Short, sweet and incremental!
Now this isn’t just your regular plank challenge where you build up to planking for minutes on end. We keep the planking shorter and sweeter but introduce some variations, which challenge your core muscles in slightly different areas.
Planking is not only a good core exercise but if you do them properly is also a great workout for your glutes, shoulders and arms.
A few pointers on form…
- Always aim to have a straight line going from your shoulders to your hips.
- Always have your elbows (in forearm plank) or hands (in full plank and side plank) directly under your shoulders
- Engage your tummy muscles
- Engage your glutes (squeeze your bum together)
- If you find side planks difficult, you can regress them by going down onto your elbow/forearm, and putting one front in front of the other on the mat, to give you a more stable base, rather than stacked on top of one another. If you are still struggling, drop your knees to the floor, stack one on top of the other and prop yourself up on your elbow, and hold that position.