Plank
Hold a straight line on your forearms. Harder than it looks if you do it properly.
- Abdominals
- Bodyweight
- Time
What it works
Abdominals and obliques working isometrically to stop your lower back sagging, with the hip flexors, glutes and shoulders all contributing. It trains your trunk to resist movement, which is what it does under a heavy bar.
Setup
- Lie face down and place your forearms on the floor, elbows directly under your shoulders, forearms parallel or hands clasped.
- Tuck your toes under and lift your hips so your weight is on your forearms and toes.
- Set your body in one straight line from your head to your heels.
- Look at the floor just in front of your hands so your neck stays neutral.
The movement
- Squeeze your glutes hard. This is the part almost everyone skips and it is what stops your lower back sagging.
- Brace your abdominals as though you are about to be punched, and tuck your pelvis slightly so your ribs pull down towards your hips.
- Push the floor away with your forearms so your upper back is slightly rounded rather than collapsed between your shoulder blades.
- Breathe normally throughout. If you are holding your breath, you are bracing wrongly.
- Hold until your form starts to break, then stop. The set ends when the position ends, not when the timer does.
Common mistakes
- Hips sagging: the most common fault. Squeeze your glutes and tuck your pelvis.
- Hips piked up: easier, but not the exercise. Get the straight line.
- Chasing long holds: a five minute plank mostly measures tolerance for boredom. If you can hold two minutes cleanly, make it harder rather than longer.
- Collapsing between the shoulder blades: push the floor away and keep your upper back active.
- Craning the neck up: look at the floor, not forward.
Once you can hold a clean plank for about a minute, add difficulty rather than time: lift one foot, reach one arm forward, put your feet on a bench, or add a plate on your upper back. Thirty hard seconds beats three easy minutes.
Variations and alternatives
Side planks train the obliques directly and expose side to side differences. Dead bugs and bird dogs train the same anti movement quality while you are moving. Loaded carries are the standing version and transfer particularly well.
If a movement causes pain rather than ordinary training effort, stop and speak to a qualified professional. Programming context for this lift is in how training programs are built.