- All right,
so we're talking about wall planks versus
the standard plank on the floor wash.
- We'll show both.
- That's right.
We're gonna show you both but,
both of them are doing very similar strengthening
to the core in the midsection.
If you have back pain,
you definitely want to increase the strength
for reasons of where these muscles are located
and how they actually attach to the back of the spine.
- And the wall ones are easier to do.
- Right.
If you have a problems getting down on the floor,
the wall ones.
- And no equipment.
- And no equipment as well. - Right.
- There's some big benefits to doing this.
♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- [Brad] All right.
We're gonna look at the muscle groups
that regular planks really work on strengthening.
There's actually four layers of muscles in the core,
in the abdomen that actually surround the whole back.
The first one is not showing very well on here
and we didn't do that because
it's actually the rectus abdominis,
which is the six pack muscles.
They run vertically on the front of the stomach.
And this is a side view so,
everyone is very familiar with that we think.
But the ones that are really important
are actually the external oblique where the fibers
go at an angle like this across your stomach.
And then the internal obliques,
which the fibers go like this.
So if you put those on top of each other,
they crisscross and they really support
the abdominal abdomen well.
Now the next group is the transverse abdominous.
This is a really particularly important abdominal group
that supports the spine.
Here's the front of the body,
here's the
sternum.
And these fibers actually go around
and wrap around the core.
And if you could look at...
if we could turn the skeleton all the way to the back
they don't stop until they connect up to the spine.
So this is just like a back belt.
- [Bob] Yeah through the fascia.
- [Brad] Yep.
Through the fascia,
the back,
Bob just mentioned.
And that fascia is very strong tissue
As well as all this.
It's a manmade...
it's a made back belt
that if those muscles contract properly
it works as a super back belt for the body.
And that's what we're trying to get at
with the planks as well.
- [Bob] With the wall planks.
- [Brad] Yeah planks,
wall planks.
- [Bob] And it does the same thing.
- [Brad] Yeah,
same thing and we'll talk more in detail about that.
We sound confused,
but we're really not.
Okay first of all,
we're gonna demonstrate your typical plank
that you do on the floor.
Bob is gonna do on our table here.
Here he's got nice and straight body holding it.
And you're gonna hold us for a period of time.
15, 30 seconds.
That's gonna be up to you.
Now,
another method to do the side planks.
So you're getting more muscle fibers
in different parts of the core.
Bob is doing it on his knee.
You can go up to your feet and do it.
So you have a complete side plank.
Whatever level you're at,
works good for you.
This is a nice demonstration.
And now this isn't really a plank
but this does compliment the plank as far
as working more core muscles,
particularly on the posterior or the low back side
which is really important for those low back pain people.
You can see Bob is working here.
It's really challenging his balance.
All these muscles are really going to town
to maintain his balance,
his core.
And if you find yourself struggling like this
you know you're doing it right
you're really giving yourself good benefits.
All right Bob,
what do you say?
He's happy. - I'm good.
- Yep.
Now we're gonna show the wall planks
and some different variations of that.
I don't know what's wrong with my mouth,
Teddy Bob.
- You're doing fine.
- Yeah I sound like...
- You sound like me.
All right,
here we go.
Well the wall plank we're gonna start
obviously facing towards the wall.
And the distance your feet are from the wall
is gonna determine how aggressive it is.
Obviously you can't do it with your toes touching the wall.
So get back maybe one to two feet,
somewhere in there and we're gonna tighten up the core,
keep our back nice and straight with our body,
our head not forward,
ears over the shoulders and forearms just like this.
You can do them with your palms like this
but we find that this works better as far as
getting those muscles engaged.
You can do it with your feet wider apart.
As you get stronger,
you can bring your feet closer together
makes it a little more difficult
works the core muscles a little bit better.
And you're just gonna hold it here and you can hold it there
for up to 30 seconds,
If that's too easy.
And you only can go out so far.
So what you can do when you feel comfortable
with the distance from the wall
you don't want to go any farther,
by the way,
you should do this with shoes on.
So you have some grip is better,
then you simply lift one arm off and hold it.
Immediately,
you're gonna feel those core muscles working harder
when you lift one arm off.
Do that five or 10 seconds,
your choice,
and then do the other one.
So you might go 10 seconds here,
10 seconds here and do that three times.
It's gonna give you some nice core strength here.
- Look how straight Brad's back is.
- Is it straight Bobby?
Sometimes I wonder.
- You look good Brad.
- Okay.
Wow.
We're clear there.
All right.
Should we continue on to the side plank,
Bob? - Yep.
- Okay we're gonna progress to the side plank
and what we're going to do is the same thing.
Find a distance comfortable to the wall.
You're gonna go a little farther out.
Cause on this one,
we're gonna go with the palm.
If you want,
you can use a forearm,
either way works okay.
Just adjust your feet accordingly.
On this one,
we're gonna keep our feet close together.
This feels pretty good for me.
You can do this back and forth
and then find the middle,
hold it,
tighten up that core.
Think about tightening up that belly to get all those layers
that we talked about,
engaged.
And we're just gonna hold it here.
Now,
if you find this too easy,
after about 30 seconds it's like,
"well what's so hard about this?"
Your next step...
And that's the same with the previous exercise
where we did the facing the wall,
wall plank.
When it gets too easy after 30 seconds,
that's when you start lifting one arm off the wall.
In this case,
you're gonna take the outside leg,
tighten everything up,
reach out in front of you,
touch a point in front of you at a distance
that makes the core work.
You can tell I'm working harder because I'm talking more
stressed.
- Strained?
- Yep.
And you just go back and forth like this.
You have to go both sides.
Do the same on one side as the other so that you balance
out the core and you don't start walking like this.
Okay Bob.
- That was it Brad.
Was that clear? - Yeah.
- Clear as mud.
- No, - We got one more to show you.
- Crystal.
- Okay and finally,
but not last leastly,
we have the famous pointer dog.
Again,
this is a little different variation from the plank
but it's really effective and it works well.
And if you do it,
you'll understand why.
We have two options.
One on the wall and then one on the countertop.
We'll start on the wall.
It's a little easier.
This is where you should start.
Again,
bring your feet a comfortable distance away from the wall,
hands above your head as comfortable.
I'm gonna take my...
and I'm gonna spread my feet out
about one to two feet apart,
18 inches.
Whatever you feel comfortable with.
This hand is going to lift off the wall.
A few inches is all.
You only need that.
And then at the same time,
you're going to lift the opposite foot off the wall
and you can hold that,
five to 10 seconds.
- [Bob] Be safe.
- Yep.
And then this way.
So you're just gonna alternate.
If you haven't done this before
I would only go one or two seconds or...
- [Bob] Or start with your legs only
- Right.
Yep.
So you can just do this,
one leg here,
one leg here.
Tighten up the core while you're doing this,
try and breathe and relax.
And then do this.
And then you know when,
if that's easy,
then you can go back to where I started.
Where you alternate doing it at the same time.
- [Brad] Don't do both legs at the same time.
- Woo!
Just kidding.
If that's too easy or you wanna do something different,
the countertop...
say this would be your countertop.
This is gonna be more aggressive.
Little more challenging plank position here.
Tighten up the core.
Good posture.
You know,
if you got someone around,
ask them if your body is straight.
That's critical.
Head not forward.
And then with this one,
the same thing.
You can just simply start doing,
alternate right left,
and then try the feet.
And you can tell the way I'm grunting and groaning,
it is a little more challenging than over there.
And then of course this one is even more challenging.
- [Brad] You look like Superman.
- Ah!
I feel like Superman.
I am strong like bull.
Yeah.
Do all four at once and see if you can fly.
Again,
do 10 of these would probably be a good number to shoot for
when you're starting out.
Take it easy,
just do a few.
You don't wanna wake up the next day,
with sore core muscles every time you laugh.
You'll be swearing at Bob and Brad,
"why didn't they tell me to take it easy."
- All done Brad.
- Yeah well Bob,
once again,
we can fix anything except for a...
- A broken heart.
Right,
and this video is not gonna help at all.
- Nope.
Upgrade.
- We continue to strive for that goal.
- We love our fantasy world.
- Yeah yeah,
that's exactly right Bob.
Be careful.
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