60 Minutes per Month Plank Challenge - October 2017

This is a pretty simple challenge thread for those that want to have some accountability with their plank workouts. This plank challenge thread is meant to be flexible enough that people of various fitness levels should be able to successfully complete it as long as they are consistent with doing their planks regularly. If you find you cannot complete 60 minutes, you are welcome to set your own goals, many of us do.

Original Challenge Goal - 60 minutes of planks for the month. That's about 2 minutes of planks daily, or 3 minutes of planks for 20 days or 5 minutes of planks for 12 days...or...what ever you want to do to reach the challenge goal. I, personally, do mixed planks of up to 10 minutes per day. I split them up throughout my normal workouts.

>>If you are already a planking superstar or start to consistently hit the challenge goal, feel free to post your own goal at the beginning of the challenge that is higher than the one for the posted challenge. Or post an updated goal once you hit 60 minutes.
>>If you join us late in the month, feel free to post an alternate goal that is in the spirit of the original challenge (for example, joining around the 15th would be a 30 minute plank challenge to finish out the month).

How many sets? As many as you need. If you can do a 5 minute plank in one set, that is amazing!! If you want to do a few sets of 1 - 2 minute planks, that's cool! If you need to break up your planks into multiple sets of 15-30 seconds, that's okay too! I do a 4-minute set that goes something like this:

1 minute forearm, 30 seconds left side plank, 30 seconds right side plank, 30 seconds left side plank, 30 seconds right side plank, 30 seconds left side plank, and finally, yup, you guessed it.. 30 seconds right side plank. Mixing things up gives me a more rounded workout, and I generally never hold any one position longer than 1 minute. Feel free to create your own.

Types of planks? ALL planks and their variations count! Straight arm planks, forearm/elbow planks, side planks, reverse planks, etc. This allows you to vary your planks depending on your personal workout goals. (See below for a variety of planking ideas.) I even add push ups during some of my planks as well as leg raises, etc. to push just a bit harder.

How to join / participate? Just post your intended goal, then the total minutes of the planks you did for the day and your running total for the month. No spreadsheets, no groups. Easy peasy. I get behind on the weekends and catch up my posts during the week. That's ok too. It helps your fellow challengers to see others posting regularly so do so if you can. I subscribe to this post, that way I will see when others post and it gives me motivation to keep up my plank workouts.

Last month's 60 minute plank challenge thread:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10592354/60-minutes-per-month-plank-challenge-september-2017/

Welcome and get planking!!

I am continuing this challenge once again for @b3achy, the original author. All credit goes to her for starting this thing many many moons ago. All examples, quoted text, and ideas were, and still are, her contributions. I take no credit here, just keeping the torch lit in her absence. Stay tuned for some examples, and happy planking!

I'd like to add (as stated above in bold) that it has long since been a tradition that we accept any goal. If you don't feel you can do 60 minutes, or if you start late in the month, we want you here. So post your personal goal and start planking. You can come back each month and increase your times until you reach the challenge goal or go beyond it. Some of us go way beyond it and that's ok too. We have never been judgemental. Everyone needs a strong core, and we believe this is the path to that goal!

Remember, no judgement, ever! That's the one rule about this challenge, you may not judge other people's efforts. All effort is good effort, and all we care is that you try. If you need to drop out for personal reasons, and/or come back later, it's all good. Do your thing, fitness is about you.

Some examples:

30 Day Beginner Plank Challenge - builds to a 2 minute plank (total is 26 minutes and 55 seconds for the month, so 33 minutes and 5 seconds short of 60 minutes. Recommend doing multiples earlier in the program when they are shorter to get more minutes for 60):


30 Day Advanced Plank Workout - building to 5 minute planks (total is 53 minutes and 20 seconds for the month, so 6 minutes and 40 seconds short of 60 minutes unless you do multiples earlier in the program):


Here's an Alternate 30 Day Plank Workout (for beginners, intermediate, and advanced) that also builds to 5 minutes of Planks (by doing multiples of no more than 30 sec planks; also 53 minutes and 20 seconds for the month):

For details on the variations, here's the full slideshow: http://www.slideshare.net/TodaysFitnessTrainer/30-day-plank-challenge[/quote]

b3achy wrote: »

Intermediate Plank Workouts:
These are intermediate level workouts, good to try once you have a good foundation of standard planks and are looking for something more interesting or with more variety.

3 minute Bowflex Plank Workout:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynUw0YsrmSg

Rebecca Louise 5 minute Plank Workout (shows nearly proper form (butt's a little too far in the air, IMO), and modified forms):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1Ge7uGpjFY

DareBee 5 minute Plank Workout:


DareBee Killer Core Plank Workout:


Advanced Workouts:
Do not try these if you have never done a plank before. These are workouts to build up to once you successfully establish a good foundation of standard planks (and probably only once you've managed to do some of the intermediate workouts).

15 Minute Advanced Plank Workout:

See details in this article ~ http://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/plank-abs-workout

FitnessBlender 10 minute Advanced Plank Workout (this looks brutal):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DNN9a5pU2A