How to Make the Perfect Plank
The plank is a simple bodyweight exercise that forces you to keep your body rigid as a board for as long as possible. It has become a kind of badge of honor to be able to hold it for 60 seconds or longer. But if you keep it for eons without shaking, you probably aren’t working with the kernel as you should.
We know our core is connected to our abs , but your abdominal muscles are just a small part of the complex series of muscles that make up your core. Your core helps you balance and affects your posture. It also stabilizes the spine, preventing it from bending under heavy weight or sudden movements. For example, a strong core can keep your back from dropping out during the deadlift. This is why working out the core is so important, and the plank is the perfect exercise for this.
What a good board looks like
In a standard plank, you use your hands and toes to hold your body in a static position. You will feel your abs, shoulders, triceps, quads, and many other muscles working hard to maintain your position. There are several types of boards, but the most common is with your forearms resting on the ground instead of your hands. Video Scott Herman Fitness shows how the board should look.
A nice plank means your head, neck, entire back, hips and heels are in line. This means looking straight at the floor and imagining pulling your chin into your chest while pulling your navel into your spine.
Where people go wrong
Being able to hold the bar for long periods of time is a big deal, but there are many ways to cheat the bar and rob yourself of a proper core workout.
- You are not really keeping your core “tense”: by “tense,” I mean that you deliberately tense your core muscles and maintain tension throughout your body. Slivon Blanco , an online fitness trainer who runs Von Blanco Fitness , says not being “tense” is why most people don’t feel the bar after about 30 seconds. If done correctly, you will immediately feel it with your whole body. …
- Your glute is lifted high or your lower back is compressed: When you lift your glute in the air or allow your hips to sag so much that your lower back arches, you are allowing the core to relax. Moreover, you simply shift the load to other parts of the body and reduce the load on the bar. To get rid of any bad habit, clench your buttocks, clench your fists and imagine pulling your navel into your spine. Blanco says that when you squeeze your glutes, you automatically align your head, hips, and ankles in a straighter line. This will work your core muscles correctly.
- Your shoulders: When you round your shoulders, you usually lower your head as well. “This again reduces the pressure on the abs and shifts it towards the arms, traps and neck,” Kevin Mullins , master instructor at the Equinox Sports Club in Washington, told me. To fix this, squeeze your shoulder blades and try to keep your chest high.
- You forget to breathe: when you are tense, it is perfectly normal to hold your breath and not even be aware of it. Just breathe normally. You don’t want to feel dizzy, and breathing normally will help you hold the position longer.
Once you can maintain the plank position with good form, you can improve the game by placing your hands, palms down, on the ground, as if you were holding the top of a push-up position. Being on the hands is a little more difficult than on the forearms. However, if it is too difficult to support the weight of the whole body, you can kneel until you gain more strength in the upper body.
After that, the fun begins. The video above demonstrates a one-leg plank using Functionpatterns when you lift one leg straight into the air. This option requires your hips to not bend too far to one side and make you all wobble. You also use your quads and glutes to keep your raised leg in the air.
Alternatively, you can try the sideplank as described in the video above fromHowcast . The side plank primarily works on the obliques , the muscles on the sides of the abs, but it also works on a variety of other stabilizing muscles in the back, glutes, shoulders, and even chest. Just remember to give both sides of your body the same amount of love.
The plank is an effective way to strengthen these core muscles, and once you start enjoying their benefits, you will appreciate them in other areas of your life and in other parts of the gym. They don’t seem big, but exercises in which you move as little as possible are often the most difficult.