Fitness Friday #12: Plank Challenge Wrap-Up

This week saw the end of my first planned monthly challenge – #MarchPlankADay.

I loved curating this challenge. Planks are something that I wouldn’t necessarily do on my own, but I’ve been incorporating them a lot in classes lately, and the benefits are undeniable.

I found 31 different plank challenges, and assigned one to each day in March. At the end of the month, I hosted a “31 Plank Challenge” party and had 15 brave students. We worked for 40 minutes, moving through each plank, holding or working both sides for no longer than one minute. I came up with complementary combinations for each of the planks that seemed to work well in the groups. We stopped in between some of the combinations to stretch and continue building heat.

Everyone did so great with this new format – I’d love to teach a similar class in the future.

In addition to running this challenge, I also participated. The results? I feel strong. There wasn’t a single day where my core or shoulders weren’t sore, which is refreshing when you have a hard time seeing results normally. I personally lost 4 pounds and 3 inches overall this month, which was not a goal, but an awesome side effect.

My thoughts? Adding a fun challenge like this, if you’re injury-free and have the ok from your doc, can bring great, unplanned changes. Remember: if it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you. That’s why it’s good to throw something new and different into the mix.

I’m looking forward to getting back into my daily yoga practice this month. I love following Alo Yoga’s monthly challenges with @beachyogagirl and @kinoyoga.

I would love to host another challenge this year. I’m looking ahead to summer and fall and thinking maybe a push-up challenge or a balance challenge might be fun to put together.

Do you participate in fitness challenges? What do you like about them?