16-Year Old Girl Totally Shatters The Plank World Record

Watch This 16-Year Old Girl, Gabi Ury, DOUBLE The Guinness World Record For The Plank Exercise: Learn How She Did It, Why She Did It, And What YOU Can Learn From This Special Young Lady

There are people who break world records. Sure. They may be few and far between, but they’re out there. Then again, there are people who absolutely shatter a world record – even doubling it – and all the while making it look easy. Gabi Ury is one of those people.

A few weeks ago, 16-year old Gabi Ury broke the Guinness World Record for the longest time spent in the abdominal plank position (female). To get right to it, she held a plank for a mind-boggling 1 hour, 20 minutes, and 2 seconds. And get this. She only spent six months preparing for it. But it gets better. Not only did she achieve this incredible athletic feat, but she also managed to raise over $50,000 for a local charity – a children’s hospital that has helped her all her life.

You see, Gabi was born with some special needs, including a severe case of scoliosis, and a condition called VATER syndrome, which affects her spine, limbs, and muscles in various ways. In fact, she is completely missing her calf muscles, glute muscles, and some of her abs, too. On her website, you’ll learn that even at just 16 years of age, she’s had 14 major surgeries to date – just to “live a healthy, happy life.” Her first was a spinal surgery at four months old.

But this young lady didn’t let any of that stop her from breaking a Guinness World Record by leaps and bounds. She held a plank for double the previous record (set by Eva Bulzomi at 40 minutes, 1 second), and Gabi did it as part of her 16th birthday celebration.

You can learn more about her journey to the world record in the video below.

Note: you can watch a recording of the whole 90+ minute shebang on Youtube here.

Now, one of Gabi’s personal mottoes is to “overcome unthinkable challenges.” And I think it’s fair to say that she’s already done just that. But more important than her physical accomplishments is her passion and mission to inspire and lead others to overcome their own challenges in life.

She’s shared a few gems about her dream on her website…

My passion would be to live life fully with a positive attitude. I would like other people to understand that too because I know that complaining about things you can’t change is not a good way to live life…My vision is to inspire other people to push their own limits and to make a difference…I want to inspire people to turn so-called weaknesses into strengths. If people do this it will be a much better world… (source)

After Gabi set the world record, her parents wrote in a letter to friends and family…

Gabi’s plank was full of challenge and drama. It was a triumph of spirit and love.

In the process, Gabi has inspired people around the world, young and old, to test their limits and look for strengths in apparent weaknesses. (source)

And that, right there, is what it’s all about, folks. Just think, if this 16 year old gal can overcome her health challenges and still break a legitimate world record in the plank exercise, then what could you or I do? What challenges could we overcome? Scary, isn’t it?

Wrap-Up

I enjoy finding and sharing these stories because there is so much we can learn from people like Gabi. Her story is full of persistence, faith, desire, benevolence, altruism, discipline, and hard work, among other things. And they’re all important reminders. I hope we can not only learn from it, but apply it, too.

It’s no surprise that Gabi has been featured on various news outlets, and she’ll even be presenting at a TedX conference later this year. This young lady is going places! Now, you can learn a little more about Gabi in the video below, or check out her website at: http://GabiUry.com.

And whether or not you’d like to break a world record, if you’d like to learn more about plank training, and get started in the right direction to build full body core strength and get rock-hard abs, then check out the resources below. Coincidentally, these have been some of this website’s most popular pages over the years…

The Right Way to do the Plank Exercise

30 Days to a 5 Minute Plank and Rock-Hard Abs

The 5 Minute Plank For Core Strength, Stability, and Rock-Hard Abs

How to do the Side Plank Exercise for the Best Results

Another Plank World Record That We Can All Learn From

Training Tips From The 3+ Hour Plank World Record Holder

The Ballistic Plank Exercise for Rock-Hard Abs

The Elbow Plank VS Pushup Position Plank

How Long to Hold a Plank