In the noisy crossover space between fitness, pop culture, and street energy, one upstart company is quietly carving its lane: Pure Plank. Born from the minds of WWE‑turned‑AEW stars Adam Copeland and Jay Reso, Pure Plank is staking its claim on core training—while connecting deeply to music, movement, and cultural resonance often missing in fitness gear. What’s more: hip‑hop heads are tuning in, and the brand’s CEO Ryan Carter is helping steer it into the heart of creative communities in the U.S. and Canada.
Copeland and Reso didn’t arrive at this idea overnight. They each had personal stakes in reinventing core training after years of wear, injury, and the inevitable “dad bod” risk. Copeland, for one, admits: “(When) I started planking, I couldn’t even hold a plank for 30 seconds and it was embarrassing. I’m supposed to be a high‑level athlete and I couldn’t hold a plank for even a minute.” Reso, likewise, became obsessed with refining core strength after building a modest garage gym and finding conventional core moves limiting.
They began sketching a better plank device—one with non-slip padding, ergonomic handles, digital timer, smartphone holder, and flexibility to engage the body along its full length. The goal was to turn a static, often painful core exercise into a more comfortable, accessible, and effective tool. As Copeland says, “We started thinking of a mechanism that would make planking more friendly … I put a Sharpie to paper while we both spit out ideas … we created something we both believe will help people.”
From those beginnings emerged Pure Plank: a “smart plank” system with real tech baked in, meant to elevate planking beyond a bland add-on. Its website markets it as “Planking reimagined,” featuring “stability ports, detachable non-slip handles, magnetic digital timer, soft rubber padding” all while offering free U.S. and Canada shipping. And yes—hip-hop culture is largely embracing that language of swagger, resilience, and rhythm.
Beats & Boards: How Pure Plank Brought Music Into Core Training
This is where Pure Plank’s secret sauce lies—and what gives it edge in a saturated fitness world. Planking is usually silent, methodical, and boring. Pure Plank turns up the volume. In interviews, Copeland leans into music as a central element. While not strictly hip-hop, he describes his personal playlist choices—Pearl Jam’s “Given to Fly,” Tom Petty’s “Running Down a Dream,” Bowie, The Cult—as part of the rhythm that fuels endurance and mindset during workouts. He sees musical cues as akin to wrestling entrance themes, saying “It sets the entire tone.”
The Pure Plank mobile app reinforces this immersive experience. The app includes customizable plank routines, progress tracking, and video guidance from trainers—all with the idea of keeping the workout dynamic and fun. The app invites beginners and advanced users alike, with routines that scale according to your starting point. With trainers, music, and feedback baked in, the experience is more circuit-style than silent hold, more beat‑driven than austere.
In hip-hop vernacular, that’s a culture‑driven fusion: movement synced to rhythm, users dropping into sets like bars in a verse. It’s no accident that energetic playlists give you a few extra seconds in a plank—you ride the beat. In that sense, Pure Plank isn’t just selling a board: it’s selling a session, a vibe.
Ryan Carter: Brand Architect & Cultural Connector
Games change when the right leader steps in. Enter Ryan Carter, Pure Plank’s CEO (also styled Chief Growth Officer). His background bridges marketing, branding, and creative vision. In recent interviews, Carter explains that he oversees brand, marketing, partnerships, operations, and strategy. Under his watch, the company reportedly “scaled from idea to seven figures in under 12 months, built a tight‑knit community … and sold out of inventory multiple times.”
Carter’s personal story—born in Guyana, then melding Caribbean and Miami influences—gives him both global and local aesthetic storytelling. He cites how his upbringing taught grit and family values, and how Miami’s diversity sharpened his lens. He sees Pure Plank as more than performance gear—it’s a brand with identity and imagination, rooted in authenticity, not just hype.
His cultural impact is subtle but real: Carter is intent on making fitness culturally relevant, bridging creative communities (including music, art, dance) with movement. In his day, hip-hop shaped his worldview; today, he seeks to let the same energy inform fitness experiences. In one interview he describes hip-hop as core to who he is: “I am hip-hop to the core.” That sensibility becomes part of how Pure Plank markets itself—not as a sterile piece of gym hardware but as part of a lifestyle that values beat, grind, flow.
The Apparel Drop: T‑Shirt Workout Gear as Streetwear Footprint
To extend the brand into fashion, Pure Plank launched a Core Logo Tee (price listed at $35 USD) via its website. The shirt is positioned as performance gear: “premium fitness apparel collection, ultra‑soft performance tees that showcase your dedication to core excellence.”
That matters: in hip-hop culture, what you wear says who you are. A plank board brand offering a street‑friendly tee bridges fitness and fashion—much like how rap artists roll in custom shoes and gear. It’s a stamp of identity. Wearing a Pure Plank tee is a nod to the core culture, signaling dedication and swagger. That move pushes Pure Plank beyond the gym into the street, the studio, the playlist.
Market Takeover: U.S. & Canada Footprint
Though no public sales charts are available, Pure Plank is clearly staking its claim across North America. The brand promises free U.S. & Canada shipping on its site. In interviews, the company notes that it has scaled “seven figures in under 12 months” and sold out of inventory multiple times.
Where hip-hop culture is vibrant—in cities like Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver—the overlap is real. Hip-hop artists, DJs, dancers need core resilience; Pure Plank’s narrative fits. And with U.S. scale (Florida, Texas, New York, California) plus Canadian outreach, the brand is aiming for a borderless core revolution.
Why Hip-Hop Culture Resonates with Pure Plank’s Core Philosophy
Hip-hop’s DNA is rhythm, resilience, improvisation, community. From breakdancers using the floor to MCs riding beats, movement and music are inseparable. Pure Plank mirrors that fusion: its workouts respond to rhythm, its branding taps swagger, and its app experience is dynamic, not static.
Unlike many fitness brands that downplay culture, Pure Plank leans into it. The merger of music, movement, and identity is familiar territory in hip-hop: we celebrate squats synced to beats, drills tied to cadence, flow in repetition. Plank sets with evolving routines, guided by trainers, layered with music—these feel more like a session than a punishment. It invites the user to drop into flow, not grimace through stillness.
In that way, Pure Plank becomes a kind of “culture core” brand—part performance tool, part creative statement, part lifestyle asset.
In the End, The Board Can Boogie
Pure Plank is not just another fitness gadget. It’s a narrative: former warriors of the ring reimagined core training for people with lives, injuries, and dreams. It’s a blend of tech, design, movement, and music. It’s got DJs in its playlist. It’s making identity wearable with its tees. And it’s quietly infiltrating the U.S. and Canadian fitness markets with a cultural pulse.
To hip-hop readers, here’s what makes it sticky: this isn’t muscle porn with zero soul. This is rhythm. This is flow. This is dropping into a plank set that feels like part of your session, not an afterthought. Pure Plank’s ethos aligns with street energy: build core strength like you build bars—deliberate, rhythmic, resilient. If the brand continues riding that wave, it may just anchor itself in the cross‑section of movement, music, and identity.
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