MARIKA SBOROS: Planking is a quick and cheap way to build core strength — but it is not child’s play

If your New Year fitness resolution usually starts flagging come February 1, take up planking. Better still, get yourself a buddy and start the 30-day plank challenge.

Psychologists have done extensive research on the power of exercise partners. They say it’s a win-win.

For starters, they say, just knowing a friend is ready and waiting at 6am to pound the pavements with you makes it that much easier not to press the snooze button and go back to sleep. That’s if you want to keep on your buddy’s good side, of course.

Planking is one of the most buddy-friendly forms of exercise I’ve come across in a long while. It’s also easy enough to do long-distance with a buddy.

Even if a land mass or ocean divides you, the marvels of modern technology can instantly unite you. A video link can be even more motivating — and a check that neither of you is slacking off.

And there’s an app to keep you on track and to plot your progress.

If you don’t know what planking is, much less the plank challenge, it won’t take long to work out its magic.

Planking is a form of bodyweight exercise — a way to improve shape and muscle tone by using only your body weight. It involves one simple exercise position, which some fitness experts say is "one of the toughest things you can do to your body". Don’t let that put you off. It’s a little hyperbolic, although not by much.

It is a form of exercise in which you hold your body straight in an elevated position off the ground, like a plank — hence the name. You rest only on your forearms and the tips of your toes for a set period.

Experts also say planking is one of the most effective exercises you can do because it requires only a small investment of time but offers big rewards for body and mind.

You can do it anywhere, any time and it requires no financial outlay on clothing or expensive equipment.

The 30-day plank challenge is an exercise phenomenon on social media. A website devoted to 30-day fitness challenges says its plank challenge is the most popular by far.

It claims that more than 800,000 people worldwide have done its challenge over the past 12 months.

The site provides a downloadable programme with a structure and schedule to build up slowly from 30 seconds a day to four minutes. It has a few rest days thrown in for good measure.

That ensures you build up your core body muscle strength gradually. It means you can complete the final day of the challenge with relative ease, say the experts. I’d say that the word, "ease" really is relative in this case.

It isn’t long before planking starts to "bite" thighs, buttocks, shoulders and arms. But in the same way that it feels good to stop hitting your head against a wall, you will feel exhilarated when the biting finally stops.

And while you have to do the amount of time shown on the 30-day plank challenge chart only once a day, there’s nothing to stop you doing it more often.

However, unless you are superfit — or on steroids — for most ordinary mortals it is hard to plank for the full period many times a day.

At heart, planking is all about improving the elusive "core". Exercise physiologists say your core is a complex series of muscles that extends far beyond your abdominal muscles. It includes "everything besides your arms and legs". Almost every movement of your body incorporates your core.

What are the benefits of planking? They are legion, say plank aficionados. Cape Town personal trainer Ryno Kullmann is one.

Planking doesn’t just stabilise your core, says Kullmann, who is also a Pilates, yoga and spinning instructor. It protects and strengthens your lower back, supports spinal health and stabilises your shoulder muscles.

A weak rotator cuff is often the cause of shoulder injuries. The cuff is a group of tendons and muscles in the shoulder that connects your upper arm to your shoulder blade. If you spend any time working on a computer, as I do, your rotator cuff may not be in good shape. Planking helps to strengthen it in a flash, says Kullmann.

The real magic of planking, he says, is that you can start at any age and just about any physical condition. His oldest planking client is an 88-year-old man who cruised through his first plank for 30 seconds.

People who can’t take all the weight on their arms and tips of their toes can do planking with their knees resting on the floor.

If you do nothing else but planking, you will reap benefits, says Kullmann. However, you may find it boring once you’ve built up to the four-minute goal.

He advises that you incorporate planking into an all-over regimen that suits your taste, schedule and pocket. That way you are more likely to keep it all up.

There are variations to the classic plank. You can do side planks, Kullmann says. These will also work the core, but at a different angle.

And keep in mind what US former professional body builder Lee Haney says about any fitness routine: "Exercise to stimulate, not to annihilate. The world wasn’t formed in a day, and neither were we. Set small goals and build upon them."

• Sboros is publisher and editor of Foodmed.net