Back
in 2010 I attended a kickboxing class at
Oldham Sports Centre. One of
the exercises we did between practising the strikes was plank.
At
the time, I'd not long moved out from my parent's gaff and I had a
slim but wiry physique. In the class on this one occasion, we used a
“last-man-standing” system to see who could hold plank the
longest. I won. Since then I've continued to train regularly but the
quality of my diet has fluctuated. I'm eating well now, but my
planking isn't anywhere near as good as it was. I realised that, and
wanted to do something about it. I started reading and planking.
The
plan was to read the shortest book in my to-read pile whilst holding
plank position. I expected to do it in one day. Uh-uh. My abs aren't
what they were, and my resistance to holding plank has diminished. I
was struggling to read a page at a time. I timed my plank at 1 minute
39.
I
hammered on through the fascinating and reassuring Men's Sexual
Health: Fitness for Satisfying Sex. Sexual health, the book
describes, is more than just being free of infections or diseases.
It's being of sound mind and body overall, leading to a healthy sex
life.
Well,
that's the theory.
By
the time I'd finished, I'd managed a planking record of 3:05- almost
double my starting record!
I
recommend the book to any man of any age. It book took 15 days to
read- it's a small book but reading is much harder in plank than it
is when doing other forms of exercise, like using a treadmill or an
exercise bike, or practising the splits.
I'll
be trying this project again soon, with some alterations.
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