{"id":60228,"date":"2025-04-29T12:45:16","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T12:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/60228\/"},"modified":"2025-04-29T12:45:16","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T12:45:16","slug":"super-fit-grandma-becomes-oldest-person-to-hold-an-abdominal-plank-at-82","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/60228\/","title":{"rendered":"Super fit grandma becomes oldest person to hold an abdominal plank at 82"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A grandma inspired to get fit by the loss of her beloved husband has made history as the oldest person to perform an abdominal plank<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Sarah Blackman (b. 3 June 1942, USA) was an incredible 82 years and 229 days old when she held the plank position for more than five minutes.<\/p>\n

She only had to do three to claim the title.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy grandson also tries to do planks, fortunately I can still beat him,\u201d she teased.<\/p>\n

Sarah, who lives in Massachusetts, is almost two full years older than the previous record holder Annie Judis<\/a>\u00a0was when she performed her record plank.<\/p>\n

Explaining how her twilight fitness journey began, she said: \u201cIt started about two years ago. My husband, Arthur Wade Blackman Jr., died and I\u2019d been taking care of him for a long while, and I decided it was time to do something for myself.<\/p>\n

\"Sarah<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it\u2019s one of the best things to do, get back into shape. So I looked for a personal trainer. Vince came and we started out doing basic exercises.<\/p>\n

\u201cVince introduced me to the plank and he\u2019d do it at the same time as me and when it got to that I could do it for four minutes, he decided either there was something wrong with him or maybe I was better than he thought I was.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sarah<\/p>\n

Sarah, who has three kids and three grandkids, worked on her planking almost every day and continued to push her limits.<\/p>\n

She said that when she\u2019d make it to four minutes, she\u2019d tell herself she could go for just 30 more seconds, and keep telling herself that until she\u2019d given all she could.<\/p>\n

\"Sarah<\/p>\n

Sharing one of the secrets to her success, she confessed: \u201cI listen to \u201cEndless Love\u201d by Lionel Richie and one of the reasons that I do, besides that I like it, is that it runs for almost 4 minutes and 40 seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was also her grandkids who encouraged her fitness journey.<\/p>\n

She said: “The youngest is three,\u00a0which encouraged me to seek out a trainer a few years ago to become more flexible to be able to sit comfortably on the floor and play as I had with the others.”<\/p>\n

Sarah, who worked as a\u00a0paediatric cardiology technician and preschool director\u00a0before giving up her career to be a foster parent, says she\u2019d encourage everyone to exercise as they get older, saying the trick is to get into a routine and stick to it.<\/p>\n

\"Sarah<\/p>\n

On breaking the record, she added: \u201cI\u2019m impressed with myself. It was something that I didn\u2019t expect, but I do have, I think, more confidence in myself because I\u2019ve done this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Be honest, can you plank for as long as Sarah can?<\/p>\n

\"Sarah<\/p>\n

The oldest person to perform an abdominal plank (male)<\/b> is 78 years 135 days, and was achieved by Maynard Williams (New Zealand, b. 23 November 1946) in Tauranga, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, on 6 April 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A grandma inspired to get fit by the loss of her beloved husband has made history as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4322],"tags":[1630,25666,105,31259,31256,31257,31258,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-60228","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-fitness","9":"tag-guinness-world-records","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-how-long-can-you-hold-a-plank","12":"tag-oldest-person-to-perform-an-abdominal-plank","13":"tag-planking","14":"tag-planking-records","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114421322808989022","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}