When I initially set out to try this task, I set a goal of three minutes, which I then stretched to five thinking it would be impossible and keep me motivated. Well, sometimes perseverance pays off. I reached five minutes this past week.

I could give it an asterisk for difficulty, but I won’t because I was fully suspended for the entire time, and had made incredible progress until then. After starting the challenge on New Year’s Day with a measly 63 seconds, I had gradually improved and achieved a high plank time of three minutes within about a week.

We then shifted to the second week and a tougher level. This plank had us alternating low and high planks, sort of like doing a half push-up every 5-10 seconds. I was dreading this, as my upper arm strength isn’t there for a large number push-ups, but I was surprised to find this challenge manageable. It was not easy, to say the least. One of the advantages is that you get to change positions. Even though transitions can be tough, the high planks were less punishing than the low planks. It also helped with the mental difficulty. Usually I do not watch the clock, but for these planks, I had to, and I began to think in the number of transitions. “I can handle one more cycle,” I would think, and that would be another 20 seconds. The cycles helped time pass faster.

I was regularly above three minutes as we neared the end of the week’s challenge. My penultimate level two plank was four minutes, which I felt great about. With one more of these remaining and the dreaded level three around the corner, I aimed to meet my goal at last. I had five minutes on my mind for that last plank. I played an upbeat, long song, and got to work. The last minute was a grind, and I was careful not to lose form. I shook and grunted, but managed to achieve the five minute mark.

There’s always adversity in life, and I found mine with level three. This plank is one legged. We start at regular plank position and alternate raising legs six inches off the ground. I worried this might interact with my recovering injury, and I was right. The first plank happened to be on a freezing cold morning, which is when the injury is at its most painful. It was no problem when I was raising my right leg, as the pressure and balance was on my left, uninjured side.

The first time I attempted lifting my left leg, I felt a twinge of pain. Hmmm. This might not be good, but at least to start, it was manageable. I’m used to enduring a little bit of pain as I progress through my recovery. I went through another cycle, and the pain was more pronounced. The problem was that when I had my left leg up, most of the pressure and balance was pushing inwards towards my core. My hip joint was absorbing most of it. There was a feeling of it being pushed from both sides. After a couple more cycles, it was continuing to hurt. I ended up stopping at 1:30, my weakest time since close to the beginning. On top of that, my hip felt off and the pain stuck with me the remainder of that day and the next. This type of plank was not going to work for me.

With the weather warming up and doing modified planks, the hip is feeling better again, but I have to find ways to challenge myself. For stage three, I’ve decided to come up with challenging, modified planks. This list is a great place to start.

For my modifications, I have done some brutal planks. One day I did an alternating forearm plank, which is pretty much the same as what the group is doing, only I lift my arms instead of my legs It puts more pressure on my arms and shoulders, while still working out my core and relieving my hip. I managed over two minutes and literally collapsed when I was finished. Tough plank.

Another modified plank was absolutely brutal, and required a little bit of trial and error just to get myself off the ground. I used the above medicine ball, and eventually ended up pushing off with my wrists into a high plank position. Even though high planks are usually easier, they were much, much harder this way because balance was a factor. I managed no more than a minute each, but tried it a couple times in order to get a good workout.

The remainder of this week will be about continuing to challenge myself but staying committed. Now that I have reached my time goal, the most important part is completing a worthwhile plank every day and accomplishing the challenge.

Regular plank

Around mid-morning yesterday, I was telling my co-workers about this plank challenge. They were not just impressed; they were inspired. One of them asked if they thought if they could beat me in a plank challenge. I wasn’t intending to brag, but said that I would probably do better simply because I had been doing this for nine days. They took that as a challenge and rounded me and a couple others into the conference room for an impromptu plank challenge.

At that time I was wondering if I spoke too soon. I had just done a difficult plank a couple hours ago, so I doubted whether I’d have it in me to do a long one. Either way, this was happening. We got the stopwatch out, and four of us started doing planks with one serving as referee to make sure we stayed up and used proper form.

The challenger realized in an instant how difficult this was, yet managed to hang on for a minute. That was impressive for someone who hasn’t done one before. I knew that the biggest challenge would come from a guy who works out often. We were the last two remaining up at 1:30, and then he started shaking and decided to bail out. It was just me and a room full of cheerleaders. “Keep going, Aaron!” they encouraged me. I dug in and stayed up for a full three minutes, which was my best time since the challenge began. Even though that felt good, the plank wiped me out. I was out of breath, panting, exhausted. These planks are hard!

My first plank on New Year’s Day was 63 seconds. Everyday I have gained time gradually, and finally broke two minutes on the 5th day. By the time we changed from level one to level two, my best time had been 2:17.

High plank.

For the second week, we switched to dynamic planks. We start in the regular plank position and alternate into a high plank every 5-10 seconds. It is almost like doing an awkward push-up, only not as difficult. I was worried on the first day whether I could handle this plank because I don’t have much upper body strength. To my surprise, that first day I had my best time to date at 2:30 minutes. Part of that success was because changing positions made it easier to a certain degree. The difficulty of a standard plank is in large part due to having to stick in an uncomfortable position. Mixing it up helps a little bit. At least it did that first day.

On the second day, I found that day one lulled me into a false sense of security. What I didn’t count on was getting sore arms from being in high plank position, which is a similar soreness as having done a number of push-ups. My second day in level two resulted in a setback. I could only manage two minutes, and found it a lot more painful. That was the same day as the plank challenge I did in the office, which reinvigorated me.

On the third day of level two, which was today, I managed my longest time doing any sort of plank – 3:03. I only beat my previous best by three seconds, but I’ll take it. The dynamic planks are now even more difficult than they were, but part of what this exercise has taught me is how to endure, just like with cycling. When it gets difficult, the biggest challenge is to hang in there, just as it is when you’re in the midst of a long, arduous and painful climb.

I’m not the only one in our group that has shown improvement. One of the guys has already reached five minutes, although in fairness, his first plank was three minutes and I think he had more experience going into this challenge. Aside from me and him, three other people have hit three minutes. Others have shown gradual yet consistent progress. Some have skipped days for whatever reason, while other seem to have given up on the challenge.

When I first started, I couldn’t imagine how difficult or how rewarding this challenge could be. For awhile I wondered whether I could even make it through the month doing this, especially with the dynamic planks in weeks two through four. Now I’m not quite as worried, and I am pretty confident that I’ll meet my five minute goal. After 10 days, my core already feels stronger. I have better posture and my back hurts less often.

This challenge was a great idea!

Happy New Year!

Millions of people have set resolutions to get themselves into shape. The gyms will be flooded on Monday, and that will last at least until the end of the month, perhaps longer. Eventually and unfortunately, a lot of people will cave on their resolutions.

I have not been that person, at least not for a great many years. New Year’s was just part of my off-season training regiment, which meant finding some sort of exercises to do indoors until the weather warmed up. If anything, January has been an annoyance because the gyms get crowded, and as sad as it is, I look forward to when people break their resolutions and give me more space.

Injury has changed that part of me. I’m now gladly joining the hordes of people with a New Year’s resolution to get back into shape. That starts with a 30-day Plank Challenge. That is not the only thing I’ll be doing, as I plan on a lot of cardio, but planks are going to be my primary motivator.

Since I’m out of the habit of training, it is not as easy for me to motivate myself as it once was. This time I was invited to a Fitness Challenge group via Google Plus. This gives me motivation in spades. We have 38 other people in the group, and most of them are also participating. They post their progress daily. I’ve set my iPhone to give me Google+ notifications, so throughout the day I’ve been getting notified of people’s progress. Thus far it has all been positive. Everyone encourages everyone, and I’ve jumped in and done the same. We’re all in this together even if our goals and fitness are not the same.

Everyone’s situation is different. Some people are dealing with injuries like me. Naturally they are limited and looking for any sort of progress. Others are in peak shape and just looking for further toning. One person posted a picture of their abs to ask the group if we saw much definition (not in the “Meathead Rob Lowe” sense). Let’s just say that the definition of my abs would be found in the dictionary – maybe rotund, plump, overweight, or whatever. That will change this year.

The plan is to do a plank every day and stay up as long as possible. We track everyone’s progress on a shared spreadsheet that gives lots of useful stats, like the percentage of improvement, the average plank time, and so on. The goal is to improve every day and work up to a time goal. At first my goal was 180 seconds, but I decided to raise it to 300. I may not get there, and that’s fine, but I don’t want to restrict myself to a lower goal and get comfortable.

These are the areas that get worked out while planking. It is an efficient exercise.

We have the month divided into four stages. For the first week we start with a regular/static plank, which is simply placing forearms on the floor, elevating the body onto the toes while keeping the back straight. Keeping form is important. When I did one of mine, I asked my wife to look to make sure my back was straight. If I feel myself losing form, then it is time for me to stop.

In the second week we’ll be doing a High Plank. This is where we start doing a regular plank, and then we move to a push-up position and alternate every 5-10 seconds. Needless to say, this will be more difficult and plank times will drop.

The intensity continues upward in weeks three and four. Stage three is a Single-Leg Plank, where we start at a regular plank and then raise one foot off the ground six inches and hold it straight, and then alternate every 5-10 seconds. Stage four are Plank Jacks, where we start from push-up position, and then jump our feet out into a jumping jack move and then back home, repeating every 5-10 seconds. The last two weeks might be more of a challenge because of my injury. It is possible I’ll have to modify, or maybe I’ll be able to do them normally and my hip will cooperate. It is unpredictable.

After these four weeks, we have two days doing the regular plank again, just to see the results of our month-long efforts. Hopefully this is when everyone, including myself, will reach or maybe surpass their goals.

So far, so good for me. On New Year’s Day, my plank time was 63 seconds. I wasn’t impressed, but improvement came fast. In four days, I have improved to 104 seconds, which is one-third of my goal.

The challenge will be done by the end of the month, but most likely I’ll keep planks into my repertoire. The core is an often neglected area in cycling training, yet it is also necessary for stability, bike control, and to maintain good form and reduce the chance of injury. I may decide to vary my planks to keep working the core. There are plenty of other variations to try.

On my way!