MANKATO — The dark marks on Vusa Bentley’s elbows let you know she’s a planker long before she tells you herself.
Planking, a core-strengthening exercise that many of us endured in elementary school gym class, is Bentley’s 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.
It’s not a common activity, but it’s one that’s felt right for Bentley since she discovered it.
“I could have done running, I could have done marathon, I could have done wall sits,” the Mankato woman said. “Planking chose me as much as I chose to plank.”
She’s such a planking enthusiast that she’s attempting in October to break the Guinness World Record for longest held female plank.
But that’s not all. Bentley also has embarked on a cross-country quest to complete an hourlong plank in all 50 states. She’s hit 20 so far, and the other 30 won’t be far behind if her determined attitude has anything to say about it.
Bentley, who grew up in Azerbaijan, is a Mankato resident and mother of two. Planking isn’t her full-time gig, but it’s something that’s become a big part of her life.
She’s partnering with Greater Mankato Area United Way to raise money for 75 local programs as she works on both of these goals.
What it takes to succeed
Breaking the world record — which is held by Canadian DonnaJean Wilde at four hours, 30 minutes and 11 seconds — requires intense discipline and physical training.
For five years, Bentley has been strengthening herself to take on lengthy and challenging planks. When others spend their weekends hitting the town, Bentley’s set on training.
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’s rest.
“You don’t have a lot of people’s concept of conventional fun,” Bentley said of her routine.
But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have fun in her own right.
“Friday night might look like for me planking by the pool for two hours total, followed by a dip and laying on the cot,” Bentley said. “That’s my happy hour.”
While planking has been a more recent development in her fitness journey, Bentley’s foray into physical activity happened many years ago when she trained to be a special agent with the FBI.
While those plans changed, her attachment to working out stuck, giving her a baseline to build off of once she started planking.
On training mornings, Bentley’s 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.
From the healthy eating and early bedtimes to the people she surrounds herself with, Bentley said she’s mindful about how she spends and replenishes her energy.
“Energy is like money. Most people take it for granted — they think they’re gonna live forever. I hate to break it to you, nobody’s gonna live forever, and I treat my energy like a budget.”
Mind over matter
Hours spent hovering over the mat have transformed not just Bentley’s forearms — which are ripped — but also her mind.
When she first started planking, the physical discomfort dominated her thinking.
“It 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.”
But the longer she held that position, the more she understood how to confront both the bodily and mental pain.
“And then became, in my mind, feeling, processing, forgiving, crying, thinking, and that turned into a beautiful journey of growing, not fighting.”
While she alone holds her pose, Bentley’s planking has relied on community support.
“The journey mostly happens in the alone times, in the self-introspection, in the moments of despair,” Bentley said. “And then we come out on the other side and you become part of the community that is no longer about you.”
Multiple individuals have been instrumental to Bentley’s success: Her close friend and marathon athlete, Ericka Mikkelson, her “American mom,” Donnette Wheelock, her trainer, TJ Spence, and Chief Executive Officer of Great Mankato Area United Way, Barb Kaus.
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.
“We were so impressed by her with this community mindset,” said Laura Murray, chief operating officer at United Way. “She 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’s work.”
People can support Bentley’s 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 — giving a service or product in place of money — and volunteer work at the record attempt.
Looking ahead
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.
“It’s like a marathon. You don’t do long planks every week, every month.”
She plans to do another long plank at the end of August to gear up for her fall record-setting event.
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.
Those interested in United We Plank, Bentley’s 50-state challenge, can follow her journey on Instagram at unitedweplank555. Her next stop after the world record event will be Washington state.
Despite the milestones she’s approaching, Bentley’s biggest goal remains to inspire others to look inward and face their own darkness in order to achieve their dreams.
“I’m not inviting them all to become endurance athletes, world-record plankers. What I am inviting them to understand is that the various things they’ve avoided all their life and run from are the very things they need to sit with and process,” Bentley said.
To Murray, Bentley’s already well on her way to doing this.
“I think it’s 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’s a very special thing,” Murray said.
Even once all of these goals are realized, Bentley knows she’ll find another feat to conquer.
“Whatever it is, the next thing, I’m going to do great. I’m going to put it all in, I’m not going to breadcrumb it.”