I can’t imagine anyone telling me they actually like doing a plank. Maybe there are a few fitness junkies out there that love to plank, but most of us just think about the pain and then decide we don’t need superior abs.
However, the Stealth Core Plankster aims to change that pain and make it possible for more of us to showcase a six-pack. All we need to do is play games while we do our planking so we don’t think about the pain. For the chance at strengthening my core and the promise of games — I thought I would give it a try. Here’s what I found out.
The Beginning
The company’s founder is a personal trainer with multiple decades of helping clients see the benefits of planking. He watched multiple clients dread the plank and wanted to find a way that it would make more people like it. The product was developed with the help of the team behind the ab roller.
Stealth Core Plankster
The Stealth Core Plankster is a padded board on top with a sphere on its underside. This design provides the mechanism that allows you and the board to swivel from side to side or up and down while maintaining a plant position. It is also supposed to help you maintain the correct plank form to optimize the results.
Then, the top of the board has four sticky pads that can hold your smartphone (iOS or Android) in place while you use the Stealth app, which creates the interactive fitness board part of the experience.
The company claims it will help users train their abs and core muscles by targeting 29 muscles. Results like a toned midsection and improved flexibility are also supposed to happen just by doing as little as three minutes a day.
Stealth App
The Stealth app provides the games that are intended to keep you entertained while you plank. It offers many types, starting with a simple one that uses your smartphone’s accelerometer to move a target sight over dots that appear on the screen.
While you can figure out how to cheat, you miss out on doing well at the game and at the planking, which is why you bought it in the first place. Trying to figure out the game and get better at it distracts you from the work of planking and keeps you in the plank position than if you had nothing to think about except the pain.
Pros and Cons
I quickly moved from my under a minute plank that I would do on my own to close to two minutes just with the first game on the app. Within the first few weeks, I was planking for upwards of five minutes. The entertainment value and ability to do more planking were pluses.
One downside is that there are a limited number of games right now as the company works on making more. As with everything, the games lose their fun after a while — we need more games — and quickly. I’m not even sure it matters what the game is, I just need a distraction.
In the Box
The Stealth Core Plankster comes on its own but does have directions on how to download the app.
Where to Buy
Priced at $99, you can buy it from Stealth website as well as from sites like eBay and Amazon.
Final Thoughts
The Stealth Core Trainer has helped me plan for a longer time and provided a way to eventually help me get that six-pack. The Stealth Core Trainer has also made me think that it might be possible to have a six-pack! It’s definitely fun and does what it says.
