What the Heck is Planking?

                                               Photo source:Bensayin.com
Ok, so I'm not 20 years old any more and I do not keep up with the latest fads. So when we were checking in with our airline for our flight out of Atlanta to kick off our mission trip at like 5am, I see this younger team member, Andrew Kim, lying face down on the tile floor. And, as any curious casual observer might inquire, I asked, "What the heck is he doing on the floor?"

"Planking" I was told. Um, OK. What the heck is planking?

According to Wikipedia, "The lying down game (also known as planking,[1] or face downs) is an activity, popular in various parts of the world, consisting of lying face down in an unusual or incongruous location. The hands must touch the sides of the body and having a photograph of the participant taken and posted on the Internet is an integral part of the game.[2] Players compete to find the most unusual and original location in which to play.[2] The location should also be as public as possible, and as many people as possible should be involved."

Apparently, this has been a popular activity since around 1994. Who knew?

So, of course my next question was, did he consider the amount of feet and shoe soles that had crossed the floor of the Atlanta airport? ICK.


But, it quickly became amusing to watch where he would be planking next as the trip progressed.

And before long, planking was catching on with other team members.

I am betting the cleanliness of the airport parking lot ran a close second to this I-beam in the parking deck of the shopping mall in Venezuela.

And it has continued to other countries once our team's mission was complete. One of our other team members, Amanda Rodriguez was off travelling to another country and posted this plank.



She said she had to ask a total stranger in Spanish to taker her picture. After trying to explain planking in Spanish, she finally said, "Quit asking questions and take the picture!"

Wiki goes on to show other examples:




And of course, there is lots of planking on Youtube:


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