Tag: Strength Training

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Planking Pains and Gains: My Battle with the New Platform

Written January 24, 2024

Hello Dear Readers,

Ever since my wife and I upgraded to a new planking platform, my core has been waging a full-scale rebellion. Holding a plank for my usual duration? Ha! My abs have other plans. Two likely culprits are sabotaging my endurance, and honestly, I feel personally attacked.

Why Am I Suddenly Terrible at Planking?

First, there was the dark age—that sad, plank-less week when our old platform broke. Not wanting to lose momentum, I switched to planking on the floor. Great idea in theory, except floor planking apparently isn’t the same beast. It felt easier, sure, but that “easier” came with a hidden cost—my endurance took a hit. Turns out, sometimes doing something isn’t as good as doing the right thing. Lesson learned.

Second, this new machine is demanding, and my body is not amused. Unlike the old platform, this one requires a completely different posture. My core, once a loyal ally, is now throwing tantrums over the additional balancing act. I plank, I wobble, I try to hold steady, and the machine just laughs at my suffering.

The Game Plan: One Problem at a Time

Since quitting isn’t an option (and my pride won’t let me), I’ve been sneaking in extra plank sessions throughout the day. The improvement has been slow but steady—exactly the kind of hard-earned victory that makes fitness both frustrating and rewarding.

Endurance Woes: Fighting for Seconds

When I first set foot (or rather, forearm) on this new machine, I barely lasted a minute. A whole 60 seconds before my core tapped out. Now, I’m creeping up to 90 seconds. Still far from my goal of nearly three minutes, but hey, progress is progress. I’ve been on and off gymnastics in the past, so I know one thing for certain—muscle endurance isn’t won overnight. It’s a painfully slow process of adding seconds, one grueling plank at a time. The only way forward? Reduce the timer, reclaim lost time, and build up gradually.

Core Chaos: The Balancing Act

Balance? What balance? This machine demands way more from my core, and my muscles are not amused. It’s like trying to hold a plank on a tiny, floating island that tilts at the slightest shift. Keeping the correct posture while balancing feels like taming a wild horse—one that insists on throwing me off at every opportunity. But I’m sticking with it. No matter how many times I feel like a baby giraffe learning to walk, I’ll get there.

The Silver Lining: Sore Abs = Progress

How long will it take to reach my previous planking glory? No clue. This is an entirely different beast, and I’ll have to tame it on its terms. One thing I do know? My abs are on fire. The soreness is proof that this machine is working harder than ever. If pain equals progress, then I’m definitely moving in the right direction.

So, for now, I’ll keep planking, keep struggling, and keep counting the seconds—until my core decides to stop complaining and start cooperating.

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From Running to Strength: How I Built an Effective Upper Body Routine

Hello again, dear readers,

After running 1000 miles last year, I decided my legs were in the best condition they’d ever been, even before my stroke. Encouraged by my previous success, I expanded my exercises to include my upper body. I decided on pull-ups, pullovers, pushups, tricep pushups, and planks. These were all exercises I was previously familiar with and knew how to do, and they should help balance the fitness of my body a bit more. 

Next, I had to find a time/trigger for my exercises and determine how many to do. Since I’d been so good at keeping my running schedule, I used getting ready for my run as my trigger. So, every running day, before I head outside, I do some number of pull-ups, pullovers, pushups, triceps pushups, and planking. At the start of this routine, I only did one pull-up, one pullover, 21 pushups, one triceps pushup, and 1 minute, 21 seconds of planking. I found it easier to keep track of the goal numbers if they were aligned. 

I also decided that if I could achieve the target number 10 times, I would increase the number by 1. Eventually, I found that I could do two sets of exercises and did my first before I ate breakfast and my second before my run. In the beginning, when I was doing relatively small numbers of each activity, I tried to do four sets spread throughout the day. Still, I didn’t have appropriate triggers for 2 of them or 3 of them on non-running days, so I periodically forgot to do them all. Still, my before-breakfast set was reasonably easy to remember. I kept up with this set and have done it daily for over 200 days, gradually increasing my counts to 10 pull-ups, 10 pullovers, 20 pushups, 10 triceps pushups, and 1 minute 50 seconds of planking. There have been non-running days that I’ve missed the second set, but those have been rare enough that I haven’t worried too much about it.

So, after you’ve built and established a habit, consider using it as an anchor for expanding it into an entire routine. In making this routine, I prioritized rooting the practice over starting with higher/more challenging numbers. In the beginning, doing a single pull-up felt underwhelming, but I built the habit of slowly increasing the repetitions in my mind. I’m pretty confident that 10 successful sets aren’t optimal, but it’s easy to keep track of, and it’s working for me now. 

If it stops working, I must find a way to fix it. However, what matters most is that I am progressing and getting stronger.