Former US Marine George E. Hood – who set the Guinness World Record for longest plank ever last year (8 hours, 15 minutes, 15 seconds) – has officially been dethroned by Australia’s own Daniel Scali. Logging a jaw-dropping time of 9 hours 30 minutes, and a single second, what’s even more incredible about this story is the fact Scali lives with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS); localised to his left arm, and rendering him in constant pain.
“When I was 12 years old, I fell off my trampoline causing a severe break in my left arm, and as a result, I live with a condition called CRPS,” explains Daniel Scali, who wore a compression band on said arm for the entire duration.
“It’s the brain sending wrong messages to my arm, which is the affected area. So anything like soft touch, movement, wind, water, will cause me pain.”
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“Obviously putting constant pressure on my elbow and forearm, up to my shoulder did give me quite a bit of grief at the start.”
“It was a full head to toe experience of constant pain. My feet were numb. My knees were burning. My thighs were burning. My left arm felt like it was on fire. But it was all worth it in the end.”
Prior to his run at making history, Scali had to ensure he was in peak mental and physical condition. Suffice it to say, he hit the gym and then some with a heavy focus on push-ups, sit-ups, planks, and so forth. The man also enlisted the help of a mind coach.
Incidentally, Scali used exercise – and more specifically planking – as a means of increasing his resilience to the chronic pain. It was this very passion for fitness that eventually led him to his world record attempt, leveraging the global attention it’d bring as an opportunity to raise awareness about persistent pain.
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“If someone told me five years ago that I’d be going for a Guinness World Record attempt for the longest plank ever, I wouldn’t believe it,” adds Scali.
“I didn’t have the belief back then, nor did I have the courage, to accept what I had to deal with.”
“I wanted to prove to people that no matter what the circumstances you go through, no matter what pain barriers you have- if you put your mind to it and you believe you can do it, you can achieve it.”
How’s that for inspirational?
