Five Minute Plank Challenge?

[Brunsonja]

I found this link to various challenges - superheroes in anything tend to grab my attention -- but what amazingly grabbed me more than Bruce Lee was the Five Minute Plank Challenge

 

neilarey.com/challenges.html

 

Is this humanly possible???  I am only a lowly starting noob and such a feat for some reason causes my eyes to go wide. 

 

Even more strange is that a dark evil part of me says "LETS DO IT!!" but my health-conscious savvy says "After you can make it to 15 seconds without swearing"

 

What level fitness should one be to attempt this?  Has anybody done it before?? 

[Papa Raf C]

Given the progression, I'm pretty sure that's quite achievable for a beginner - assuming that beginner is that you can at least do 20 sec. elbow plank as prescribed for day 1.

[Tanuki]

I have never had an issue with planks. Even before I took up fitness, I could hold a plank indefinitely. I think it depends on a lot more than just 'fitness; I was always pretty active.

 

Holding it for longer than a minute, though, has limited benefits. You're not getting any better or stronger holding it for longer. Better advice is to make the plank harder:

http://www.startbodyweight.com/p/plank-progression.html

 

And stick to a minute or so. So, if you can do a basic plank, move on to side planks, decline planks and leg-lift planks.

 

You'll also be surprised at how fast progress will be if you do something each day. I started out doing just knee pushups and I assumed real pushups were months away. Within 6 months I was on decline and diamond pushups. It goes really fast if you put the work in!

[Brunsonja]

I've been doing the 15 second planks as part of the Beginner Body Workout 3 x week for one week now.  I've never really been athletic, and I can push myself to 20 seconds on my first two reps but by rep 3 it's down to 15 seconds again.  

 

It's heartening to hear doing something daily helps progress faster / so far I feel like I'm still taking things slow but once I get into a healthier routine I think a 30 day challenge like this would be fun.  I will have to try the decline / leg lift planks, those look wicked. 

 

 

[Oramac]

In my [limited] experience, this sort of thing is about 98% mental.  I know people who are total noobs to fitness who have held a Horse Stance for 10 minutes.  It's certainly not easy, but generally speaking the body is capable moreso than the mind.  

 

I'd be willing to bet the 5-Minute Plank is a similar situation.  The body is probably capable (assuming you're not excessively overweight), but the mind might need training.  

[Brunsonja]

The mental challenge makes sense / I like plank position for the intense "burn" I feel doing it yet there are no weights or motions involved, which makes it feel like a crazy meditation stance to me.  To meditate for five minutes in plank seems like a Zen achievement.

 

I'm not heavily overweight, just husky and in need of muscles & practice / I think I will give this a shot, if for nothing else then the "did it!" factor if I succeed.

 

 

 

"You should meditate at least 20 minutes everyday.  Unless you are busy, then you should meditate for an hour."

[Machete]

Totally possible. Did it once. More of a challenge for your attention span.

[Salty]

Yeah definitely doable did 10 mins once and had to stop cause my elbows were hurting on the wood floor

[Loren Wade]

I found this link to various challenges - superheroes in anything tend to grab my attention -- but what amazingly grabbed me more than Bruce Lee was the Five Minute Plank Challenge

 

neilarey.com/challenges.html

 

Is this humanly possible???  I am only a lowly starting noob and such a feat for some reason causes my eyes to go wide. 

 

Even more strange is that a dark evil part of me says "LETS DO IT!!" but my health-conscious savvy says "After you can make it to 15 seconds without swearing"

 

What level fitness should one be to attempt this?  Has anybody done it before?? 

It's totally possible. I did a 10 minute plank as part of a challenge  a couple years ago.

[Brunsonja]

OK well I gave it a shot (see lateness of post) and after 15 days made it up to 2 min 30 seconds -- from starting newbie that could barely hold 15 seconds.

 

But at that point I hit a wall.  I tried again and again to reach past 2 min 40 second mark to get to 3 minutes and failed every time.  My muscles just shook and collapsed.  Tried carpet over hardwood flooring too, helped my elbows but no luck. 

 

I got really discouraged after trying again and again and still failing to hit 3 minutes.  It's been a week now and I'm way off the 30 day track.  Thinking of starting over again and just focusing on building up strength -- the good news is I can now easily hold 1 min instead of my 15 seconds to failure, so at least the mini 15 day challenge has really helped my core strength.  

[Oramac]

OK well I gave it a shot (see lateness of post) and after 15 days made it up to 2 min 30 seconds -- from starting newbie that could barely hold 15 seconds.

 

But at that point I hit a wall.  I tried again and again to reach past 2 min 40 second mark to get to 3 minutes and failed every time.  My muscles just shook and collapsed.  Tried carpet over hardwood flooring too, helped my elbows but no luck. 

 

I got really discouraged after trying again and again and still failing to hit 3 minutes.  It's been a week now and I'm way off the 30 day track.  Thinking of starting over again and just focusing on building up strength -- the good news is I can now easily hold 1 min instead of my 15 seconds to failure, so at least the mini 15 day challenge has really helped my core strength.  

 

Sounds like you've made some great progress, even if you didn't hit the goal.  Great job so far! Keep it up and I'm sure you'll hit the mark.  Just give it time.  (pun intended)

[Eleanorsbee]

instead of going for duration to train ... I would try the progressions, I am sure if you hold a incline plank for 1m .... when you tried the regular one it would be easier.

 

its like weight lifting ... reps vs increased weight .... and increase weight promotes muscle growth quicker.

[Oramac]

instead of going for duration to train ... I would try the progressions, I am sure if you hold a incline plank for 1m .... when you tried the regular one it would be easier.

 

its like weight lifting ... reps vs increased weight .... and increase weight promotes muscle growth quicker.

 

Not a bad idea.  You could also put weight on your upper back/shoulders to make it more difficult as well.  Probably wouldn't want to put it on the lower back though.  

[rekall]

well it is certainly Possible, as seen - in real time - in this video:

 

looks like quite the challenge!

[baking_jeans]

Longest recorded plank is more than 4 hours:

 

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/longest-time-in-an-abdominal-plank-position