Loving Planks

I never thought I would say this, but I actually love doing....PLANKS!!!  Yes, people, I never would have ever imagined myself ever saying that...EVER!!!

Do you know how long I have avoided doing planks? Oh, let's say at least...20 years!!! And you know what? It showed!!! YUP! I admit it! That is no secret. Remember when the world first saw me on America's Got Talent? Do you remember that chunky, middle-aged woman? While I did work out believe it or not, I avoided planks like the plague for YEARS as you could probably tell. However, after losing some weight and wanting to work on my core, I asked my awesome fitness blogging friend, Nancy Kim, (who is also a certified fitness instructor) what I could do. She recommended planks. I dreaded them, and told her I dreaded them but that I was willing to give them a try since I saw what they did for her core.

From the moment I tried doing planks after decades of avoiding them, I could feel them working EXACTLY where I wanted them to work, and I instantly fell in love with planks. I was in serious agony from the get go, and I had no idea how I was going to get through even just one minute at first, but it was great because I could feel them working, and I like it when I think something is working for me. I could see results very quickly! I want to say I saw results even within a couple of days.

Of course, I still have a long way to go (ok, I admit that my abs do not look like Nancy's :)), but Nancy said she has suggestions of variations of planks to keep things challenging so that my body doesn't get used to things since your body adapts rather quickly and that exercises get less effective as your body adapts to them. Oh my, did she say MORE challenging? Uh oh. Well, ok..I guess she knows what she is talking about. I will have to give her a call when I'm ready. But for right now, I think the 3-5 sets of 1 minute each or 1 minute and 10 seconds each is about all I can handle at the moment. When that gets "too easy",or if I don't see as much results after that, then I will see what more challenging planks to take on. Until then, the normal "less challenging" planks are plenty challenging enough for me right now! :)