To win a World Cup is indescribable. Not that I'd know — I never made it past recreational football [1] — but that's what midfielder Lindsey Horan, a member of the World Cup-winning USWNT team [2], told me during an interview about her partnership with Brew Dr. Kombucha [3]. "It's crazy, I've never had that feeling before in my life. The World Cup is the biggest stage for football in general," Lindsey said (and, yes, she uses both "football" and "football," most likely due to her three-plus years playing professionally in Europe after high school [4]). "It seemed like the quarters, the semis, the final were all finals. So I think that's what made it so much sweeter at the end of it all because we put so much into that tournament."
Lindsey scored twice — once in the team's history-making game against Thailand [5] and a second time against Sweden. She said the former meant the most to her given that it marked her first goal in her first-ever World Cup game. And the latter was actually the fastest scored goal [6] at the 2019 Women's World Cup.
Lindsey is, while the USWNT victory tour continues, now focussed on finishing up the pro season with the Portland Thorns. Her sights are then set on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (though she represented the US in 2016, they were eliminated in the quarter finals). She fell in love with football at a young age, and when ask how she's prepared herself for games throughout her career, Lindsey said watching football helps. "It gets me pumped up to play but also calms me down in a way," she explained. She also "always" listens to Drake.
There's really nothing else to it, she explained. She's not superstitious and doesn't have a set routine she sticks to before heading onto the field. Lindsey does, however, have a go-to ab workout that she tacks onto the end of her workouts when she's training. She said she's gotten some of her teammates to do it, too, "and it's terrible." It's all about planks.
Lindsey Horan's 6-Minute Plank Finisher
Directions: Do the following sequence two times.
- Plank: 1 minute
- Side plank: 1 minute each side
Lindsey said she typically does core last and this plank workout, though short, is "six minutes of hell." After hearing that, I obviously had to try it. Ahead, check out what I thought about this fiery finisher.
My Core to Me After Doing Lindsey Horan's "6 Minutes of Hell" Ab Workout
I did Lindsey's ab sequence after my workout, which was a 10-minute warmup walk from Peloton Digital [9], a dumbbell back and chest session from NASM-certified personal trainer Bailey Ducommun's at-home Glute Guide [10] (I'm on week four of an eight-week program), and five sets of banded rapid fire jump squats [11]. Because of that arm workout before the planks, my shoulders were on fire! Doing the sequence for six minutes straight worked my deep core and obliques, and it made me sweat like crazy (anyone else sweat a lot during planks?). Don't be fooled — six minutes can go by very slowly when you're waiting to switch arms in side planks. I'd definitely recommend this as a finisher because it's super simple but burns more than you'd expect it to. The "six minutes of hell" was worth it!