Hey, what's up Nation? And welcome back to the channel today
we're going to go over the three golden rules for one of the best exercises to strengthen your core
and that is the plank also as always we are going to not only talk about proper form
but how to make this exercise even better so you
can progress with the movement and continue to make gains
whether you're a beginner or an advanced athlete, but before we get started.
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Alright guys, so golden rule number one is you have to keep your body straight.
This may come off as self-explanatory
however, there are some things that happen if you're not paying attention.
So proper form for a plank looks like this your
body is straight your shoulders are neutral and you stay in this position.
But what tends to happen as you start to fatigue either in your core and your shoulders
Is you'll start to go like this
which really isn't that big of a deal aside from the fact that it's not placing as much tension on your core
but when you start to do like a banana body like this and you let your hips sag
this is where we start having some problems.
What happens when you let your hips sag
or you hyperextend your hips you're disengaging your core
and you're putting a lot of pressure in your lower back.
The entire point of this exercise is to strengthen the core
so if you're disengaging it by lowering your hips
then you should stop doing the movement because at that point you're
just wasting your time so golden rule number one
keep that body as straight as possible.
Golden rule number two guys
quality over quantity now, obviously with any exercise you always want to have quality repetitions.
But that's especially as important when it comes to the plank for some of the reasons
we just mentioned in golden rule number one. Now. Let me explain what proper form for a plank is.
Yes, visually all it looks like is we're holding this position right here
but there's a lot more going on in the body than what it looks like from the outside.When you're in this position
you're not just trying to hold your body straight
you're actually flexing your glutes as hard as you can you're flexing
your legs as hard as you can you're flexing your arms
you're flexing your core. You're flexing your obliques
and then the last piece to this puzzle is you actually want to be pulling your elbows in
toward your toes as you pull your toes in towards your elbows
and when you're doing this the intensity of this exercise
goes up drastically
like a night-and-day
difference, however
if you're trying to have a contest to see how long you can hold the plank
what's going to happen after the first probably minute to three minutes is
you're not going to be able to keep all those muscles flexed and you're not gonna be able to continue to pull
your elbows in
towards your toes and vice-versa. So after you're unable to keep all these muscles flexed as hard as you can
how well the plank actually helps you increase your core stability
starts to diminish over time.
So quality over quantity guys
if you're gonna do a plank
keep everything nice and tight and flex as soon as you can't keep it nice and tight anymore
you still might be able to stay horizontal, but at that point you're better off just stopping resting
and then starting another set.
Alright guys and golden rule number three know when it's time to progress
nut before we get started with some other pull anchor variations,
if you're enjoying the video, be sure to smash that like button
preferably in the plank position.
Alright guys, so as we just talked about with quality over quantity
once you're able to do really strict planking flexing all your muscles keeping everything nice and tight
once you can hold that for like three to five minutes max
then it's time to try to make the exercise a bit more intense or else
you're just going to be sitting in the plank position
for like eight to ten minutes when you could still be sitting in it with for three to five but making it
you know a bit harder out to get more out of the movement in less time.
So some of my favourite variations
I'm going to show you guys three variations if you want to see
another video all on different plank variations
post a comment down below and I can look into making that for you guys as well.
But we have the standard variation, which is this right here
then we have the
variation where you lift one leg and the opposite arm and you hold this for as long as you can and then you switch
like this or you can just do it alternating for as long as you can versus holding it statically.
You have the t plank which you go to the side like this and hold this position
flexing your core and you can do the T plank either on your elbow or you can do it on your hand.
Just make sure you're still keeping your core nice and tight and make sure you do both sides.
And then you have one of my favorite variations of the plank, which is the weighted plank now
it can be difficult to put weights on yourself
so maybe having somebody help you is a pretty good idea.
But there are ways to do it on your own
and again guys
the weighted plank is the same exact form as a traditional plank
except now you have weight added to your torso and now it's time for a
bonus tip for beginners now whether you're male or female
it's quite possible to be too weak to perform a regular plank on its own.
So if that's the case don't feel bad about it
we've all been there and instead of giving up and not performing the exercise
you can do an easier version of the plank, which is the knee plank
which is where you basically plank from the position of having your knees on the ground.
Also if you can perform 5 to 10 seconds of a regular plank, and then you seem to collapse
that's okay, too
just hang in there for those 5 to 10 seconds and then
continue for 30 more seconds on your knees
if you continue to do this over time
the regular plank time will be 5 to 10 seconds will turn into 10 to 15 then 15 to 20 and then before
you know it you'll be able to plank for 3 to 5 minutes easy.
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more good stuff coming soon. See you guys