Official Guinness World Record Abdominal Plank Event - SMASHED! - It's Official! - Confirmed by GWR as 19 Minutes and 58 seconds

Thanks to everyone that supported me on Saturday 4th December. Despite being full of a cold, I managed 19 minutes and 58 seconds - This is more than 4 times the current record!!

It was an amazing day. Thanks go to Rutland Radio for airing the event, and to Rob Persani for giving up his day off to preside over proceedings.

  

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The birth of a dream

 

Many years ago when I was an infant, I had a friend who showed me the Guinness Book of Records. I became so fascinated by the concept of people breaking records and achieving personal bests that ever since that day I have held a burning desire to one day become a World Champion myself. Like most kids in this country at that time, I wanted to be the next George Best and later in my teens I idolised the legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus. Unfortunately I never had enough talent or sufficient self-belief to find something that I could excel in on a world stage - that is until now!

Changing my life

That burning passion drove me to try to improve my fitness and physique, though often to my own detriment. I suffered chronic back pain for over twenty years, finally leading to surgery to remove an intervertabral disc in 2003. That was one of the lowest points of my life but somehow I struggled through the pain of rehab. After a long career in the sports industry I became too ill to work, ending up on sick leave for six months. That time gave me the chance to reflect and reassess what life was all about. This was without question THE LOWEST point of my life but the break eventually led me to decide to change my career to become a Personal Trainer because I wanted to use my life experience to help others to improve their lives, and aspire to achieve greatness. It is only very recently that I realised that all of my years of physical training and back pain had actually helped me to develop super strong abdominal muscles and a pain threshold to match.

 

My plank goal

When I re-trained to become a PT, a colleague on the course introduced me to the Plank exercise which involves balancing on ones elbows and tips of the toes, as straight as a board in a static hold. I was so impressed by the exercise that I continued to push my limits and noticed how my waist shrank by inches. Since starting this exercise I have lost an incredible 8" off my waist - not bad before any significant change in my diet! I decided that any client who was physically able to perform this exercise would have it written into their programs and thus it became my own personal obsession. Earlier this year after breaking the 10 minute barrier I started to think ‘I wonder what the plank World Record is?’ It turned out that the unofficial record was 25 minutes and 8 seconds so I set my goal to do 20 minutes by the end of the year. By July 2010 I had managed 25 minutes 10 seconds to break this record!!! However, the purest form of the exercise (the Guinness version) does not allow you to clasp your hands together and is in a league of its own in terms of difficulty. So I re-set my goals and applied to hold this official event. I have now been training for many weeks and living on a special diet to be as lean as possible for d-day. Both the diet and training are progressing well so all looks set fair for the forthcoming occasion.

Why Cancer Research?

Now for most important bit: my chosen charity. A few years ago my wife was diagnosed with low grade, Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma for which there is no known cure. Shortly after being diagnosed she had chemotherapy and remained in remission until earlier this year, when her condition started to deteriorate. The Lymphoma has now worked its way into her blood stream and this development has unfortunately accelerated her condition. As a result she will need a more invasive form of chemotherapy later in the year or early next year. The only good news is that this type of cancer is not as aggressive as others. In fact, my wife looks perfectly healthy outwardly, though sadly not so inside. Not only has Cancer blighted her, it also took both of my Grandfathers, an Aunt and an Uncle - hence my mission to raise as much money as I can for Cancer Research UK. The date of this event is of huge significance as it marks our Wedding Anniversary, so how nice it will be to celebrate something positive on such a special day.

Thank you in anticipation of your support and I hope that you will be able to attend and witness what I hope will be a spectacular feat of human endeavour.

Rob Dulieu.

So please dig deep and donate now.

Date: Saturday 4th December 2010

Time: 11.30 am

Location: Stamford High Street (Lincolnshire)