Conditioning Research

This is good. In Hillfit I use the pushup plank as a test.  If you cannot hold this position for at least a minute then you have no business doing pushups - your core will fail so that you will not be able to keep the pushups going in proper form.

Brett Contreras on a more difficult version of the plank.....

Yesterday I posted about George Hood breaking the world plank record with a phenomenal time of 1 hour 20 minutes  and 5.01 seconds.... John Sifferman is a connoisseur of the plank and had a good post today of the achievement , which included this inspirational video: John proposes a challenge: a 5 Minute Plank. .. George Hood. That’s the name of the man who will be entered into the Guinness Book of World Records after holding the plank exercise longer than anyone else ever has – obliterating the world record by nearly 30 seconds…wait…I mean minutes – 30 minutes. Maybe you’ve done a plank before, and maybe you thought you’ve done pretty well. Depending on who you talk to, a three minute plank hold is generally considered the gold standard – and anything beyond that is just gravy. Once you’ve hit 3 minutes and beyond, your core is already plenty strong – or so they say. However, I think a growing number of people have already proven that much of successful planking is all i...

This is absolutely mind blowing. While browsing around looking for images of the plank for an ebook I am working on, I came across this piece of news: a 54 year old man has just set a world record for the plank.  The staggering thing is the length of time that he held the plank:  1 hour, 20 minutes and 5.01 seconds . That is almost unbelievable - I think I am doing well when I get 3 minutes! George Hood broke the Guinness World Record on December 3 for the "Longest time in an abdominal plank position," clocking in at 1 hour, 20 minutes, and 5.01 seconds. The record-breaking took place at Eggsperience Pancakes and Cafe in Naperville, where owner John Sakoufakis created a special venue for Hood.   The full story is here: George Hood breaks Guinness record for plank I liked his comment: “I wanted to raise awareness with regard to the benefits of core strength, for one’s personal fitness and overall health,” said Hood, a personal trainer and former Marine. “I se...

Not the most exciting video (or music) ever, but quite an achievement - 20 plank variations for 15 seconds each.... Read about the approach here. Comments?