If you can plank for more than 1 minute, you might be doing it wrong! Ab exercises are only as effective as your ability to contract your stomach. Something I hear a lot from my active patients is that they know their abs are strong because they do a lot of “core exercises”. However, when I ask them to contract their stomach, a lot of them give me a blank stare.
When I test how people can contract their stomach, I usually get one of three things. Some of them just suck their belly in and hold their breath. They think that making their stomach stick out less must be a proper contraction. Others do the opposite, which is push their belly out, basically bearing down as if they were going to the bathroom. They are just using their diaphragm to create inter-abdominal pressure. The third and correct option is that people actually brace with their stomach muscle and contact all of their abdominal muscles together.
I find a lot of people don’t actually contract their stomach that hard when doing ab exercises. They just assume the position of a plank and wait for it to get difficult. They just hang out in the plank position and wait as gravity slowly applies pressure to their body. At some point it starts to get hard, but by then, usually their belly has started to drop down and their back goes into extension. A lot of people start using their back more than their abs. Now, it’s not a big deal if your back kicks in, it is part of the core, but the purpose of the exercise is for the abs.
The key to getting into the proper position for a plank that really works your abs is doing something I call the “Bad Dog Butt”!
When you do the Bad Dog Butt, you are tucking your tale just a little (like a bad dog!), contracting your abs hard and flexing your pelvis towards your ribs. Like a little crunch! A proper plank is like a holding a crunch, but instead of being on your back, you are balanced on your toes and elbows.
One way that you will know that you are doing it correctly is that it should be difficult from the first second because you make it difficult by contracting your abs really hard. Core exercises are only as hard as you make them base on how hard you squeeze. Watch the video below and give this a try! Let us know how it went and if you have any questions.
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