NEW MEMBER OFFER!

Get 35% off GOES, your essential outdoor guide

LEARN MORE

GET MORE WITH OUTSIDE+

Enjoy 35% off GOES, your essential outdoor guide

UPGRADE TODAY

I Did A Plank Every Day For 120 Days. Here’s What Happened.

Do I like planks any more than I did at the start of this challenge? Ehhh...

Photo: Brendan Leonard

New perk! Get after it with local recommendations just for you. Discover nearby events, routes out your door, and hidden gems when you sign up for the Local Running Drop.

I did a plank every day for 120 consecutive days and here’s what I learned: I do not like doing planks. [check box checked] I did not like doing them before I started this streak, and I do not like them now. My opinion has not changed. [drawing of person doing plank and thinking FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU]
(All illustrations: Brendan Leonard)
I don’t remember how I got started doing one 60-second plank every day, but on December 5th, 2022, I did one. The next day, I did another one. And then I just kept going. [drawing of calendars for December, January, February, and March] Did it change my life? No, it did not.
Correction: It did change my life, in that I had to remember to do a goddamn plank every day. This would often happen around 10 p.m., when I’d be flossing my teeth and suddenly remember that I had neglected to do a 60-second plank that day. Probably because planks are unpleasant. [Hand-drawn bar graph comparing HOW MUCH FUN, GENERALLY: flossing vs planks vs doing things that are not flossing or doing planks]
Did I feel better about myself? Sure. Did I feel less likely to injure a disc in my back? OK, yes. But deep down, did I truly feel that it was worth one precious minute of each and every day for four months? I mean, I do some pretty dumb shit with a lot of the quote-unquote precious minutes of my days, so I guess as far as net self-improvement goes, it was pretty efficient, really.
I’m still doing a plank every day—with a couple of breaks in my streak since I started in December: Once during three days of a gastrointestinal illness that made doing planks a bad idea for many explosive reasons, and one day that I ran a 50K race and figured I deserved a day off. But other than that, I’ve been committed. And it’s been fine, I guess [Hand-drawn bar graph showing EXCITING REWARDS REAPED: flossing vs planks vs avoiding flossing or doing planks ]
As it turns out, you do not get a six-pack from doing planks—you get a six-pack from having very little body fat under the skin that covers your abdominal muscles. Planks just make your core stronger. Which my chiropractor says is a good thing, because then I can do things like pick up a baby and shovel snow.
Are planks even good for you, really? Depends on who you ask: Hand-drawn chart: Most people: YES Physical therapists with YouTube channels: Yes, but here are five mistakes people make when doing planks Guys with really big muscles and YouTube channels: No, stop doing them Other people with YouTube channels: Yes, and here are 16 other variations of planks People who need clicks and engagement: PLANKS WILL GIVE YOU GOUT
When I was a kid, doing something that was probably not all that fun and probably saying out loud that it wasn’t fun, an adult told me that “it builds character.” I don’t know if anyone uses that expression anymore, or what part of my character was shaped by doing things that were not fun (and whose purpose I didn’t really understand). Same sentiment, more Zen koan, from Gordon Jurek, father of ultrarunner Scott Jurek, via Scott’s book Eat & Run: “Whenever I complained that I didn’t want to pick rocks or stack wood, I just wanted to go play, my dad would growl, ‘Sometimes you just do things!’ After a while, I just stopped complaining.”
I don’t know that this story is actually about planks, but I think the ending is either this: I hate planks →I do a bunch of planks→I still hate planks but I still do planks OR: Motivational poster of a person doing a plank, thinking “fuuuuuuuuuuuuu” with the title SOMETIMES You just do things.

RELATED: My Fight Against Middle-Aged Malaise Involved an Ultramarathon

Popular on Trail Runner Magazine

Want to Know What It Takes to Finish at Western States? Just Ask Hellah Sidibe.

Find out what happened when this six-year run streaker and HOKA Global Athlete Ambassador took on an iconic ultramarathon in California's Sierra Nevada