The Plank is an exercise for strengthening and firming the core muscles, especially the abdominal muscles. It gets the name from the position of the body across the balancing points of the forearms and the toes. The image on the right shows the basic position plus the more advanced exercise that involves raising one leg. This adds to the difficulty, and you should start with the basic exercise before tackling this advanced feature.
Here's how to do it.
- Lie face down on the floor.
- Raise the body up with the forearms while balancing the lower body on the toes.
- Do not sag around the abdominal region. Keep the body as rigid as possible.
- To hold this position, you will notice that you need to brace and contract the abdominal muscles.
- Hold for 30 seconds (less if that's all you can do), lower and then raise again. Do 10 repetitions or less to start with.
- Alternatively, hold until failure (you flop down), or three minutes, whatever comes first. Do three of these in a set. You will feel the abs burn.
- Test yourself to find what your maximum time to hold the Plank position is, then try to beat it as you develop strength. If you can hold for three minutes, you are doing well.
- You can add alternate leg lifts as you get stronger to the procedure described above.
