Holding the Plank

Fitness Together is having a plank contest, to see who can hold a plank for the longest time. You remember the plank: you hold yourself in a push-up like position on your toes, but in the case of the plank, on your elbows rather than your hands. Very challenging for your entire core.

It will take a miracle for me to win--the three people in the lead are all at over 8 minutes and the leader is at nearly 9 minutes. If you've never done a plank, you might want to try timing yourself at it. It's sort of like holding your breath for nearly 9 minutes.

The first time I tried it for the contest, I did it at the end of a workout that already incorporated plenty of core work. I don't remember how long I lasted-- I think it was about a minute. The second time I did it at the beginning of my workout. I was determined to last a minute and a half, and went 5 seconds beyond that. Today, I was determined to last a minute 45 seconds, and I lasted 2 minutes!

Could I have gained that much strength in my abs in a week, that I could stay up twice as long? I doubt it. I think most of it is psychological. With every length of time I do, I have confidence that I can get to that point. I'm excited to see where I'll be at the end of the month. Anyone want to join me and see how much you progress?

I did some fun exercises today. Here are a couple of them. In this exercise, I started out with my shins on the Swiss ball like this:




I then pulled my legs forward to get in this position:





It's a good exercise and fun to do. My problem was getting off the ball when I was done. For some reason, it seemed like a very difficult position to get out of, and I had a small panic attack trying to do so. I have such a fear of falling and breaking something, and I was afraid I was going to fall off the ball.

The only time I've had that kind of feeling before was in a couple of situations where I was claustrophobic. The worst time was climbing up in the Statue of Liberty (or the green lady, as Bennett calls her). If you've ever made that climb, you know that the staircase is nearly vertical like a ladder and that your head is at someone's feet and your feet are at someone's head. As you climb, the space gets narrower and narrower. I felt totally trapped and started panicking. I was relieved to discover that there was another stairway going down that I got onto immediately. That was how I learned I have claustrophobia.

I wasn't at all pleased to get that feeling while working out, and hope it's not the start of something new.

This second exercise is a bicep curl using the rings. I started leaning back like this:




I then pulled myself forward using my biceps, like this:



Also a challenging, fun exercise. I did another one like the above one focussing on my triceps. It's always great fun to workout with rings.



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