Much to my chagrin, I didn't quite make the full month. I missed *one* day. One. Stinking. Day. And why? Because I got sucked into the black hole of the Olympic Opening Ceremonies and completely forgot about my plank. I woke up at 2:00 am that night and thought Crap, I can't believe I forgot to plank! I was seriously tempted to get up and do it but I was having such a good sleep that I didn't want to disrupt it with a plank. So I rolled over and went back to sleep. Such is life. I still made 30 out of 31 days and that's nothing to sneeze at.
I knew that by the end of 31 days, my core would be a lot stronger. But there were some other surprising things I learned along the way.
1. I actually really enjoy planking.
2. Planking is best done before you do any other workout, especially a swim workout or any sort of upper body workout. Unless of course you're Wonder Woman. Then you can do anything.
3. My core is stronger than my upper body. I found that my arms would give out sooner than my abdominal muscles.
4. Child's pose feels like heaven after a good solid plank.
5. I can pull of a 5:30 plank circuit after a burger, fries and a pint of beer. I wouldn't recommend it unless you really enjoyed your dinner so much so that you want to taste it again.
6. Side planks have worked wonders for my obliques.
7. I enjoy planking so much that I will probably continue to do it. Maybe not every day but certainly on a regular basis and definitely not after a burger, fries and a pint of beer.
Did you do YOUR plank today?
Did you follow along on twitter and if so, did your plank time improve over the last month?
(photo credit: Suanie Image is subject to a creative commons attribution license)
8 comments:
Good job! You did better than me...I came into the challenge late and missed several days.
Thanks John! I was so close too. Ah well. I may try it again in September. :)
Love that you reflected on this. I agree about the side planks...I definitely feel (and see a difference!) Here's to August successes!
I do do my plank a day! Good to find a fellow planker. You cracked me up with the visual of you waking up and going 'I forgot my plank!' in the middle of the night ;-).
I'm interested in your advice to do the plank before other exercise. I guess it make sense to get your core firing before you use it, but personally, I get stomach pain if I do it, so I always have to do my core work after my running and jumping. Silly body.
A bit off topic but is it weird that I thought of you when I noticed today that one of my toenails is black? LOL
Katie - I am definitely going to keep up the planks. I've actually noticed a big change in my core, especially around my obliques. All the support from you guys on twitter was a HUGE help.
I found it easier to do my plank before I did any upper body work, that way my arms and shoulders weren't already tired. I *should* have actually tried to do it before my swim workouts but that never happened. I found that if I swam in the morning and did my plank in the evening, my upper body would still be fatigued from the swim, especially if it was a hard one so I was never able to hold my planks as long as I could on the days I didn't swim.
HA HA HA HA!!! That is pure awesomeness! Not that your toenail is black but that you thought of me.....love it!
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