Nine Ways to Build Core Strength with the Plank

What is Core Strength?

Your “core” is your body’s center. To put it simple it is the stabilizing muscles that make up your midsection. Its made up of inner and outer abdominal stabilizing muscles as well as some supporting torso muscles as well. For simplicity: Abs and low back to put it in a nutshell.

Why do we need it?

Any and all movements you may do in life rely on your core in one way or another. Everything from throwing a baseball to getting out of bed has your core involved. Without a stabilized and strong core you would basically be a walking (or lying down) noodle. So its very important to keep your core strong and stable to not only perform better in life but to avoid injury as well.

How do we train our core?

There are two basic things we need to think of when we train the core. Stabilizing and movement. Stabilizing is the body’s ability to hold the spine in a certain position, movement is the body’s ability to twist, flex or extend the spine. Both are very important as we use both stabilizing and movement daily. We need to be able to stabilize your spine to pick up that box from the floor or to stand for extended periods of time. We need to twist, flex or extend the spine to move about in a 3 dimenensional world. We don’t walk around like robots…so we need our torso’s to rotate.

So with that said, we need to focus on exercises that challenge the core in both stability and movement.

Enter The Plank: Your Core Stabilizing Dynamo!

The Plank is basically an exercise where you stabilize your spine in a four point position on the floor. You want to focus on keeping a nice neutral spine, meaning no excessive rounding or arching of the back. You also need to focus on keeping your abs contracted (but still able to breathe) and drawn in (visualize pulling your naval towards your spine).

Work on doing The Plank for time as you want to build muscle control and endurance. Stabilizers need stamina.

In the video above you’ll see Nine variations of The Plank taking you from a very basic beginner plank to some very advanced versions that will really force you to control your core and keep it stable.

Here are the Nine Variations of the Plank:

Basic 4 point Plank on the floor (elbows and toes)
Basic Plank with 1 leg up (alternate legs)
Basic Plank with 1 leg up/1 arm up (use opposite arm and leg)
Unstable Plank with elbows on the ball
Unstable Plank Elbows on the Ball with 1 leg up
Unstable Plank Hands on the Ball
Unstable Plank Hands on the Ball with 1 leg up
Pushup Position Plank with 2 Feet on the ball
Pushup Position Plank with 1 foot on the ball

Moving from more stable to less stable forces you to really control your core and keep your abdominals and low back under control. You want to get good at one exercise and move up to the next progression only when you feel you have the more basic ones mastered. Do these movements for time, start out at 20 seconds working up to 60 seconds. These can make good warmups or cool down exercises.

Getting good at the Plank is building a great basic functional foundation for strong abs and a strong core. Have fun with these, come up with other variations, add in light weights even! The sky is the limit!

Remember: keep those abs tight and drawn in!