The Plank is a great exercise that engages your core muscles by forcing them to resist the pull of gravity. However, when it comes to getting the most out of the exercise, planks are easy to do incorrectly or simply skimp out on.
Enter: The Hardstyle Plank
The Hardstyle Plank is one that uses TENSION TECHNIQUES to help you learn how to engage and contract different muscles and make those muscles work together to stabilize the spine (important for everyday tasks), stay safe, build strength and promote muscle growth.
Here’s how to perform a Hardstyle Plank:
- Start out on forearms with shoulders over your elbows and feet just inside hip-width apart.
- Squeeze your seat (glutes) – this will automatically err you toward a posterior pelvic tilt and, while we want more of a neutral pelvis, we’d rather see a little posterior tilt (belt buckle toward sternum) than anterior tilt as it engages the core more effectively.
- Squeeze the seat even tighter!
- Drive your toes into the ground.
- Now, imagine pulling your elbows toward your kneecaps. Drive everything within you to do this (but don’t actually move)…
Do you feel the tension in the shoulders and lats and glutes and quads and core?!
Everything should be tense and lit!
Since the Hardstyle Plank uses so much isometric tension and burns so much energy, it’s nearly impossible to do reps longer than 5-15 seconds at a time.
We’ll start someone with 3 rounds of a 10-second hold (rest a few breaths between rounds) and eventually level up to 2 rounds of 15-seconds.
Click the image below to watch a 1-min video where I walk you exactly how to do a Hardstyle Plank.
Sound on!
Jess + Team Valeo