Plank Week: The One Hour Challenge

One of the most common phrases you will hear out of any athlete-in-training's mouth is, "I need to work on my core." In fact, this challenge was partially inspired by my friend Rommel, who uttered the phrase, "I'm working on my core" during our morning ride. That mention, along with a lot of chatter about Lent (or "Lint" as Coach Dave wrote on facebook this morning), got me thinking...

Time for a little challenge. For myself, but I am writing about so that others can play along if they want to. It's called Plank Week, and it starts today because I don't think any commitment should intentionally start on a Monday.

The challenge - between today and next Wednesday, complete 60 minutes worth of planks (an average of 8.5 minutes a day).

No limit on the number of planks each day.
No limit on how long or short to hold it.
No judgement if done in underwear, sans clothing.
On elbows, not hands. Keep that butt down!
Front plank only, for now.
Just simply do it.

On the Pants-Salad Scale, planks are birds. But I like that idea that by this time next week, I'll have completed an hour's worth of core work. It's not a ton, but it's more than what I am doing right now. So that's the point - raise the bar.


The goal is to get ripped like ClipArt Man here
I'll update this post with a little infographic or visual detailing my progress as I go. If you'd like to play along, just let me know and you get to be included on the chart. Maybe tell me what animal you wanna be, and I'll use a picture of it to represent you. (As busy as I am ... I have a lot of free time...clearly.)

That's it. Ready. Set. Hold.

UPDATE: Day One Done!

A few twitter and irl friends playing along - @planetmort, @melissaborek, @hmgiraffy @sswineford @danielavmar @esdi @higaiimo @907girl @5280RunnerGal - for the week.


Aiming to get that red bar crawling to the top! I'll update as best as I can during the days ahead as numbers come in.