Plank; a question about

OLFATUG

So I found this really cool (and hard) exercise while looking through Google. I found videos of correct form, and suggestions of duration (i.e. 20 seconds for a complete beginner).

What I don't know and can't seem to find is, am I supposed to do sets or just lengthen the duration? I can currently do about 60 seconds of 'planking' before I need to stop.

Anyone know how this should work?

UrbanRunner81

I found what was working for me is doing 4 one minute plank holds. Sometimes I try to hold it as long as I can I got up past 3 minutes once.
I do normal plank hold for a minute, do 30 sec side planks on each side and then do it again 3 more times.

Then I go on to do other ab work.

brandiuntz

I'm not sure what the "right" way is, either. I worked up to 60 seconds also, and now do at least 2 sets of 60sec when I work abs. I also do other ab work (side planks, etc). You can look into harder forms that are based on the plank to give yourself a new challenge.

BrianSharpe

There was a whole "abs for runners" series of exercises on runnersworld.com (plank, side plank, bridge etc etc) and IIRC it was suggested they be done focusing on time first and when you could do 1 minute add a second and third set.

ldullman

You can do sets or duration. Mix it up and do different kinds of planks for each set. For example you could do 3 sets 1 min each of mountain climber plank, spiderman plank and regular plank. You can do these on either your hands in a push up postion or on your forearms. Remember to keep your core tight and hips tucked.

Hope this helps you. Planks are a fantastic core exercise.

Toddrific

Sets of duration.
I'm guessing if you are pushing a minute easy, you should increase the difficulty (one leg, alternating leg arms, etc)