MANKATO \u2014 The dark marks on Vusa Bentley\u2019s elbows let you know she\u2019s a planker long before she tells you herself.<\/p>\n
Planking, a core-strengthening exercise that many of us endured in elementary school gym class, is Bentley\u2019s specialty. For hours at a time, the endurance athlete can remain in that push-up-like position, pushing the bounds of what her body and mind can handle.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not a common activity, but it\u2019s one that\u2019s felt right for Bentley since she discovered it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could have done running, I could have done marathon, I could have done wall sits,\u201d the Mankato woman said. \u201cPlanking chose me as much as I chose to plank.\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019s such a planking enthusiast that she\u2019s attempting in October to break the Guinness World Record for longest held female plank.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not all. Bentley also has embarked on a cross-country quest to complete an hourlong plank in all 50 states. She\u2019s hit 20 so far, and the other 30 won\u2019t be far behind if her determined attitude has anything to say about it.<\/p>\n
Bentley, who grew up in Azerbaijan, is a Mankato resident and mother of two. Planking isn\u2019t her full-time gig, but it\u2019s something that\u2019s become a big part of her life.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s partnering with Greater Mankato Area United Way to raise money for 75 local programs as she works on both of these goals.<\/p>\n
What it takes to succeed<\/p>\n
Breaking the world record \u2014 which is held by Canadian DonnaJean Wilde at four hours, 30 minutes and 11 seconds \u2014 requires intense discipline and physical training.<\/p>\n
For five years, Bentley has been strengthening herself to take on lengthy and challenging planks. When others spend their weekends hitting the town, Bentley\u2019s set on training.<\/p>\n
She eats clean, avoiding gluten and processed foods. She cooks nearly all of her own meals at home and ensures she gets a full night\u2019s rest.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t have a lot of people\u2019s concept of conventional fun,\u201d Bentley said of her routine.<\/p>\n
But that doesn\u2019t mean she doesn\u2019t have fun in her own right.<\/p>\n
\u201cFriday night might look like for me planking by the pool for two hours total, followed by a dip and laying on the cot,\u201d Bentley said. \u201cThat\u2019s my happy hour.\u201d<\/p>\n
While planking has been a more recent development in her fitness journey, Bentley\u2019s foray into physical activity happened many years ago when she trained to be a special agent with the FBI.<\/p>\n
While those plans changed, her attachment to working out stuck, giving her a baseline to build off of once she started planking.<\/p>\n
On training mornings, Bentley\u2019s workout begins at 4 a.m. and ends at 7:15 a.m. She does a combination of high-endurance reps, segmented planks, long planks, abdominal exercises and back workouts, followed by a low-heart-rate cardio routine.<\/p>\n
From the healthy eating and early bedtimes to the people she surrounds herself with, Bentley said she\u2019s mindful about how she spends and replenishes her energy.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnergy is like money. Most people take it for granted \u2014 they think they\u2019re gonna live forever. I hate to break it to you, nobody\u2019s gonna live forever, and I treat my energy like a budget.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mind over matter<\/p>\n
Hours spent hovering over the mat have transformed not just Bentley\u2019s forearms \u2014 which are ripped \u2014 but also her mind.<\/p>\n
When she first started planking, the physical discomfort dominated her thinking.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt started as pain. I was in so much pain that being on a platform was more painful than the pain I was facing: pain of divorce, pain of uncertainty, pain of what my life is about to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the longer she held that position, the more she understood how to confront both the bodily and mental pain.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then became, in my mind, feeling, processing, forgiving, crying, thinking, and that turned into a beautiful journey of growing, not fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n
While she alone holds her pose, Bentley\u2019s planking has relied on community support.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe journey mostly happens in the alone times, in the self-introspection, in the moments of despair,\u201d Bentley said. \u201cAnd then we come out on the other side and you become part of the community that is no longer about you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Multiple individuals have been instrumental to Bentley\u2019s success: Her close friend and marathon athlete, Ericka Mikkelson, her \u201cAmerican mom,\u201d Donnette Wheelock, her trainer, TJ Spence, and Chief Executive Officer of Great Mankato Area United Way, Barb Kaus.<\/p>\n
Bentley first partnered with United Way, an organization that serves 65,000 people annually across Blue Earth, Le Sueur, Nicollet and Waseca counties, two years ago. When Bentley reached out to the team, they were taken with her mission.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were so impressed by her with this community mindset,\u201d said Laura Murray, chief operating officer at United Way. \u201cShe wanted to be pursuing this great goal of breaking the world record, but also how she could benefit the community and do that through United Way\u2019s work.\u201d<\/p>\n
People can support Bentley\u2019s cause by donating to United Way as she works on tackling her 50-state project or sponsoring her world-record attempt this fall. United Way also accepts in-kind donations \u2014 giving a service or product in place of money \u2014 and volunteer work at the record attempt.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead<\/p>\n
On Saturday, Bentley will take a big step toward the world record: a 200-minute plank. While she trains frequently, she does planks of this length and intensity less often because of the recovery time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like a marathon. You don\u2019t do long planks every week, every month.\u201d<\/p>\n
She plans to do another long plank at the end of August to gear up for her fall record-setting event.<\/p>\n
The world record attempt will happen Oct. 24 at Shared Spaces at Emy Frentz. It begins at 9 a.m., and the public is welcome to come cheer Bentley on starting at 11 a.m.<\/p>\n
Those interested in United We Plank, Bentley\u2019s 50-state challenge, can follow her journey on Instagram at unitedweplank555. Her next stop after the world record event will be Washington state.<\/p>\n
Despite the milestones she\u2019s approaching, Bentley\u2019s biggest goal remains to inspire others to look inward and face their own darkness in order to achieve their dreams.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not inviting them all to become endurance athletes, world-record plankers. What I am inviting them to understand is that the various things they\u2019ve avoided all their life and run from are the very things they need to sit with and process,\u201d Bentley said.<\/p>\n
To Murray, Bentley\u2019s already well on her way to doing this.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s really an inspiration to others, seeing this, because people have so many different backgrounds, skills and interests, and being creative and having that community mindset of how you can utilize that in ways that maybe have never been done before to really make an impact, it\u2019s a very special thing,\u201d Murray said.<\/p>\n
Even once all of these goals are realized, Bentley knows she\u2019ll find another feat to conquer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever it is, the next thing, I\u2019m going to do great. I\u2019m going to put it all in, I\u2019m not going to breadcrumb it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MANKATO \u2014 The dark marks on Vusa Bentley\u2019s elbows let you know she\u2019s a planker long before she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":748927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[86525,49,48,4717,408,407,84,267893,2598,3563,93686],"class_list":["post-748926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-bentley","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-energy","tag-exercise","tag-fitness","tag-health","tag-mankato","tag-minnesota","tag-pain","tag-united-way"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=748926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/748927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}