In the past year, I’ve been asked about health more than any other topic outside of tech and data. So, I decided to consolidate my responses to those questions in a series of four Lucky7 posts.
Specifically, I’ve been covering:
1. Nutrition (and my vegan power breakfast smoothie recipe)
2. The Cooper Clinic
3. OsteoStrong
4. Exercise and X3
I haven’t written Part Four yet on exercise and X3, and I want to take a quick diversion to talk about the benefits of planking. I’ll also reference this post in Part Four, so it is a good primer.
When I turned 48-years old on Feb. 14, I announced on Facebook that I felt like I was close to being in the best shape of my life and I had achieved a new health milestone - my first 10-minute plank. That got quite a bit of attention from my friends, including many texts to my mobile phone, so I wanted to talk about how I did it since I’ve received so many questions about it.
First, the reason I do a plank before my X3 workout is so that my core is totally warmed up. X3 Bar is pretty intense - with very minor risk of injury as compared to free weights - and I want to perform at my best while doing it so that I get the best daily workout possible. There are many benefits of planking, and this Lifehack article is a good outline of “7 Amazing Things That Will Happen When You Do Plank Every Day”.
Second, prior to starting my six-day-per-week X3 workout routine in January 2019, I had maxed out on a plank for about 3 minutes but for the most part did them for around 2 to 2.5 minutes. A 2-minute plank seems to around the norm for people in good shape, but as I learned you can achieve a lot more than that with daily consistency.
What I’m about to tell you is surprisingly easy but it takes regularity and it makes your core feel totally different, to the benefits of planking in that Lifehack article above.
I worked up to a 10-minute plank by simply adding 10-15 seconds to my daily plank per week. In week one of my X3 workout routine, I did a 2.5-minute plank every day for those six days as part of my warm before my X3 workout (I also do stretching and other warm-up exercises, which I’ll cover in Part Four of my series). In week two, I added 15 seconds. In week three, I added another 15 seconds. Some weeks I only added 10 seconds because I felt like I was plateauing a bit. Over around 14 months, all of that added up to a 10-minute plank by the time I turned 48 on Feb. 14. The key is that once I added 10-15 seconds at the beginning of a week, I stuck with that plank time for all six workout days of that week. Here is how it looks in practice:
Week one (six workout days per week): 2 minute, 30 second plank per day
Week two: 2 minute, 45 second plank per day
Week three: 3 minute plank per day
Week four: 3 minute, 10 second plank per day
Week five: 3 minute, 25 second plank per day
…
Week fifty-seven: 10 minute plank per day
This week I’m doing a 10 minute, 30 second plank per day. It felt really great to do this yesterday and I’m looking forward to it later today.
You’ll be really surprised when you hit new milestones on your plank with this type of very gradual consistency. And you’ll feel very different. When we were skiing over the winter break, my core had never felt so strong on skis. My posture has never felt better. I get a lot less back pain than ever before (both OsteoStrong and X3 have helped out in that regard too). I also think it has helped me metabolically but that could also be the consistency of working out six days per week. And I can, of course, see the difference.
As far as my planking form, note that I follow the classic form for the majority of my plank:
The classic plank form from the Lifehacks article
Ok, so I said the majority of my plank is in this classic form. I also do the leg-raised plank on each side as I go. What this looks like on a 10-minute plank is:
6 minutes, 30 seconds classic plank
1 minute, 10 seconds classic plank with right leg raised
1 minute, 10 seconds classic plank with left leg raised
1 minute, 10 seconds classic plank
Note that this is one continuous plank for 10 minutes with no break - I turn on my stopwatch on my iPhone and don’t stop until I hit my time. You’ll really feel it in your obliques when as you do the leg raised plank. Here is a photo from that same Lifehacks article so you can see the form:
Variety of planking exercises from the Lifehacks article
Note that I’ve been incorporating the raised leg plank pose, in roughly these types of portions based on my total time, since beginning my six-day-per-week planking routine. Back when I was doing a 3-minute plank, I did around 1 minute, 45 seconds in the classic elbow plank position followed by around 30 seconds of the left and then right raised leg plank, and around 15 seconds back in the classic plank to finish strong - again, all with no breaks in between.
I had never done a plank of more than 3 minutes prior to turning 47. Now I’m planking six days per week for over 10 minutes per day and it feels great! You can get stronger as you get older, and planking is very important for people like me with desk jobs. All of that sitting weakens the core, and you don’t really exercise your core at the gym if you are doing exercises while sitting on machines or laying on benches. Try it, you’ll love it and it will transform the way you feel. Make sure to use a yoga mat and tune into your favorite podcast with your AirPods and the time will fly by (I’m not saying it won’t feel a bit intense though but you’ll be proud of yourself at the end).
Note: Do you think 10 minutes is a long time? A 62-year old former marine just achieved a Guinness World Record breaking classic elbow plank time of 8 hours 15 minutes and 15 seconds. So, stop complaining and start planking, no matter your age! :)