Walk the Plank! Er, Hold the Plank?
Today let’s talk about planks and pushups. What is proper form to do either? Below are some common tips for your plank position:
1) Your wrists, elbows and shoulders should all be in line. When you get tired, it’s common to lean back so that your shoulders are behind your wrists, but nope, you need to keep them stacked.
2) Avoid “bat wings”; this is when you sink into your shoulders and your shoulderblades stick up above the rest of your back. Imagine a hand is resting between your shoulder blades on your spine, and push up into the hand.
3) Engage through your hips, pelvis and glutes and tighten your core, drawing your navel in.
4) Keeping your body in a straight line, starting from your shoulders all going all the way through to whatever is making contact with the floor. That will mean either your knees or your feet.
5) Make sure your head is in neutral spine. The tendency is to look down at your feet or up at…something. Squirrel! Remember to keep your ears in line with your shoulders and keep your gaze fixed directly ahead of you.
Once you have a good plank, now it’s time to work on your posture as you do your push-up. The key is to keep your body stiff as a board as your rotate around your anchor point, that is, your knees or your ankles. Keeping your core engaged so that you torso doesn’t sink on the way down-or the way up- is key.
A mirror helps to check your form as you’re learning to do this, or you can get help from someone on your quaranteam. Ready to give it a shot?
You can also check out more in my YouTube video: