It all started for me back on Thanksgiving last fall. After dinner at my parents’ house, Gishani, a friend, and I decided, for some strange reason after a hearty meal, to drop down on the carpet and do a plank. In case you’re unfamiliar, a plank is a core exercise performed by supporting oneself on forearms and toes, keeping the torso and legs aligned in a stiff pose, board-like as the name suggests. The object is to hold good form, strengthening the muscles of the lower back and abdomen. A plank is the simplest form of exercise that can be done anywhere, wearing anything (or nothing if that’s how you roll), and requires no special equipment, yet it is incredibly effective. We timed ourselves in a sort of loose three-way challenge, though once in the middle of it, it became a personal closet of pain. I lasted two agonizing minutes before collapsing in a heap.
What started as a spontaneous, masochistic party game turned into the “#heatonplankchallenge,” an ever widening group activity that brought in dozens of people all over the world, who responded on Instagram and a community social platform related to The Grey NATO podcast. I kicked it off on a whim, posting a screenshot of my plank time every time I did one, and others joined in. Soon I added the hashtag for a fun way to “brand” it and the ranks of plankers swelled, with people checking in from Australia, the UK, Germany, Japan, and the US, among other places. While on the surface, and by name, it started as a “challenge,” it evolved into more of an encouragement, a mutual cheering section if you will. After all, as one well known online fitness coach likes to say, “we’re all at different points in our own fitness journeys.” It doesn’t matter if you can do a longer plank, or more pushups, or a faster 5K run than me. The point is, we’re all patting each other on the back, following each other’s leads, and cheering each other on.
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