30-Day Plank Challenge: A Journalist's Experience & Results

Not all Internet fitness challenges are effective, but Bright Side wants to share with you a 30-day challenge that will bring benefits to your health. Today we are going to tell you about the experience of someone who took this challenge.

The challenge is to maintain the same posture for a certain time period — 20 seconds on the first day, up to 5 minutes on day 30.

Journalist Leah Wynalek decided to test the effectiveness of the challenge. Leah is not a sedentary person, so she thought it would be an easy test. “I was overconfident. When I did them right, my core quaked, and I’d look desperately at the timer on my phone as it counted down to zero,“ she confessed.

”My abs strengthened. I didn’t quite realize it until the final week when my plank hold felt considerably easier than during week one. Though I didn’t see a difference, I could feel it.“

But that was not the only change. “I felt all the tension accumulated by sitting at my desk was gone. I was surprised with the energy I felt after a short period of exercise,” she said.

Leah Wynalek taking a plank break at work.

If you include this exercise in your daily routine, you will get more benefits:

• You will gain strength.
• You will improve your posture.
• It will stimulate your metabolism.
• You will work several muscle groups.
• It will help prevent injury.

Consider the following if you decide to take the challenge:

• Maintaining proper posture is essential to avoid injury.
• Just because it is an isometric exercise, it should not be considered simple or risk free.
• People who are overweight or have heart or back problems should consult a physician before taking up the challenge.

When you are experienced enough, you can challenge yourself with other varieties of plank exercises that can be found in this article.