How is it possible for a red-blooded human being to hold a plank for 8 HOURS?? Please enlighten me..
- Thread starter werby
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@jacobsonofjohn It is definitely something you can train for. Your body can condition to various types of performance. That’s why you can be a bodybuilder or a marathon runner. Some will swap sports and that same person will not be as strong as before but will have much more endurance and vice versa. You just don’t see it often in extreme obscure exercises because less people are doing that.
I used to do heavy weighted pull-ups and then I switched to endurance training f and I could do significantly more reps in a set but I had less single rep strength in that condition. This usually applies at the extreme end of conditioning, where your body will sacrifice certain energy systems for others
I used to do heavy weighted pull-ups and then I switched to endurance training f and I could do significantly more reps in a set but I had less single rep strength in that condition. This usually applies at the extreme end of conditioning, where your body will sacrifice certain energy systems for others
jacobsonofjohn
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@jacobsonofjohn Try running longer than 1 mile at an obese weight without any training. It’s pretty difficult for the average sedentary person.
Now imagine losing all that weight and being in a normal healthy bmi. Running even 5 miles is difficult without training, but it is possible. That’s a 5x increase.
Now imagine someone who’s been running consistently for a couple years. Any person can work up to running a marathon. That is another 5x increase.
Now imagine that person is very dedicated and wants to run an ultra marathon. There are enough people running ultra marathons that I don’t believe you need to be genetically predisposed for it. That’s another 5x increase.
Now imagine someone made this journey on an obscure exercise.
Training will bring you very far, don’t underestimate the power of working at something. People always look for reasons to give up before starting.
Now imagine losing all that weight and being in a normal healthy bmi. Running even 5 miles is difficult without training, but it is possible. That’s a 5x increase.
Now imagine someone who’s been running consistently for a couple years. Any person can work up to running a marathon. That is another 5x increase.
Now imagine that person is very dedicated and wants to run an ultra marathon. There are enough people running ultra marathons that I don’t believe you need to be genetically predisposed for it. That’s another 5x increase.
Now imagine someone made this journey on an obscure exercise.
Training will bring you very far, don’t underestimate the power of working at something. People always look for reasons to give up before starting.
@werby In general, you get a lot of specific-exercise endurance by getting the muscles involved strong enough that the level of contraction required for the specific exercise can be maintained with an entirely aerobic effort. Then/in addition, you build your aerobic adaptations specific to those muscles e.g. muscle capillarization and increasing the concentration of some enzymes within mitochondria.
You generally get those local adaptations by doing a very low-intensity version of the specific exercise you are aiming for. In this case of someone who could pull off an hour-long plank, a normal plank would have sufficiently low intensity for such aerobic training. For a normal person, this might be a plank with your arms elevated on a 1 meter tall block. This has the added benefit of giving you lots of time to figure out the most efficient techniques for performing the exercise as well as strategies for maintaining the exercise over a very long time e.g. figuring out how to be as relaxed as possible while maintaining the correct position and shifting the load around your body so that one muscle group can rest while another takes the load. The psychological aspect of keeping it together for eight hours in a plank is probably more important than the physiological aspects, so this sort of training will additionally help build those mental skills.
The plank form you would use for 8 hours probably wouldn't be super useful for building strength, since you wouldn't necessarily be aiming for maximum contraction of your whole core, but if you are setting a record that sounds like a completely different goal than getting stronger. (And lets be real, it's pretty easy to hit a minute or two in the plank if you train regularly, it's not a great strength builder when held for longer. If isometric ab contraction is useful to you, you should modify the plank form or stack weights on your back to keep the time down and continue to get stronger.)
For a vivid illustration of the impact of this strength+aerobic capacity combo, this is a professional rock climber (Pete Whittaker) in a dead-hang competition with all 7 members of a professional parkour group (Storrer). The world record is at least 2 hours, 22 minutes though.
You generally get those local adaptations by doing a very low-intensity version of the specific exercise you are aiming for. In this case of someone who could pull off an hour-long plank, a normal plank would have sufficiently low intensity for such aerobic training. For a normal person, this might be a plank with your arms elevated on a 1 meter tall block. This has the added benefit of giving you lots of time to figure out the most efficient techniques for performing the exercise as well as strategies for maintaining the exercise over a very long time e.g. figuring out how to be as relaxed as possible while maintaining the correct position and shifting the load around your body so that one muscle group can rest while another takes the load. The psychological aspect of keeping it together for eight hours in a plank is probably more important than the physiological aspects, so this sort of training will additionally help build those mental skills.
The plank form you would use for 8 hours probably wouldn't be super useful for building strength, since you wouldn't necessarily be aiming for maximum contraction of your whole core, but if you are setting a record that sounds like a completely different goal than getting stronger. (And lets be real, it's pretty easy to hit a minute or two in the plank if you train regularly, it's not a great strength builder when held for longer. If isometric ab contraction is useful to you, you should modify the plank form or stack weights on your back to keep the time down and continue to get stronger.)
For a vivid illustration of the impact of this strength+aerobic capacity combo, this is a professional rock climber (Pete Whittaker) in a dead-hang competition with all 7 members of a professional parkour group (Storrer). The world record is at least 2 hours, 22 minutes though.
iwant2giveup
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@bluesky92 How did you learn this stuff? Is there a specific book or other resource you can recommend for learning sports physiology? I already know basic medical physiology but would like to dive in deeper on stuff that I can apply for my training
@iwant2giveup Exercise Physiology: Nutrition, Energy, and Human Performance is a comprehensive resource (and old editions should be very cheap). In general this is energy system training, so if you search for "energy systems YOUR_SPORT", you should find good resources.
angelic143
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@werby On a side note, I wonder how many of commenters claiming they can hold 2+ min planks and are untrained can do it with good form. Straight back, tucked pelvis, contracted glutes, contracted core, hips not elevated, etc... I could do shitty planks for 2 min till I learnt to do a proper form and it dropped by half.
andrewgreenwood1
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pxbyrezrkx
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kellywrigh6
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@pxbyrezrkx They’re only 553 minutes away !
@werby Humans are great with endurance events and with the lighter strength moves if you are very strong with them and work on that endurance, your body will recover more and more as you are doing that move. Until you reach that critical point where you recover almost as much as you are tiring out, so you can do smth for hours that other people can only do for minutes.
Just deadhanging from a bar would also be a good example of smth most people can do for just a few minutes, but some specialists can do for hours. Or think of a move that you could do perhaps for few hours - running. Now imagine if for your body doing a running step is just as hard as doing a push-up. And thats why world record for consecutive push-ups is also above 10k, some crazy person has gotten there..
Just deadhanging from a bar would also be a good example of smth most people can do for just a few minutes, but some specialists can do for hours. Or think of a move that you could do perhaps for few hours - running. Now imagine if for your body doing a running step is just as hard as doing a push-up. And thats why world record for consecutive push-ups is also above 10k, some crazy person has gotten there..
dandyd032000
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paulrosaly
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@werby Really fit people could definitely hold a fair bit longer than 3-5 minutes. However you're likely better off doing a few 3-5 minute planks with rests instead of going for 20+ minutes each time, depending on what your goals are.
8 hours is crazy but that's the world record. You'll find a lot of the people going for these types of records use steroids because it's way less regulated than professional sports (where a lot of people are using steroids anyway). It's not like anyone could just take steroids & get close to 8 hours, it's years of training long planks specifically & then just being that top 1% of the top 1% when it comes to your body's response to the drugs, your natural ability & your mental capability to hold it for that long.
8 hours is crazy but that's the world record. You'll find a lot of the people going for these types of records use steroids because it's way less regulated than professional sports (where a lot of people are using steroids anyway). It's not like anyone could just take steroids & get close to 8 hours, it's years of training long planks specifically & then just being that top 1% of the top 1% when it comes to your body's response to the drugs, your natural ability & your mental capability to hold it for that long.