Teresa Giudice Says She Held a Plank for 10 Minutes to Win Prison Contest: 'Got in the Sickest Shape'

Teresa Giudice looked back on how prison got her into the “sickest shape” — to the point where she was able to hold a plank for an impressive 10 minutes — because she worked out daily.

The longtime Real Housewives of New Jersey star, 52, appeared on the May 12 episode of her daughter Gia’s podcast, Casual Chaos. She reflected on how she tried to make “a bad situation into a good situation” while she was served an 11-month prison sentence, starting in 2014, for fraud charges relating to her ex-husband, Joe Giudice's bankruptcy fraud case.

The best-selling author said she was in a Danbury, Conn., facility, and “the grounds were beautiful because I saw all four seasons while I was there, and I worked out.”

Because “I always try to make something [that is] a bad situation into a good situation,” she says, “I just worked out every single day, got in the sickest shape.”

That’s when Gia brought up her mom’s big achievement: “You won the contest for a plank. She held a 10-minute plank.”

A plank is an abdominal and core exercise, which, as VeryWell Fit explains, involves holding your body off the ground as you balance on your toes and forearms. The prison contest was against “a lot” of competition, Teresa explained.

“Can you imagine holding a ten-minute plank? Murder,” joked Gia. “That's criminal.”

“I can't do a 10-minute plank anymore,” Teresa said.

“We did one today when we were working out,” Gia said, “And then as we're holding our plank today, she looks up and goes, 'I held one for ten minutes in prison.' ” 

But as Teresa said, “I can't do that anymore.”

She also looked back on the media frenzy around her sentence, telling her daughter, “When I was there, I was outside a lot. So I used to walk the track a lot. And then … because everyone knew I was there, there would be helicopters outside trying to take my picture. So then we would get stuck, and then everybody would be not be able to go outside, and then some of the girls in there would be pissed at me.”

“I’m like, not my fault that there's helicopters trying to take my picture. I'm like, I wanna be outside too.”