OCEANSIDE — George Hood is a fitness trainer, business owner and a Marine veteran, but the 57-year-old Carlsbad man is better known around the world for his record-breaking feats of endurance athletics.

On Saturday, Hood will go for his seventh Guinness World Record by attempting to hold the longest abdominal plank position for at least 4-1/2 hours. Posing in the plank — a push-up position where he balances his rigid body on his forearms and toes — is just the latest feat in Hood’s lifelong drive to push the limits of his body and inspire others.

He describes his extreme achievements — which include jumping rope for 13 hours and riding a stationary bike for 222 hours — as something he started decades ago to overcome low self-esteem.

“Growing up as a kid, nothing I did was ever good enough, so I always compared myself to others and wanted to be the best. I decided I was never going to give up or leave anything on the table,” he said.

Like all of his past record tries, Hood’s planking event — which begins at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Oceanside Pier amphitheater — will benefit charity. Since he started setting records in 1986, Hood has raised more than $150,000 for organizations like this weekend’s beneficiary, the Semper Fi Fund for injured Marines.

“If it means something to people, then I hope they can help me out by helping the Marines,” he said.

Hood already holds three world records for the plank. Today he’s hoping to reclaim the title from a young Chinese police officer who set a new record last fall of 4 hours, 26 minutes. Although holding a plank looks simple, it’s painfully deceptive. Extreme core strength is needed for most people to stay in the position for more than a few minutes.

“He’s like a bulldog,” she said. “Once he locks on to something, he doesn’t let it go. He knows he’s got something that nobody else in the world can do and he uses that skill in an incredible and inspirational way.”

Hood grew up in Pennsylvania where in high school he was more interested in musical theater than athletics. In college, he started running and lifting weights and won his first trophy for finishing 118 sit-ups in two minutes. In 1980, he joined the Marines and served four years at Camp Pendleton. He went on to spent 10 years with the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) and 12 years with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Shanley met Hood more than 25 years ago when they were both NCIS special agents. Even then, Hood was an extreme athlete with a driven personality.

“George has always been like this — a Type A personality and then some. He’s nuts in a nice way,” she said. “He encouraged people to go one step further and he makes it fun when he’s doing it.”

Hood set his first Guinness World Record in 1986 when he picked up a copy of the Guinness book and decided to turn his hobby of jump-roping into a record. After two years of training, he clinched the Guinness record with a 13-hour rope-skipping marathon to benefit the American Heart Association.

Fifteen years ago, he became a certified fitness instructor and in 2006, he discovered a new Guinness marathon category in stationary cycling. At first, he trained for three to five hours at time, then he talked the local gym owner into giving him the keys so he could cycle all night, every night. Over the next four years, he set three Guinness records for charity spin cycle rides that topped out in 2010 at 222 hours, 22 minutes and 22 seconds.

Surviving the grueling rides (which allow one 5-minute break per hour) meant dealing with the physical and psychological toll of exhaustion and sleep deprivation. A support team spooned bites of salmon and mashed potatoes into his mouth and coached him through crying jags and hallucinations.

“It’s important to stay focused. Your head looks for cracks in your composure to make you want to quit,” he said. “If you let up for one moment, evil comes in. I don’t need cheerleaders, I need people who are going to help me get the job done.”

After his 2010 record ride, Hood decided to try something new, the just-added category for “longest static abdominal hold” or “plank” — which at the time was held by a man in the United Kingdom with a time of 19 minutes. Hood set the Guinness record in December 2011 with 1 hour, 20 minutes, and more than doubled that time in 2013 — the same year he moved to Carlsbad from Illinois — with his Guinness record of 3 hours, 7 minutes.

When China hosted a Plank World Cup last summer, Hood was invited as the celebrity guest. His plank demonstrations drew up to 2,000 participants, he planked on the Great Wall and in the Forbidden City and was the cover story in Men’s Health China magazine. He also set another plank world record, certified by Assist World Records, of 4 hours, 1 minute.

Hood, who owns Oceanside Paddleboard and teaches classes at several North County gyms, said he begins training for each record attempt six to eight months in advance. His regimen includes four to six hours of daily exercise, including three to four hours of planking, 200 to 500 push-ups and 1,500 to 2,000 sit-ups. His 4,500-calorie-a-day diet is heavy on proteins (turkey, egg whites, salmon), fruits and vegetables but no carbs and minimal sugar. He likes to train to music (anything but classical). “The ‘Rocky’ theme really pumps me up and I love the Marine Corps hymn.”

He especially enjoys planking in public — he’s a near-daily fixture at Carlsbad State Beach and Oceanside Harbor — because working out at home can be isolating. Hood says he’s “righteously single” as the divorced dad of three adult sons, ages 21 to 25. His regular workout buddy is Chips, his 7-year-old Dachshund, who lays underneath his suspended body whenever he planks at home.

If he’s successful Saturday, Hood said he may go back to China this summer to attempt another record at the Plank World Cup. Meanwhile he’s got his eye on two other endurance categories. He’s up to 45 minutes in the “weighted plank” (with a 40-pound weight on his back) and he’s interested in the “wall squat” (which involves propping the body against a wall as if in a chair). A Vietnamese doctor in the Bay area now holds the record at 11 hours, 51 minutes.

Hood scoffs at the idea of giving up his quest for endurance records.

“I’m getting better and stronger every year and am in the best shape of my life,” he said. “I don’t know that I’ll ever retire.”