One thing I never had was a strong core. I could do a few sit-ups, but not more than a dozen or so at a time.

Part of the work-out at Main Street Strength and Conditioning is ab work. This is where I learned about planking. Doing a 30 second plank seemed like torture, but after reading about the benefits of having a strong core and how planks are an excellent exercise to build a strong core, I decided to start working on my plank.

First I started out small with 30 second planks. I would do this daily and then looked for opportunities like commercial breaks while watching TV to do a plank. I was slowly moving to multiple minute planks!

Then during one of the ab workouts at Main Street Strength and Conditioning, we had a plank hold contest. I lasted just over 9 minutes! That put me on the quest for a 10 minute plank which lead to a 15, 20 and ultimately I did a 30 minute plank!

I now routinely do 10 minute planks after my morning walks and on Saturdays I will do anywhere from a 15 to 25 minute plank (every once in awhile I will do 30 minutes, but that’s a long time to be planking and the weekends are short). And to think I used to struggle to do just 30 seconds.

See what you can do. Find your current limit and build on it and before you know it you’ll be doing 10 minute planks without breaking a sweat!  Then for some fun you can throw in leg lifts, side planks, arm raises and shoulder taps.

Get off the couch and start planking today!

So Ronnie over at Main Street Strength And Conditioning told me to try to add some exercises to my morning walk every quarter mile. He mentioned adding burpees, push-ups, mountain climbers, pull-ups, etc.

I decided to start doing push-ups. So every quarter mile or so I drop and push ’em out. I started low doing 10 at a time ending up with 100 at the end of my walk. Then on my longer walks (Monday and Wednesday) I would end up with 125 push-ups completed.

This started a little over a month ago. Since then I am up to 175 push-ups on my long walks and 140-50 on my shorter walks. I make sure to do a few sets uphill and a few downhill. I have noticed a difference in my arms, shoulders and chest in regards to muscle growth, which has been nice. I have also noticed an improvement in my core and legs. This nice side-effect has helped during my ab workouts on the nights I get to the gym.

Every now and then I will throw in a set of burpees. I may try some mountain climbers as well, but the push-ups and burpees have been treating me well so I plan on sticking to them.

So tonight was my first day back at the gym since my knee surgery.  It was good to see Ronnie and crew at Main Street Strength and Conditioning again.  If you’re looking for a great place to have some group or one-on-one training, come on down for one of the classes.  You can try it out for a week for free and they currently have a Groupon going on for 10 classes at $39.  Can’t beat that with a kettle bell!

I took things easy and even swapped out a few of the jumping exercises as I didn’t want to put any undo pressure on my knee.  I forgot how tough the ab work was and my abs were screaming at the end.  I’ll be there twice a week on Mondays, Tuesdays or Thursdays at 6:30 PM so come on down if you can!