How do I hold a plank correctly?

A plank trains the middle to resist movement rather than to produce it. That is why the quality of the line is the entire exercise and why holding one badly for a long time achieves nothing except back ache.

Safety

What you'll need

• A mat (optional)
• A timer (optional)

Step by step

1. Set elbows directly under your shoulders.Forearms flat, hands either flat or clasped. Elbows in front of the shoulders shifts the load and makes the position harder to hold correctly.
2. Make a straight line from head to heels.No sagging hips, no raised backside. Have someone look from the side or film it — this is very hard to judge from the inside.
3. Squeeze the glutes deliberately.It tilts the pelvis and stops the lower back arching. This single cue fixes most bad planks immediately.
4. Brace the stomach as if bracing for a prod.Not sucking in. A firm brace all the way round is what a plank actually trains.
5. Keep your neck neutral.Look at the floor slightly in front of your hands. Craning up strains the neck and craning down rounds the upper back.
6. Breathe normally throughout.Holding your breath is common and it makes the hold harder while raising blood pressure. Steady breathing while braced is the skill.
7. Stop when the line breaks, not when the timer says.The moment the hips drop, the set is finished. That is the honest measure of a plank.
8. Progress by adding time in small increments, or by regressing first.If twenty seconds is not clean, plank with hands on a bench. Elevating makes it easier while keeping the pattern.

Tips

• Three sets of twenty clean seconds is better training than one sagging ninety-second hold, and far better for the back.
• If you feel it mostly in the lower back, the hips have dropped. Squeeze the glutes and lift the hips slightly until you feel it in the stomach.
• Side planks train a different part of the middle and are worth doing alongside. Same principle: hold the line, stop when it breaks.

Common mistakes

• Letting the hips sag — It arches the lower back and loads the spine rather than training the middle. It is why people finish a plank with back ache.
• Raising the backside to make it easier — It removes the load the exercise exists to create. It is a hold, but it is not a plank.
• Chasing long hold times — Duration past the point where the line breaks trains nothing and stresses the back. Quality, then time.

Questions people ask