Hello, welcome to this 'Get Exercise Confident' video. I'm with Rivan and we're going to teach
you the front plank exercise. First, we're going to do it in a kneeling position. The
front plank works your core stability muscles, which endure and hold your posture in a good
position. What Rivan's going to do, is just bring his elbows directly under his shoulders,
so they are vertically aligned. He's going to bring his hands, rather than clasped, into
a relaxed, slightly wider position, to help him relax his upper body. He's now going to
pack his shoulders down towards his bum, and he's going to have his visual just in front
of his hands - here. If he now brings his hips up into the air, he's going to bring his hips
until he is in a nice level position. He's going to slightly tuck his stomach under,
so that he gets a nice straight line. What we're looking for with the plank is , if you
draw a plumb-line - his hips, his back and the back of his head are all going to form
a nice straight line in one rigid position. He's going to hold that position for as long
as he can. If he gets any lower back sagging here, or any pain in his back or he can't
sustain that position, he's going to stop. And his goal is to hold that position for
as long as he can in perfect form. A progression for the front plank is, we've done in kneeling,
now I'm going to ask Rivan to bring his knees off the floor, so he's in a line from his
feet to his elbows and hands contacts. So he's in a full position and he's got more
load and weight going through his midsection, so his core is supporting more of him now.
The same position - hips are tucked under, back is nice and straight and it's in line
with the back of his head. It's a heavier position, so in order to do this he must be
able to sustain the first position well, in order to hold this in good alignment. There's
a few common mistakes for the front plank. If Rivan lifts up first into his normal plank
position. So you can see now, a nice straight line - he's in a good plank. One of the first
common mistake people make, is that the hips are held to low, so they're in the air but
they're not actually using their core muscles to support their midsection. This is the first
thing that we will see go wrong, where people just need to bring their hips back into alignment
to get the nice straight position. The next common mistake is people will keep their hips
at the right height, but the lower back will drop. This classically happens when people
get really tired and their stomach stops supporting them so their lower back starts to give way,
and we get excessive pressure down through the lower back. So what people need to do
is either stop planking at this point, or they need to work out if they can just re-allign
themselves and get the straight position. The next classic thing that could go wrong
is higher up in the upper body. So where the arms are tensed, the shoulders are over-rounded,
so we get this extreme sort of 'n' shape at the top end of his back. Where he just needs
to drop into his shoulder blades and bring his hips up at the same time - to re-get that
straight position. Thank you for watching this 'Get Exercise Confident' video.