For the past three years, the State High Fitness Club has been putting together a Planksgiving, where students can start a 30-day planking series to build endurance and ab strength.
Dianne Swauger is the advisor of the fitness club and has been hosting Planksgiving for the past 3 years for students to attend and try. The event lasts for 30 days and starts on Nov. 1; however, students can start at any time and jump in at any moment.
“You can start at any point at any time that you want. If you were starting late, we would encourage you to consider starting from the beginning, and then you would just run it into December,” Swauger said.
The event encourages students to want to participate in physical exercise each day. The exercises for each day are posted on the fitness club’s Instagram (@scfitnessclub) so students can complete them whenever they have the time.
“You can do this whenever. So we always post it first thing in the morning, so maybe you get out of bed and do your planksgiving and it’s done for the day. You’ve accomplished something. You can do it anytime during the day. You could ask your teacher to join you in class and do a quick plank, or you can do it after school as a group,” Swauger said.
The program also looks to invite new faces to the fitness center who may feel intimidated by the environment.
“So the reason we like these kinds of things is, you know, sometimes a large group after school in the fitness center can be, I hate to say intimidating, but uncomfortable for some students, and that’s totally fine. So they can do it at home,” Swauger said.
Jip Guerts, an exchange student from the Netherlands, who is a senior, attended Planksgiving.
“It was pretty fun. We were a big group, and everyone was trying and that made me, like, okay, I’m gonna try it too,” Guerts said.
The exercises consist of sets of high planks, mountain climbers, plank up downs and other variations. There is one rest day for students each week, and throughout the duration of Planksgiving, students will complete each exercise four to five times.
The exercises take roughly five minutes to complete, so that students feel like they have the time to complete their workout for the day.
Ethan Swauger has been the president of the fitness club for one year now and has taken on the role of planning Planksgiving.
“The biggest thing is people having time or wondering if they have time for it. So we always plan it after school, and it only takes five minutes, and it’s trying to get people to realize, it’s okay, five minutes we’ll go by really quickly,” Ethan Swauger said.
As Planksgiving continues and keeps encouraging students to participate in these fitness activities, they also prepare for more inclusive activities for students. In December, they will be hosting “12 Days of Fitmas” for students.
