So what is proper form for a plank? Essentially you want to be making a straight line with your body. The problem areas I notice the most when teaching Pilates are the shoulders and the position of the pelvis. If your butt is up in the air or sagging down towards the floor, you’ve already lost correct form. The shoulders is just as serious though – most commonly I see a dropping of the chest towards the floor, as if the student was trying to push their chest forwards. This is a mistake that is worth looking at – once I realised that I was doing this in my planks, I instantly understood why I hated them so much. Broadening through the shoulders is the key – imagine someone pressing their hand into your upper back between the shoulder blades – you want to push your upper back into their hands rather than pulling away from them, or imagine pushing the floor away with your hands.
For a high plank, I place my wrists underneath the shoulders, push through the heels of the feet, draw my hips towards my bottom ribs (a little like imprint in Pilates), and broaden through the shoulders making sure that I’m looking directly at the mat, keeping my neck in alignment with the rest of the spine and not dropping the head or looking forwards. I keep my elbows softly bent, ensuring I’m not locking the joint. A high plank, when done well, will target all areas of the body, in particular the shoulders and upper back, the arms, the abdominals, the glutes, the lower back and the legs. Naturally as a Pilates instructor, I emphasise the engagement of the transverse abdominus and pelvic floor as your core stabilisers.
Another great variation is the Box Plank – with wrists underneath the shoulders and knees underneath the hips, making sure that your shoulders are broadening as with the variations above, lift the knees a couple of inches from the floor and hold. This is often a good one for beginners to get the hang of the shoulder position for plank and the arm and core strength required.
These are simple variations on the high plank, but I’ve seen more than 50 variations on the exercise. Some of the most common ones include shoulder taps (lifting one arm to the opposite shoulder, then repeating on the other side), single arm/leg plank (extending one arm/leg in front/behind), Bird Dog Plank (on the knees – extend the R arm and L leg together, repeat opposite side), heel taps (picking up on foot and tapping the heel of the opposite foot, before repeating on the other side), and one of my favourites for bellydancers – hip dips and hip twists in plank! There are so many more I could tell you about but the most important thing is to get the foundations right first.
Below I share a video that includes many of my favourite plank variations by K’s Perfect Fitness.