Before the current “planking craze,” which consists of lying face down in strange and unlikely places and having someone take your picture, another form of planking for exercise existed: the abdominal plank. Though it may seem intimidating, the abdominal plank is a great move for your back and your abs, even if you are new to exercise, because it can be modified to fit your current fitness level. Also, when you want to shake up your current strength training routine, which is recommended to avoid plateauing and growing bored, you can try a plank instead of your typical ab crunches.
Try several variations and hold the position for increasing amounts of time to gauge your progress. In today’s Fitness Friday video, Green Mountain at Fox Run fitness intern Celeste demonstrates the safe way to plank. (Email viewers, go to the blog to see it.)
Have a fun weekend, everyone!
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Definitely one of my faves. The plank is one of the best all around core-conditioning exercises around!
As someone who came to Green Mountain needing to re-incorporate fitness, exercise, and “movement” into my life – I was scared of the plank… it looked hard, seemed impossible, and watching one of our wonderful interns demonstrate it ~ I was certain I would fail, before I even tried it… and yet, in a matter of three days it became one of my favorite ‘exercises’!! There is something so simple and beautiful about this… and I noticed how much tighter my core was in a very, very short period of time! Like a well-kept secret… the plank ROCKS! LoL!