How Long Is Best To Plank?

The plank is one of the best exercises you can do for a strong and defined core as it works all of the muscles in your core including the rectus abdominus (“six pack muscles”), transverse abdominus, internal and external obliques, hips, and back.

The world record for an abdominal plank is held by Mao Weidong from China who has a staggering time of 8 hours and 1 minute which was set on 14th May 2016 in Beijing, China. He was challenging and beat a previous world record holder, American and retired Marine, George Hood.

Don’t worry though! Experts recommend the optimal time to hold a plank for is 2 minutes. What is the benefit of going longer than 2 minutes? Well experts say there is none. For great core strength and stability 2 minutes is plenty. That’s not to say that you can’t do a few sets of 2-minute planks to really fatigue and work your core but longer than that is not required and anything longer is entirely your choice!