Bodyweight training is an alternative to having a lot of space-hogging equipment hanging around. You can do it just about anywhere and any time; and that’s another advantage. In effect, your own body is your gym!

Most of us are quite familiar with bodyweight exercises, even if we don’t do them: pushups are an obvious example. Then there are prone planks; and crank planks.

Lately I’ve discovered that I seem able to hold a prone plank better if I engage my quads. The trouble is that this exercise requires bracing my feet against the floor in a flexed-toes position; and that hurts the base joint of my left big toe. I have to roll my foot outwards to the smaller toes; and I’m not sure that’s a good thing.

I remember my earliest efforts at the crank plank exercise. I couldn’t even get into the proper start position; and I don’t have my supporting arm straight! It was all I could do to approximate the position by extending my free arm out in front of me; and it was very hard to hold that position for three seconds!

It took me a long time to build some upper-body strength, because I don’t put in lengthy sessions. After all, I have a day job; and this blogging is, in effect, a second job! Besides, I’m not body-building. Cyclists don’t need a lot of upper-body bulk to carry along. It adds weight; and that’s no help for climbing.