Planks Still Work Even If You Don’t Keep Them Forever
We’ve told you how to make planks , and why planks , and what to do instead of planks when you get bored with them . But there is an important thing about boards that we forgot to tell you: you don’t have to hold a position until you collapse.
Holding the board forever is a subtext when people boast that they can hold the board for 30 seconds, or a full minute, or two minutes, or any other time they are proud of. Wonderful! You go! But then the rest of us think, “Wow, I’m starting to shiver and I feel like I want to die in about 20 seconds. It sucks. I will not do the boards. “
What if I told you … you could quit smoking in 20 seconds? Or even ten?
Holding the board until you grit your teeth and can no longer hold it is the equivalent of lifting to failure. As we discussed earlier , training to failure has several benefits, but it is definitely not required for every exercise every time. You can build strength and muscle endurance by lifting (or holding the board) for a difficult time, then stopping to rest, and doing this over and over.
One way to do this is to use a women’s running program in which you start with a 20-second plank, then work up to one minute, and then move on to an ambitious goal of two full minutes. If 20 seconds still sounds like a lot, no big deal! Do less! You are still gaining strength. And if you hate boards, be careful – if you don’t make them to capacity, you might even like them .
Photo by Amy .
Mastering the Plank in Three Steps | Womens running