Planking with a Purpose

It’s 11 a.m. in the Tri-State. Most people are finishing up tasks before heading to lunch, but if you head to Yoga 101’s Facebook page, you can join in on an exercise that takes no movement and only five minutes.

April Nading, an instructor at Yoga 101, streams her “plank breaks” each day Monday through Friday as a way to motivate others and encourage them to get simple, daily exercise. She started in April 2020, when many were staying home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Everybody was stuck at home, and the studio was closed, and I was just kind of in a funk one day, and I remembered I had admin privileges to our Facebook page, and so I thought, ‘I think I’m going to do a plank and stream it on our page,’” she says.

Nading held it for one minute her first time, but kept at it. She added on time for each plank, working her way up to five minutes. She had her hip replaced last May and had to start all over with planking, but eventually worked her way back up to five minutes.

“It just became a fun thing, and now I don’t want to quit doing it,” she says. “I don’t know why I would stop now.”

Nading insists you don’t have to be in tip-top shape, or even have workout attire, to plank. She herself has planked in a variety of places, including in her dining room, on a beach, in offices, and even on a rooftop.

“My real goal here to try to motivate people to do a little more and try,” she says. “A lot of people are like, ‘Oh, I just can’t do it.’ I’ve had people tell me they thought they could only hold it 10 seconds and they held it 30.”

Taking a Break
facebook.com/evvyoga101

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Jodi Keen
Jodi Keen
Jodi Keen is the managing editor of Evansville Living and Evansville Business magazines.

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