The UWO Exercise and Nutrition Symposium takes place later today and I want to make sure that the participants can all access a copy of my workshop so I am posting it today. Even if you did not attend the workshop – take a look.
For those of you that did attend the workshop on Saturday – thanks very much. I hope you enjoyed it and please let me know if you have any questions.
Cheers,
Maria
For how long is it safe to hold a plank?
Great question Diane,
There is probably a different answer for different people based on their strength and stamina in those muscles. The question I ask is how long is it USEFUL to hold a plank. Think about how the muscles of the torson work in real life – typically they work at a low level of activation, but they may be required to rapidly turn on to stabilize a large force. Very rarely in real life or sport does a person have to maintain a strong contraction of the abdominal & hip muscles for minutes at a time.
When training muscles of the torso they do need enough strength, but beyond that they need to be smart as well, so here is how I handle the plank exercise. I have athletes build up from 5×5 second holds up to 10 x 5 second holds. So they hold the plank for 5 seconds, then tap their hips down to the floor, then go right back up into the plank position again. I build them up to 6 or 10 x 10 second holds and then I will work to increase the challenge of the exercise by adding a leg lift or an arm lift or having them plank with their forearms on the stability ball.
I hope this helps.
Sincerely,
Maria