Plink Plank … Plunk!!!

PLINK, PLANK… PLUNK!!!

 

I’m adding The Plank to my indoor fitness routine starting today. This “beginner’s” exercise strengthens your core muscles.

 

This is what planking looks like on a buff guy 

(On me, it probably looks QUITE different— HA HA HA HA HA!)

Boy, howdy!

 

After you can hold this position “comfortably” for two minutes (two minutes!?!?!), you can try adding a weighted vest, or doing it sideways, or…  (Hello?! Two minutes?!?!?))

 

I can ride my bike for 50 minutes (slightly uphill with occasional larger hills and longer grades) easily. When I ride at Orting, I ride uphill 750 feet in about 50 minutes.

 

I can jog in place indoors for ten minutes (alternating jogging with marching and toe-touching and jumping jacks) relatively easily already, which I do several times a day during inclement weather when I can’t be out walking or riding

 

But this here plank is a serious damned challenge at the start.

 

I know Ruth Bader Ginsberg planked into her eighties, and I’m not quite 70 (give me four months), but I just tried it, and I managed to hold the position for something over 30 seconds.

 

I was going to try to hold the position for one minute the first time, so I set the timer on my phone and assumed the position.

 

I was doing great up until about the second 20 or 22, when it became evident that one minute was going to be quite the stretch (translation: an impossibility!) this first time.

 

By after second 15 or so the display on my phone disappeared and I couldn’t see my progress second by second, so I started counting “one thousand one, one thousand two…” as my body began to shake… hoping I could make it the final 40 seconds on sheer willpower.

 

But I finally gave it up at a little past thirty seconds. I’m guessing it was about second 35… maybe 38 if I’m being generous…

 

It’s a freaking hard exercise for beginners. It doesn’t LOOK hard, but it is!

 

I will do it for several days, once (maybe twice) per day, and see how much better I get at it.

 

But I was disappointed this first time out. I figured after months of biking and walking and several days of indoor jogging, I’d do better.

 

Several years ago, I started planking for a time and I remember getting stronger by the day, to where I could hold it for a minute without sweating or feeling like I might stroke out.

 

It looks like I’m back at square one in that regard.

 

I know after my abdominal surgery I will weight about 14 pounds less and be able to do it more easily, but before I go in for that (still no date yet), I want to make my core muscles as strong as I can. I think that will help me recover better, too…

 

I’m putting this here for accountability. I want to report my progress publicly so I don’t backslide. So, you’ve just become my accountability partner, friend. Don’t let me get away with a half-assed commitment. I want to get, and stay, fit.

 

And there is no reason I can’t. I just have to commit to doing it.