Script:
Since I do many videos on exercises, such as doing sit-ups or bicep curls daily, my youtube recommendations get flooded. Every day I get pop ups for like Tik Tok gym memes or AthleanX “You should never look at a chest press” videos. During June, my recommendations list was hit with planking videos, specifically this one that talked about planking every day for 1 minute. It was interesting in that it talked about the improvements in the core. I figured hey, I have a weak core… why not give myself a challenge by extending it to five minutes. As you can tell from the video, I am a nearly 300-pound man, so this will be my greatest challenge Yet. What’s Going on Everybody! My name is Jack Jenkins. Let’s roll that Intro.
[Intro]
As always, I have the video topics linked below to skip through. I also have the script pulled up on my website jack-jenkins.com. Otherwise, let’s get to the video. First, I want to talk about why I wanted to do this challenge with planking every day. I have done a few ab videos before, such as doing Chloe Tings’ ab routine or reviewing the Nintendo Switch game Sit-ups challenge. Watch both of those videos linked below. After I finish every ab challenge I have done, I always talk about how weak my abs are. That leads to be being in pain intense pain during the challenge and tell myself that I will finally get my core strong enough. Spoilers, I never actually do.
I am not going to lie. After each ab challenge, I actually don’t continue working out my abs. I instead continue on with my life, not doing any more sit-ups. At the gym, I work out my legs, chest and back but never really touch my abs. I want to finally change this, especially after talking to my doctor. My doctor basically said in so many words, “Jack, you want to be 300 pounds? Well, then get your shit together”. Funny enough I am now close to 295 so… that’s great. I also brought up to them that I get random ab cramps while I try to sit up or during a workout that isn’t ab-focused. The results after two hundred years of different studies my results are that my abs are incredibly weak because I only really train them for these video challenges. Yikes, that needed to change.
So, to kick off working out my abs, I told myself I would do this challenge and finally get into the habit of working out my abs. This was in July / August, and I am recording this video in early October to hopefully be released in November. See how my timeline is all confusing? Man-making youtube videos are hard. I will talk about if I still do these ab videos at the end of my journey.
With the conversation started, I began my journey of doing this challenge. The challenge is to do a plank for five minutes almost every day for thirty days. I take the sixth day of each week off as a break from these challenges to be able to actually accomplish a few things around the house that need to get done. Cleaning man! That takes up so much time as an adult! Anyways, during the challenge, I will record myself on the first day and at the end of my string of days. This is the footage that you are watching behind me. You can see the date come up in the corner there when it comes time for a new day. At the end of this challenge, my goal was to get at least some muscle definition and feel some core muscle improvement in my abs. With these goals in mind, I began my thirty-day journey.
Of course, a challenge video is nothing without a before part. Here is me before the challenge began:
[Body Day 0]
The results will be shown at the end. Now let’s get to that legendary first day. Well… that first day sucked! Every time I did these challenges, my abs cramped up and caused me to stop prematurely. It was funny enough when I was talking about trying to reduce it to three minutes because it was too hard. Roll the clip!
[Plank Day 1 2:50]
Remember to include that since some of you love watching a fat man in pain. I know I sure do. Each day got progressively better, with my core strength improving over time. While replaying the videos, I went from doing planks in 30-second intervals to being able to hold them for two minutes. While that may not sound impressive to some of you, that is an incredibly big change for me. Of course, my posture wasn’t the best, and having a big old tire pull on my back made that hard. Regardless I could feel that my posture was at least getting somewhat better. Also, having the rest day in this challenge was great as it gave me a moment for my muscles to rest and grow back stronger. As I was doing these planks many days a row, I drank plenty of protein shakes. I needed that protein like California needs the rain. Here is an update from me on day 15.
[Day 15].
As you can see, I was quite proud of myself for getting much stronger in this area, which was definitely needed. I just continued doing the plank on and off for a few rounds. My wife saw me do it and actually wanted to join in. Of course, she works out, so she smoked me in the five minutes, but it was nice to have company. My posture was still bad at the end of the thirty days, as you will see, but I felt it had improved significantly since the beginning. I was also starting to see more muscle definition in my arms, which is a big bonus. Finally, here is the results on day thirty:
[Day 30]
Despite the challenges, I really liked this challenge and was proud that I was able to complete them. Sure, I had to break it down into intervals. Yes, my posture wasn’t perfect, but as a big dude, being able to accomplish any physical task is an accomplishment. I learned from all my years of being fat that you should celebrate the victories to encourage yourself to get more. Beating yourself down doesn’t do anything to help your self-esteem. Overall I recommend everyone do this challenge. Whether you are fat, skinny, or super muscular doesn’t matter. If you are super muscular, you should probably pick a better exercise than planks. Otherwise, you will be in that plank position for twenty minutes feeling nothing, just bored out of your mind.
Now for what you all been waiting for. Do I still workout my abs after completing this challenge? The answer is… sometimes yeah. I go to Planet Fitness since I am a cheap bastard and they have that little crunch ab machine. I do that machine pretty much every time I do leg day. It hurts like hell but I noticed I haven’t gotten any cramps in a while so… I assume Im cured! Thanks plank videos for inspiring this progress. Also here is my filled in sheet for the thirty days. It’s a template you can download and fill in yourself to do the challenge with me.
So, guys, thank you so much for watching this video. If you liked this video, then please give it a thumbs up. If you didn’t like it, please let me know why and what I can approve. I am hoping to get better and better at making videos, so any constructive feedback is recommended. If you have more ideas on challenges, product reviews, or anything related to self-improvement, then drop a comment below. I will do pretty much any legal challenge. Subscribe to my YouTube channel, where I post a new video every Friday. Follow me on Twitter @truejackjenk. Visit my website at jack-jenkins.com. Lastly, have an amazing day, everyone.