I very quickly learned that five minutes is an excruciating amount of time to hold plank position and that I have very little stamina and, apparentl

6 min readMar 11, 2021

I tried to plank for five minutes each day for a month and it was far from what I expected.

When I first began the challenge, it seemed like a slam-dunk since I didn’t need any equipment, I could plank at home, and I’ve always thought of myself as relatively in shape.

I very quickly learned that five minutes is an excruciating amount of time to hold plank position and that I have very little stamina and, apparently, a gigantic lack of willpower.

Read on to see how I fared during my 30 days of trying to plank for five minutes.

I started out by consulting with a personal trainer to make sure my form was just right

For this challenge, I’d be doing standard forearm planks, which use one’s own body weight to strengthen their core, back, and legs.

But even though planks sound simple, they can be tricky — so I decided to consult with Chris Baron, the personal training director at my local LA Fitness, to learn about the correct form for this move.

Immediately he told me that my form was incorrect because my shoulders were “popping up.” This was easily fixed by pulling my shoulders forward and pushing my back up.

First, I nailed down the proper form. Madison Vanderberg

“Your elbows should be in line with your shoulders, your arms should be bent, and your hands should be in front of your face around eye level,” Baron explained.

He also said my hips should be close to my shoulder height and that my entire back should be straight, not curved.

With his help, I corrected my form and kicked off the challenge.

On day one, I learned that planking for a minute is hard enough

On the first day of the challenge, I rolled out my yoga mat in the living room, set my timer for five minutes, and stretched out into plank position.

I was prepared to surprise myself with an amazing ability to hold a plank — maybe I’d even learn to like planking and find it meditative!

Feeling hopeful, I got into plank position and held the pose for what felt like an eternity, but when I checked the timer and saw that barely 80 seconds had passed, my optimism took a major hit.

I popped back into plank position for another 30 seconds, collapsed, tried again, held the plank for 20 more seconds, collapsed, and decided to call it for the day.

The next few days were not much better. I dropped my knees to the ground about four times per session and was still only planking for around three minutes, total.

Having failed the first week, I went on a journey to figure out how I could modify the plank to make it easier

Even with my pseudo-yoga modificatio, I was still struggling. Madison Vanderberg

After a few days of not getting any closer to the five-minute mark, I decided to pull from my yoga knowledge and try a “modified” version of a plank that I’d learned about in a previous class. It includes dropping your knees to the ground before holding a plank.

The side-arm plank wasn’t easy, but I could breathe better. Madison Vanderberg

Even with the modification, I struggled to hold the pose for more than three and a half minutes. And so, I consulted with Baron again, who told me that my pseudo-yoga modification is not a plank at all.

Instead, he told me to try a side-arm plank, where you start in plank position and then shift your weight to one arm.

Baron said this position can seem more doable because it’s easier for your body to breathe when you’re posed like this.

“You’re opening up that thoracic-cavity line in a side-arm plank,” he explained. “The diaphragm’s not deflated and you can breathe a little more.”

It was easier than a forearm plank, but it was still tough.

During week two, I changed up my routine and had a grand revelation

At the start of week two, my go-to plank routine was as follows: a forearm plank that lasted between 60 and 90 seconds, a 45-second side-arm plank on my right side, a short break, a 45-second side-arm plank on my left side, a short break, and then a regular plank for however long I could manage.

But even by breaking up my plank and allowing myself to rest, I was still struggling to last more than three and a half minutes total.

I lamented to Baron once again and asked if any other exercises could help me plank longer or if there were any other modifications to try, but he simply told me that if I want to do a five-minute plank I “just need to do it.”

He compared planking to learning to write or ride a bike, in that you just have to practice to get better.

“If you want to get better at planking, you need to plank,” Baron explained, adding that planking should get easier as my body adapts to the move.

The idea that planking is something I could “learn” seemed to reset something in my brain and I stopped being so hard on myself and thinking of myself as weak.

I convinced myself that planking was no longer a physical hurdle, just a task or a chore that I had to repeat to get better at … but this mindset didn’t last.

I very quickly learned that five minutes is an excruciating amount of time to hold plank position and that I have very little stamina and, apparentl

I started out by consulting with a personal trainer to make sure my form was just right

On day one, I learned that planking for a minute is hard enough

Having failed the first week, I went on a journey to figure out how I could modify the plank to make it easier

During week two, I changed up my routine and had a grand revelation

Written by Qynafu