05 - Plank

Today saw the return of my old exercise buddy, the "Plank". Why I haven't seen that position since—let me see now...how long has it been—oh yeah...last week. I bet you all were thinking I was going to say, "months" or "since I finished the Peak Condition program in October."


Strangely enough, "Plank" and I have become quite good friends since those days. I usually do the Plank stance about two to three times a week, 4 sets at 1 minute apiece as part of my post PCP maintenance routine. His reappearance after a week's absence has left me—well, a little unfulfilled.

Today's routine only called for 2 sets of planks for 20 seconds each. It wasn't enough to even cause a small bead of sweat to form on my brow. The same goes for the push-ups (only 4 sets of 8 reps coming from my usual 5 sets of "until failure") and the sit-ups (4 sets of 10 reps as opposed to my usual of 4 sets of "until failure").

But this is only Week 1. If there's anything I can be assured of, it'll get a lot harder. Bring it on! (Did I just say that? If you told me a year ago that I would be an exercise junkie, I would have laughed right in your face. See what you did, Patrick!)

I discovered that I have no problem with my stance for the Agility exercises. According Patrick, you should always have your weight on the balls of your feet. Amazingly enough, that's how I often stand and sometimes walk! Granted, I also tend to be a bit bouncy while on the balls of my feet, but for some reason I don't like to be flat footed. Never have—not even as a child. I always had to be on the go, much to my parent's exasperation.

So far, the daily routines don't take me much more than about 45 minutes to complete, and that's with the 20 second rests in between each set. I remember when doing 500 jumps use to take me 45 minutes! It's funny how your body reacts differently to situations once it's fit. What once was hard, is now a piece of cake. God, how I love that feeling!