Plank Better

It's no secret that I take exception to how planks are usually performed. I've written about it more than once, most recently in the post Plank Lines . But while fixing them can be difficult, we may have stumbled upon a modification that can help.

As noted in the post referenced above, people often "cheat" on their planks to do them longer. Unfortunately, this includes people trying to show others how to do a plank (which is maddening!). The most common way to cheat is to raise the hips. Even a small change in angle can make a noticeable difference in the difficulty (and effectiveness) of the exercise.

However, keeping the body straight (i.e. not raising or lowering the hips) can be difficult. Probably the best way is to contract the butt and ab muscles forcefully throughout the plank. Some coaches try to check form by using a dowel along the top of the body to maintain points of contact. That usually doesn't work and can't be done when training alone.

So what can we do?

A while back, a friend of mine had a foot injury that made balancing on his toes during the plank too painful. So I suggested putting a foam roller under his lower shins to achieve the same position without involving his feet. When he tried this, he told me that this modification made the plank significantly harder. Yet when I tried it, the difficulty didn't change. So what was up?

My conjecture--which I couldn't test because he lives far away--is that his usual way of performing planks included "cheating" with the hips elevated. (It doesn't take much to make them significantly easier.) But using the roller at the lower shins makes it much harder to elevate the hips. So he was no longer "cheating" and that made planking feel harder.

Since maintaining strict form is part of my usual routine, using the roller didn't affect my form. So it didn't feel any harder.

It's not hard to "cheat" the other way--by sagging your hips instead of raising them--but that's much less common because it doesn't work as well and is usually uncomfortable. If someone has lower back pain when doing planks, my first suggestion is to squeeze the abs harder which raises the hips.

Ready to test your plank form? Go ahead and try putting a foam roller under your lower shins (so your feet don't touch the floor) and see if planking that way feels harder. If so, it's a good clue that you've been keeping your hips too high, making the exercise easier and less effective.

Thanks to my buddy for (a) hurting his foot, and (b) giving this a try.

Be seeing you.

-gary