Fitness Motivation and Inspiration
Audrey Eliminated Back Pain and Remade Her Appearance by Dedicating Herself to 6 Minute Planks Daily.
She boosted core strength, reduced back pain, lost fat, and transformed her physical appearance.
Audrey is a 78-year retired office worker who suffered from intense back pain for many years, starting from her early 30s.
She raised three kids, and all became professionals in different fields. Her athletic husband, a carpenter, was supportive and became a catalyst for her to find an unexpected solution.
The primary issue for Audrey was sitting too long in the office in front of her typewriter and, in later years, in front of computers, besides spending most of her time on the phone.
When Audrey got 60 years old, her back pain became unbearable. One day her husband gave her a pamphlet introducing a free seminar for mature citizens for a new health center opened in their suburb.
Audrey joined the seminar introducing a new service about Pilates to the locals. The presenter’s focus was on cores. She heard the term planks the first time, which opened the window in her healing journey.
People were amazed when they heard she improved her core strength, reduced her neck, shoulder, and back pain, decreased her body fat, and transformed her physic in six minutes a day over a decade.
She intuitively knew planking would be a valuable tool for her fitness and health when she learned plank workouts using glutes, rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis, and obliques. “Rectus abdominis” in fitness literature, aka the abs muscle publicly, is part of the anterior abdominal wall.
“Transverse abdominis” protects internal organs holding them in place. Within the sides of our core, the obliques allow for rotational movements protecting our spine.
The Pilates instructor highlighted that they didn’t have to move joints, so they were low-impact. Instead, the fundamental mechanism of planking was gradually increasing the muscle tension in various body parts.
Audrey started planking with 20 seconds and now can do more than ten minutes in a single session comfortably at the age of 78, even on a single leg, repeating them multiple times a day. Initially, it was difficult and painful for her, but she learned to turn pain into pleasure gradually. She noticed remarkable physical and mental changes after a year and more later.
The secret to her success was turning painful sensations into pleasure via mindfulness practice. She learned to use the planks as a mindfulness habit by controlling her breath and focusing on sensations in her body. Each plank session rewired her brain. So planking has not just served as physical activity but also a mental development kit for Audrey.
I have been using planks in my fitness toolkit, like Audrey, for many years. My reason for starting was to improve my core strength which is essential for mobility and balanced posture. In addition, I see planks as a low-impact whole-body workout, as planking can activate numerous muscle groups. From my experience, planking regularly strengthened the core structure of my body and made it flexible. Interestingly, Audrey experienced the same outcome.
Physical stress in the office was a significant problem for Audrey. Her neck and shoulders were always sore, giving her unbearable upper and lower back pain. After a year, her neck and shoulder pain significantly reduced with the stretching effects of planks. In addition, her back pain diminished. She loved the stability in her body after leveraging the benefits of planks for a few years. She managed to turn it into a daily ritual.
For Audrey, the major contribution of planks was to her posture by toning specific muscle groups in her abdominal area. When she did planks consistently, she engaged her legs, arms, shoulder, neck, spine, abdominal, and pelvis muscles. She said these muscle groups were essential for having a straight and balanced posture, as also confirmed by her Pilates instructor.
Since I planked for several decades, I told Audrey that having a balanced and flexible posture was my fitness goal. She agreed. We both reaped benefits with consistent practice of planks toning abdominal muscle groups, and improving our posture.
One of the reasons I focus on posture is its significance for longevity and healthspan. As we age, our muscles weaken, and we lose stability, agility, and flexibility. Stimulating the muscles in our core regularly keeps them intact as we get older.
Interestingly, Audrey couldn’t do a single push-up in her sixties. However, planks, improving her core strength, and strengthening her arm and leg muscles allowed her to do push-ups. She started with one push-up, and in a year, she managed ten consecutive push-ups. More inspiringly, at the age of 78, Audrey can do at least 100 push-ups in one go.
Like Audrey, I love push-ups after warming up with six-minute planking daily. The beauty of planking and push-ups is they can be done anywhere and do not require any equipment. I used to do planks and a few push-ups every hour in the office.
These six-minute breaks rejuvenated me reducing the fatigue built while sitting in front of the computer. In addition, I used push-ups and planks during my business travels overseas as my resistance training when no gym equipment was available in my hotels.
In fitness literature, pure planks are referred to as an isometric workout known as front hold, hover, and abdominal bridge. In my experience, planks could also be used for resistance training. By experimenting with dumbbells, I created various forms of planking, turning them into calisthenics and resistance training. Audrey also explored these fitness recipes I developed and enjoyed them very much. We still keep sharing our plank recipes as a social activity.
By using planks, Audrey improved her core strength. In her early years, just six minutes a day, two minutes two times, reduced her debilitating neck, shoulder, and back pain. Then, after a decade, she gained a transformed physic with a defined belly.
When I asked her about her ultimate goal, she smiled and said one day; she wanted to break the record of Daniel Scali, who has broken the Guinness book record for the longest time in the abdominal plank position, nine hours 30 minutes. We are proud of Daniel in Australia, who broke this record in August 2021. The human body is amazing that can gain flexibility with consistent effort.
Audrey and I have a mission to share our planking and push-up experiences as fitness motivation and inspiration in our circles, as both of us reaped many benefits. Numerous friends like Isabella, Eliza, Algor, Maggie, Jennifer, Heather, Alberto, Ariana, Lucy, Charlotte, Amanda, Fredrick, and Rosalia, whose remarkable health and fitness journey I shared in my stories, also benefited from planking.
As Audrey reduced her back pain without medication or supplements, increased her fitness without going to the gym, reduced her fat percentage from 30% to 12%, and kept a healthy weight for over a decade, I asked Audrey about tips for beginners from her vast experience with planks and push-ups. She highlighted seven practical points that I summarise below.
1 — Start very small, like 30 or even ten seconds.
2 — Keep increasing the duration gradually without forcing the body.
3 — Do it as a daily habit by putting a reminder on the phone.
4 — Do at least three sessions with three-minute breaks between each session.
5 — Focus on breathing and sensations in the body.
6 — Reframe the discomfort as growing joy for long-term benefits.
7 — Always keep in mind that body posture improves with consistent effort.
Audrey’s devoted story is only one, as I heard many more inspiring success stories in my circles and fitness communities. Planks and push-ups are natural exercises most of us can do anytime, anywhere.
However, since every physical workout stresses the body, some of us might need medical intervention and approval from our healthcare professionals before starting an exercise regime.
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