Former Marine breaks world record for planking while raising mental health awareness

George Hood.
(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/Guinness World Records)

After holding an abdominal plank for 8 hours and 1 minute, George Hood surpassed the world record and could have stopped, but he had a reason to keep going.

Hood, a 62-year-old former Marine and retired Drug Enforcement Administration agent from Naperville, Illinois, broke the record on Feb. 15 at 515 Fitness, a gym that aims to end the stigma of mental illness. Hood wanted to raise awareness of how exercise can help improve mental health and dedicate his feat to the gym, so he held his plank for 8 hours, 15 minutes, and 15 seconds in order to get "515" in the time.

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"When it gets tough, you know what I do?" he told CNN. "I turn that music up so loud, you'd think you're at a rock concert. I always had a fantasy of being a rock star back in the '80s. And at least for those 8 hours, 15 minutes, and 15 seconds, I was a rock star." Catherine Garcia

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.