Hey guys whats up? Several weeks ago I posted a thread about lower back pain and the fact that I was dealing with alot of it, the most common response that I got for it was "How often are you training abs, and what core exorcizes are you using?" well as you experienced core trainers might have guessed I was hitting several sets of situps a day, five days a week and wasnt including much lower back exorcize at all, so of course I had back pain. Now I can admit I dont have a ripped six pack but I am very very happy to report that a month after using ab contractions while holding a plank position at least once during each of my workouts that my abbs are stronger and toned and my lower back is feeling great. If any of you have doubts about planking let me assure you that you can put those doubts to rest, the plank is awesome. Now before I dis the situp completely let me make clear that I use them but only twice a week for one set each and only with propre form and a good hold on my feet which I found out was causeing a lot of the pain in my lower back. So feel free to kick around your ideas on the whole plank thing if you want.
Get into plank position. Extend right arm in front of you. Now raise left leg. Hold position for 1 min. Now switch, holding left arm our and right leg up. Reap further benefits.
Another one of my videos showing a variation using swiss ball. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETX7A7SaZSc"]Drawing the Alphabet.wmv - YouTube[/ame]
+1. You're letting down the side man, not like my avatar The plank is a fantastic training position actually, especially for someone like me that has consistent shoulder and ankle injuries (easier on the shoulders than press ups, doesn't hurt my ankles). Superman-ing with the plank is alright, but I've always found that the standard plank is pretty beastly by itself. I've heard of people doing it with the feet elevated, but I haven't tried that enough to comment a lot on it. It does put a lot more strain on the arms but I don't know if it's in the mind or not but the stomach muscles seem to have an easier time for me. I also saw a guy include as part of his warm up 5 sets at 90 seconds each with 30 second intervals. I haven't mustered up the insanity to try this.
It's been a little while but I'd got to 1 min 30 secs reliably but hadn't tried to push beyond that, so I'm not sure. I shall have to try again when I'm training and let you know
When I lived in korea and studied martial arts there, we used this as well as a variation of it where we would go on our back and the only points of contact with the floor was the shoulders and heels.. This works the lower back while tightening up the core muscles.. It is good as a back up to the plank to work the lower back muscles also
I can probably at a push manage about a minute before my lower back starts hurting too much =p though admittedly I've not done it for a while, so there is a chance my increased back training at the gym will have helped a bit... don't forget the side planks - though my ankle can't support that, so I don't personally bother with them.
Started that years ago before i knew what a plank was. Part of my logic was to hold the Front Leaning Rest Position, army language , for 2 minutes to get used to holding that position to improve my PT performance in the push up.