So you think you can plank (part 2)

Last week we covered a fundamental exercise in starting to understand what SHOULD be felt during a plank. I have been look at people perform the traditional plank (what is considered a basic entry level exercise) poorly for a long time and like Gray Cook says “moving more does not equal moving well”, doing more of this type of plank will not ‘fix’ the issue. The issue being, that if your deep core muscles are failing to stabilize your trunk with a traditional plank, doing more planking will just reinforce using the wrong muscles you are already using.

Most people when cued properly, feel an engagement of the deep core doing the quad plank and that’s the main point. Break the exercise down to a much simpler form and make the exercise easy. From there how do you progress? Well going back to the regular plank will not work but staying at the quad plank will only get you so far.

Next we add a level of instability to the quad plank to teach you to continue to engage the deep core muscles when additional forces are applied to the position. Check this exercise out (but only after you have spent time on the quad plank)