Perfect Your Plank: Core Strength and Stability for Life

Peter Bowes: [00:00:01] One move. Endless benefits. The plank is simple, effective, and can be done anywhere. No equipment needed. Hello again. Welcome to the Livelong podcast and our Move For Life series with Nate Wilkins and Shebah Carfagna, where we break down fundamental movements that build strength for a lifetime.

Shebah Carfagna: [00:00:38] While plank is a total body movement where your body is engaged, now, you can do a plank if you’re a beginner on a wall, just as we’ve demonstrated with a push up, and you can work your way down if you want to start on the floor, I would suggest you align your arms, but you start on your knees. If you’re very beginner, extend one leg back, kind of hold that, extend the other leg back and hold that until you can push both knees up off of the floor and hold your position. And with that, there are many different types of planks. High planks. Low planks. Diamond planks. Side planks. Depending on your ability to move forward. But again these are very difficult exercises. I think if most of us start with if you’re a beginner, you start with just a single plank and you go up and down or maybe chest taps. That’s good. But the other ones are quite advanced and could lead to injury without proper supervision.

Nate Wilkins: [00:01:28] It’s a simple exercise, but it’s powerful in the way that you do it because it engages. Somebody said it was probably the most complete exercise we could do because it engages so much.

Shebah Carfagna: [00:01:51] It engages the core. We spoke about already the glutes, the legs, if done properly, Really the tummy is drawn into the spine to support your lower back. Its upper body, its chest, its everything.

Peter Bowes: [00:02:03] And just to recap then, what is our ultimate goal with the plank? What are we trying to achieve with our body?

Shebah Carfagna: [00:02:09] Overall muscle strength. Overall strength in your body? A good feeling in your mind that you feel. You feel good when you move forward. You don’t feel frail. You don’t feel like you’re going to fall over. That, combined with all of the other things we’ve talked about agility, balance, all of that goes into having you move with a better health span for a longer period of time.

Nate Wilkins: [00:02:34] What we’re doing is trying to teach our bodies to be stronger and to be stable, just to be able to hold on. If, you know, say, for example, if we were to make a movement that we’re not used to, we’re able to brace for that. And it just allows us to prepare for that.

Peter Bowes: [00:02:51] And you say about feeling good, I think after a plank, a successful plank, whether it’s just been 10s, 30s or a minute. That feel good factor hits you immediately. There is something. There is a glow that you get after achieving a relatively simple posture in terms of doing the plank, but the the feel good factor is quite high.

Shebah Carfagna: [00:03:12] Yeah, we all love to feel good and have successes. You know, you can’t be successful unless you understand what it’s like to fail. And so after you’ve reached that point of plateau and you’re able to do this over and over again and you do it longer, you feel like you’re really getting somewhere. It’s not that you have to have the weights. Again, I’m a big proponent of moving body weight. So at 130 pounds, I’m not going to lift anything heavier than that ever. So that wonderful feeling and your endorphins are released. And if you’re in a class you you can do it as well as everyone, or you use them to gauge or as well as the instructor.

Peter Bowes: [00:03:50] And I mentioned the different time scales. You might be a ten second person 30s a minute or more. I guess the main advice is you start with a short period of time and you work slowly up and you don’t push yourself too far.

Nate Wilkins: [00:04:03] I would agree with that. I think that we’ve had that debate. Some people think that the longer you can do a plank that the better you are. But what we like to suggest is that the better, the better. You can hold on to your posture and positioning and complete that and then move to something else. It’s probably the best way to do that because then you can avoid losing your form. And here we go again talking about lower back injuries and what have you. Because if you start to lose the form then you overcompensate. So we don’t want that to happen.

Shebah Carfagna: [00:04:36] Yeah. Remember we had those plank challenges where we where we teach and you’re on a ball and everyone’s on a ball in a circle. And so there’s mental tenacity in that too, because you’re all facing each other. But the energy is phenomenal to see who can hold the ball over the ball the longest, which is a very difficult plane to balance on the ball and hold that and then raise the leg up the other one. Raise the leg up. Remember, we have people that could do it. I think we’ve done six minute planks.

Peter Bowes: [00:05:01] Is there a best way to incorporate planks into your daily routine. So I’m thinking of all the other, you know, the walking that you might do during your day. The other exercises that are must do’s for you is incorporating a plank the best thing to do? First thing, or maybe at the end of the day, how would you say it?

Nate Wilkins: [00:05:21] I want to give that a shot, because I think that I’m going to suggest that it’s probably the best thing to do it as early in your program as possible. So you’re alert so that you’re strong enough. Sometimes we put it in other parts, but I think that your question is when is the best time? And I would think that the best time to do it would be early in, in the process and then move to if you want to do it again later to move to it later, but get it in so that you are strong and alert and you feel when we talk about this feel good part. So you feel good about what you’ve done.

Shebah Carfagna: [00:06:01] I to some degree agree with you. I think it’s a wake up call for a more experienced person who is an athlete for all athletes more experienced to do that. And you do that a lot in the beginning of your class. And we do that a lot in boxing. But for some of us, maybe it’s better at the end when the whole body is warmed up, because if you don’t really have the experience, you don’t want to start there and you kind of not sure where your back is, you want to have a wake up call. So I think either at the beginning or the end, if you’re really experienced, you can do them during your session. So, you know, if your question was beginning or end of a session in terms of integrating into an overall workout, you can put it at the beginning or the end, or you can put it in the middle where you lift some weights. Then you get down and do a plank and you get up and you do it again, and you do a push up, which is a form of a plank, except you’re moving. That is more of a high intensity workout. Okay, not garnered by age, by ability. And that makes your heart rate go up faster because you’re getting up and down off the floor. But generally speaking, if you’re new to this or you’re a little more mature, I would recommend you start very slow. Again, get down on the floor and push up. Should you do that every day? Absolutely. At least once a day until you can master it and get up and down ten times in a row.

Peter Bowes: [00:07:22] And just to reiterate what we’ve said a number of times, if you are new to this, it’s always best to get some medical advice. A physician who knows your body as to whether it’s right for you.

Shebah Carfagna: [00:07:33] I 100% agree with that. You should have medical clearance. I think you should work with a professional once or twice if you can. You don’t necessarily have to have a budget for a trainer. There’s a lot of valid information out there. We just talked about something like that, but I think you should seek out a professional. One of the things that really irks me is there’s so many individuals online giving advice on how to do their workout, and and they really don’t have the knowledge. So in addition to getting a doctor’s clearance, I would recommend you kind of vet your person that you’re going to and see where they are. And also if you’re older. My personal recommendation is you want to look for someone to at least give you that advice that is in the same age group. Now, Nate and I can both do things as well as a 30 year old. No problem. Maybe a little bit slower so we can do that. But in the long run, what you really want to do is work with someone who can work with you, not just look at that ideal. And we’ve talked about this over and over in the podcast, that beach body image, a younger person will not be able to understand and feel the effects of aging. It’s not a good thing. Not a bad thing. It’s something to consider.

Nate Wilkins: [00:08:49] Well, that one doctor said, when you can’t, you can’t teach experience.

Shebah Carfagna: [00:08:53] You can’t teach experience, right?

Peter Bowes: [00:08:55] The plank builds total body stability, strengthening your core, shoulders, back and glutes. It improves posture, enhances balance, and supports every other move you make, keeping you steady and strong for life. The Live Long Podcast is a Healthspan Media production. I’m Peter Bowes, you can contact me through our website livelongpodcast.com where you’ll also find show notes for this episode.