Plank Challenge

Looking for a fun activity to get you through the holiday season?  Look no further than R4R’s Blue Crew 30 Day Planktastical Planksgiving Challenge!

What Is a Plank?

This core exercise is performed by lying prone on the floor, resting on your elbows or wrists and your toes. A plank position looks similar to the beginning of a pushup, but your arms are only used for stability’s sake, and there is no bending of the arms involved. It’s an isometric exercise, which means that you’re isolating specific muscle groups. In this case, those muscles are mostly your core, but planks activate everything from your abs and obliques to your glutes and shoulders. Typically the goal of a plank is to hold the position for as long as you can.

When you do this regularly, your muscles strengthen, and you’re able to hold the plank position progressively longer. While you only need to stay still to do a plank, there are also numerous variations in the position involving moving your legs, arms, or both while in the plank position.

Benefits of Planks

1 – Planks Strengthen the Entire Body

Love multitasking moves? Target multiple muscles at once by doing planks. For starters, the plank works your glutes and quads, according to Candace Rhodes, personal trainer and founder of Rhodes to Strength. These muscles play a vital role in propelling you forward, which is extra helpful if you’re a runner. Strong glutes and quads also stabilize the pelvis and knees, respectively, helping you move comfortably during exercise and daily activities.

The plank also targets your shoulders, arms, and core, aka the main stabilizer of your body, says Ashley Dean, personal trainer and founder of Apartment 3R. “When [you’re] in a plank, your spine is in a neutral position,” she explains. This forces the core muscles to engage and provide stability, ultimately making them stronger.

2 – Planks improve your posture.

As the plank strengthens your core, it also promotes good posture. This is especially important if you tend to slouch or, like many people, sit at a desk all day. Here’s how it works: According to the Journal of Physical Therapy Science, your core muscles are in charge of supporting your spine and keeping your body upright. This includes muscles like the diaphragm, pelvic floor, internal obliques, and abs, according to Dean. Doing planks keeps these muscles healthy and strong, ensuring they can brace your spine with ease. What’s more, Rhodes adds that a strong core keeps your spine properly aligned, further helping your posture.

3 – Doing planks can help reduce low back pain.

When it comes to pain, the plank (literally) has your back—and it’s all thanks to the core-strengthening, posture-improving effects of the move. Need proof? As the center of your body, the core handles the load of your movements. According to Current Sports Medicine Reports, if your core is weak, that load is shifted onto the surrounding muscles, which start to overcompensate disproportionately. This can trigger back pain, especially in the lower back. Poor posture also places pressure on the muscles in your back, according to the University of California.

Enter the benefits of plank exercises. In a 2017 study, researchers found that stabilizing your core with exercises (like planks) can reduce low back pain. Planks can also provide relief by increasing your awareness of spinal alignment and posture, according to Rhodes. Translation: Doing planks can help you become more mindful of how you hold your body. This type of awareness, called postural awareness, is linked to back pain relief, according to a 2018 study.

4 – Planks aid in preventing injury.

By stabilizing your core, planks reduce your risk of injury. According to the Journal of Athletic Training, a strong core helps transfer force to your extremities during movement. A weak core, on the other hand, is unable to handle the load. This places too much pressure on nearby muscles, causing “injuries in unexpected places such as the hips, hamstrings, or inner thighs,” explains Dean.

The posture-related benefits of planks can lend a hand, too. According to Rhodes, good posture keeps you safe by evenly distributing your weight during activity. This helps you avoid doing awkward, incorrect movements that can lead to injury and pain.

5 – Planks enhance your balance.

When you do a plank, you’re forced to hold all your weight on your toes and arms without falling over. This improves your ability to balance, which is key for controlling your body’s position. Having good balance helps you move in a way that prevents injury, whether you’re walking to the mailbox or hiking up a mountain. Plus, balance issues tend to become more common as we age, so it never hurts to challenge your balance with moves like planks.

6 – Planks can lead to increased flexibility.

Though the plank doesn’t feel like your typical stretch, it can totally boost your flexibility. According to Dean, doing a classic plank lengthens and stretches your hamstrings, the major muscles in the back upper leg that cause pain when they become too tight. The exercise also stretches the arches and balls of your feet, which improves balance and range of motion, says Dean. Meanwhile, the side plank stretches the obliques, making it easier to rotate your trunk with ease.

Proper Plank Form

As with all exercises, proper form is vital to ensuring that you get the most out of the activity and don’t hurt yourself doing it. Keep the following tips in mind so that your planks are as effective and risk-free as possible.

• Your elbows should be directly under your shoulders. Start your plank by beginning on all fours in a tabletop position, ensuring that the shoulders are directly above the wrists.
• Keep your back straight and your head neutral.
• Engage your core. When you focus on engaging your core, the upper and lower rectus abdominis muscle activity increases even before you’ve done much else.
• Squeeze your glutes. Squeezing your butt and putting yourself in a slight posterior pelvic tilt will increase muscle activation of the core.
• Keep tension out of your chest and shoulders, making sure not to squeeze your shoulders toward your ears.
• Use your legs, too. Despite working mostly your abs, the thighs also must be activated to keep yourself up.

Common Plank Mistakes

Avoid the following so that you don’t risk injury.

• Don’t sink or arch your back; it should be completely straight and flat. Romine says you should be able to balance a book on it. Hockenjos suggests imagining that you’re tucking your glutes underneath your abs.
• It may be instinctive to hold your breath, but you should breathe steadily and continuously throughout the exercise. Holding your breath will further tense up your muscles which will further result in improper form.
• Make sure not to hang your head; Doing that will pull on your neck and cause more tension.

The Best Plank Modifications 

A plank exercise involves all your core, as well as numerous other muscles. If you have an injury or are otherwise differently abled, a plank done in the standard manner on the floor might be outside your scope. To modify a plank, try one of the following.

• Rather than the floor, try an elevated plank. To do this, start on an elevated surface, with your hands on the elevated surface directly below your shoulders. Step your feet back until you are in a straight line and your core is activated. Start low and go slow. Aim to increase your duration planking every time by adding a few seconds. You can use a bench for elevation if you want lots of stability or use a large exercise ball for less stability. If a bench still puts too much weight on your arms, you can go even higher and use something like a table.
• Instead of being on your toes, drop to your knees. That way, you have a much larger weight-bearing surface and are holding less body weight as you do the plank.
• Support your arms on your elbows, not your wrists. Similar to how laying on your knees and shins will be easier than your toes, you’ll have a greater surface area of support if you rest your forearms on the floor.

Basic High Plank: https://gfycat.com/clutteredecstaticfinnishspitz

Low Plank:  https://gfycat.com/grimyradiantasianlion

Modified Plank: https://gfycat.com/bravefirsthandangelwingmussel

If you already have a planktastical core, check out these websites fun variations of the basic plank:

https://www.shape.com/fitness/workouts/ultimate-30-day-plank-challenge-your-strongest-core-ever

https://greatist.com/move/plank-variations-for-core-strength

Ready for the Challenge? The 30 Day Planktastical Planksgiving Challenge will start Sunday, November 14^th, and end on Monday, December 13^th. Click here for the calendar. You will log your plank in Strava – make sure you’ve joined our R4R Strava group – by doing a manual activity (plus sign in the upper left on Home screen). Name it R4R Plank Challenge Day xx. Log the Sport as “Workout”. Put in the duration in minutes and seconds. Add pics if you’d like. Save. If you do two planks in one day, you will log them in separately.    Prizes will be given to the person who logs in longest planking time during the Challenge, and for the person who lands in the middle of the Challenge. Everyone else will receive an entry for each log in. There will be five winners in the general drawing.   **You can do a regular plank or modified plank based on your needs. Remember, you get a general entry regardless of how long you plank.**

Good luck and have a Happy Planksgiving!