How to Win a Plank Off

I've woken up every day since Monday thinking it's Friday...I needed a break. So tonight was yoga time! I broke out my P90X Yoga dvd, which is one of my all-time favorite workouts and rolled my mat out in the living room.

Now, don't think yoga is just sitting with your legs cross-legged and meditating. There are different types of yoga. Hatha is the gentle kind that most people think of as yoga. Then there's Bikram, which is done in 90 degree rooms. I tried a Hatha class in college once but it wasn't for me. I spent the entire hour thinking about how I wasn't getting a decent workout and about everything else I had to do. But that's my fault. I have a hard time sitting still. My favorite kind is "power yoga" which is a series of poses that require a great deal of strength and balance. It's fast enough to keep me from getting bored, and yet still relaxing. You will notice your results pretty quickly if you're doing it regularly - and I love to do it after a kickboxing class - get those muscles warm and then stretch them out.

Dogs...demonstrating Downward Dog and Upward Dog

It is NOT girly at all - if you're doing it right, you'll break a sweat. Even my husband will do it with me. I also believe it contributed to my win in last week's bootcamp plank-off over Jose. If you can do a series of power yoga poses for an hour, you can do a 5 minute plank.

Sorry, had to pop that picture in there for Jose. I've been giving him a hard time all week. LOL.

Try to hold the plank for 5 minutes. It's hard. My arms were shaking so hard for an hour afterward I think I scared the checkout girl at the grocery store. Think of your body as a board (or a plank really, hence the name), nice and straight. Squeeze your glutes and make sure your bum's not sticking up in the air (that's dolphin pose, not plank). If you can't do it on your toes, use your knees, but again, you should be super straight from your shoulders to your knees. It's an amazing total body exercise- arms, back, abs, butt, quads, calves...and a lot of it is mental strength to hold it! Do it during one commercial break a day.

Namaste and plank away. :)