour physical grind into something closer to a community event, using the discipline required for the plank itself — the kind of core-and-mind endurance work covered in extreme endurance feats that push the body’s limits — as a backdrop for a cause bigger than the stopwatch.

A Cause Behind the Clock

The attempt was co-sponsored by 515 Fitness, an organization built around combating mental illness through physical fitness and peer support. That wasn’t incidental branding — Hood used the record chase specifically to raise awareness for mental health and combat trauma among military veterans, drawing on his own background as a Marine officer to make the cause personal rather than promotional.

8 hours, 15 minutes, 15 seconds — more than 14 minutes clear of the record Mao Weidong had held since 2016.

For a guy whose day job used to involve DEA fieldwork, spending eight hours motionless for a cause tied to veteran mental health tracks with a career built around discipline under pressure. It also gave the record a purpose beyond the plaque, which is likely part of why Guinness’s own writeup leaned so heavily on the mental health angle rather than treating this as a pure stunt.

The Finish and What Comes Next

When Hood finally stood up, Guinness World Records adjudicator Philip Robertson handed him the official certificate on the spot. Hood didn’t sit down to celebrate — he dropped straight into 75 standard push-ups, a closing flourish that doubled as proof he hadn’t been running on fumes. He then announced his retirement from competitive planking records outright, telling those present he was done chasing that particular clock.

He didn’t rule out endurance records altogether, though. Hood hinted that push-up endurance challenges could be his next target — a logical pivot for someone who’d already banked 270,000 push-ups in training and could still crank out 75 more after eight hours on his forearms. If he follows through, whatever push-up mark currently stands should be nervous.