How to Do the Plank Exercise

While you may have heard about the fad of planking, in this post we are not talking about that type of planking but to an effective ab exercise called the plank.

When you think of ab or core exercises you probably mainly think about crunches, sit ups or knee ups. However the is a very simple exercise called the plank which is more effective than all of those exercises and more combined.

Notice that I said that the exercise is simple, but didn’t say easy.  As it’s not easy to master.

You can start right now and within 10 or 15 seconds you can be on your way in doing your first try at it, but let me warn you that while you may be able to attempt to do the plank you won’t be able to perfect it until you have tried dozens upon dozens of times.

What makes the plank so simple yet so difficult?

As with most exercises, that are fairly easy to do, it takes practice to have correct form and posture. It’s the same thing with the plan exercise. As you will see by watching the video below, the plank looks extremely easy but once you try it you will find that it is not easy to keep your alignment straight and you may also have a hard time remembering to breathe normally.

When you get into the plank position and tighten your butt, legs, abs and upper body you will have a tendency to hold your breath in order to keep your body straight, as you will notice it does take a lot of effort to keep your belly from hanging low or pushing your butt up in the air.

Once you have perfected your alignment, you will begin to work on the amount of time that you can hold the position.

Don’t laugh but unless your core muscles are already fairly strong you probably won’t be able to hold the position for more than 5 or 6 seconds. As you continue to do the plank exercise day after day ( a few times each day) the time that you will hold the exercise will get longer and when you can hold it about 3 minutes then more than likely you’ll be able to look in the mirror and see the best abs you have ever had.  That is  if you have also been watching what you eat and don’t have a layer of fat covering your mid-section.

Once you start doing the plank and seeing results you will never go back to doing crunches again.

The plank exercise is that good!
So here is the video that will walk you through the plank exercise. Pay close attention as although it is simple you do need to learn the correct posture.