How to do the Plank:

Those of you who come to my Pilates classes will tell you how fussy I am about this exercise – because when it is done correctly, it is awesome and will noticeably flatten your abs in a very short space of time.

The plank engages all of the Core Muscles (see previous posts) as well as having some good toning effect on the shoulders and Tricep muscles.

Lie on the floor face down and slide your elbows close to your chest with both of your hands placed under your chin.

Keep your knees slightly wider than your hips and tuck your toes underneath.

Press downwards through the elbows and lift up onto knees – even if you can do a full plank, it is worthwhile going through to this stage first as it will help engage the deep abdominals and decrease the initial hard engagement of the legs.

Pull your abs away from your t-shirt, tuck your tailbone in and lift the pubic bone towards the ribs. Flatten the ribs and tighten through the shoulder blades, bringing them closer together.

Lengthen the neck and pull your chin in – keep looking down but you can sort of “peep” forwards as if you are looking over the top of your sunglasses – it helps to keep the upper back engaged.

Actively brace or hold the abdominals in and breathe slowly through your mouth.

When straightening the legs, lift the knees off the floor gently and keep pressing the heels away from you. Stay on the balls of your feet.  The thighs will be engaged but not the glutes.

 6 seconds will sometimes be enough (!) you will feel the abs engaging – they may even tremble, but it is important that you grit your teeth a little and not give in on the first bit of perceived hard work.  

A standard time to hold the plank is an awesome 3 minutes 40 seconds...but it will take some time to build up to this.

You can do the plank every day, and even more than once a day. It does feel hard, but it will get easier J