Before you do your next plank, think about how you’ll do it and why. Will you be down on your forearms or up on your hands? Many choose the forearm position because it’s easier on the wrists. Others tend to plank on their hands because it provides a natural transition to and from pushups in their workout. Or maybe they’re just in the habit of doing plank one way or the other.
What most people don’t realize is that they’re getting a significantly different workout with each position. Neither one is inherently better than the other. In fact, it’s probably best to do both positions, whether you’re participating in our 2020 Summer Plank Challenge or just doing your regular workout. Here’s why.
Forearm Plank Position
This position is great for working your abdominals. Specifically, you’re targeting the transversus abdominis. You don’t hear a lot about this muscle. Rectus abdominis and the obliques get most of the attention.
Here are the primary actions of the three main abdominal muscle groups:
- Rectus Abdominis: Your ‘six-pack’. In charge of trunk flexion.
- Internal and External Obliques: Twisting and side-bending.
- Transversus Abdominis: Stabilizes the spine.
The transverse abdominals are the deep abdominal muscles that hold everything together, protect the spine, and provide stability. They play a big part in any good core workout. That cue “pull your belly button in towards your spine” works the transverse abdominals.
How to engage your transverse abdominals: While you’re in the forearm plank position, pull your belly button towards your spine without lifting your hips. Then, make sure you don’t hold your breath. Do this by breathing out. Once you breathe out, you’ll automatically breathe in. I promise.
Three ways to make forearm plank more accessible:
- Dropping to your knees is the ‘go to’ modification and that’s a great starting point. However, there’s a big difference between being down on your knees and up on your toes in terms of challenge. It can be hard to make the transition from knees to toes.
- A good midway challenge to getting up on your toes is to put your forearms on an elevated surface. (Be sure to keep your elbows directly under your shoulders.
- Once you’re up on your toes, you can move your feet apart to help yourself maintain good form. This provides a wider base of support and decreases the effort required to hold the forearm plank.
Three ways to make forearm plank more challenging:
- Always start by mentally running through the checklist in this post. Focusing on your form automatically increases your intensity.
- Move the feet closer together. A narrower base of support requires more core control.
- Put your feet on a higher surface. You’re increasing the load on your shoulders with this so, again, run through that checklist and maintain good form.
Hand Plank Position
You’re still working abdominals when you’re up on your hands, but the main targets up here are shoulder and tricep strengthening. Yes, you can still tuck in your belly button and engage those transverse abdominals. But in this position, you’ll get the maximum benefits from focusing on your shoulders and arms.
Triceps: Keep your elbows just a little ‘soft’. If they are ever so slightly bent you’ll be actively engaging your triceps and less likely to just hang out on your elbow ligaments.
Shoulders: You can’t help but work your shoulders in this position. Work them correctly by placing the hands directly beneath the shoulders. Turn your hands slightly out to activate your lats. Pull your shoulders down away from your ears and pull your shoulder blades towards your hips. Think of sliding them down towards your back pockets. And then run a scan on the rest of your body to make sure it’s all where it’s supposed to be (neck lengthened, abs tucked in, etc).
Wrists: There are a few things you can try if your wrists are uncomfortable in the hand plank position. First, make sure your hands are directly under your shoulders. Then, start by pressing more through the fingers and see if relieving some of the pressure from the heels of your hands helps. If not, try using dumbbells to put your wrists in a neutral position. The dumbbells with ‘squared’ weights are best as they’re less likely to roll. Use caution with any item that you use to help put the wrist in neutral. You don’t want your weights to roll or yoga blocks to tip over while you’re up in plank.
Three ways to make hand planks more accessible:
- Once again, dropping to your knees is a good starting point. Be sure to maintain good spinal alignment. If someone took a photo of you from the side, you’d want to be able to draw a straight line from the top of your head down through your shoulder, hip, and knee.
- Progress by doing the hands plank on stairs, gradually moving down to the lower stairs.
- Move your feet farther apart for a wider base of support in any of these positions to make them more achievable.
Three ways to make hand planks more challenging:
- That checklist for form? Give it your undivided attention for increased intensity and results.
- Move your feet together. Just don’t let your hips creep up when you do this.
- Elevate the feet and make your form as perfect as possible.
In both forearm and hand planks, there are tons of great variations to increase your fitness level while not committing to more than a minute or so. We’ll get to some of those in future posts. For now, continue with your one-minute planks and think about whether you want to do them on your forearms, your hands, or both.
Stay fit!
