Plank
Trains the Abs.
- Equipment
- Body only
- Mechanic
- Isolation
- Force
- Static
- Level
- Beginner
How to do it
- Lie face down and place your forearms on the floor, elbows directly under your shoulders and forearms pointing forward.
- Tuck your toes under and lift your hips off the floor so your weight rests on your forearms and toes.
- Set your body in one straight line from your head to your heels. A mirror or a phone camera from the side is worth using once — this position is hard to judge from the inside.
- Tuck your pelvis slightly so your lower back flattens rather than arches, and brace your stomach as though you are about to be pushed.
- Look at the floor a little ahead of your hands so your neck stays in line with your spine.
- Hold the position while breathing normally. When the line starts to break, the set is over — a plank held in a sagging position is not a longer plank.
Common mistakes
- Letting the hips drop. Once the lower back arches, the abdominal wall has stopped resisting and the position is being held by the spine instead. That is the end of the set, whatever the clock says.
- Hips too high. Piking upward makes the position much easier by putting your weight over your arms rather than asking the trunk to resist anything. Straight line, not a triangle.
- Chasing longer holds. Once you can hold a good position for a minute or so, adding time trains endurance you already have. Adding difficulty — lifting one foot, extending one arm, or resting a weight on your back — is a better use of the same minute.
- Holding the breath. The point is bracing while breathing, because that is what carrying and lifting actually demand. Take shallow breaths into the stomach and keep the brace.