Are Planks Really Good?

by Mitch Hauschildt, MA, ATC, CSCS

Recently, I read a post by Charlie Weingroff about the plank and it got me thinking about how we use the plank and how a lot of the clinicians and coaches that I work with tend to use it. As with most things Charlie puts out, the article is well written and has some great points and coaching cues for teaching the plank. If you haven’t read it, I highly suggest you check it out.

While I enjoy seeing the plank through his eyes and I really like his approach to cuing, I think that the most important statements of the article are going to be largely overlooked because they are at the end and they will be overshadowed by the nuts and bolts of the rest of the article. As he wraps up the article, Charlie states:

“But the most impactful use of the plank in how I would verbalize my methodology is to acquire the motor skill of trunk stiffness in the vertical. Everything that we do is built around stiffness from the crown of the head to the bottom of the coccyx. The plank offers the longest lever to challenge the ideal spinal position to allow for powerful or dexterous volition of the limbs…Life is a standing plank, so all of the precision and mastery that can be had out of the quadruped position is where I might value it the most.”

Within those 3 sentences, he states the need to teach the plank (“life is a standing plank”), which is lost on a lot of people, and he explains the real purpose for integrating it into a larger program which is equally as important (“…to acquire motor skill of trunk stiffness in the vertical.”).

I want to take a little bit closer look at the idea of using the plank to acquire a motor skill and add to what Charlie wrote about in an effort to unpack my views on the plank and shed some light on how it can and should be used in a larger program.

Regardless of the title, I want to be clear in that I think that when done correctly and used correctly, that Planks are a good exercise. They can definitely teach spinal stiffness and total body stability in a way that can’t be replicated a lot of other ways. They can also be regressed and progressed almost infinitely to fit the needs of most patients, which makes it a very versatile movement. And, it’s always nice to have exercises that don’t need a lot of space or equipment to get work done. So, all-in-all, its a good thing.

With all of that being said, I also think that planks are very often used at the wrong time, in and wrong way, and performed poorly. Let’s start with the last one to get it out of the way.

Planks performed poorly:

I see many people performing planks who really have no clue what they’re doing. I think that because it appears to be a simple exercise, that there really aren’t many details to worry about, so anyone should be able to do it. Many people just think that as long as they keep their hips off the ground that they’re good. Of course this leads to planks with sagging hips, crappy shoulder positioning and heads that are all over the place. At a minimum, these types of planks are not effective for improving stability, but the also lead to poor posture, dysfunctional neurofeedback loops, and ultimately pain. As with any movement, if planks can’t be performed correctly, they shouldn’t be performed at all.

Planks performed at the wrong time:

Another common mistake is understanding when planks should be used. Knowing that they are designed to promote stiffness, we need to understand that planks have their limits and should also be placed in the proper sequence in an exercise progression.

Typically, people think of planks as a core stability exercise, which is fine. But, many clinicians attempt to use them as their primary exercise for stabilization. I find that most of my NCAA Division I athletes aren’t ready to perform a high quality hardstyle plank right out of the gate, so I’m hard pressed to believe that the stay at home moms and weekend warriors that are performing planks in their therapy and fitness programs are ready either. Introducing them too early in an exercise progression is done way too often and is doing that patient or client a disservice.

In order to perform a quality plank, mobility in the big toe and anterior hip should be cleared first because we can’t be stable if we aren’t mobile. Charlie appropriately describes the pelvic position in a proper plank as “spilling it out the back”. A lot of our patients can’t find pelvic neutral due to either mobility or motor control reasons unloaded, much less in a loaded plank position.

We also need to keep in mind that if our clients can’t breathe appropriately in a supine position (unloaded), it will be very difficult to have true trunk stability and stiffness in other postural positions. Thus, I prefer to introduce planking only after I have cleared their diaphragmatic mobility, breathing patterns, and when their rolling patterns are within reason.

Once those are clear, most people can perform (or at least learn) a proper plank, but my progresses typically wait for a full plank until after I have performed some sort of core engaged movements to promote conscious loading. This might be a Core Engaged March, Core Engaged Leg Lowering, arm raises in the sphinx position or anything else that teaches timing and sequencing in an easier, upright position. I may also perform Pallof progressions in tall kneeling to introduce the concept of spinal stiffness in a shorted lever position with lighter loads.

Then, we plank. But, I don’t use the plank all that much or for long durations. As Charlie puts it, I us it to “acquire motor learning of trunk stiffness.” It is a part of the motor learning process and that’s it.

I really like how McGill teaches planking with short bouts of 10 seconds with 2-3 seconds rest in between sets, performing 3-4 clusters of sets. This optimizes technique and ensures that it truly is a hardstyle plank. If my athletes focus on the details and tighten everything up as tight as they can, 10 seconds is a long time.

Planks performed in the wrong way:

I find that planks that are performed for more than 30 seconds is usually counter productive. Rarely do I see good, quality planks being maintained after the 30 second mark, so all we’re doing at that point is trashing their movement patterns and exposing them to low back pain. Planks are a crappy endurance exercise in my book. I can stress the trunk with carries, crawling, ropes or something else that works better and is in more functional and safe to improve endurance.

We also need to keep in mind that while promoting stiffness is a good thing and we need to do it, we don’t want to always perform movements in a feed forward, hardstyle, high threshold manner. This is often important for motor learning to take place initially, but the reality is that unless you are a powerlifter, most of us don’t do all that much high threshold exercise in our normal day. So, only teaching stability in that manner isn’t teaching our patients and clients how to actually move well in their ADLs.

Finally, because I view planks as just part of the motor learning process, they are just a stepping stone in my programming. Once a patient or client can prove to me that they can do them well, I move along. I can and do progress them with variations of the plank at times, but I also prefer to move quickly to more dynamic movements that incorporate stiffness with rotation in more upright postures to better mimic how we actually move. Sticking with planks long term with my healthy and injured athletes is not only holding their movement skills back, but its kind of boring.

Wrap up:

Again, I want to be clear that I do think that planks are good. But, what’s better is making sure that every single item that we build into our program has a specific purpose and intent and is done with perfection. Because of the limitations of the plank, it is just one small piece of my training program, not a staple of my training.

Everyone should be able to plank and plank well. But, if they can’t, it usually means that there are other confounding factors going on that no amount of planking alone will solve. Fix those things, then teach the plank, and then get moving.