Proper plank set up, modifications + progressions

How do you know that you are setting up your plank properly? Let’s first go through the form checklist.

1. Start in a tabletop position with both hands + knees on the ground.

2. Keep your chin slightly tucked like you are holding a tennis ball between your chin and chest

3. Roll your shoulders down your back, and engage into your lats

4. Squeeze into your armpits, imagining that you have an orange in there and are making orange juice

5. Pull your belly button in towards your spine to engage the core

6. From here, press into your palms, pushing through your shoulders and making sure your weight is even across both hands

7. Step one leg back at a time so that your feet are about 1 ft apart, making sure your shoulders stay over your palms

8. Flex your quads

9. Add a slight squeeze to the butt

10. and hold.

Start with 10 seconds, rest and then repeat. Embrace the shakiness that will occur ;)

Things to watch for:

1. Hips

   1. Hips should be at or slightly above rib level

   2. Hips dropping to low: you may start to feel some pain across the low back indicating that your hips have dropped and lost activation in the core

   3. Hips up too high: again you may have lost activation in the core and you may be feeling more tension in the shoulders

2. Shoulders

   1. Rounding out behind you or squeezing too far together.

   2. Remember keep activation by rolling down your back and squeezing into your armpits

3. Weaknesses

   1. An exercise like this will help point out weaknesses in your body. Notice if you feel your weight shifting towards one part of your body more than the other, or maybe you are feeling tension more in a specific part of your body.

There are a lot of options, if you need to modify. Here are some to think about as you build up your core strength:

1. Reduce time in the plank. Start with 10 seconds at a time and slowly build up in 5-10 second intervals. Once you can hold your plank for 1 minute, let’s start to think about progressions (see below)

2. Use an incline - using an incline vs dropping to your knees will force you to use your bodyweight more and therefore will help build up more strength. The higher your incline, the easier it gets, the lower the incline is to the floor the more challenging.

   1. a wall. Place your hands directly in front of you on the wall and then walk your feet back 1 - 3 steps from there

   2. back of a couch, slightly lower than the wall

   3. slowly start to bring that incline lower, next could be a bench, step stool, bottom step, then the ground

Just like there are many ways to modify your plank, there are also TONS of options to progress your plank:

A plank is a steady hold. Finding ways to challenge the stability of that hold will progress your plank. Here are some examples:

1. Shoulder taps

   1. lift one hand up at a time and tap the opposite shoulder

2. Leg lifts

   1. raise one leg up at a time about 6 inches off the ground

3. Arm raises

   1. raise one arm ahead of you at a time

4. Side planks + all their variations!

5. Add a band or disk slider

   1. Once you master the movement with just bodyweight, add some fancy extras like a resistance band or disk slider to make it even spicier!

6. Use a decline or suspension straps

   1. Prop your feet up onto an elevated surface like a step, bench or even in suspension straps like a TRX. This will put more intensity on the core and shoulders

Get creative!

There are also plank variations that allow for rotation and movement. Your torso doesn’t just stay in a square upright position all the time. It twists, turns, moves and rotates. You’ll want to do exercises that strengthen that motion as well. Here are some examples of those:

1. Hip rotations

   1. In a standard plank position, rotate your hips down to one side, lift through the center then head to the other side

2. Plank spider-mans

   1. Bring your knee to the outside of the elbow on the same side of the body, allowing your weight to shift more into the hand on the opposite side of the body and a crunch into the obliques

3. Cross mountain climbers

   1. bring your knee under your hip to the opposite hip bone, careful as to not go too far past the hip and overextend the hip flexor.

There are so many other paths we could go down with planks that this post doesn’t even touch on. These are just a few ideas to get you started!

Escape Fitness Bench

Kootek Band set

Click the images above to shop each product. These are affiliate links and I will make a commission off of your purchase.

More on Instagram: