I Did a Plank Every Day for 3 Months With My Husband—Helping More Than Just My Core

Planks are core strength exercises that use isometric—equal—tension of your muscles. Your positioning for the plank is similar to that of a push-up except your arms rest on the floor with your elbows bent. You align your torso in a straight line—the plank—between your shoulders and your toes. and hold the position as long as possible.

Increasing Plank Time Challenge

My daily planking habit had an improbable start: a tweet. The post is lost to the flow of the feed, but in my memory, it was simple—a woman sharing her trick of adding just five additional seconds to her plank time each week.

Easy, right?

I sit hunched over my desk all day, a vision of poor posture, so the idea of planking—developing my core strength, and, bonus, possibly preventing some of my persistent lower backache—is appealing. And when I mention the woman’s trick to my husband, Jason, he’s intrigued too.

We agree to try it out together. And really, what I thought would happen next is that we’d plank for a day or two. Maybe a week—maybe. But to my surprise, here we are, months later, casually asking each other every day: Hey, want to plank?

Here are seven things that I realized as Jason and I created and maintained this daily planking habit.

Succeed by Making It Easy

This goal is almost comically achievable. In our first week, we plank for just 30 seconds a day. And that, I think, is part of the key to our success. When Jason asks if now is a good time to plank—even if my five-minute reminder about a meeting just flashed on my screen—there is indeed enough time. And keep in mind, planking is a zero-equipment move. All you need is a floor. I’ve planked in PJs, in tights, in office outfits, and most of all, in everyday jeans. No need for a costume change to plank it out.

Our planking routine is simple: At a random time, we lie on the floor. One of us sets a timer for the week’s time—plus three seconds—hits “start," and then does a 3-2-1 countdown.

At the end of each week, we add five seconds to our total daily plank time.

An Accountability Buddy or Two

Some days, it’s me that suggests planking. Far more often, it’s Jason. There’s no question in my mind that if planking were a solo operation, it would’ve fizzled out long ago. Like paying in advance for a yoga class or signing up for a 5K, an accountability buddy gives a nudge that encourages commitment.

The first time we plank, we lie parallel on the floor, staring at my iPhone screen. We watch three YouTube videos in a row, full of spandex, and confident instructors who share tips: Don’t hold your breath, keep your head in position, try these variations, and so on.

We’ve done planks before, of course, but it’s been a while. My form is not perfect. But it turns out, getting that feedback from my husband only makes me cranky. He may well be right that my head is too far down or that my lower back has collapsed, but the comments make me uneasy and I rudely tell him to keep his eyes on his own planks. (Since Jason's an artist, accustomed to constructive critiques from peers and outsiders, he’s far more appreciative and open to feedback.)

Once, during a trip to visit his family, Jason and I plank together over FaceTime. But we're not always that diligent. Sometimes we flat-out forget. We plateau for weeks at 50 seconds, then again at a minute. Each five-second increase gets more and more difficult.

I wish our planking routine was flawless—I'd love to have a streak sans interruptions. That's not the case, but I figure, it's better to have planked for the majority of days in the past three months than none of 'em.

Do you have a cat? Have you met one? Then you won’t be surprised that our cat, Cashew, is a frequent participant in our daily planking. At first, she’s confused about why we’re on her level—the floor's her zone, not ours. Then she seems certain it’s a new game: She runs under our held-up bellies as if we’re playing limbo. It makes me giggle (an extra workout).

Once we hit 50 seconds, planking is particularly challenging, and Jason gets in the habit of calling her over midway through the session for a fuzzy distraction. We’re months in now, so Cashew’s less intrigued—and sometimes snoozes through our plank time—but often, she’s an active participant, winding her way under and around us.

The Relationship Benefit

Planking with Jason makes me feel close to him. It’s the most manageable of projects—easier than hunting for a new apartment, caring for our cat, dealing with work issues, illness, family drama, or so many other things we’ve done through the years. But it is still something that just the two of us are doing, and doing together.

Also: Sometimes at the end of our planking, it’s conversation time. Most are small-scale. (As in, “Wow, have you noticed how dusty it is under the TV stand??”) Sometimes though, we talk through weekend plans or even bigger topics. It’s nice, even if it sometimes means the planking portion of the day sometimes stretches beyond the ding of the timer.

I Feel Ready for More

Most days, when the timer goes off, I collapse downward immediately. Lately, though, I've been trying to hold the position just one more second or swooping into a downward-facing dog yoga pose. I've resurrected my seven-minute workout app on my phone, have big plans for my warm-weather jogging, and am pondering the best time to sign up for a swim class.

Having this just-over-a-minute plank in my day makes me think more about fitness and what bigger, more challenging goals I'd like to go after next. And, even if there is no noticeable difference in my abs, I feel stronger, more capable, closer to my husband, and just a smidge more fit.