Plank Challenge
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What is this?
This is a challenge exercise for the core muscles. Your trainer challenges you to a how-long-can-you-keep-going competition.
Benefits
Plank:
- Strengthens the abdominal muscles.
- Strengthens the shoulder muscles.
- Strengthens the muscles of the back.
Equipment required
This exercise requires:
- The Wii Balance Board
MET
Plank Challenge has a MET of 2.5, meaning that it is a light intensity activity.
How to do it
The basic exercise in Plank Challenge is exactly the same as the exercise in Plank. Like all the challenge exercises, Plank Challenge is initially locked. You unlock it by playing the longer version of Plank at least once.
- Start with your forearms on the Wii Balance Board, with your lower body supported by your knees, like an all-fours position but with your elbows on the ground.
- When the trainer tells you to, extend your legs back so that your weight is carried on your elbows and your toes. Your back should be horizontal, and your legs should be straight.
- Keep very still in this position, except that you should breathe.
- When the time is up, relax and return to the modified all-fours position.
On the Wii screen, the trainer will do the exercise at the same time as you. As said above, the game is played in units of ten seconds, and each time you play, there is a specific number of units, after which the trainer gives up. This number is not revealed except by playing until the trainer gives up. Of course, the trainer watches you do the exercise, and if your performance is off, the trainer stops you at that point.
The criterion for being off is the position of a point marking your centre of gravity. If this point goes outside the yellow circle (meaning you leaned forward, backward, or to one side), the trainer stops you.
Scoring
Your score is simply the number of seconds you kept going. If you win, the score will be a multiple of ten seconds, as the trainer only gives up at the end of a unit. If you lose, the score will be whatever time you lasted.
Problems
- This is a core strength exercise, and like all core strength exercises, if your abdominal muscles are not well developed, you will find it difficult.
- If your core strength is sufficient, but only just, you will find that your core muscles "tremble" because they are working near their limits. This will affect your score for two reasons:
- The board is sufficiently sensitive to small weight shifts to pick up the trembling, which may cause the trainer to stop you.
- You may also find that you sag a bit, which moves your weight forward. Again, the board will pick this up and the trainer will stop you.
- If you use a neoprene or silicone "sock" to protect the surface of the board, you may find that it slides forward during the exercise, which will mess up your score, and may damage the sock.
Silliness
The challenge exercises are the place to see the trainers exhibiting some human weakness. They will hang their heads when they "lose", and they will crow over defeating you. And they will sound tired, in a way that they never do in the non-challenge exercises.
