Lisa Rigdon

Addicted to Planking: Plank Challenge Survivor You may have seen this meme challenging people to get their plank on. The Challenge: For 30 days, you WILL hold the plank position for X amount of time each day. But that amount of time will increase a little each day. By the end of this challenge, you will hold the plank position for 270 seconds (4 ½ minutes). If you look at the picture above, planking doesn’t look too difficult. Or so I thought. With so many of my friends doing the challenge, I thought I could give it a try. After all, I was looking for a new regime to work on those hard-to-reach trouble spots. Challenge Accepted! Planking for 30 Days —My Experience Let me point out that I am NOT an 8-hours-a-day gym person. I’m a regular person trying to get in shape. I work out about 2-4 times a week, and I only work out for 30-60 minutes at a time. My first week of the challenge was easy. I started by holding the position for 20 seconds on days one and two, moved up to 30 seconds, and then 40 seconds by day five. The challenge then instructs you to take a day off. Actually, you get a day off every five or six days. Things became slightly more difficult during the second week. During this week, I started off by holding the position for 45 seconds, and then for a minute. On the last day before the break, I had to hold it for 90 seconds. It took me three tries before I could finally hold the position for a full 90 seconds! The first two days of week three were also 90 second holds. To be honest, those days were miserable. I could feel my entire body shaking. The muscles in my arms burned. My feet cramped up. And my ab muscles kept twitching. Nevertheless, I gritted my teeth, shouted curse words, and made it through. On the third day of week three, I was scheduled to hold the position for a full two minutes. I was expecting it to be two minutes of torment, but instead the time flew by. I got a little shaky toward the end of the hold, but the pain from the previous few days was gone. It was like after suffering through three days of 90 second holds, I had been transformed into a planking machine. I continued the challenge over the next few weeks, although I had to extend the challenge, since I missed several days, due to a horrendous flu bug. Finally, I made it to the 270 second mark, and conquered the challenge! Planking for 30 Days —Results According to Jessica Burns’ self-named blog, “It’s Time to Burn,” doing this plank position, (a.k.a. the elbow plank), targets the following muscle areas: Abs (including the six-pack area and the upper ab muscles right by the rib cage) Back (especially the muscles by the spine and lower rib cage) Neck and shoulders (Rotator cuffs, Trapezius, Deltoids, and Rhomboids) Chest Butt Legs (calf muscles and quads) After planking for a month, my shoulders and my upper arm muscles felt stronger. They definitely had some visible definition. I am nowhere close to having the coveted six-pack, but I can see a bit of toned muscle in the abdomen area, which rocks! My derrière might be slightly more toned, but it’s not too noticeable. I have to say that my calves feel solid. But, as a short person, I do a lot of movements during the day that strengthen those muscles. I can’t say the improvements are strictly plank-related. Oddly enough, one of the places I have noticed the most muscle development has been in my hamstrings, (the backside of my upper legs). It’s not surprising that my leg muscles would improve, since I’m using those muscles to keep the plank position stable. However, I can’t find any research that mentions the plank position strengthening this muscle group. After 30 Days of Planking — Now What? After 30 days of planking, I could not stop myself. I enjoy how the position feels, and I like how it is slowly sculpting parts of my body. Plus, it’s an excellent exercise to do before or after your cardio. I have tried to add a few challenges to the move. For instance, I tried to do donkey kicks (left) and knee tucks (right) while in the plank position. It felt good to do these leg movements, and it certainly intensified the workout. But I had a bad side effect. My lower abdomen muscles (right beneath my tummy) started to get sharp, lingering pains after the workout. The pain made sitting and getting up excruciating, so I stopped these extra movements and went back to regular planking. Right now, I’m planking for four minutes, resting/stretching for one minute, and then planking again for another four minutes. I’ll be increasing to two 4 ½ minute holds very soon. Have you done the planking challenge? Comment below on your experiences. Got a great exercise to enhance the plank? Share your idea below, and I’ll give it a try. If I like it enough, I’ll be sure to blog and spread the word about your sensational suggestion!