A former US Marine has set the male world record for the longest plank at the age of 62.

George Hood stayed in the low abdominal plank position for eight hours, 15 minutes and 15 seconds, which was confirmed as an official Guinness World Record.

This comes nine years after the retiree, also previously a Drug Enforcement Administration supervisory special agent, set a previous planking world record of one hour and 20 minutes.

Mr Hood, from Naperville, Illinois, tried to set it again in 2016 but lost out to Mao Weidong from China, who held a plank for eight hours, one minute and one second – going on to make it his mission to reclaim the title.

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He trained every day for an average of seven hours during the 18-month lead up to the big day on February 15 at 515 Fitness, in Coal City, Illinois, estimating he did around 2,100 hours of planking in preparation.

"It's 4-5 hours a day in the plank pose," Mr Hood told CNN. "Then I do 700 pushups a day, 2,000 situps a day in sets of a hundred, 500 leg squats a day. For upper body and the arms, I do approximately 300 arm curls a day."

Referring to the day itself, he swears by listening to 1980s rock music, including Van Halen, with the volume turned right up.

"When it gets tough, you know what I do? 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 eight hours, 15 minutes and 15 seconds, I was a rock star," he added.

The dad compared the stages of prolonged planking to hitting the wall when running marathons, explaining that the elbows will burn and then bleed, but he drinks lots of water and they eventually turn numb.

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"When the numbness sets in, I'm generally pretty good," he said. "It's just a matter of being tired and wanting to stop."

The fitness fanatic was also driven on by his goal to raise awareness about mental health, having witnessed first hand through his careers in the military and law enforcement how stigmatised it is.

The gym itself specialises in helping to address mental illness through exercise and other professional help.

"When you're in a combat situation, and even in law enforcement with the agents that I used to work with, we get involved in shootings," Mr Hood said.

"Some people don't handle it well because they're burdened with other issues that are running in the background, whether it be marital issues, kid issues or financial problems.

"Sometimes those things can push people over the edge and they don't know how to flush it out, how to talk about it."

"But when they walk through the door at 515 Fitness, there's hope because there's licensed clinicians there and trainers that will help them get well," he added.

The re-crowned record holder could have stopped planking anytime after the eight hour and one minute mark but he kept going to get the '515' numbers.

After completing the record he did 75 push-ups as a 'warm down' and now has his sights set on breaking the most push-ups in an hour, currently set at 2,806.

But said he is unlikely to attempt to break the plank record again.

Mr Hood added: "Anybody can do what I do."

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