UP-DOWN PLANKS

I saw two different groups doing up-down planks in the park yesterday. (An up-down plank is an exercise for your abs.)

The Joe Wicks effect has gone public. For those of you who didn’t have to entertain small kids from

9am every morning during lockdown, Joe, pictured right, is a fitness instructor from the UK whose workouts for kids on YouTube helped a lot of us start every day. He also made it OK for people to do workouts in public — perform a public up-down plank in Cork before Covid-19, and someone was bound to call you a langer.

This might seem like bad news for gym owners, whose business model relies on people paying so they can stick their arse up in the air in a public setting. But that is to forget our old friend, the Irish weather. A quick blast of October will be enough to remind us we don’t live in Venice Beach after all. And workouts are more fun when you’re surrounded by a few hot Italians. So the gyms will be back when the temperature drops. And we’ll have to wait until spring for the up-down planks to re-emerge.