Plankety Plankathon- do it here, do it there, do it everywhere...tips from Juju

[ju-ju-]

Hello fellow S and F'ers. I want to share how I have tried to fit in planking and other aspects of S and F into my life.

A while ago I got the office into planking. It was one of those things that happened spontaneously and then grew. We have an 11.00 plank.... not every day, but when time allows with whoever is about, and wants to joins in. We started small and then worked up to plank routines of up to 5 minutes. We put on the radio and just get down on the floor. I also do a round the clock plank for days when I dont have many meetings. You choose which plank and stick it on the time, and off you go. Makes it fun.

More recently we started the WOF ( wall of fun) which you can see in the pic. This has enabled more of the workforce to join in as planks are a challenge. We all line up on the wall and do a minute and a half ( we started at 30 seconds and we are working up to 5 minutes...). We all have a laugh and it gets us out of our chairs for a bit. Something to think about for where you are?

Other ideas for keeping active:

Squats when you are doing the tea round

Going up and down the stairs a few times

Walking round the car park at lunch

Sit on a ball ( I do this and when the sun catches it at a certain angle it looks like my bum is on fire.... its red)

Please share your own ideas so we can all adopt S and F into every part of our lives.... and keep it fun

Juju

xxxx

[Redcello41]

This is exactly what I needed to hear too! I have a very busy work life (3 jobs!) and that's half the battle of motivation for me, working it into my busy schedule that changes most weeks! 😃

[ju-ju- in reply to Redcello41]

blimey... 3 jobs thats awesome... and yes see what you can do in each of them.... variety is the spice of life

[Redcello41 in reply to ju-ju-]

Yes, and that's why I'm looking to start in small manageable chunks first too, it makes it a lot easier to fit it! 😃

[ju-ju- in reply to Redcello41]

I think thats the best way... one little bite at a time

[Redcello41 in reply to ju-ju-]

So true! 😃

[AlMorr]

I am doing your plankety plankathon, however, a few years I watched a video of a family doing the elbow plank, the longest was from the son who held the elbow plank for 6 minutes 30 seconds, the mother only held it for 90 seconds, the father just over 6 minutes, SO I thought, let's see if I can beat that, it was a while ago, I managed 7 minutes, at the most I would only hold a plank for 3 minutes, there are some office and family 'competitions' to see who can hold the plank, usually an elbow plank the longest.

Some years ago a 71-year-old lady, with the help of a personal sports assistant held an elbow plank for 33 minutes, a man in his 70's in Canada held the high or full plank for 61 minutes, the world record is 8 hours 1 minute by a Chinese man, that was the elbow plank.

[ju-ju- in reply to AlMorr]

Amazing, and well done on your achievements.... we do ours as non competitive,.. to get people involved, do some fitness and have a break from the dreaded screen

[AlMorr in reply to ju-ju-]

I like that, "the dreaded computer screen" 😂

[Leosmit]

That’s very cool! Next time I need to suggest a health and well-being thing in work, I might just steal your ideas!

[ju-ju- in reply to Leosmit]

Please do..... it certainly makes things a bit more fun!

[linda9389]

Brilliant. Going to pass this idea on to my daughter - she teaches in a SEN school and they are always meeting to discuss how they can improve health & wellbeing as a department! Her head runs (marathons, ultras, ironman etc.) and loves promoting fitness in the school so maybe it will tick a box there too! I'm a gardener - mostly for elderly people. Maybe I should take a 5 minute break with every client and do my planking on the lawn after cutting the grass 😍. I usually try to discreetly fit in a few squats on every job.

[ju-ju- in reply to linda9389]

Love it! Yes you should, and I hope your daughter can get some support with that... its often just a case of getting one or more people to do it, and then it spirals as everybody wants to join in. The power of social movement...

[Rigpig]

I walk around the carpark several times a day and most days I'll head out for a cheeky thousand steps up and down the street. On my non running days I can be very sedentary if I'm not careful, last night I looked at my daily activity and it was woeful so I went out for a brisk 5k evening walk and found a new route for my benchmark run

[ju-ju- in reply to Rigpig]

that sounds fab, and I know what you mean, its so easy to just sit down!!!!

[GoGo_JoJo]

Brilliant! I do at least 40 squats a day at work whilst waiting for the forklift to come back to take the next pallet. I'll also do a kinda plank against the pallet truck handle. I use the wheels on the pallet truck to push my foot into for a soleus stretch, I'll pace up and down inside the trailer in a figure eight, I'll also use pallets at right angles like parallel bars to hang on. My own mobile gym! 👍🏻🤣