Plank

I am sure most if not all of you are familiar with the words “Plank” and “Core”.  For most of my life “Core” work was just an afterthought. Something only other runners would do. Being a 20 or 30 something, I could got away with skipping a lot of things while still running well.  

Add another 10 years of experience, and I have learned that I need to maintain what I have.

I have a “Core” set of positions that I follow four days per week. Of these positions, “Plank” is by far the easiest and the hardest for me to hold.

When I started the “Plank” position, 30 seconds seemed like a lot.  Over time, I worked up to 1 minute. Then, I moved to 2 minutes.  Next, I moved on to 3 minutes.

Now, I am 4 minutes and 15 seconds.

What is it like?

The first 30 seconds are easy. The first minute, I start feel it in my arms and shoulders. Two minutes into the workout and my back starts to shake. I focus on holding a straight line between my shoulders and my ankles. This is really hard because I can feel the desire in my back to sag toward the floor. My heart rate picks up. At 3 minutes, the sweat starts to bead up on my forehead. At 3:30, my back is dying for me to quite.

4 minutes, the finish line is in sight. I know I can do it.  

4:15 hits, and I just lay on the floor for about another minute while the rest of my body quits shaking.

With barely any recovery time, I move to side plank – both left and right. Then reverse plank. Four different positions and one goal get stronger.

In the coming months, I want to push the time until I can maintain the “Plank” position for 10 minutes. Right now, I am not even half way.  But I will get there. I just have to keep working at it. 

Keeping climbing the mountain.  

 

Sharing one thought at time,

The Cool Down Runner